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Resident wins fantasy football writers award
By Chris Roark, croark@acnpapers.com
If you’ve ever taken a leap of faith on an unproven NFL player in your Fantasy Football draft and it paid off, you might have Ladd Biro to thank for it.
Since 2003, the Flower Mound resident has spent his time poring over football teams and players, translating his observations into statistic-backed opinions and advice through newspapers, blogs and even a radio show.
And last week, Biro was named the best at what he does.
Biro, who won the award as a writer for the Sporting News magazine, beat out Matt Schauf of Rapid Draft website and David Richard of the CBS Sports website.
In addition to the Sporting News, Biro’s syndicated columns are published in 12 newspapers across the country. He also has a satellite radio show called “Fantasy Files with Ladd Biro” on the Sporting News Radio channel, and he has a blog titled “Fantasy Fools.”
“I found out in early January that I was a finalist,” Biro said. “I was a finalist last year for the Most Humorous Article award, so it was a shock to me that this year I was up for the biggest award of all. I guess it was just overall good writing, good insight and good advice.”
George Winkler, the senior editor for fantasy for the Sporting News, noted a story Biro wrote in September titled “Peterson to labor silently in this fantasy league.” The story described how Biro’s fantasy league paid tribute to a fellow player – Biro’s next-door neighbor, Phil – who recently passed away. Phil was a big fan of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, so the league decided to leave Peterson a free agent all season.
But Biro’s columns go beyond the anecdotal writings from his own league. They give the approximately 30 million fantasy players the tools they need to succeed in their league based on his experience following football so closely.
“I try to make my columns easy to read, humorous at times and always full of good information that readers can’t get everywhere else,” Biro said. “I don’t flow with conventional wisdom, but I dive into the analysis in a comprehensive way to give the best advice possible.”
Sometimes that advice works. Like when he urged fantasy football players quickly grab Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick when the team’s original starter, Kevin Kolb, went down with an injury.
“A lot of people weren’t ready to pick him up because they didn’t know if he was for real this year,” Biro said.
After Vick helped lead the Eagles to the playoffs, it turned out Biro was right.
On the other hand, Biro recalls earlier this past season when he didn’t jump on the bandwagon of Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis soon enough.
“I didn’t recognize how good he would be as quickly as I should have,” Biro said.
Biro admits he has a few misses mixed in with a lot of good calls, but that’s just part of the fun of a phenomenon that has nearly doubled in participation from 15 million competitors in 2003.
That’s when he first approached The Dallas Morning News about having a syndicated column about fantasy football. Two months after inquiring, he got the green light to go forward with it.
“It has really taken off,” Biro said of fantasy football. “It started out with Rotisserie Baseball, which has leveled out in popularity. But the fantasy football phenomenon started about 20 years ago and really started to pick up steam 10-15 years ago.”
Biro said the NFL getting behind fantasy football has definitely helped, and the Red Zone Channel, a real-time channel that takes fans to any game where a team is inside the 20-yard line, is an example of how the NFL has embraced the fervor.
Biro said fantasy football, as well as other fantasy sports, is popular for several reasons.
“It provides a good combination of competition and doing something with your friends,” Biro said. “Plus, it’s an opportunity to win money if your league plays for cash. But to me, it’s a more informed way of watching football because you follow all of the offensive skill positions around the league. You learn more about football that way.
“I think the typical fantasy football fan is more knowledgeable about the players than your typical NFL fan. And you care more about a game between the Bills and Falcons because you or your opponent might have some players on that team. So that makes you more involved, and that appeals to a lot of people.”
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