Now entering our 3rd season, Art of the Fan always provides fans with the best and most unique fantasy football gift ideas and league prizes. Thanks for visiting!

• Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? Rise and fall of the United States Football League
• Muhammad and Larry – The October 1980 fight between Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes
• Without Bias – The life of Len Bias
• The U – University of Miami football team in the 1980s
• Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks
• Guru of Go – Paul Westhead and Loyola Marymount
• No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson

Even though fantasy sports got it’s start with baseball, I’m still interested to see how things started now that it’s grown into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Visit the ESPN 30 for 30 site.

Green Bay Packers to wear navy in 2010 game
by Paul Lukas

In case you missed it the other day, the Green Bay Packers recently unveiled a throwback alternate uniform, which they’ll wear for one as-yet-unspecified game in 2010. The design is based on what the team wore in 1929.

If the sight of the Pack wearing navy instead of green is a shocker, it shouldn’t be. They actually wore a variety of navy-based uniforms for the first several decades of their existence, like this 1940 design. The thing is, color photos from the NFL’s early days are rare, so most fans have no idea what their favorite teams used to look like. Neither do many of the game’s historians.

That’s why a recent discovery by reader Chance Michaels is so amazing. It’s a rare newspaper color insert from 1940, providing one of the best views available of the NFL’s early color schemes.

Some of the teams are vaguely recognizable — that’s an Eagles player at lower right, and a Redskin at lower left (Andy Farkas, incidentally, is generally credited with being the first player to have worn eye-black, even though he’s not wearing it in that photo). But it’s weird to see Mel Hein of the Giants wearing so much red — and even weirder to see him, as a center, wearing uniform No. 7!

continue reading…

In the last quarter of 2009, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas) reported that four employees of Fidelity Investments had been fired for their involvement in a fantasy football league. The company said that they had intercepted workplace instant messaging involving football conversations. Fidelity’s position was that they had made their policy about “no gambling on the job” clear to their workforce, and that fantasy sports activities were not permitted on company time.

The league members defended their participation by responding that Fidelity employees did not take this policy seriously and that their $20 personal investments in their indulgence hardly constituted hardcore betting. In fact, Fidelity’s reference to fantasy sports as “gambling” caught the attention of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, which issued its own press release as a result of the firing, noting that it was disappointed by Fidelity’s actions and their promotion of the perception that fantasy sports are linked to gambling. The Association also said in their release that Congress recognizes the distinction between fantasy sports and criminal sports gambling, and has written exclusionary language around fantasy sports play.

Workplace Fumble: Fantasy Football Called for Interference | Long Island Press.

NFL players getting hooked on fantasy football

‘The League’ review – Sepinwall on TV | New Jersey Entertainment – TV & Film – - NJ.com.

Art of the Fan - FAN TASY Football t-shirt

The latest t-shirt design from Art of the Fan provides a bold and stylish way to how much of a fantasy football fanatic you really are.

The Art of the Fan fantasy football t-shirt collection always provides you with a great source for holiday gift ideas for all the fantasy football addicts in your life. Check back weekly for new t-shirt designs during the NFL regular season.

Art of the Fan - Signature Tee

Thanks to all that participated in the Art of the Fan FANtastic T-Shirt Giveaway contest. We had a great and overwhelming response. The 3 winning contest entries (chosen at random) are:

• Kurt Goehrig
• Kimberly Hilbert
• Chris Vance

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all that entered. Continue to visit Art of the Fan for the latest t-shirt designs and more contests to come.

Titlecraft sells handmade fantasy football trophies, some with Swarovski crystal, left, for up to $799.

CNN takes a look at what’s new in the world of fantasy football. Now there are even lawyers available to settle the nastiest disputes. Who knew???

(CNN) — Henry Olszewski was stoked in 2008 when he, along with millions of Americans, drafted New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to his fantasy football team.

About eight minutes into the season, a 220-pound safety was blocked into Brady’s knee, tearing two of the quarterback’s ligaments. Brady’s season ended, as did Olszewski’s.

“That Monday, [Olszewski] came in the office, and he was bummed out,” said Anthony Giaccone, president of Intermarket Insurance. “He asked, ‘Why can’t we buy insurance for fantasy team players?’ ”

Thus spawned the brainchild for Fantasy Sports Insurance, which guarantees that NFL players won’t miss a certain number of games. FSI will reimburse a fantasy player’s entry fee if they do.

It’s one of a blitz of bizarre businesses cropping up in the $800 million industry of turning quarterback stats to greenbacks, said Paul Charchian, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

Lawyers, insurance firms cash in on fantasy football – CNN.com.