When Big Media Said No to Fantasy Football

Over the past year as my wife and I have been hunkering down during the Pandemic, we've spent a considerable amount of time cleaning and reorganizing our home. Last year, we concentrated on the backyard, and now in 2021, we're focusing on decluttering the interior of the house. In the midst of all that, my wife uncovered a pitch letter from October 1993 that I had sent to the NY Times syndication service (VIA FAX!) trying to convince them to hire me to write a column on fantasy football. I had already banked four or five columns on the topic with the Washington Times, and had even managed to bag my first big interview with ESPN's Dan Patrick.

I was getting enough positive feedback that I thought there might be a future for the hobby. As almost a throwaway, I asked my editor to include a short tag at the end of the column letting readers know they could ask me questions. The first time the sports desk told me someone wanted to talk to me about a potential trade, I took the call and laughed. But after it happened a second and third time, it was clear something a lot bigger might be going on.

I sent an identical letter to the Sports Editor of the Washington Post. In both cases, the answer was the same: no, although the executive at the NYT was far more polite than the phone rejection I got from the WaPo. In the end, the best I could do was copy and paste my columns into the Grandstand Forum at America Online (AOL) in exchange for about 60 online hours per month. And even then, when I returned to the Times in the Spring to write a column on Fantasy Baseball, my contract was amended to include signing away the "electronic rights," to the columns. Luckily for me, by then AOL had changed their pricing model to a flat rate fee to help me avoid going broke.

What happened next was sports history, and today, fantasy sports are one of the major drivers for viewership of sports television. Before the end of the decade, I went to work for PSINet, a high-flying Internet Service Provider that had relocated to the Virginia suburbs. Not long after signing on, PSINet agreed to be name sponsor of the Baltimore Ravens stadium. As part of the agreement, PSINet helped the team stand up its first website. When it was suggested that we add fantasy football to the site, we were told the NFL wouldn't touch it because the league considered the hobby to be too much like gambling. I'm sure the C-suite at Draft Kings and Fan Duel would get a chuckle out of that.

Granted, I was by no means the first twenty-something with time on his hands who discovered fantasy football. The hobby had already been around for a while. So, after taking no for an answer, I moved on, until finally getting in person experience in the sports business thanks to my hockey blog (but that's another story).

So what's the real lesson? If you're young and have what you think is a good idea and someone older and presumably more experienced tells you you're all wet, listen closely, but don't always assume they know what they're talking about. And just because someone else won't bet on you, don't be discouraged and never be afraid to bet on yourself.

This article was adapted from a post on my Facebook page.