Where Have You Been Joe?

When my Inbox is overflowing I know it's getting close to fantasy football season. It's great to hear from everyone again. The off-season makes me feel like a bear in hibernation. I haven't been asleep even though it may look like the site (particularly the blog) is sparse. In fact, the engine was turned on earlier this year and just about all the sites are reporting in. I expect the rest to come online in the next week or so plus I'm talking to several other sites about bringing in their rankings. Here are some of the other things that I'm watching and working on.



AOL's FleaFlicker.com will be integrated as soon as they start publishing their projections. If you haven't used them to host a league, I suggest you try it out. Definitely one of my favorites. I'm also watching NFL.com's new league platform with great interest. If it comes anywhere close to the commercials and snapshots I've seen, they may finally leapfrog the competition. Time will tell, but I'd like to get on NFL.com and see for myself.



I have linked to this site a few times last season and Melissa has done it again. Check out The Football Girl. When she launched the site last season, she did it with a bang landing an interview with the one and only Barry Sanders. This time she's got an interview with Chicago Bear's WR Devin Hester which was a great read, particularly when she tries to get him to talk about the possibility of T.O. coming to the Windy City. Personally I don't care if T.O. comes to Chicago as it would just be another receiver my Packers will gladly shut down. I understand that Melissa's husband is a big Bears fan which just goes to show you that nobody is perfect! Be sure to sign up for the newsletter when you're on the site.



With the drafting season upon us and knowing that the draft is perhaps the biggest piece to the fantasy success puzzle, I've been out participating in mock drafts to get ready. Next Tuesday evening I'll be participating once again in the Fantasy Football Players Championship Pros vs Joes League where site owners like myself play against the users of FFPC. One of the site owners drafting that night with me is Phil from Ultimate Fantasy Football Strategy. I bet he'll be using the Ultimate Draft Tool which is a pretty cool idea in that it's designed to help you during your draft by taking into account a number of factors including the risk factors of the players you have selected already. It's $15 which is a drop in the bucket for the leagues that some of you are in!



I've had quite a number of requests recently for both 1) commercial access to the FFN API, and 2) guest bloggers. Well I've posted two stories recently from a good friend of mine whose opinion I respect a great deal. I think his positions on Roy Williams and Cedric Benson are spot on and I'm looking forward to more. If you want to see some of your own work published on FFN, please send me your work at [email protected] but please also send me something about yourself. For example, if you've been playing and winning for years, tell me. If you participate in any of the high stakes fantasy football games and have seen success, share that with me. What I'm really looking for is some back story on you to go with your analysis and opinions. If you've already sent me something, hang tight - I'm working my way through it.



Looking for an iPad fantasy football app? These guys made use of the FantasyFootballNerd.com API which is a mechanism by which I make the rankings data available for others to use. Upon initial review, it's a very nicely done app. You can enter custom league scoring for up to three leagues, save your notes as you gather info from magazines and sportscasts, and review NFL schedules, player rankings, depth charts and bye-weeks. Enter your picks into the Draft Sheets and use the Draft Day Soundboard to make draft day a blast!



New Project

I've been spending some time lately developing a new project and I may be in need of additional beta testers. I'm proud to announce that I'll be throwing my hat into the celebrity ring shortly. I don't mean that I'll be a celebrity and you certainly won't see me on TV with Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson. Instead, I'm part of a new project called HollyStock.com which combines the league and competition aspect of fantasy football with the juicy gossip and news of the celebrity world all with a Wall Street-type twist. At the heart of the site is a search engine that aggregates the content from 200+ celebrity websites such as TMZ, Yahoo! OMG, and others. When a celebrity is mentioned in any of those daily stories, he/she earns money. Depending on the quality of the source, that celebrity earns additional money. For example, getting mentioned on the homepage of TMZ earns more money than a website that is an up-and-comer. The goal is to buy low and sell high just like the stock market.



I'll be the first to admit that I can more readily rattle off Aaron Rodger's 2009 stats (4,434 passing yards, 30 passing TD's, and 103.2 QB rating) than I can rattle off whose movies are doing well, who is going to jail, who is sleeping with who, or who is ranting and raving like a lunatic (that would be you Mr. Mel Gibson)...but I'm learning. As you all know, I'm a bit of a nerd and I enjoy the numbers aspect of a project like this. It's been interesting to watch celebrity values rise and fall and to see which celebs we as a country tend to cling to and want to hear more about. The average value of a celebrity in the game is in the $7,000 - $10,000 range. The day Lindsay Lohan was in court with F@CK U written on her fingernail, her value that day rose to $1.1 million. Let me put that into perspective. That would be like picking up Chris Johnson off the waiver wire on Saturday and then he scores 1,000 touchdowns and rushes for 10,000 yards on Sunday. An easy win!



The site is currently in beta and the first group of beta testers will be starting soon. If you want to beat up an application, drop me a line at [email protected]. I'm particularly interested in learning what works, what doesn't, what's confusing, what parts are enjoyable, what parts aren't enjoyable, tips, suggestions, and anything else that you think could make it successful. The game will be free to play when it's opened up to the public.



Have a great 2010 fantasy football season and thanks for dropping by!



Joe

Recent News & Advice