Know Any Ballers? Help Me Spread The Word!

Howdy, Barkers!

Some of you may know this, but my (main) day job is serving as the Head of Analytics for FANchise, a pretty cool company that’s dedicated to giving fans total control over a professional sports franchise. The first FANchise franchise, the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, will be kicking off in the Indoor Football League in February 2017. The Screaming Eagles fans have already chosen the head coach (the awesome and admirably-bearded @coachWMcCarthy), the fans will be calling all the Screaming Eagles’ offensive plays via a mobile application, and the fans will make the call on which players will compose the final 25-man roster.

Right now our job is finding those players, and we’re holding our first Salt Lake Screaming Eagles/IFL Scouting Combine in Dallas this Saturday from noon to four PM at the D1 Dallas Training Facility on Walnut Hill Lane:

If anybody out there knows anybody with pro-quality skills who’s interested in playing professionally during the upcoming season (which runs from February-July 2017) or just want to help a Barker out and spread the word via the Tweeter Machine and such, we’d love to get guys out to the combine and see if they’ve got what it takes. The Screaming Eagles will be filling out a full 25-man roster for the upcoming season, and we’ll also have representatives from the Colorado Crush, Iowa Barnstormers (home of Kurt Warner!) and Wichita Falls Nighthawks (home of homes probably a lot closer to home for local Texas players!) in attendance as well. We’ll also be making full cut-up tapes of guys’ combine performances which we’ll make available to them to share with scouts if they’re looking for NFL/CFL opportunities.

By the by, if any of you beautiful Barkers want to get a closer look as this thing unfolds (or just want a distraction from other, more dispiriting football activities) then we’d love to have you jump on board!

We’ve got fan scouts who are helping us to identify potential players nationwide, we’ve got fan assistant coaches who’ll be actively involved in breaking down film and building each week’s game plan, and we’ve got a few brave souls who’ve joined me in building an actual, factual, game-winning analytics department that will, by April 2017 or thereabouts, rank thusly in the football firmament:

1-32: NFL Franchises

33: Bama

34: Salt Lake Screaming Eagles

35-XXX: Everyone else who wears pads and helmets from sea to shining sea

If you’d like to get involved, hit me up at jason@fanchi.se and we’ll find something nifty to do.

And yes, this week’s Longhorn offense and defense articles are in the works - just been a little busy!