Family Fantasy Sports tweeted yesterday asking “Which Brady Bunch cast member would be the best at fantasy football? U can include Alice and Sam.” It caught my attention, and I thought I would take a shot at the question. Head to the bottom of the article if you cannot wait for my reply.

First, who it could not be.
Judging by the fact that Sam could not figure out for all those years that Alice was interested in him, I know that Sam was not too perceptive. His ability to anticipate breakout stars and players past their prime would be his downfall in fantasy football. He is the guy who would draft Amani Toomer to be his second wide receiver.

Next, Mike and Carol Brady. As the adults, some would consider them the front runners. However, their inability to say no the kids and consequently would trade away their best players to the kids. While this may mean they are loving parents, it will be their fantasy football downfall.

Bobby Brady was the biggest football fan out of the all Bradys. Remember when he played catch with Joe Namath in the backyard, that was awesome. Unfortunately, Bobby’s homerism would hurt him in his draft as he would pass on guys like Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr in order to draft his beloved Namath.

When it comes to Marcia, you have to wonder if she would even play fantasy football. It just does not seem like something that would be on her radar. Between combing her hair and writing letters to Davy Jones, I do not think she would even enter a league. Honestly, I think she might actually be the best fantasy football player of the bunch if she chose to play.

Contenders for the title
Greg, as the groovy big brother, exudes tons of confidence that he is good at just about anything he does. As it turns out, he probably would be good at fantasy football. Unfortunately, as his attention seemed to turn from one fad to another each week, Greg would quickly disappear from league activity, and would not make a move after Week 3.

Peter has all the tools to be a great fantasy football player. He gets sports and he is pretty smart. But, he has one big issue: teenage girls. He is simply not going to be able to put the time in to focus on his team, because his attention will be on how to get some groovy baby to go the next dance with him.

Alice is perpetual fantasy football playoff threat. She knows how to run a house, so assembling a potent offense should be a walk in the park for her. Unfortunately, she always seems to avoid taking risks (see: Sam), and would never take a chance on a guy about to breakout. Her fantasy teams would be solid, but never championship caliber.

Cindy Brady might be the best instinctive fantasy football player in the whole bunch. You knew how whenever she suspected something, she shied away and protected Kitty Carryall. That sixth sense would protect her from picking up duds or making bad deals. With a few more years, she may emerge as the best in the fantasy football player in the bunch.

The Best Brady Bunch Fantasy Football Player is…
Jan. Why is she the best Brady at fantasy football? She has glasses, she has to be smart, right? How about because of her keen (albeit, obsessive) observation skills, such as noticing that everything is about Marcia! Marcia! Marcia! Her obsessiveness will help guide her to fantasy football victory–she’ll have no friends–but, she will be the fantasy football champion.

What do you think of my analysis, and who would you pick?

Note: I have not included Cousin Oliver, because let’s face it, he was only on the show because Cindy and Bobby were no longer cute and cuddly. I bet his last name is not even Brady.

Some fantasy players gather for their annual draft. Some use an online chat room, while others just let the auto-draft take care of picking the teams. A few leagues (which of course means many, many thousands of leagues) conduct drafts via email. Those can get messy, confusing, and in general, are a pain. My Email Draft fixes this problem by making email drafts clean, easy, and simple.

Getting started is easy, with no accounts to create. Just fill out your league name, your email, and league members’ email addresses. Then, you are off and running. My Email Draft issues set manual and automatic reminders, randomizes your draft order, keeps a clock, and tracks your league’s picks. League members can even trash talk during the draft. It is that simple.

The site was built by fantasy veterans Ed and Rudy Menendez (currently running Hollywood Draft) who wanted to create “Fantasy Email Drafts That Don’t Suck.” They have achieved exactly that.

From a business-model perspective, I love this idea. It is simple, does not require significant resources, but becomes an invaluable tool for fantasy leagues that prefer email drafts.

If you are looking for a better solution for your email draft, check out My Email Draft.

If you are looking for a name for your fantasy football team, check out some of the names from our Fantasy Football Team Names contest.

I am pleased to announce the winners of Fantasy Ethos and The Big Lead’s first ever Best Fantasy Football Team Name Contest. The winning names were picked by a panel of three fantasy experts based on their creativity, originality, pop culture references, and/or ability to make us laugh (and not groan, as some names did).

For those that did not win, they can receive a 25% discount on the purchase of Draft Analyzer by using the coupon code FANTASYETHOS. The winners of our contest will all receive the Ultimate Draft Package courtesy of Draft Analyzer.

Without any further ado, here are the winning team names:
Best Use of a Children’s Book
Orton Hears a Who by Jimmy R

Best Cinematic Reference
Forgetting Brandon Marshall by Marc M

Best Use of Slant Rhyme
Third and Thong by Susan

Best Use of Punctuation
Tough ( . )( . )ies by Dan

Best Modification of a Modern Cliché
BROS before SHIANCOES by Donnie

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to everyone that entered. I would also like to thank Draft Analyzer for supporting our contest and being completely generous with their prize offerings. I will have additional contests in the future, so please check back for those and more great fantasy sports content.

