Fellow experts and Thitoff,
It is with great honor and humility that I accept the 411fantasy.com 2009 Expert of the Year award. I have so many people to thank, but I’ll try and narrow it down to a handful of key contributors, without whom I could not have accomplished such a monumental achievement. But before I do, a brief look into what I’m really thinking
Now then, a shout out to: 
- WRs Randy Moss and Wes Welker in Week 6 for rewarding my double-dip pick of both wide-outs against the Titans, a 59-0 romp.
- WR Greg Jennings and RB Matt Forte, for actually showing up in Week 8 in a season full of disappointments.
- RB Ricky Williams in Week 11 for coming through in his first NFL start in over a year and first 20+ carry game since the 2005 season.
- WR Miles Austin in Week 15 for backing up my Namath-esque prediction earlier in the week.
So many players, so little bandwidth, but I can’t forget to mention Jonathan Phillips of Roto Experts and Jeff Boggis of Fantasy Sports Empires for their unsolicited smack-talk over the final few weeks to keep me sharp. This is as much yours as it is mine, fellas… Okay, not really, but thanks anyway!
Speaking of unsolicited, I would like to take a trip down memory lane to revisit comments made by 411 co-founder Jeff Thitoff during my championship run.
"I get no respect! I get no respect at all"
* Week 2: “Enjoy this moment, Conn – this is a marathon, not a sprint…and I’m not even warmed up yet.” …. Still waiting.
* Week 6: Silence (a first for everything) upon my second 1st place finish.
* Week 8: After posting my third top score of the season, Thitoff writes, “It’s good for business if the co-founder of the site is at the head of the class, but it makes it tough to talk to him. He’s looking at various tattoo designs with the word ‘guru.’ ”
* Week 14: I received my first compliment, “Our own Adam Conn smarted his way to 21 points and jumped to the top of the “Expert of the Year” contest.” That statement was followed by this passive-aggressive nugget, “Zack O’Malley Greenburg from Forbes…. would be leading the contest with a 15.86 average.”
Despite my cruise-control run through Weeks 15-17, every subsequent article by Thitoff included a needling reminder that O’Malley would be leading the pack had he enough entries to qualify. I maintain the law of averages would have caught up to him – stay tuned….
* Then finally this gem last Tuesday, “At this point, I could allow for Conn to say something…. (But) quite frankly, I didn’t really want to talk to him.”
Folks, that’s just jealousy.
Our dear friend and Senior Writer Adam Helbling thinks my win is tainted because he claims he is smarter than me. In most other areas, perhaps, but to him and the rest of the nay-sayers I offer this; Don’t hate – Elevate, dominate, celebrate; In that order.
The teleprompter reads that I should share a sincere moment.
It has been a pleasure to compete with each and every one of you and we could not have successfully completed another season without you. We’re thrilled to provide a forum where the top-dogs around the country can test their wits against one another, amicably and professionally. We very much hope that all of you will return and hope to generate a larger interest to make this even a tougher field.
Many thanks to everyone for making this possible and 411fantasy.com wishes you all the best in 2010.
The 411
Last year Conn finished seventh overall, one of three Experts to claim two Top 10 spots in as many years. Michael Cooper of Cooper Sports Radio placed seventh this season a year after his fourth place finish and Jared Smola of Draft Sharks placed ninth a year removed from his fifth place finish. I think we have our three favorites for 2010…. Last year Roto Experts dominated the field with five representatives in the Top 10. This year Fantasy Phenoms’ Peter Davidson (tied for 3rd) and Jason Sarney (10th) held a majority…. 411fantasy.com hopes to increase the field from 35 to 50 next season…. Thitoff is still bitter.
