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Author

Michael

Founder of FF Beacon. Twenty seasons in fantasy, an active dynasty manager who plays the game stats-first, and the reason this site is built the way it is.
Seasons
20+

Since 2006

Format focus
Dynasty

Superflex and TEP

Reads by
Ear

Screen reader, daily

Story

How I learned to play fantasy stats-first

I have been playing fantasy football since 2006, twenty seasons. For most of those years I ran one or two leagues. In 2023 I jumped into dynasty, and within a year I was managing more rosters than I could keep in my head. The unlock was not free time. It was finally learning how to actually use the data.

I am blind. That cuts both ways in fantasy. Every app I tried had friction sighted users never notice: stats trapped inside an unlabeled chart, filters you can only reach with a mouse, player news that updates silently. So I leaned on what does work for me. Stat lines, target shares, snap counts, analyst tape breakdowns on audio, and advanced metrics that travel well as text.

That accidentally made me a better fantasy player. I was already evaluating players the way successful managers do, numbers and tape first, vibes last.

Why FF Beacon

The product I wish existed when I started

Two things were obvious. There is a large gap in fantasy resources for people who do not already speak analytics, and almost nothing was built for fantasy players who use a screen reader.

FF Beacon closes both at once. Every component is checked against keyboard navigation, semantic HTML, and screen reader announcements before it ships. Every guide explains the analytic before it asks you to use it. No column is hidden on a phone to make a table easier to lay out, because the data you can reach on a laptop is the data you should be able to reach in a draft.

If you have ever felt locked out of fantasy football by the jargon or the interface, this site is for you. Read it by ear or by eye. It works both ways.

The work

What I have built here

Every one of these is free, and every one started as something I needed for my own leagues.

At a glance

The short version

  • 20 seasons

    Of fantasy football, starting in 2006

  • Multi-format

    Redraft, dynasty, best ball, guillotine, and auction leagues

  • Dial-up era

    Drafted the first team on it. Still chasing the edge

  • Marketing and dev

    The day-job background powering the build

Tools I rely on

The stack behind every roster decision

What I lean on each week to stay sharp.

  • Sleeper

    Where my leagues live. Public APIs make it the only host worth syncing against.

  • NVDA

    My daily driver across every interface. Free, open source, and built by the people who depend on it.

  • Podcasts and tape shows

    A daily rotation of redraft, dynasty, and best ball shows, because tape travels better by ear than by chart.

Elsewhere

Speaking and writing

Guest spots and articles will be listed here as they happen.

Podcast appearances

Nothing to list yet. Running a show and want this story on it? The message form in the rail reaches me.

Written pieces

Nothing to list yet. Pieces on accessibility-first fantasy and analytics-first roster building will land here as they ship.

Connect

Want to talk about accessibility, fantasy, or analytics?

The message form in the rail lands in the same queue I read every day. If you would rather talk it through with more than one person, the Discord is full of fantasy players who will help you turn a question into a lineup decision, free.