A couple months ago I read former Conversations’ guest, Matthew Barry’s (S:4, E:52), terrific newsletter, Heart of a Fan and featured in that particular edition was a fella named Joe Flynn.
Joe, I discovered, works in the non-profit field and is also a big – really big – sports fan. His obsession each fall is fantasy football.
So when he learned about and had an opportunity to enroll in George Washington University’s Sports Philanthropy professional certificate program he didn’t hesitate.
The results were some life-changing networking opportunities for Joe and a capstone project that led me to contacting him about joining Conversations. His final project for the course was to create a Fantasy Football Draft Guide. However, this was no ordinary draft guide, it was the 2025 Fantasy Football Draft Guide for Good which compiled 180 NFL offensive stars and shares not just their on-field statistics but also those off-field statistics in the charitable and non-profit world.
It’s a fascinating concept and one that Joe’s already working on updating for 2026. As Joe himself likes to say, “The ultimate goal of the draft guide is to highlight the human under the helmet so hopefully you can use it to learn a little bit more about who’s on your team this year.”
If I were to get back into the fantasy football game, I believe I’d use Joe’s draft guide to help direct my decisions on draft day. Maybe you will as well.