Our best fantasy football team name contest for the month of August is underway. Submissions are trickling into the comments section as we speak.

But we need more submissions!

Last month’s winner can be seen here. After August, we will have another voting session to pick this month’s best name. And then, the two winners will square off for best team name of the summer.

Please, please, pretty please make fun of Brett Favre and his retirement/non-retirement crap with your fantasy football team name. Heck, if you want, incorporate his latest scandal involving dong photos and hottie Jenn Sterger. Fun times!

Here are today’s great reads:

• I have always wanted to do a story like this, just never found the time: The all-time fantasy team, plus the busts and one-year wonders. Great read for those of you feeling a little nostalgic about your fantasy football past. [Roto Arcade]
• If you are looking for a pair of deep sleepers in a big fantasy league consider Denver quarterback Kyle Orton and/or wide receiver Jabar Gaffney. Somebody has to score in this offense, and if it is not Knowshon Moreno getting in the endzone it is just as likely to be Orton-to-Gaffney this year. [ESPN.com]
• Just because Steven Jackson plays for a bad team does not mean you should avoid him on draft day. Our advice: Take SJax with confidence, but not too soon. I would not reach for Jackson with the first six, seven or eight picks in most leagues. But if you can grab him near the end of a big league first round or in the second round, more power to you. [FanHouse]
• The preseason is an interesting place for fantasy owners — we want to buy in on the big performances, but most of them are just a mirage. So which rookie running backs do you believe in heading into the 2010 season? Personally, I am with these guys: Ryan Mathews and Jahvid Best look like stars; But C.J. Spiller, while he looks electric, is in too bad of a situation to be depended on in fantasy leagues this year. [Fantasy Pros]
• It is never too early to start working the waiver wire in your fantasy football league. One of your players get hurt? Need to correct a mistake you made in a fantasy draft? Found a guy you think might be a diamond in the rough, but forgot about him on draft day? Get out there, fantasy owners, and make some transactions! [Hatty Waiver Wire Guru]

…Click here to read more

The good news for Larry Fitzgerald? It looks like the Arizona Cardinals finally have settled on a quarterback.

Matt Leinart was benched in favor of Derek Anderson for the Cards’ third preseason game last week, a game which usually is handled as the dress rehearsal for the regular season. Leinart has been wholly ineffective this preseason and may finally have worn out his welcome in the desert.

It is a pretty grim outlook when you get passed on the depth chart by Anderson, a guy who was run out of Cleveland at the end of last season.

Strangely enough, I think the move is good news for wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. His stock, while still high, has been on shaky ground this offseason after losing Kurt Warner to retirement. Leinart’s sloppy play on exacerbated Fitz’s weak footing among fantasy circles this preseason.

Now it sounds like the wheels are in motion to move Leinart to another team, if there is a taker out there. And the possibility exists that if no one steps up to take on his services, Leinart could be cut from the team.

Anderson, while inaccurate at times, does have a strong arm which means he can stretch the field. Fitzgerald is one of the best in the league at getting deep and making big catches, so he and Anderson should be able to hook up.

Leinart, meanwhile, showed both accuracy troubles and lack of strength on most of his passes this preseason. Leinart winning the starting job could have been the fantasy death blow to Fitzgerald’s 2010 value.

Here are today’s great reads:

• Good advice to read heading into this, the last weekend of fantasy draft: Bad choices, better alternatives in each round of a fantasy draft. For all the love Aaron Rodgers has gotten this summer, I agree — he is a bad choice in the first round of a fantasy football draft. [FanHouse]
• Rookie running backs have been given plenty of opportunities this summer. Ryan Mathews was handed the starting job in San Diego on draft day. C.J. Spiller took advantage of two injuries to move up the depth chart. And now Detroit’s Jahvid Best is looking like a fantasy stud in waiting thanks to Kevin Smith’s slow rehab from knee surgery. [Roto Arcade]
• It is starting to get a little too late to buy low on Ahmad Bradshaw these days. In all the fantasy drafts I have done so far, he is coming off the board much higher than I anticipated going into the draft. I figure he got enough attention this preseason to warrant the high selection. Still, there are plenty of really good buy low candidates available in fantasy drafts this weekend. [CBSSports.com]
• I was high on Jay Cutler coming into this season. With Mike Martz running the offense, I thought if nothing else the Bears would pass a lot more, meaning more yardage and more chances for touchdowns passes. Well, so far in preseason, it looks like the 2009 version of the Bears. No blocking and Cutler chucking the ball all over the field without a care. Starting to doubt my Cutler love! [National Football Post]
• Lots of fantasy football goodness to read here if you have the time, including the ten commandments of fantasy football. I love the first one, which says you should consume as much fantasy football information as possible. Thanks for starting with The Hazean! [SI.com]

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Remember your fantasy football draft ten years ago? It might have gone a little something like this:

Back in the day, we had to walk five miles, uphill, in the snow, to make our fantasy football selections on draft day. Correspondence was done with the Pony Express. And we always, ALWAYS, took running backs in the first two rounds of fantasy drafts.

Finally, a fantasy football strategy of which your grandmother would approve.

The tried-and-true way of playing fantasy football and draft strategy of yesteryear, the running back-running back approach, had its day in the fantasy sun. And while a few relics remain in every fantasy league (GUILTY!), a new dawn of creative fantasy football strategies have emerged across fantasy circles.

Unless you are going to get one of the top tier running backs this year — Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Maurice Jones-Drew or Ray Rice — wavering from selecting the next best running backs could provide big dividends over the course of the 2010 season.

There are several creative, non-RB-RB draft strategies which you could employ this season on the way to a fantasy championship. Which will you choose? …Click here to read more

So I was tooling around on the web last week and decided to check some statistics on TheHazean.com. I really only knew one website to check statistical data on web sites, so I headed over to Alexa.com and plugged in our URL.

My, what a surprise I found there.

According to the stats — which you can view here — The Hazean ranks in the upper 200,000s among websites in the USA. Not too bad I thought. We were 1.6 millionth in the world; Considering there are estimates suggesting at least 100 billion web sites world wide (probably more), again I thought not too shabby.

But then, I saw this: The Hazean is ranked in the 11,000s in Costa Rica … HOLLA AT MY COSTA RICAN FRIENDS! If you are reading this right now from Costa Rica, please leave a comment. I want to hear who you are and how you heard of us.

Gotta support the fan base down south. Thanks for reading, y’all.

Check out yesterday’s Daily Haze for lots of useful information regarding TheHazean.com.

Here are today’s great reads:

• Despite letting LaDainian Tomlinson walk and possibly watching Vincent Jackson hold out for the entire 2010 season, the San Diego Chargers are poised for another great fantasy football season. Lots to offer here, which is why the Chargers are the No. 6 fantasy football offense on the Fantasy Juggernaut Index. [Roto Arcade]
• Plenty of NFL players are getting their shot at starting jobs this preseason and are making the most of the opportunity. Fantasy owners love these players because of their potential. The top two on this list — C.J. Spiller and Arian Foster — may have made the most of their preseason so far. [FanHouse]
• Before drafting your fantasy team, it is a good idea to take a look at the fantasy playoff schedule for some of your potential picks. But I would not draft based solely on that information, since you have to make the playoffs first in order for the schedule to matter. [The Big Lead]
• If you are going to use the fantasy football “experts” to assemble your cheat sheets this summer, it would be a good idea to know which are the best at preseason fantasy rankings. Hopefully you can use this information before this weekend, the last fantasy draft weekend of the summer. [The Fifth Down]
• For where Larry Fitzgerald is being drafted at this point, he could end up being the biggest bust of the 2010 fantasy football season. Derek Anderson is the top quarterback on the depth chart right now, and that really does not bode well for Fitz this year. Though it might be better than Matt Leinart … [SI.com]

…Click here to read more

The offseason is an interesting place when Brett Favre gets involved.

So for the second summer in a row, Minnesota Vikings’ fans have been held hostage by Favre-mania. For the most part, I think Vikings’ fans are glad to have Favre on board considering the alternatives, Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson.

And judging by the way three Vikings’ players skipped practice and flew down to Hattiesburg, Miss., to lure Favre back this summer, his teammates understand the need for his quarterbacking skills as well. Which is why the Minnesota passing game is an interesting place for fantasy owners.

Sidney Rice clearly led the pack in fantasy value heading into the 2010 football season. Then he had hip surgery. So where do fantasy owners go now for the true value on this team in the receiving corps?

The immediate reaction was Bernard Berrian, the grizzled veteran who comes into this season as healthy as he has been in a while. But things have started looking up — way up — for second-year receiver Percy Harvin, despite what you may have heard about him lately.

Yes, he did pass out at practice. And yes, he was taken away in an ambulance. But since then, there has been nothing but positive news for Harvin. He returned to practice, has not experienced any ill effects from the ambulance incident. And now, it appears as if doctors have pinpointed the cause of the migraines that have plagued his short NFL career to date:

Percy Harvin [WR, Vikings]

From FFToolBox:

But he started Saturday’s preseason game and the even better news is that Harvin said doctors have made a breakthrough with his migraines. “I did a test [Friday night],” Harvin said after Saturday’s game. “[Doctors] found some things that we think is the main cause of it. We’re all feeling really confident. I know we said that a couple times, but I think this time we found what the main cause was.

If true, this is great news. Harvin finally would be able to put the migraine issues in his past, which would allow him to reach his full potential as a fantasy wide receiver. And now that Sidney Rice is out for a significant amount of time, Harvin has a golden opportunity for a breakout season. When 2010 is all said and done, Harvin easily could be the best fantasy receiver on this team. …Click here to read more