2006 Fantasy Football Magazines Rated

[Jimboozie]

I think this will be useful to many people planning on purchasing a fantasy mag.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 066/SPORTS

ASK THE EXPERT: Fantasy football mag guide
July 23, 2006

Free Press sports writer George Sipple rates this year's fantasy football magazines:

• Fanball.com's Fantasy Football Weekly (****): Nothing compares. If you're going to get cute and list Burger King's The King in your tight end profiles, you had better have everything else covered. From its top 100 rankings to its cheat sheets to its profiles, Fanball delivers a great read.

• Pro Football Weekly/CBS Sportsline.com (***): Superior player profiles and team previews. It would be nice if they listed players by ranking instead of alphabetical order.

• Athlon Sports/Grogan's (***): NFL beat writers answer the pressing questions about each team. There's also a recap of the hits and misses from last year's magazine, which is refreshing.

•Lindy's Pro Fantasy Football (***): The "32 questions" was a fun read. The player profiles also were solid. It could definitely use an upgrade in its look, though.

• Sporting News (***): Nothing touches TSN's fantasy baseball magazine. While the football effort doesn't match up, it's better than most.

• Fantasy Football Index (***): This was the standard for years. Sadly, the 20th anniversary package is the most entertaining part this year. It'll be tough for readers to forget its high praise of Tatum Bell last season.

• ESPN.com (***): The team profiles are weak in most mags, but not in ESPN. If you have a short attention span, you'll love all the quick-read boxes.

• Street & Smith's (**): Lots of glitz, but we much prefer their info-packed college football mag than this fantasy effort.

• Rotowire (**): The rundown on the top fantasy players in college football was interesting. Also liked the projections for each team's players in the team profiles.

• The Fantasy Football Guide (*): The schedule analysis was interesting. Beyond that, there's nothing really special.

• Fantasy Football Pro Forecast (*): This magazine has a whopping 184 pages, although it easily could have knocked off 20 with better packaging.

• Phil Steele's Fantasy Football (*): It fails to deliver the information overload you get by reading Phil Steele's college football preview.

• Fantasy League Football (*): Too much wasted space on career statistics in the player profiles. If I'm spending $8.95 on a magazine, I demand full-color pages.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

[BGbootha]

Do people actually pay $7 a pop for these things.

[mrblitz]

I've only got one so far, Rotowire, and it is just average. I'll get another in about a week.

[Vanter]

I'm surprised that the Footballguys.com magazine isn't listed on here. They usually produce some quality information.

[Juke]

http://www.footballdocs.com has a very good magazine IMO that comes with their draft package. Top 450 players overall, projections, software, email updates -- a load of stuff. It is updated every week, which means no more drafting injured players or using information that was written in March. I HATE that about fantasy mags. Simple download and easy to print. They claim it to be 85 pages with no ads... and they are right! By the time you remove all the ads in the other magazines, you are left with 1/2 of the mag!

I like FBG magazine too. They had Tiki on the cover last year and were 100% correct on that call. As for the ratings above, I disagree with Fanball's rating. Their rankings are not the best. ESPN did a decent jjob this year and deserves more respect than they are getting. However, honestly, I think footballdocs has them all beat after looking at them this year. Just my two cents.

[stomperrob]

FantasyGuru.com is pretty good but I don't think it comes out until the first week in August. I get the on-line version.

[stomperrob]

Do people actually pay $7 a pop for these things.

I need something to read in the can and it's cheaper than a laptop!

[moose_ffc]

http://www.footballdocs.com has a very good magazine IMO that comes with their draft package. Top 450 players overall, projections, software, email updates -- a load of stuff. It is updated every week, which means no more drafting injured players or using information that was written in March. I HATE that about fantasy mags. Simple download and easy to print. They claim it to be 85 pages with no ads... and they are right! By the time you remove all the ads in the other magazines, you are left with 1/2 of the mag!

I just bought in. The customer service is over the top. No complaints here.

[steelerfan04]

Picked up ESPNs the other day. Pretty good, something to read when I've got a minute.

[intense]

Do people actually pay $7 a pop for these things.

I used to say the same thing and frown upon people who payed $$$ for magazines when everythings in the cafe, but when your going to have some downtime they really arent a bad read. They cant hurt thats for sure.