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

- NFL.com’s Michael Fabiano sat down this week with fantasy football MVP Arian Foster. Spoiler alert: He didn’t pass along the hug that so many of us would like to give.

- John Haskell described in a recent interview with DraftSharks.com’s Jared Smola the agony created by having to wait for the delayed Vikings-Eagles tilt to deliver him $100,000.

- A couple of interesting things going on over at Fantazzle.com this weekend: For starters, as fantasy NASCAR options dwindle, Fantazzle opens its racing season with Sunday’s Daytona 500. And for fantasy basketball fans — or anyone looking for a reason to be interested in the all-star game — there’s an NBA fantasy game that combines the Sunday showcase with elements of the skills competition.

- Razzball.com is on the lookout for football writers.

- LestersLegends.com will take a look at you whether your game is football, baseball, basketball or the NFL draft. (Take that hockey and soccer BS elsewhere, though.)

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

Back home from the latest Fantasy Sports Trade Association winter conference, we’ll have material over the next few days covering some of the stuff learned.

At the end of a Wednesday gobbled up by travel and family time, though, we’ll pass along the winners of the most recent set of FSTA awards (in bold):

MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT OR SERVICE
Grid Iron Fantasy Sports — VuFantasyFootball.com
World Fantasy Games — RapidDraft Fantasy Football Weekly app
RotoWorld — Draftmaster software; Season Pass; Online Fantasy Draft Guides
Fantasy Football Crystal Ball
Head2Head Sports — Injury/Bye Protection
RotoExperts.com — Fantasy Grinder
RotoWire.com — Fantasy Football Draft Kit (mobile)
FantasyPros
LeagueSafe
NFL.com — Fantasy Football 2010

MOST INNOVATIVE CONTEST
RotoExperts.com — Upset Challenge
World Fantasy Games — RapidDraft
Athlon — Pro+College Fantasy Football
NFL.com — Fantasy Playoff Challenge

MOST OUTSTANDING AD
NFL.com — TV spot
MyFantasyLeague.com — print ad
RapidDraft.com (World Fantasy Games) — Week 17 Twitter mock draft
ESPN — campaigns for fantasy baseball, Tournament Challenge and fantasy football
FootballDiehards.com — print-Web promotion

MOST OUTSTANDING CONTEST
NFL.com
FanDuel
CBSSports.com — Free Fantasy Football
World Fantasy Games
Fanball.com — Diamond Challenge Fantasy Baseball
WCOFF

MOST UNIQUE/OUTSTANDING LIVE EVENT or CONTEST
Baseball HQ — First Pitch Forums
WCOFF
NFL.com — Fantasy Live webcast
Head2Head — The Draft 2010
FanDuel — Fantasy Football Championship
RapidDraft.com (WFG) — RapidDraft Weekly

UNIQUE AD
NFL.com — “Dots” TV spot
FootballDiehards.com — print-Web promotion
RapidDraft.com (WFG) — Twitter mock draft

MOST VALUABLE CONTENT
Fantasy Sherpa
CBSSports.com
RotoWorld
ESPN
RotoExperts
Baseball HQ
RotoWire
The Huddle
XML Team
RapidDraft News (WFG)
NFL.com
FFSpin.com
FFToolbox.com
GodfatherofFantasySports.com (Charlie Wiegert’s blog)

MOST VALUABLE TOOL
RotoLab
NFL.com — Bloomberg Decision Maker; NFL.com Fantasy Tour
FantasyPros
Competitive Sports Analysis — scoutPRO
Fantasy Football Crystal Ball
RotoExperts.com
RapidDraft.com — Fantasy Football Weekly app
CBSSports.com — Fantasy Football Commissioner
RTSports.com — online draft room
Fantistics — Fantasy Draft Assistance Tool: Baseball; Football
RotoWorld — DraftMaster
MyFantasyLeague.com
Advanced Sports Media — Draft Analyzer

ROOKIE of the YEAR
FFSpin.com
FaGames
NFL.com — Fantasy Football 2010
FantasyPros
Competitive Sports Analysis
Gridiron Fantasy Sports — VuFantasyFootball.com
Joe Namath (World Fantasy Games)

Name: Michael Fabiano
Nickname: Gridiron Guru
Job title(s): NFL.com Fantasy Editor
Full-time in fantasy? October 2000-present
Age: 37
Education: Bachelor’s degree
Family status: Single
Favorite fantasy sport to play: Football
Favorite sport to watch: Football
Favorite team (any sport): Dallas Cowboys
All-time favorite athlete: Troy Aikman
Years playing fantasy: 15

I got my start in the fantasy industry when: I was hired by COMMISSIONER.com/CBS SportsLine.com in October 2000 as a Fantasy writer covering the NFL, MLB and NBA.

