Personal Profile: John Tuvey
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
Name: John Tuvey
Nickname: 2V or just Tuv (pronounced Toov, hence the 2V); I had friends in college who didn’t even know my first name, and even my wife calls me Tuv
Job title(s): Senior NFL Analyst at The Huddle
Full-time in fantasy? Yes, since 1999-and I have no desire to go back
Age: John Smoltz and I will turn 42 on the same day this May
Education: Appropriately, I have a BS degree in Management with a minor in Communications from St. John’s University (the Division III football power located in central Minnesota, not the New York alma mater of Chris Mullin)
Family status: Married for almost 15 years to Mary, the most patient woman in the entire world. We have four wonderful kids: Mariah, 11; Elliott, 9; Amanda, 7; and Rebecca, 5.
Favorite fantasy sport to play: It’s still football, though I must admit the year I tried NASCAR was surprisingly enjoyable. I think I’ve played just about every fantasy sport out there; we even came up with Fantasy Nielsen Ratings to occupy our time during the baseball strike in the mid-’90s.
Favorite sport to watch: Football at any level. I’ve stopped at a junior high game while driving home and just watched, but Saturday afternoons at the Nature Bowl at St. John’s are the best — a little slice of heaven. Or a Sunday in the old office, with 10 flat-screen TVs all hooked up to the Sunday Ticket.
Favorite team (any sport): The Minnesota Vikings keep breaking my heart-not re-signing Matt Birk was just the latest kick to the store-but I keep coming back for more.
All-time favorite athlete: There are so many; Tony Oliva and Julius Erving were my childhood idols, Anthony Munoz was my favorite lineman, and Eddie George is my favorite football player
Years playing fantasy: The upcoming football season will be my 22nd of playing, and I have three leagues (two football, one baseball) that are at or beyond 20 years of existence.
I got my start in the fantasy industry when: I wrote a letter to Paul Charchian, who at that time was the publisher of Fantasy Football Weekly magazine. In that letter I compared my skills to Randy Moss and John Randle, and he was impressed enough that he brought me in on Sundays to help with the magazine. After about a month he hired me full-time.
Since then, my fantasy résumé includes: I worked my way up from associate editor to executive editor as Fantasy Football Weekly became Fanball. That gig included providing content for AOL and Yahoo as well as Fanball. In my final year there I was a finalist for the FSWA’s Fantasy Football Writer of the Year. I’ve also co-hosted (with Paul Charchian and Bo Mitchell) Fantasy Football Weekly on KFAN, the local sports talk radio station, for the past four years and make regular appearances on stations from Hawaii to Lawrence, Kan., to Tampa to St. Cloud, Minn. — and even an occasional appearance on Fox Sports Radio. Additionally, I’ve written stuff for Fantasy Football Champs, Fantasy Football Trader, Draft Stock, and the Minnesota Vikings’ website. Last spring I signed on with The Huddle as Senior NFL Analyst, and I’ve been with them ever since. Or was this the spot where I was supposed to list all the league titles I’ve won?
Three questions
1) What was your involvement/experience with fantasy writing before joining Fanball?
Before the turn of the century there wasn’t nearly as much fantasy coverage out there. My fantasy writing was pretty much limited to pithy weekly updates in the newsletters I did for the baseball and football leagues I was commissioner of. I had to quickly learn the difference between writing about a close-knit group who all knew each other and writing for a much larger audience who was more interested in finding out how to win their own leagues.
2) How did your association with The Huddle come about, and how does your role there differ from what you did in the past?
In 2007, I had invited David Dorey from The Huddle to participate in a mock auction we were publishing in our magazine, and at the FSTA convention in Las Vegas that August I made sure to introduce myself. I also met Whitney Walters out there; he was one of the FSTA folks making sure it all ran smoothly, and I was there to speak on a panel as well as mingle. So just a few months later, when Fanball moved its offices and revamped its staff (and I didn’t feel ready to return to the corporate world) I was able to draw on that networking and contacted Whitney and David about joining The Huddle team. As luck would have it, they were in the market for a writer and familiar with my stuff, so it turned out to be a great fit.
At the Huddle I get to focus exclusively on football, which I think is a real plus-both for me and for the readers. Whitney and David have me spearheading The Huddle’s draft coverage, something I had just started dabbling in toward the end of my Fanball tenure. With dynasty leagues becoming more prevalent, I feel that’s a real plus for The Huddle. I also have more of an opportunity to get into the forums and talk to people, which has been incredibly helpful because The Huddle has set the bar high with its longtime users and I need to make sure I’m meeting those expectations. And of course, Whitney and David are both great to work with; through the magic of e-mail and messenger, I have a couple great football minds to converse with — not that my wife isn’t a great football mind!
3) What do you absolutely have to have with you at any football draft?
I’ve just started bringing a MacBook to drafts and auctions the past couple years, but I still find myself falling back on a handmade (OK, Mac-made and printed) cheat sheet and an old-fashioned tabloid-size grid so I can track every team, every player. By the time my drafts and auctions roll around I know the players inside and out, but I still need to keep tabs on who’s going where and for what price; without that information, you’re fighting an uphill battle. Oh, and for the record: auctions blow drafts out of the water.
Bonus: You say that your favorite food is your own homemade potato sausage. What in the world goes into the casing for that (other than potatoes)? Doesn’t the lack of unidentified animal innards take some of the fun out of sausage?
My grandpa ran a butcher shop for many years, and my uncle worked with him and then took it over before retiring last year. Among their many award-winning homemade products was a potato sausage, the recipe of which is a family secret-though you’re absolutely correct, it does include real potatoes. Before I was tied up with watching and writing about football every weekend during the fall, I used to go out and help process deer during hunting season-and I can assure you that peeking behind the curtain has done nothing to diminish my enjoyment of any of those products. In fact, running the grinder was pretty fun!
OK, so it sounds like potato sausage does have meat then, right?
Beef and pork. And real potatoes and onions. And a combination of secret spices that maybe only one or two people on this planet know… and I’m not one of them.
Phew.
Pretty much any time an employee parts with a company, it’s at least significant for someone. In this case, though, the split is significant for an industry.