Additional Coverage:

• Fantasy Football Team Names Contest

While ESPN consistently promotes its free fantasy football games, it has not completely abandoned the pay model. Fanball and ESPN just unveiled their new $50,000 Fantasy Football game. It is a pay-to-play salary cap game with point-style scoring, where the winner will take home a cool $50,000. Not too shabby for a $39.95 entry fee.

More importantly, the fact that two of the major players in the fantasy industry are teaming together on a game should make you take note. ESPN has become the number two player (behind Yahoo!) by offering completely free fantasy games. Fanball is the leader in pay-to-play games under its own brand, and hosting white-label games, such as the Fantasy Football Open Championship. According to Ryan Houson, Fanball’s Vice-President of Business Development, that this game came about through, “Lots of discussions. We discussed this a lot and we are excited it finally got done.” It is a win-win deal for both sides. It allows ESPN to tap into the pay-to-play market, while giving Fanball another game to market to its existing customer base, and more importantly, the ability to market to the millions of fantasy players that play at ESPN.

Congratulations to both sides on the deal, and I look forward to see how this relationship develops. If this is successful, you better expect to see something come fantasy baseball season.

Today is Wednesday. It is the middle of the week. While fantasy football players just want to focus on the start of the NFL season that is just under a month away, they must patiently wait. While they wait, I will attempt to quench their fantasy thirst with a few articles that I came across in the past week that I thought you :

• Q&A With Matt Forté (NFL Players) Apparently Chris Cooley is not the only real life football player that is a fantasy football junkie. While Forte was responsible for the success of a lot of fantasy teams last year, apparently the only people that were smart enough to draft him were Forté’s college buddies and himself. But you drafted him last year, didn’t you?
• AFL’s demise a lesson to those coining ‘the next big thing’ (CBSSports.com) Our condolences to those lamenting the loss of the Arena Football League. Ray Rotto’s article points out the difficulties that new leagues have in establishing themselves–difficulties that the AFL could not overcome in 22 years. From a fantasy perspective, this is a cautionary tale for those pioneering fantasy leagues outside of the main stream fantasy. It can be done, but careful.
• No fantasy for online business (LoHud.com) Mostly a local-boy-does-good piece about Fantasy Sports Ventures and its VP Evan Kamer, it does give some insight into Fantasy Sports Ventures’ playbook and what it is attempting to do. At least what it thinks it is doing.

I hope these improved your day just a bit. Don’t forget to check back regularly, because you never know when there is going to be another edition of the Fantasy Factoids!

In another example of fantasy sports industry consolidation, RealTime Fantasy Sports announced the acquisition of Fantasy City Sports. RealTime Fantasy Sports is one of the leading independent fantasy football sites out there, and the acquisition of Fantasy City Sports will help it grow its customer base.

According to its website, Fantasy City Sports has provided commissioner services to its clients since 1984, which would put them back into the pen and paper days, and one of the original sites. Fantasy City Sports owner Derek Olness said that the deal allows it customers to get “more flexibility in service options, including individual defensive players.” In other words, this purchase was probably more of a purchase of existing accounts, as Fantasy City Sports was either looking to get out of the fantasy industry, or other outside circumstances were causing Fantasy City Sports to need to leave the industry.

With literally hundreds of fantasy companies in existence, consolidation is inevitable. The value in this news is that it is important to remember that fantasy players are extremely loyal, and the once you have built a business with a loyal following, it creates real value in that business.

Congratulations to RT Sports and Fantasy City Sports on their new relationship.

Additional Resources

• RealTime Fantasy Sports Acquires Fantasy City Sports (Press Release)

There are two kinds of fantasy players: those who rely on their gut, and those who rely on math. Fantasy Football Starters is for those that rely on math. Fantasy Football Starters. It is a web-based software tool that allows you to determine which players on your fantasy football team to start on a given week. Now, you can get if for free.

Fantasy Football Starters has become one of my favorite fantasy sites over the last few years. Using simple to understand displays, and straight-forward analysis, it works. I love the fact that Fantasy Football Starters allows fantasy players to test the entire site out for free. You can use its weekly lineup analyzer or trade analyzer to your hears delight. There is an upgraded version of Fantasy Football Starters that allows fantasy players mobile access and a few other bells and whistles.

Of course, if you do not see the value in statistical analysis, then you will have little use for Fantasy Football Starters. But, I do, and if you are like me, you will want to take a long look at making Fantasy Football Starters part of your weekly game preparations.