Since then, my fantasy résumé includes: I worked for CBS SportsLine.com as a Senior Fantasy Writer from 2000-2006 before taking the position of Fantasy Editor at NFL.com. While at CBS, I also worked with The NFL Today and was the first fantasy writer to ever appear on one of the four major networks on CBS’ Fantasy Football preview show. Now with the NFL, I also appear regularly on the NFL Network as a fantasy football analyst. I have also created two celebrity fantasy football leagues including such participants as Jim Nantz, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Warren Sapp, Rod Woodson and Marshall Faulk.

Three questions

1. You’ve been a fantasy writer for a long time and active in the Fantasy Sports Writers Association for the past few years. Other than the explosion in volume, what has changed about fantasy content over your time in the industry — good and/or bad?

I think the thing that has changed the most IS the explosion in volume. There are tons of websites and talented writers out there covering every fantasy sport from every angle. It is amazing how many fantasy magazines you see on newsstands these days, especially when it’s time for football season. It’s also been very cool to see fantasy sports go from a hobby played by the hardcore fans only to becoming much more mainstream across the board.

2. Can you describe for us how your current setup with the NFL came about?

A lot of hard work and networking! It has always been a dream of mine to be involved with the NFL, especially since I’ve been a fan of pro football since I was eight years old. When I felt like it was time to move on from CBS SportsLine.com, I talked to the NFL about how the league wanted to move forward with fantasy football. Luckily, it was around that time that the owners decided to bring NFL.com in house. I started off with the league in 2006 as a contracted writer and analyst and was hired full time in 2007. The rest is history …

3. Do you gain any edge by working for the media arm of the league we all follow (first-hand news, players stopping by, analysts on hand — particularly the Playbook crew)?

Honestly, I don’t think I have any more of an edge than anyone who works at ESPN, CBS, FOX, etc. Regardless of who breaks news, everyone else in the industry has their version of it soon thereafter. There are some instances where I’ll be talking to one of our analysts and get information that I can use for my own fantasy prognostications, but for the most part I’m all about analyzing the stats. The NFL and fantasy football has become unpredictable in recent seasons, so even if I do get a nice nugget it doesn’t always translate into an “edge.”

Bonus: What, no fantasy baseball?

I actually started out primarily as a fantasy basketball writer at CBSSportsLine.com. I also wrote fantasy baseball columns, but neither of those sports compares to football. It’s always been my favorite sport, and it’s clearly the best fantasy sport. The season doesn’t last forever like baseball, for example, so every single game counts. People do often ask me what I do during the NFL offseason, to which I reply, “what offseason?”

The NFL has now become a 365-day-a-year sport, especially with all of the media coverage of such events as the Scouting Combine and NFL Draft. The NFL has truly become America’s passion, so it only makes sense that fantasy football would become similarly as popular.

The NFL and the Elias Sports Bureau decided to slap on their Grinch masks this week and potentially take a gift away from some fantasy owners.

The league announced Thursday a stat change from Week 15 in which Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall lost a yard from his total. That might not seem like a big deal, but the alteration dropped his yardage from 100 to 99.

As NFL.com fantasy football guru Michael Fabiano pointed out, that still might not impact leagues such as those on his site that use fractional scoring. There probably weren’t too many fantasy teams that lost by 0.1 points last week.

However, if your league eschews decimal scoring, the 1-point difference could be a bit more significant. Also, as Fabiano points out, those leagues that award scoring bonuses to 100-yard rusher have seen more points disappear.

Whatever the case, the announcement basically means that anyone who owns Mendenhall or played against his owner last week should recheck Week 15 results just to make sure nothing changed. On the broader scale, I can’t help but see a bit of laziness from the league.

Putting on a Thursday game each week through roughly the second half of the NFL schedule already throws a wrench into the fantasy week. If the NFL is going to choose to proceed that way, though, then it’s incumbent upon the league to iron out any scoring, stat or player-discipline issues comfortably before the next week’s games begin. This only becomes more important as the end of the NFL season takes most fantasy players into their playoffs — many with significant amounts of money on the line.

Long ago, it wouldn’t have been a surprise for any major league to have no regard for fantasy players, but the NFL obviously realizes our impact with the way it has embraced this pastime/business. Now it needs to keep in mind the interests of those funding the Sunday Ticket and trafficking the league website so heavily.