The Fantasy Footballers

one wins? Check it out. I'm gonna go with the guy who, look, he's he's not been a complete bust yet, but he's the twenty second range wide receiver, disappointing every owner that has him so far. That's Julio Jones. Julio Jones I believe has been terrific this year. He has he has just not had the touchdowns. I mean he's got one touchdown right now and we're over half the season in. And this is indicative of the entire Atlanta Falcons team if you look at how they've been performing

and joining us from x Arizona. Andy Holloway, Andy, do you ever go one hour in the day without somebody coming up and asking you some fantasy football advice. Uh, if I'm lucky, Yeah, if I'm lucky, it'll happen occasionally. If I locked myself in a room, um, you know, fetal position, someone will leave me alone for about an hour. But after that. Yeah, the the questions they come early, they come often. I mean do you ever just just say enough enough with the questions? Uh? No, not really.

I mean people love fantasy football, and I understand that that's why we do what we do. So uh, it's comedics sometimes when you know, when I'm out to dinner with my wife and and the waiter has a question, maybe that's that's not the best time to ask it. But um, but yeah, for the most part, I don't worry about it. I know these people are invested in their teams just like I am. Now they'll judge me later. I'll probably ask you one or two questions, but there

you go. I do consider myself a fantasy poser. I honestly I was just I'm never admitted it out loud. I only got into fantasy football because of the show The league Am I am? I calling? Are there other ones out there like being that you've talked to? I'm sure. I I think that there are a number of people who, you know, that was their first exposure to the dynamics of fantasy football. I mean, the sport becomes more popular

every year. The NFL's popularity grows because of fantasy football, and um, the league had a big part in that. I mean, that was a show that kind of brought the craziness that is fantasy football leagues to the forefront. Now, you didn't come out of the bomb saying I'm going to grow up to be a fantasy football host, which rude you too. Fantasy football and especially you know you have quite a quite quite a great tech career going. What made you say, you know, this is something I

really want to vote all my time too. Yeah, I mean I I wouldn't even when I had an interest in doing media and doing something in the fantasy football field. I don't know if I necessarily thought, you know, that was necessarily a career path more than a you know, a part time passion project and that sort of thing. But um, I've always been kind of a sports guy, a sports journalism guy. I certainly in engage with and

have played fantasy football for years and years and years. Uh, first time I met one of our co hosts was in high school, and you know, our first interaction as friends was playing in a fantasy basketball league together. So I've always really enjoyed the kind of uh, NonStop check your phone, check your computers, see how the stats are producing. Um, I've always just kind of enjoyed that, and I've enjoyed what it does with friendships. You know, We've had friendships

across leagues that spanned many states. And when people leave you know, high school or college, you kind of stay in contact with people and you're you know, talking to them all the time, get together for drafts, and so, you know, the fantasy football universe it kind of takes as much as you can give into it. You know, if you want to spend you know, eighteen hours a day being obsessed with it, you you can do that.

And you can look for nineteen hours a day. And if you only want to spend a few hours or a couple of minutes, you know, you can do that as well. So it kind of affords people of any type of interest level the ability to jump in. For me, it was early, Uh, it was something that we did very passionately, even when I was in my tech career doing Facebook games and things like that. We we always had a very passionate league and we were always knee deep in it, so it was kind of a something

that came out of that. Speaking of your career in tech, I I teach at the university. I teach a couple of podcasting classes, and I always tell the students to treat their podcast as a startup. You know that it's it is a business, and you need to market it and you need to have goals. Do you feel like the background in tech helped you as far as you know, creating a podcast that has become the most popular fantasy football podcast out there. I think absolutely. I think that

advice is is the same that I would give. I mean, I think one of our advantages was looking at it like a business, looking at it like what we had done before, with an entrepreneurial mindset. Um look at if there's one thing I like talking about more than football, and might be, you know, business building and entrepreneurship. And you know, that's what I really really enjoy about this is having the ability to do things that are innovative in a space that I'm passionate about. And I think

