ESPN Brings Fantasy Football Draft Tools to iOS

"It's the most wonderful time, of the year!" As the popular Christmas tune rings through my head, ironically, I am not thinking about the holidays. For many men, myself included, the most wonderful time of our year is the kickoff to the fantasy football season. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a green rookie, the key to having a good season is having strong draft selections right out of the gate. Thank goodness ESPN has our backs, recently releasing an awesome new draft tools application for iOS devices.

The 500 top picks and NFL prospects will be at your fingertips, helping to make draft day that much more successful this season. Here are some of the other features of the application:

• 2010 Rankings and Projections for 500+ players
• Player Cards with images, projections and ESPN analysis
• Players sorted by name, rank, team/bye week and projected points
• The ESPN bottom-line with the latest sports news and updates
• Updated rankings delivered to the app as soon as they are available Plus…
• Better manage the player list with the interactive draft tool
• Email your draft lists right from the app
• Get updates all season on every player in fantasy - And much more!

I wish apps like this had existed a couple of years ago when I was just learning the ropes of fantasy football. It would have been great to have a leg up on my competition, considering they were hell-bent on destroying me anyway. Either way, it is here now and you better believe that I will be taking advantage of it.

Why a draft specific app, though? Why wouldn't they just integrate this feature into something that could be used all season, instead of just a single week leading up to the kickoff? I guess we will have to wait and see what else ESPN has up their sleeve. They are pretty smart folks, so I am sure they have some sort of world domination plan in the works.

Oh, and one piece of advice if you are participating in a live draft, please make sure you can pronounce your pick's actual name. You don't want to end up like this guy: