John Hansen - FantasyGuru.com
Hansen has published FantasyGuru.com, one of the oldest fantasy information sites on the Internet, since 1995. A former rock disc jockey, Hansen began appearing on a sports cable TV show in New Jersey under the name “The Fantasy Guru” in 1994 and quickly gained a reputation for his predictions and evaluations. Hansen’s first foray in the fantasy sports media business was a position at ESPN.com, where he was the first fantasy football columnist for the popular Web site, starting in 1996. He was a columnist for ESPN.com for seven years, ending in 2003, but not before being the first individual to contribute to ESPN's fantasy football coverage online, on ESPN Radio, and on TV. Starting in 2003, Hansen began working with Yahoo! Sports, where his work can still be found today.
When the NFL Network and NFL Films decided to cover fantasy sports, they called Hansen, who appeared weekly on “NFL Fantasy Live” alongside former NFL Player Ron Jaworski and on the NFL Network's “Playbook” show alongside former NFL Players Sterling Sharpe and Solomon Wilcots. Hansen was also asked to be featured on a strategy-based preseason DVD the NFL produced in 2003. Hansen appeared weekly (from 2003-2009) as the chief fantasy analyst on the “Fantasy Fix” show on Comcast Sportsnet’s local stations in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Baltimore/Washington, Sacramento, and others. The show also aired nationally on DirectTV.
In 2003, Hansen launched FantasyGuru.com Magazine, an annual fantasy football magazine that featured the first NFL player interview in a fantasy magazine (then reigning ROY Clinton Portis). After the 2009 season, the company decided to go back to producing content 100% online, as the magazine was no longer a viable option. Hansen around this time also had a nationally-syndicated newspaper column that appeared weekly in papers such as the Chicago Sun-Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
In 2004, Sirius NFL Radio was born, and Hansen was contracted to host the network’s weekly show “Sirius Fantasy Football.” In 2010, due to this show's great success on Sirius, SiriusXM decided to launch an entire channel devoted to fantasy sports and Hansen now hosts "SiriusXM Fantasy Football" M-F from 2-5 p.m. ET on Sirius channel 211 and XM channel 87. With at least one show per week in the off-season, the show airs year-round. In 2010, Hansen's content on Sirius NFL Radio was so well-received by NFL legend John Madden that Madden voluntarily voiced over a promo for Hansen's show. Also in 2010, the creators of the hit comedy series "The League" on FX wrote Hansen and former contributor (and now ESPN NFL Insider) Adam Caplan into one of their episodes. Hansen and Caplan were in four scenes and played themselves hosting the SiriusXM Radio show.
In 2013, he was inducted into the Fantasy Sports Writer's Association's Hall of Fame at a ceremony at the F.S.T.A Winter conference in Las Vegas in January of 2014. Hansen's award can be seen in this tweet. Also in 2013, Hansen deemed in the preseason the FantasyGuru.com Staff League as his #1 league for the year, and he proceeded to post a 14-0 record in the regular season only to come win win short of a perfect 16-0 season. Also in 2013, with a strong assist from our Managing Editor Joe Dolan, Hansen's 2013 preseason projections finished 3rd out of 130+ experts on Fantasy Pros' 2013 Preseason Draft Accuracy rankings.
In 2014, Hansen was contracted to be the chief fantasy analyst for a ground-breaking new "Fantasy Zone" channel on DirectTV. Fantasy Zones airs for 7 hours and is the first national television show that offers immediate fantasy analysis of the games while they're happening, and much more. Hansen is back on the show in 2015.
Specializing in football, Hansen is one of the most connected fantasy writers in the country and attends events such as the Super Bowl, NFL Draft, and the annual Scouting Combine, interacting with NFL players, coaches, analysts, agents, and insiders alike.