Additional Coverage:

• Free Fantasy Football Software Delivers Winning Statistical Analysis (Press Release)

With Tom Brady a first round pick last year, fantasy football teams were dealt a crucial blow to their season with his season-ending injury. If those owners had taken out a fantasy sports insurance policy on Brady, at least their wallets might have been. That is the kind of service that Fantasy Sports Insurance provides, and this year, Fanball players using its commissioner product, will have the opportunity to insure their players and teams against a season-ending injury.

With Fantasy Sports Insurance being a secondary service, integration into a commissioner platform is key for the business’ success. Scoring a relationship with Fanball is a major accomplishment for Fantasy Sports Insurance.

No details of how the relationship will work between the two companies. I imagine there will be some sort of revenue share on the insurance premiums paid, and that fantasy football players will be able to seamlessly take out policies on their players and teams.

Well done.

The entire press release is below

Fantasy Sports Insurance Partners with Fanball.com

Contact: Henry Olszewski
Email: fsi@intermarketins.com
Office: 631-421-2424 Ext. 30
www.fantasysportsinsurance.com

With just weeks to go before the start of the fantasy football season, fantasy players have had plenty of time to prepare for the tough decisions: who to pick in the first round, what websites to trust for fantasy information, and most importantly, what should they name their fantasy football team. With obvious Brett Favre, Michael Vick, and Michael Jackson (too soon?) themed team names sure to permeate throughout the world of fantasy football, fantasy players should have plenty of fodder to get their creative juices going.

With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that Fantasy Ethos and The Big Lead are sponsoring a Best Fantasy Football Team Name Contest 2009. All you have to do to enter is submit your best fantasy football team names in the comment field below. There is a limit of three fantasy football team names per person per day. If inspiration strikes you in the middle of the night, feel free to come back the next day and enter three more names. You must fill-out your email in the comment form so that I can contact you if you have won. The contest closes on August 11th, 2009 at 11:59pm, and the winner will be announced on August 12th. Due to some unexpected website downtime, the contest deadline has been extended until August 17th, 2009 at 11:59pm EDT to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to enter ithe best fantasy football team name contest.

While it is fun to think and to share favorite fantasy football team names, it would be best to incentive everyone with prizes. Advanced Sports Media is stepping up and is offering the top five fantasy football team names a complimentary copy of its 2009 Draft Analyzer Ultimate Package, which retails for $44.95. Draft Analyzer evaluates the picks in your draft and makes pick recommendations for you. Draft Analyzer is available on the web or your desktop, and it features rankings and cheatsheets from ESPN Fantasy, CBS Sports, Fanball, Accuscore, and RT Sports. This is a tool I have personally used (and paid for myself) the past two seasons, and it has provided me with phenomenal results. If you have the best fantasy football team name, you will get it for free this year!

Do not delay, enter now!

Fantasy Football Team Names Resources:

• Lester’s Legends Best Fantasy Football Team Name Contest
• Fantasy Team Name’s Fantasy Football Team Names
• About.com’s Funny Fantasy Football Team Names

Starting a new business is always a difficult task. With that in mind, from time to time, I will go on a tangent where I talk about an issue that is on my mind. I want these to be open discussion pieces, so, please feel to comment and add to the conversation. Here is the first installment of the Start-Up Chronicles.

Today, I am talking about single points of failure. In case you are not familiar, a single point failure is when one part of a system (or business), when it stops working, can cause the entire system to stop working. When I worked with rockets, this would be something like an engine nozzle. If an engine nozzle cracked, there was a very good chance that the engine would fail, which would cause the rocket to fail (think: Kaboom!). On a blog, like this one, it is having only one regular writer (me). This past week, I probably did five different things to improve this site, but I never found the time to post a new article. This is bad. Writing articles was on my mind, it just did not seem like as big a priority as the immediate issues I was dealing. With people coming to the site regularly, there needs to be regular content, and I failed. Without regular content, everything I have done to promote the site is wasted.

There are many ways to prevent single points of failure. The easiest way is with redundancy. If you can afford to have two of something, then you should do it. For my blog, the easiest way is to hire another writer to ensure there is a regular stream of content. Something that I should have done when I launched. If you know someone interested in writing for me, have s/he contact me at derrick@fantasyethos.com.

Now, if we are talking about my rocket engine nozzle example before, sometimes redundancy is not practical. You probably are not going to have a second engine nozzle. In this case, what you need to do is make sure that nozzle never gets damaged. Everyone who comes near it is trained on how to move near it. The nozzle is inspected for damage every time it is moved. Maintaining the integrity of that nozzle is of the utmost priority for everyone. In terms of this site, until I am able to get someone else producing content, this might mean stockpiling articles so that if I am unable to write a new article that day, I will still have something to run.

Unfortunately, every business will have its share of single points of failure. I want this site to be something big, I know this site will be something big, and how I overcome and mitigate these single points of failure will be essential to the long term health of the site.