Fantasy Football iAlerts and more

Wednesday, Jun 1, 2011 at 12:00 pm ET

Picture this: it's Week 16 of the NFL. You are in your fantasy football league's Super Bowl. You've also gotten tickets to not only see your favorite NFL team play but go down on the sidelines before the game as well. No matter how you slice it, this has the makings of an incredibly memorable day. It couldn't be...perfect...could it? The game was fantastic but after you get home from the stadium you realize that Steven Jackson (your starting fantasy RB) was ruled inactive just before kickoff. You lost your fantasy championship by 2 points.

Sadly, this isn't a made-up story. It happened two seasons ago to yours truly. I checked my lineup before heading out the door to go to Lambeau Field to watch the Packers beat the Seahawks. Everything was set and the lineup looked great. Scoring Packer tickets when you're not a season-ticket holder is either very tough or very expensive. Getting on the field and the sidelines was a first for me and I savored every minute of it. How was I to know that the Rams were going to sit Steven Jackson...IN WEEK 16??? Losing by 2 points was sad because putting my backup in would have given me 12 points, more than enough to win the league championship. By all indications, SJax was scheduled to suit up and play that game. Had I only known...

Fear not fellow nerds. This season FFN is proud to announce the addition of iAlerts. Now, when you have your teams added to the Lineup Analyzer, FFN will compare the official Inactive reports to your teams. If FFN finds that you have any of the inactive players on your team, it will send you a message by either email or by text message (or both). How cool would it have been to get a text message before the game telling me that SJax was out and which of my leagues this would affect? This season I'll know and so can you.

iAlerts are currently only available to those who have added their teams to the Lineup Analyzer. Standard text message rates apply and you can turn the notifications on/off at any time on your account screen.

Of course, this will only happen if the owners and players can come to terms and end the lockout. There is another court date this Friday to appeal the lockout. Hopefully there will be some movement between the two sides after Friday.

Many players are either conducting their own practices or are busy with unofficial off-season activities. If you're NFL broadcaster Cris Collinsworth, you take a second job as receivers coach at Highlands High in Kentucky (where his son plays). Normally this would be a feel-good type of story, except for the fact that Cris took the position feeling that the NFL season will not start on time saying "the NFL will probably miss at least half of their season anyway". As much as I enjoy listening to his analysis and play-by-play, let's hope he's not right.

The NFL Players Association put on the Rookie Symposium which the league cancelled due to the lockout. While the fans wait to see if there will be a season, we can at least take comfort knowing that the rookies will learn how to manage their new fortunes. (Waiting for someone to invent a "sarcasm" font)

Tony Romo has been busy as well. The Cowboys QB married former pageant queen Candice Crawford this past weekend in front of 600 of their closest friends and relatives. Now where did I put my Jessica Simpson mask? Time to do some updating.

As I was contemplating doing a piece on what the lockout means to fantasy football, along comes Jamey Eisenberg at CBS Sports who did a brilliant piece on this very topic. When you read the article, you'll notice that he doesn't just cover it from the 30,000 foot view, but also from a fantasy draft-day perspective. Ryan Mathews or Jonathan Stewart? Arian Foster or Adrian Peterson? Jason Witten or Vernon Davis? Deion Branch or Kenny Britt? Michael Turner or Steven Jackson? DeSean Jackson or Larry Fitzgerald? Derrick Mason or A.J. Green? Mike Williams (TB) or Brandon Marshall?

Jamey also covers some of the injuries that we're all waiting to learn more about. Specifically: Maurice Jones-Drew, Antonio Gates, Austin Collie, Steve Smith, and Marques Colston. It's a great article and worth a read.

Gotta run - I'll iAlert you later!