for any new podcaster, your advice is spot on. If you treat it like a startup, if you treat it like you know, a business, that doesn't mean that it's not going to be your passion. It just means that you're going to find I think, opportunities and in roads that other podcasters aren't taking advantage of. I think that was one of our big kind of separators from other

podcasts that we've always approached it that way. And you know, I don't think a podcaster should feel shame or embarrassment that they want to try to make money and make a living off of that. You know. Our our ambition to do that was in line with our passion for fantasy football, and we wanted to be able to uh step into that industry and do it as much as we could. And that meant we had to you know, pay our bills. We all have kids, we all have families that we need to support, and that was a

piece of the puzzle. And I think that the one thing that also shines through, you know, looking at your website, listen to your show, you know, is that that everything it's it's so well put together, and your website alone is just I mean just it's it's just like anything

you want there. You got podcasts, you've got video, and I think that's that the diversification I think for new podcasters that's really important is to know how to like, Okay, you can you can sit on a mic and do a podcast every week, but you need to like do other things. How haves have those things come up for you? And you know, is it step by step or you know, with with launching these different products. Yeah, it's a good question,

and it definitely was a step by step thing. It wasn't you know, let's do forty five things in the very beginning. No, Let's instead, let's focus on a few things that we do well, Let's do the podcast to them to the best of our ability. Let's you know, accentuate that, let's answer some you know, we started the show and we started answering paid questions if people wanted really fast applies. You know, that was one of the

first things we did. We don't even do that anymore just because it we don't have the time to do it, but that that was something we did right out of the gate that brought people to the website, that gave people the opportunity to interact with us. We poured ourselves into social media right away. We knew that um, kind of the independent feel of our show was very attractive to people because you know, they were sitting around the

same table with their friends talking about fantasy football and so. UM. It's one of those things that we've We've always had the mantra, you know, the right thing at the right time, for the right reason. And if adding something to our business, to our podcast didn't meet those three we were willing to say no to it and have been and still

do to this day. Is is you need to be able to say no because if you thin out everything you're offering, because you're trying to offer everything, UM, you don't really separate yourself, and you're going to burn yourself out. I do have to ask, as you mentioned, you know, you're all married, you have children, how do you stay married? You know? The truth is is we we all have the same ideology when it comes to business and the same philosophy when it comes to how we invest ourselves

into it. And so you know, for for guys like us, who you know, there's a certain amount of time we have to invest on a Monday night or a Thursday night or a you know, a Sunday morning and afternoon. We make it a priority to to be home on time and to spend time with the family and to take you know, we take a half day on Fridays after we do our show on Friday, so that we can kind of give that back to our families the

half day we steal from them on Sundays during the season. So, um, it's nice working with UH co host that have that kind of mindset that we want to put our our families first and UH the business second. And so with three people running in that direction, we we get lucky enough to kind of accomplish that goal more times than not. I've got a three brothers. Besides being degenerate gamblers, they

are frenatic UH fantasy football players. But I'll be honest, I do not enjoy watching football with them anymore because it's it's never about the game ever. I mean, do you ever feel like at some points like you, do you ever not enjoy a game because you're more worried about your players and how they're doing than actually maybe

the team you're rooting for. Yeah, definitely, And then there's a fatigue on our side that happens with that as well, because you know, I remember last year when the playoffs hit, there was something really really relieving and relaxing to sit down and watch a playoff game without the implications for fantasy and just enjoyed as the game of football. So, um,

you know, it goes both ways. We can really enjoy a game that would normally be a stinker on Monday Night football because we have players invested in and picks and things like that. Um, you know, but it does it takes away at times and it can be exhausting. Now you've got uh a lot of fans that follow you guys the foot Clan. Tell me about the foot

Clan and and and how how fanatic are are they? Sometimes? Sure? Yeah, our foot plan is the fun moniker that we we give to our Our list ers are passionate community of listeners and um, you know, our show exists because of them. I mean they're they're great, dedicated loyal listeners that are passionate like we are about not just winning, but we take a holistic approach to the to the fantasy football world, which is you know, it's gonna be more than just

the statue you're reading. It's gonna be about how do you make your league more enjoyable, how do you understand your competition and how they play and realizing the fact

that you know, the Dynamics change league to league. So we have a really great group of people that um have supported this show, have followed the show since its inception, and and new foot Climb members, uh, you know, kind of coming on board every single day when they get exposed to the content, and um, you know, we're we're just very thankful to have a group of really passionate listeners.

