FSWA Announces Top Fantasy Picks, Other News
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Chris Johnson did the same thing to the FSWA fantasy player of the year competition that he did to defenses through much of the year: He ran away.
The Tennessee running back, who came up just 99 yards shy of the single-season record for rushing yards, garnered 85 percent of the first-place votes from Fantasy Sports Writers Association members. In his wake, Aaron Rodgers took second place, with Ray Rice, Drew Brees and Maurice Jones-Drew following. (The FSWA designated the five finalists on the awards ballot.)
Johnson was the second straight running back to take the award, following DeAngelo Williams in the 2008 season. Tom Brady triumphed the year before that.
The vote was much closer for top rookie, leaning in favor of Percy Harvin. Minnesota’s first-round receiver edged Denver’s Knowshon Moreno, with Arizona’s Chris Wells, Indy’s Austin Collie and the Giants’ Hakeem Nicks following in that order.
The FSWA’s first-ever All-Fantasy team looked like this …
QB Aaron Rodgers, Packers
RB Chris Johnson, Titans
RB Adrian Peterson, Vikings
WR Andre Johnson, Texans
WR Miles Austin, Cowboys
TE Dallas Clark, Colts
K Nate Kaeding, Chargers
Clark beat out Vernon Davis as the top tight end by just a single vote. FSWA members also tapped the Jets as the top team defense of 2009 and San Francisco linebacker Patrick Willis as the No. 1 individual defensive player.
(You can find the picks and reasoning of one particularly bright FSWA voter right here.)
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When the FSWA hands out trophies next winter, there will be one more to give away.
President Mike Beacom announced Monday that the group has decided to add a category for top newcomer. Eligible candidates will have had to publish their first fantasy articles within the calendar year being considered.
This could prove a tricky category for which to set guidelines, as the blog explosion blurs the line between being published and not. Will a writer who has kept up a Wordpress blog for a few years but only just joined a fantasy-site staff be eligible, for example? Beacom said the FSWA will work out the criteria by the time nomination season rolls around.
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The FSWA also announced Monday that Robert Burghardt of TG Fantasy Baseball has agreed to step down from the association’s board of directors to become the chair of the hall of fame committee.
The group is compiling a list of candidates for its inaugural induction class and plans to have honorees selected by early summer.
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How do you know when it was the right choice to dump a couple of awards? Perhaps when no one seems to notice they’re gone.
Before this year, the FSWA had split out its annual article awards in baseball and football to categories for “major media” and everyone else. This time around, though, everyone got tossed back in together. That’s as it should be, especially as it gets a bit tougher to tell who really qualifies as “major,” particularly within the fantasy industry.
Just like 
