For the first time in its three years of handing out Readers’ Choice Awards, About.com is opening the umbrella. The new coverage area includes a fantasy football category.

About.com, a property of The New York Times, hands out the publicly nominated awards to “showcase the best products, features and services in multiple categories.” Among the new categories this year is football, which occupies its own About.com subdomain, with “Best Fantasy Football Site” among the four subcategories.

The football wing also houses awards for: Best Football Blog, Best NFL Team Blog and Best NFL Draft Site.

The nominating process is open through Feb. 4, with reader voting following from Feb. 11 through March 8. Winners will be announced March 15.

“There’s no prize — just the bragging rights and potential traffic that come with getting recognized by the readers of a leading website owned by The New York Times Company,” football guide James Alder said in a recent e-mail to FSB.com.

With about 45 million unique visitors arriving at About.com a month, that potential traffic is something that many fantasy folks would be happy to win.

Whatever the story of the winning owner in your fantasy football league or contest, there’s a good chance Nathan Harrington has it beat.

The Salem, Mass., man had no permanent home during football season. He had no consistent computer access. He had no ability to work because of a car accident. What he did have, though, was a dream fantasy season.

“It was a ton of bad luck and good luck all rolled into one,” Harrington told the The Salem News, after winning ESPN’s fantasy football grand prize.

In fall 2009, he was in a car accident that, according to The Salem News, “left Harrington with nerve damage and unable to work.” A year later, the apartment building in which the 33-year-old lived with his fiancee and their 3-year-old son was deemed unlivable because of rat infestation, and they had to leave. Harrington and his family had to move into a motel and leave his computer in storage.

Because his team sat among ESPN’s top 50 early in the season, though, he stuck with it.

“My fantasy football was the one thing that kind of seemed to be going right at the time,” Harrington told the paper. “There was a lot to be upset about, but the one thing that was steady and heading in a positive direction was the fantasy football. So I thought I might as well stick with it and ride it out. Thank God I did.”

Well, thank God and some tremendous roster decisions. Knocking on strangers’ doors at the motel, jumping online at the nursing home in which his father lives, using his mother’s computer and making stops at the public library, Harrington managed 26 transactions during the season and carried many key 2010 players.

Arian Foster? Drafted.

Dwayne Bowe? Acquired early in trade, as was Adrian Peterson.

Brandon Lloyd? Claimed off waivers.

His final 0.8-point margin of victory, though, came thanks to starting Tim Tebow — of all people — in an improbable three-touchdown performance (two passing, one rushing) in Week 17 against the Chargers.

Of course, this isn’t a story of big fantasy money saving the Harrington family. His prize was a $3,500 Best Buy gift card, which he’s reportedly selling to his mom for $2,500. (One might wonder: If Mom can go for that deal, why wasn’t she helping previously?) Harrington did say he plans to use that money to move into a new apartment.

He also won’t have to worry about his wife-to-be getting on his case about fantasy football.

“[My fiancee] laughs about it now, but there were times when she was really mad at me,” Harrington told The Salem News. “[She] says she’s never going to say a word about fantasy football when I’m on the computer again.”

(Cop out: We choose not to judge whether her beef might have been legit, as it’s tough to know what Harrington’s other options were during that time.)

The Fantasy Sports Writers Association has announced the finalists for its seventh annual writer awards, and, as usual, RotoWire is all over the list.

The fantasy content hub drew 19 total nominations, including one for its baseball print magazine and seven categories in which at least two staffers will be competing against each other. Among those, RotoWire placed at least two entrants into writer of the year categories for baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing and college sports.

RotoExperts.com and Yahoo! Sports tied for second most nominations, with each garnering six. Yahoo’s list included one for its baseball magazine.

ESPN nabbed four finalist spots, Sporting News grabbed three and KFFL.com showed up twice. Football Diehards rounded out the multiple-nomination field with two entries in the category for best football magazine.

