A Sunday post in the Fifth Down blog on The New York Times’ website took a somewhat fun look at the interaction between fantasy players and a couple of prominent NFL receivers, but the third aspect could induce chills for anyone running fantasy games or contests.

The final item included by author Toni Monkovic deals with a “notorious prankster” who hacked into ESPN’s fantasy system to “have a little fun with the bugs I discovered.” Fortunately for all involved, the fantasy hackster was playing in a league with friends and had no interest in actually affecting outcome. He merely decided to use his expertise to play a trick on a leaguemate by adding Rex Grossman to the person’s roster. (In an even funnier move, he also impersonated Grossman via e-mail and sent a plea to the leaguemate for a fantasy start that week.)

ESPN ostensibly got wise to the issue and filled in the gaps but not before Deadspin caught wind of it.

The situation also brought to light another tech blogger who said he had been researching the issues with ESPN’s fantasy interface, sharing extensive details of what he had discovered. To an untrained tech eye, this seems to have been the issue: In trying to offer more customization to league managers, ESPN.com inadvertently left open loopholes that allowed for manipulation of league play.

The revelation made its way to ESPN message boards and obviously forced action by the site when administrators became aware of the issues.

The fortunate part in all of this flak for ESPN was that no one involved seemed to have any ill intentions. However, if tech-savvy folks such as these were willing to spend the time to root out such issues merely for the sake of pointing them out, one would have to imagine there are geeks out there with an eye toward manipulating a contest for monetary gain. Success in such an effort must be about the worst fear for anyone running an online contest.

At the least, the whole thing serves as a tip to game/contest providers to check up on similar aspects of their own products and services to make sure similar entry points don’t exist.

The Web has enabled the explosion of fantasy sports throughout the nation and world, but we can never forget the inherent dangers.

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– ESPN has an android app out for fantasy team management, but those who want it will have to shell out $4.99.

– Yahoo!’s opening of its fantasy sports API allowed programmers to cater to the Web’s biggest fantasy audience, and FantasyFanatics.com did so. The Fanatics tool offers instant start-sit recommendations based on the crowdsourced rankings compiled for the given week from submissions via FantasyFanatics.com.

– Fantrax.com appears to be building a writing staff to accompany the fantasy games and league hosting that serve as the site’s centerpiece. Fantrax recently added a general sports columnist, a golf columnist and a football columnist, who will also serve as the site’s editor-in-chief.

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Name: Scott Engel
Nickname: “The King”
Job title(s): managing director, RotoExperts.com
Full-time in fantasy? Yes, since 1996
Age: 44
Education: B.A. in journalism, Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus
Family status: Married to Victoria, 16-year old son, Sean.
Favorite fantasy sport to play: Football
Favorite sport to watch: NFL
Favorite team (any sport): New York Mets
All-time favorite athlete: Bernard King
Years playing fantasy: Since the early ’90s, but much earlier if you count games like Strat-o-Matic.

I got my start in the fantasy industry when: I was hired at CBS Sportsline in the winter of 1996 and joined their fantasy department to help in many areas.

Since then, my fantasy résumé includes: Eight years at CBS Sportsline: served as managing editor and senior writer. Four years at ESPN as a fantasy writer, analyst and associate editor. Joined RotoExperts.com in July of 2008. Original executive committee member of the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association and named 2006 Fantasy Football Writer of the Year. Inducted to Fantasy Sports Writers Association hall of fame in 2010 as part of the inaugural class. Host of the “RotoExperts” morning show on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio.

Three questions

1) How did the fantasy scene of 1996, when you were with CBS Sportsline, compare with that of today? What do you see as the pros and cons of each landscape?

It was so new and exciting then, and I was able to help heavily shape the future of a great company in one of its most important departments. Early on, though, fantasy sports was viewed as an afterthought that didn’t need much attention overall. That thinking changed in a major way over the years, and it was so exciting to be part of the rise from a tiny section on the site to a major component of a successful corporation. Today, I’m back as part of another fast-rising company, enjoying that thrilling growth spurt all over again. It was more challenging in recent years to crack the industry, obviously, but with the right model and people, you can still make a major dent, as RotoExperts has proved.

2) With so many people analyzing and writing about fantasy football and so much luck factoring into the game itself, what does it take to be a truly good fantasy football analyst?

