Eddie Royal isn’t the only NFL player using social media to gather a fantasy football league.

Eagles tight end Brent Celek — a rising fantasy commodity himself — has spent the summer recruiting 11 fans to compete against him in fantasy this season.

The initial post back on July 24 makes it appear the idea just kind of cropped up rather than being the product of any particular planning. It also, however, aimed to engage his followers on Facebook and Twitter right from the start.

“I’m thinking of having u all submit videos on here explaining why i should pick u to be in my league.. any other ideas?” Celek posted.

He did follow other ideas, adding his first leaguemate the same way Royal did — the simple method of “Who can respond to this message first?” Celek did start to have a bit more fun after that, though, offering the next spot to the first person to post a photo of the subject wearing Celek’s No. 87 jersey and standing by a stop sign. The winner managed to be selected just 8 minutes later … just in case we didn’t know that the public hangs on the words of athletes/celebrities (scoffs the guy writing an article about some football player filling a fantasy league).

Spot 3 was uninspiringly awarded to another fan who posted a photo of himself in an Eagles jersey (though he at least got a bit creative).

The next two apparently went to fans who successfully bored Celek to death with videos.

Position 6 called for commenters to describe why it will be the Eagles’ year, eliciting 336 comments. The winner (Rishi Sugla) posted three different times and appeared to finally win by presenting a quick Celek biography from Wikipedia info. (Tough to say he didn’t actually win for his name, though.)

Spot 7 went to a groom wearing an Eagles vest and singing the team’s fight song at his wedding.

The eighth guy somehow failed to annoy Celek enough with his fight-song rendition to be eliminated.

And that’s where Celek’s league stands, more than three weeks after his last selection. The tight end did promise Monday night, however, to fill the remaining three slots on Tuesday. Royal, of course, went to an eBay auction to raise $810 for charity in filling his final spot.

A similar method would seem an obvious choice for Celek, who already has his own foundation. Brent Celek’s Take Flight Foundation seeks to “provide seriously ill and physically challenged children throughout Greater Philadelphia with daily support and life changing experiences,” with an admirable goal of helping 2 million children by 2013.

Celek provides yet another example of the willingness of some athletes to engage fans directly via the still relatively new social-media channels now available. The fact that he chose fantasy also shows once again the prominence of our games at the highest level of the sports scene that drives them.

No matter how silly the resulting Facebook videos or how excruciatingly long the summarizing FSB.com posts, here’s hoping we see more examples of this kind of interaction. It can be fun and rewarding for all involved.

How did you get into your fantasy league? Did you help form it with some buddies? Get invited after a previous owner left? Simply join a contest online? Well, for the price of a little online interaction, 10 fans will be competing against Broncos receiver Eddie Royal this year.

The second-year wideout, who actively connects with fans via Facebook and Twitter, recently started challenging the public to complete some simple tasks to earn a spot in his 2010 fantasy football league.

“Always tryin to think of ways to interact w u guys and i think i thought of a good one,” Royal posted on his Facebook fan page July 24. “im gonna do a fantasy fball league with 11 of u.. gimme ideas of how to pick which 11 of u will be in the league.”

The first spot went to the quickest response when Royal challenged fans to reply on Facebook by pasting the message “Eddie is going to beat me in fantasy football.” The winner responded less than a minute after Royal’s initial post.

Five others earned spots by being chosen among all respondents who uploaded a video stating why they should be included in the league. Among that group was Chris Ochs, who set up a Facebook account solely to enter the contest (and submitted this video).

“I told my fiancee, Melissa, ‘I’m not going to get it,’ ” Ochs told The Denver Post. “And (Royal) goes, ‘All right, guys, I’m going to do one more for the end of the night.’ And then he said, ‘This guy must really want to be in my fantasy football league because he just joined Facebook and he only has three friends.’ I was ecstatic.”

(The other four winning videos can be found here, here, here and here.)

One other fan won her spot with a video about why the Broncos will “shock everyone” this year, while two others claimed spots by submitting photos sporting Royal’s No. 19 jersey — one of an entire family and the other of an infant actually named.

The final free spot went to the fan who created the best Twitter background for Royal’s page.

“They (the fans) do a good job of supporting us, so I do as much as I can,” Royal said, according to The Denver Post.

With the 12th entry, Royal and the winner will actually be doing something for charity. The spot is being auctioned on eBay, with proceeds ticketed for the Denver branch of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As of Sunday night, the bidding was up to $550 with nearly a week to go.

We at FSB.com are not only intrigued by this because it’s a cool example of an athlete really getting involved with fantasy sports, but it’s also a terrific way for Royal to reach out to fans. The explosion of social media has only shortened the gap between fans and the athletes they often revere, and it’s easy to like a guy who embraces that closeness.

Here’s hoping Royal enjoys a better fantasy season this year than he did in 2009.

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

– San Francisco Chronicle blogger (among other things) Tim Goodman says, regarding Twitter, “I can’t imagine sports fans not using it — especially if you’re into fantasy sports.”

– Maurice Jones-Drew seems to be settling into his role as a fantasy analyst. He dished out some fantasy advice via Twitter on Monday, where his open discussion of the team from his recent Sirius XM mock draft got things rolling.

– Sunday brought two readings in Pennsylvania of “Fantasy Football: The Musical,” the fictional story of Bill Simmons and Matthew Berry combining to invent the pastime. (Rumor has it that early editions of “Silly Little Game” followed the same storyline.)

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