Individuals up for multiple awards include …

– Yahoo!’s Andy Behrens (best football Web article, football print article and humor article)
– RotoWire’s David Regan (baseball writer of the year, baseball series and baseball Web article)
– ESPN’s Tristan Cockcroft (baseball writer of the year and baseball Web article)
– RotoWire’s Derek VanRiper (baseball writer of the year and baseball Web article)
– RotoExperts’ Chris Ryan (baseball series and humor article)

It’s worth noting that the FSWA changed its judging procedure this time around. For the past couple of years, the board of directors was in charge of whittling the entire class of entries down to finalists in each category, passing those along to a trio of journalism professors to decide on the winners.

In 2010, however, the professors took on the whole judgment process, grading all entries on a 100-point scale. Thus, the finalists in each category represent the top three finishers in the grading.

The full rundown of finalists appears below. Winners will be announced the night of Jan. 25 as part of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association winter conference.

Football Writer of the Year
Ladd Biro, The Sporting News
Dave Richard, CBS Sports
Matt Schauf, RapidDraft.com

Best Football Series
Ryan Bonini, KFFL
Michael Fabiano, NFL.com
Mike Gilbert, RotoExperts

Best Football Article on the Web
Andy Behrens, Yahoo! Sports
Christopher Harris, ESPN
Tim McCullough, RotoExperts

Best Football Article in Print
Andy Behrens, Yahoo! Sports
Cory Bonini, KFFL
Matt Waldman, Football Guys

Best Football Print Publication
Football CheatSheets
Football Diehards
Sports Illustrated

Baseball Writer of the Year
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
David Regan, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Baseball Series
Matt Lutovsky, The Sporting News
David Regan, RotoWire
Chris Ryan, RotoExperts

Best Baseball Article on the Web
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
David Regan, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Baseball Article in Print
Brent Hershey, Baseball HQ
Chris Liss, RotoWire
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire

Best Baseball Print Publication
RotoWire
The Sporting News
Yahoo! Sports

Basketball Writer of the Year
Carson Cistulli, RotoWire
Shannon McKeown, RotoWire
Brian McKitish, ESPN

Hockey Writer of the Year
Evan Berofsky, RotoWire
Jan Levine, RotoWire
Janet Eagleson, RotoWire

Racing Writer of the Year
Adam Ansell, RotoExperts
C.J. Radune, RotoWire
Mark Taylor, RotoWire

College Sports Writer of the Year
Brad Evans, Yahoo! Sports
Chris Morgan, RotoWire
Jesse Siegel, RotoWire

Golf Writer of the Year
John McNamara, RotoWorld
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo! Sports
Greg Vara, RotoWire

Newcomer of the Year
Jake Ciely, RotoExperts
Mario Puig, RotoWire
Lane Rizzardini, Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

Best Humor Article
Andy Behrens, Yahoo! Sports
John Paulsen, Bulls-Eye
Chris Ryan, RotoExperts

Back before most people knew what an Internet was and where to find it, SportsBuff.com started sending fantasy football winners out to Las Vegas for a grand prize playoff draft and whatever else they could manage to do. (Sorry, that part stays there.)

Thursday night brought the latest installment at the Monte Carlo, with the top eight finishers in the salary-cap contest vying for the $30,000 lead prize and the title of 18th annual Mr. Fantasy Football.

Ron Schoenbach of Muskego, Wis., opened the playoff fantasy draft with likely everyone’s top pick: Patriots QB Tom Brady. Playoff drafting, of course, introduces the strategy piece of having to guess which teams will advance. Thus, it wasn’t a surprise when Tim Kawakami of Chino, Calif., and Steve Krenek of Lisle, Ill., made New England the most represented team in the first round.

Rafe Wysham of Hanford, Calif., showed his belief in the Bears by selecting RB Matt Forte second overall, followed by three of Forte’s teammates. Krenek, with two teams among the top eight, could afford to take a chance with his second squad (drafted by his wife) going heavy on Falcons.

Experienced fantasy player and teacher John Lowery, meanwhile, started with the two biggest fantasy factors from Atlanta: Roddy White and Michael Turner. Shawn Foster of Huntington Beach, Calif., and Jeff Stanley of Springfield, Mo., chose to open with quarterbacks, helping take four off the board in the first round (half of the eight available).

The full teams are below, with players listed as they were selected (round-pick). We’ll see who prevails …