They joined leagues together, they play together. We've had the opportunity to do several live events where where those people have come out and we've got a chance to you know, talk to them and meet them. And it's just a great group of people that were truly like humbled by uh, their loyalty to the show. Like, we don't know why we have such great people listening, but we're certainly thankful

that we do. I think a big part of it is is that chemistry with the three of you, and that you're you know, you're you're obviously you're obviously friends. You know, I've worked I hate those guys, I hate I know but yeah, I worked in radio a long time and I've known I mean, I've worked on some sports radio shows in New York that the host literally came in different doors because they hated each other so much,

Mike and mad Dog. Um. But I think that that's one thing that really comes through is your is how well you get along. I mean how important is that, uh for you? And you think as far as like how successful this show has been and really a short amount of time, I think it's been huge. I mean they're like you said, you alluded to it. There are situations out there where hosts don't like each other. There's also a lot of situations where hosts just don't know

each other. Maybe they don't maybe they don't hate each other, but maybe they're both on you know, a skype call and uh, you don't get to interact face to face. I think us being in the same room together helps. And yeah, we're we're friends. We've been friends for a really long time. I mean I go back, you know, fifteen plus years with Jason, Mike and I you know, we've known each other for gosh going on eight nine years now, So that dynamic, you know, you're really the

fourth person at the table with us. We're doing what we'd be doing whether the cameras are on or not. So um, I think that that's helped a lot because we do we you know, we don't always get along, but we certainly respect one another and we certainly are you know, friendly, and and I think it translates I'm a died in the wool radio guy, and I I'm not a fan of cameras in a studio when I'm doing a podcast because I feel like it takes away You guys film and you do video. Do you ever

mind it? You used to it? Is it take it away? I mean I was watching the Halloween episode, for instance, and and you did not seem to be enjoying the Batman mask. It's funny because that singular episode was probably the most trying one from you know, when you're talking about the members are doing anything for the video side. Uh No, the mask was not very comfortable. But if you take the Halloween episodes the way, I think we've

definitely gotten used to it. It's something that we realized there was an opportunity to kind of extend our our content reach onto the YouTube space. It was something in the beginning that, you know, a lot of financial investment went into it, a lot of uh, you know, kind of the awkwardness of Okay, now you know, you gotta gotta make sure you're wearing the right stuff. You gotta

make sure you're don't look like a slob. I mean, when we do a show that's just an audio podcast, it seems so easy anymore because you just walk in and we flip on the recorder. Um, but it's something we're definitely used to. We we appreciate the fact that, you know, there are users that are connecting in different environments and we try to put forth a really good video product so that you know, someone that wants to tune in, you know, I as fantasy football fans, we

wanted something like that. So, um, you know, it's kind of a longer, longer play for us as a business, is just providing that, you know, audio is still the dominant part of our distribution. But um yeah, I think you know, outside of Halloween masks, we we deal with it all right. With video comes people knowing who you are. How what's the worst fan experience you've had so far? And I don't mean to call out a particular fan, but as somebody came up and just been overly anxious

to get advice from you. You know, I I should have some terrible story, but you know, alluding to the foot plan before. Every interaction that we've had has been very positive. Um. You know, we run into people from time to time, and you know, it can be at a restaurant, it can be at an amusement park or airport or something. But everyone's been really kind and respectful.

