Fantasy Sports Sweeping the Nation

For the average American sports fan just sitting and watching your team on a day-to-day basis is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Fantasy sports, according to industry analyst IBISWorld, and Forbes.com, is bringing in an annual profit to an estimated $397 million on $1.1 billion in revenue to Yahoo, ESPN, CBS Sports, and Fox Sports.

Fantasy Sports has the potential to enrich the fandom of so many current fans, as well as attract new fans to the sports world. I for one was only interested in my own NFL football team until I was invited to be apart of an NFL fantasy football league.

Lets take a step back here for a second, for those of you who do not know what fantasy leagues are or why such a frenzy has occurred in the last few years, here’s a basic tutorial of how one participates in such Ludicrous and fun.

You can join a public league, where anyone can sign up for a spot, or a private league (mostly where you join your friends or co-workers), where you need an invitation to play. Some people, typically beginners, play just for fun and some play for money. The “commissioner”, or “creator of the private league”, can change league rules according to the preference of the league.

You start by preparing for your league draft by scouting players.
 Before choosing your fantasy team, you need to research all the available players so you can pre-rank them according to your personal preference (scores the most points). Understanding your league’s scoring system and roster setup is critical to creating a bulletproof draft strategy. Also, a little luck goes a long way when picking up not as well know players or (sleepers). These guys will frustrate your opponents while making you look like a genius!

The draft is the most fun and exciting day of the fantasy season. During the draft, each fantasy owner selects an NFL or any other league player at a time until the rosters are complete. Fantasy drafts can take place online, but some leagues — typically friends or co-workers — will conduct the draft in person. Remember to draft all of the correct positions, so that you can have a full team roster.

During the NFL season, the real teams face each other and so do the fantasy teams in your league. Your league provider converts the players’ real-time stats into fantasy points, and the fantasy team that scores the most points wins the game for the week. The goal is to win as many games as possible to make the playoffs.

As a fantasy owner, you're in total control, you can drop players you think aren't good enough and replace them with free agents. If one of your starters gets injured, you can bench him and start a healthy player instead. You may even make a trade offer to another owner.

Only the strong survive, and at the end of the fantasy season, the top teams square off in a single-elimination tournament to decide the league champion. The last team standing may win a trophy, a cash prize, or just honor; but make no mistake; there will be only one winner.

ESPN Fantasy Football

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/clubhouse?leagueId=191184&teamId=7&seasonId=2014

Within the ever-growing industry, fantasy sports leagues have created several different professional jobs that you wouldn’t believe are jobs today. Fantasy sports radio talk host, as well as professional fantasy analyst for ESPN are some of the newest and most coveted jobs of the average fantasy playing working Joe. Fantasy being an obsessive hobby for some is a paycheck for another. I personally have several friends that say, “Why can’t I major in fantasy football”.

Matthew Berry, Mr. ROTO, or the “Fantasy Guru” is the lead analyst for ESPN fantasy football. Matthew has written a book "A fantasy life" regarding his journey to this position and describes it as bazaar that his job is to report on fantasy reality.

Fantasy leagues are a great way to get into sports and to expand your current fandom to epic proportions.  Getting to know new players and being truly invested in teams other than your own true blue makes you appreciate and makes you that much more knowledgeable about the sport itself.

Shout out to http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-play-fantasy-football.html
For help on the explanation of fantasy fundamentals.

Until next time...

Keep moving forward!

Camp Days "Major League Internships"

Ever year there comes a day when the hometown hero has to hang up his cleats for the last time. For me that time came when I decided to focus just on school and enrolled at the University of Northern Iowa. Just as people are starting to recognize you, and you have those that look up to you, it all comes to an end far too rapidly. Weather it be an injury, or you decide its just time to move on, a high majority of athletes do not advance to the collegiate or professional level. Like myself, sports, and the people I was able to interact with during my time participating in them, formed and molded me into who I am today. At first it was hard to accept because you feel like you were apart of something and belonged just as any human being wishes to do. Then you move to a different location away from friends, family, and fans who all supported you and made you feel important. Now you are somewhere new, weather it be in the real world, or a new campus, where you don't have that feeling of belonging or recognition that you have grown all to accustomed too. The belonging, the connections, the glory... all missing

Being in a similar situation myself I struggled with it mentally and phisically at some times not having the safety barrier to fall back on, not having "my thing". I'm sure I'm not the only one who has felt this way or has had this type of experience. Many people search for something to be apart of after and often fall into habbits and situations they wouldnt normaly partake in, sometimes leading to trouble.

ATTENTION: I have a solution to all of you college wonderers out there! All the lost, all the troubled, all the longing to be apart of athletics again, by being able to to reconect you to to what you know and love. Not everyone gets a chance to be fortunate enough to keep playing the game or sport they love for as long as they like. So for those of you still dedicated and want to learn how to channel what you have been so familiar with your whole life into something that you can do for the rest of your life I give you Internships!!!

Internships at the professional level are one of the few great ways to interact with either your favorite team or favorite sport on a professional working level. One medium that I have discovered during my time in college, that has connected me to possible entry level positions as well as opportunities to apply for internships is, Teamwork online . This website is an online vertuial job board. Most of all professional teams have posted everything from gameday work opportunities to internship opportunities through their organizations. This is helpful for those just finishing college looking for jobs and for those looking to gain expereince in working with a professional team.

www.teamworkonline.com

This and other other sites are great ways of getting invloved with sports, while also working on skills that you will use in the professional world. My suggestions for internships is get involved as early as possible and have as much experience as you possibly can especially when you know for sure what you are interested in doing as a career. Being able to work with a professional sports team is always something that impresses during interviews and is more often than not something that you can talk about freely and with passion giving you something to sound confident about during an interview later on down the road.

For more information about internships visit http://internships.about.com for several great articles on how to prepare for the summer work grind as well as tips and tricks to use in interviews.

In the meantime, KEEP MOVING FORWARD!