Sporting News Fantasy Football
Sporting News Fantasy Games
Edited by Bob Hille, Dale Bye, Bill Marx, Mike Nahrstedt
$7.99 US, 152 pages, no sexy ads.  Cover features Larry Johnson and Shaun Alexander.

This magazine loves the athletes – every picture is a shot of player, usually in action.  It kicks off with an odds and end collection of draft day tips, then jumps right into a long expert’s mock draft section.  Every pick gets a write-up, but the length of the comments vary greatly depending of how controversial they are (several paragraphs devoted to Matthew Berry’s choice of Thomas Jones late in round one, for example.)

Then Sporting News gets a little schizophrenic – it turns out that the opening article is a preview for what’s to come.  Good advice, backed with numbers, but dispensed in chicken nugget-sized snippets.  It’s very basic too, covering fundamentals of play – probably written to appeal to beginners.  The Overall Rankings list 204 players divided into “tiers” of 12 (for a seventeen-round, twelve-owner draft.)

The position intros are very good – lots of information in a concise package.  Players are listed alphabetically (within their position) in an extremely abbreviated format.  Their rank, according to Sporting News’ Cheat Sheet, is included.  Notes and Q&A are sprinkled through these sections.  Coaching and player changes are covered, briefly, as is strength of schedule.

Team analysis and stats round out the issue and are (as you would expect) bare bones.  This magazine covers everything but does so without a lot of depth.  A great choice for someone whose pressed for time, and would work well as an introduction for beginners.  For them, it’s recommended.  More experienced (or obsessive) players might be disappointed with the brevity.

That’s it for now.  Check back soon for the next installment, and remember to always take two Running Backs in the first three rounds.  Always.