And and you know, we've always got the kids in tow if we're alone, and you know, they seem to have been very uh you know kind about that as well. There is there is the occasional person that just you know, one or two extra questions when maybe it's time to leave, but you know, not not really any bad stories. Well I'll create one now because I've got some questions for you. Great. Actually these are we we put this out earlier and

ask some people to tweet in. So I this person who tweeted his names Ethan, I have this same question. Do I even deserve to win the league after not starting Deshaun Watson last week? Yeah? You deserve to win the league because I think last week you just have to go with the process sometimes and not live in the fiery regret. Last week in Seattle, nobody knew if he could go on the road become a matchup proof fantasy player. If you didn't play him, it's probably the

greatest regret you've had this year. But there's a lot of people that didn't, So I would say, yes, you still deserve now. You know, though, you gotta go with what you've learned, and now you gotta start him regardless. I have Alex Smith and Deshaun Watson. I'm starting Deshaun Watson this weekend, right right move? Yeah. I think you just gotta we have a saying on the show, you gotta stay in the flames. I mean he is, he's proven himself. I still love Alex Smith rest of season.

I mean, he's my quarterback in our dynasty league. He's a player that's having a special year and is still, you know, the number one quarterback on the season before you know, the bye week isn't there yet for him. But his playoff schedule is good. I think both are great. I think you can, you know, pick your poison at at times, but Watson has just shown that he is matchup proof. He he offers you that baseline with his rushing yardage, and so you're in good shape at MICHAELA.

S h L says. Kaepernick's lawyer says, his signing is eminent. Where do you think he'll be the best asset? Well, that's interesting. I hadn't heard that signing is imminent. Is that is that fresh today? That was a tweet we got what an hour ago? Looking at my producer's he she said, yeah, we just got that. Yeah. I mean, if you look around the NFL, there's a lot of

quarterbacks that are struggling in situations and teams that are struggling. So, um, the reality with the Kaepernick situation, regardless of where you fall on all of that controversy, is that he's a better football player then probably a third of the quarterbacks in the league at least, And so, um, you know, where's the best fit? We already know some of these situations with injuries. He should be a better player in Arizona than Drew Stanton if they still want to make

the playoffs. He'd probably be a better player in Green Bay, but they've already said they're gonna stick with Brett Hunley. Uh, He's definitely he would walk in and be the best quarterback on the roster in Cleveland without question. And he'd probably be the best quarterback in Miami right now if he walked right in the door today. So I think that there are destinations and places, um, that he'd be able to perform. I think he's a pretty special player.

You know, he's he's struggled compared to his Super Bowl year, but he's still much better than some of these backups. Can can we both Can we all just agree that the NFL is gone crazy and that Las Vegas can suck it for taking my Oakland Raiders? You know what, I will just um, I'll just agree with you to uh, you know, I think it's hilarious. I mean, I do

think that there's such irony. Yeah, when the league tries to kind of distance itself perceptually from from gambling and yet leans into the fantasy football aspect and leans into the the reality that look fantasy football and sports gambling gambling in general, it adds to intrigue and interest in the NFL. And we know that that's the case. And so all of these commissioners, whether it's Roger Goodell or

or you know, Adam Silver in the NBA. They know that reality, and I think it's a matter of you know, it's kind of ironic that you that you'd bring a team into Las Vegas and yet you know, stay in arm's length away from those topics. But that's the reality we live in. So if that's crazy, then yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, I'm just I'm an Oakland fan, so yeah, no, I'd

be heartbroken. It is the It's it's the worst. It's the worst because I don't know what to do, Like, I can't I can't imagine rooting against them, but I can't support a franchise that did this to me. It's and I can't. I can't hear for the forty nine. You're You're in a troublesome situation there. That's what the Chargers fans had to deal with. Their Chargers have no fans. I mean they go up to Los Angeles, nobody's their fans. All their San Diego people are so embittered that they're

not fans. And I've always asked myself, if you know there's on a Cardinals leave, am I following them with my loyalty? When am I choosing a regionally close team? I hope I don't have to go through it. I can always tell when the team is doing bad. We have a lot of homeless people in San Francisco, and when you see them decked out in a certain gear, you know that's the gear that people are giving away. They're they're throwing it. It's they're charge of gear everywhere,