You must not go by numbers alone and realize there are so many other factors that can contribute to performances — emotions, rivalries, and a lot more. Plus, you must be able to write well and have in-depth knowledge of individual sports. Many potential prospects in the industry do one or the other well, hopefully they learn to combine the two.

3) Why did you leave ESPN, and what drew you to RotoExperts?

Working at ESPN was, at the time, reaching the top of the mountain in my career. It was like running out of the tunnel in the NFL when I first arrived there. It was a thrilling, unforgettable period in my life. Yet I thirsted for more creativity and avenues to share my experience with a company that wanted to meet the challenges of trying to crack the industry. Nothing ever matched the thrill ride of being with CBS Sportsline from the beginning and being part of that growth process. With RotoExperts, I saw the same kind of visions and people who wanted to scale great heights and believed in themselves. It was great being with ESPN, which was like a rock legend playing stadiums. Yet RotoExperts was the band I saw in a local club and knew they would be famous, and I wanted to get in early on the ride to stardom.

In well less than three years, I’ve already seen the RotoExperts audience grow in major ways, and we are ready to rock the fantasy world for years to come. I am actually playing on bigger stages than I did at ESPN, and RotoExperts now draws large audiences as its own popular fantasy act. I grew up wanting to be in KISS, and RotoExperts is the fantasy equivalent: unique, groundbreaking and unmatched for excitement. Joining forces with RotoExperts CEO Louis M. Maione was like meeting and joining up with Gene Simmons, they both are history-making visionaries with incredible work ethics. We already have churned out big hits like our significant presence on Sirius XM’s fantasy sports channel and partnership with NFL.com as an exclusive fantasy content provider. We have more to come, including our totally groundbreaking Sports Grinder product and Upset Challenge game. Rock and roll!

Any time you see a list of the top 10 anything, you know that a fair bit of subjectivity went into the selections and you probably take the list with a grain of salt.

That said, you won’t find many more trusted resources for “all things Web” than Mashable.com, with its 3 million-plus unique visitors a month and more than 2 million Twitter followers. So when that site comes out with its “Top 10 Fantasy Football Sites to Help You Win,” it’s at least worth passing along.

The article doesn’t specifically say that the list represents a ranking, but the whole numbering thing seems to indicate as much. Here are the sites that Mashable’s Miranda Lin likes best, with a snippet of her comments for each …

1. Footballguys.com – “Having up-to-the-minute breaking news is the life-blood of any fantasy footballer, and Football Guys’ network of writers and inside sources is one of the best in the business, producing an “avalanche of news” that will keep you ahead of the game.”

2. RotoWorld.com – “The speed and quality of their newswire is second only to Football Guys and their ‘On Demand Draft Guide’ ($14.99) produces an easily printable document filled with player profiles and stat projections, ADP reports, rookie rankings, depth charts and injury reports that are updated in real-time and tailored to your league settings.”

3. The Huddle — “The Huddle has it all: Cheatsheets, player profiles and rankings, mock drafts, game predictions, free agent reports, start/bench advice and stat trackers. … But what really sets The Huddle apart are its forums.”

4. Fantasy Sharks — “This is the only site on this list that is 100% free — and it doesn’t give up anything in quality.”

5. FFChamps.com — “The site’s crown jewel is the FFC Performance Index, an in-season ranking and projection system that calculates which of your players will have the best outing.”

6. Football Docs — “Apparently the Football Docs’ advanced degrees in engineering have also given them an inside track on fantasy football trends, draft tactics, lineup decision-making, and player rankings and projections.”

7. CBSSports.com — “Although it’s not as organized or as user-friendly as some of the other sites, it’s hard to argue with the quality of CBS Sports’ product.”

8. Pro Football Reference — “Doug Drinen has put together a super-organized, easy-to-navigate collection of football statistics that allows users to search any aspect of a team or player’s performance throughout history.”

9. Draft Sharks — “With a sleek-looking interface that provides custom tailored cheatsheets (called MVP Boards), weekly player rankings, newsy and gossipy articles, personalized trade advice and in-season strength of season updates, Draft Sharks believes it can ‘out-analyze other websites.’”

10. ESPN.com — “In addition to the usual news and analysis from its stable of experts, including five-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) award-winner Matt Berry (aka ‘The Talented Mr. Roto’), ESPN has begun to offer a variety of services across different media platforms.”