Charge of gear everywhere. That's yeah, that people don't like it. I got charge of friends and they they've sworn the team off. Now, all right, Andy, I'm gonna end up a little segment I call three killer Questions. I'm gonna ask you three questions and uh, let's see what the responses are. Question number one, what's the best name of a fantasy team that that you've heard? Oh? We do? You get this one a lot? My favorite of all time right now is uh the Marius Tigerian A little

Game of Thrones play with the Marrius Thomas. It's still my favorite names that That one takes the cake. If there was a football player living or dead that you could listen to their podcast, who would who would it be? Oh? Man, that's an interesting one. Um. I'm a huge Kurt Warner fan. I think I put him in that category because you can hear him on NFL Network already. For whatever reason, I feel like a Brett five podcast would be entertaining to me. I think that guy played so many years.

The stories you'd have that would be pretty fascinating. What's the last podcast that you binged? Oh? The last podcast probably asked Town. I think Gus Town was the last one that I binged, which I absolutely loved. Um also maybe it might have been Locked Up Abroad as well, So those two love both of those. And next time somebody asks you that, you'll be like access podcast, I just listen to there you Go and bonus question if you were saying and which personified not what's your favorite sandwich?

But if you were sandwich personified, what kind of sandwich would you be? Uh something? My co host would say something very responsible and typical, So you would you would be getting whatever sandwich a dad would eat. So maybe a very plain, uh you know, turkey and cheese sandwich with mayonnaise on some white bread. That's what my co host would say. I would say, Dag would oh, there you go? Yeah, I think I although dad with they

didn't have kids. I don't know what I'm thinking. I just dated myself all right, Uh, Andy Holloway at Andy Holloway on Twitter. The Fantasy Footballers dot com is the website and every week new shows. Um, anything else you want everybody to know? No, I mean just top on board. Uh, making a part of your routine if you love playing fantasy football, we love hanging out with you every day. Thanks Andy, all right, take care? All right now it's my my favorite time at the show. I say that

and I mean it. Z appreciate my hard working producer. Z is in the studio and we are going to talk about three podcasts that you should be listening to. Um. By the way, I hope everybody goes and listens to, uh, the Fantasy Footballers. By the way, I hope everybody goes and listens to Fantasy Footballers. I had a good time. That was fun. Do you think you like me? Well? Really? Yeah? We had Like so we did fifteen minutes after that interview that we just we're talking about. So we'll probably

do that as a bonus episode. Yeah. I think I have a man crush a little bit. You're gonna find that about working with me. Like I get all worked up about guests and then afterwards I feel really good. About it, and I'm sure they're like my new best friend, like Phoebe. I thought Phoebe was my new best friend. She's not my best friend. We're fine, yeah, but I mean she's not calling me to, you know, come to North Carolina and hang out or anything. And he's your

man crush Monday. Yeah, I'm hoping to get invitation. Hey, Maddie, don't you come to Phoenix and hang out with me and the boys sometime and watch football? There you go, I don't know anyway, a little more inside of my stupid head. By the way, we have cameras on us today because we're being filmed for a school project for the Academy of our University, shout out. All right, let's talk about three podcasts that folks should be listening to right here on the I Heart Radio app What do

you Got for us this week? And the sports Tip Miss sports Girl with her Stanford volleyball shirt on um I got. The first one is Laces Out with Pat McAfee McAfee. I always say it wrong with my accent McAfee McAfee. Pat McAfee. We have a connection because you're I'm a WVU mountaineer. Pat is a w VU Mountaineer. I am a die hard Colts fan and he was the puncher for the Colts for many many years from two thousand nine to so everybody that knows Pat knows

how funny he is. And he's done this podcast for a long time and the Pat McAfee Show, and then when he retired from football, he started this podcast. And you know, it's so great anytime somebody for the w B family is out doing great things. And uh, I love I love Pat. He's a great guy, larious. He's actually a stand up comedian and he does shows around America. Yeah, which I never knew. He retired at twenty nine because

you know, he wanted to do a podcast. A lot of folks did Kevin Smith when he when he first got into podcasting, and when I worked with him, it was he wanted to do nothing but podcastings. But that didn't last very long. He ended it back to one TV and stuff. But you know, anyway, let's check out, let's check it out true. Let me tell you a little story about these statistics. Troy Paula Malou Okay, fucking Troy Paula Malu. So we had a fake for the

Pittsburgh Steelers. That was a we didn't even practice a call off. We didn't even practice like a a cancel it out. We didn't a blackout or whatever whatever it is. I don't know what the fun you guys call it. Oh maha, whatever the funk they call it. I don't know. We didn't even have a cancel the goddamn play because it was a hundred percent hilarious stuff from Mountaineer Pat McAfee and Cole Mountaineer. Colet Mountaineer. All right, Our next

one is the Bill Simmons podcast. Bill Simmons, for people that don't know, he used to be an ESPN analyst. He's an author, but now he has his own website called The Ringer, and this is part of The Ringer, And I like it because it's super conversational. He has celebrities there. He has his cousin on it sometimes and they just talk football, basketball, super low key and like, I feel like I'm in the recording studio with them

when I listened to it. Well, and he is one of these guys that is a kind of you know, he's a cornerstone legend of the podcasting world. He did he really changed the world, I think for a lot of folks for sports podcast and I have a huge respect for him and I totally enjoy reading his stuff and listening to this podcast. Check it out. We're starting with baseball for the first time. I can't even remember the last time we started with baseball Game Endo, like

forty seconds ago, so it's fresh in our minds. Do you think they should have had a rule that like they're doing, uh slow pitched off all where you only have you can only have four home runs in the game. You have to choose when you have the four you bat around. Yeah, you have to say it after you hit your fifth homer. That sound eligible? It's only a double. It was getting Look, I know everyone loved it and everything, but I thought I thought Game two was one of

the best World Series games I've ever seen him. Yeah, all right, what's final? What's What's our final? Podcast is Skip and Shannon Undisputed, and that's a TV shop, So this is a continuation of their TV show. But they even but they do say a Skip and Shannon Undisputed podcast in the beginning. Um, I like it because even though I'm not a fan of Skip Bayliss, I hate I hate him. Um. I like the back and forth

him and him and Shannon have. It's really their opinions are different and they're always going at each other, and I think it makes for a really good show. You know what's funny is the promos they did for this show, We're so bad that I was like, I am not watching or listening. I don't give a crap. These are terrible promos. And that's what happens when you do bad promos. When you actually check out the show. Shannon could be.

You know, I'm gonna put him in one of the top five or ten sports analysts out there right now. Absolutely like really really good. His whole thing when the whole kneeling thing was happening, like that whole rant. You can watch it on YouTube. But he's so well articulated, and Skip is just whatever. But let's check out Shannon Sharpen whatever whatever. He was not in shape, but he said he had the best off season ever and just because of a little ankle injury in the preseason. Well,

let's come on, you really miss that much too. Yeah, that's like the pilot gauge. It's just a little gauge they won't take off. That's his whole thing skip. His whole thing is free training, folks. And so if you got a little nick, you can't be the best player on the planet. If you don't play both ways. You gotta play some defense. And last night I'm watching closely. He just done. He does heart is off. Alright, Ze,

thanks for those awesome tips. Alright, another show in the can. Hey, if you're listening and you haven't listened to past shows, please go back and listen. We've had some pretty cool guests on. But that's it for this week's show. Access Podcast is produced by Z engineers David Williams and Horsewong Art, worked by Dalton Runberg. Music composed by one Casey Franco. Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Don Parker and Katie Wilcox

at iHeart Radio. You can follow us on Facebook Access Podcast, You can follow me at Maddie Stout, and you can also follow the show at Access Podcast one. We need we need more followers. Get in there, follow us, folks down. Do you know what that means? I'll explain later. What is it? What do you say like when someone sends your direct message, you slide into their d I'll slide into your D n I thought you said something like from Hogwarts. It sounded like it sounded like I love

Harry Potter. Whatever that Harry Potter magic stuff is, I don't know anyway. Download the I Heart Radio app, Go to the podcast section, listen, share and tell your friends. By bye m HM