Today I am going to tell you about a tool out there that will help you leverage the power of RSS to help you level the playing field when it comes to up-to-the-minute NFL and fantasy football news.

Now before I do that, let me clarify a few things. First, if you are familiar with RSS technology, I know the idea of having up to the minute NFL and fantasy football information delivered to you isn’t a new concept, but, keep reading anyway.

Next, if you if you don’t know what the hell RSS is - and how it can help your fantasy team - you really need to to keep reading.

Anyway, the tool I am referring to is the American Football Newsreader. What it is is a pre-loaded RSS feed reader. It comes stocked with news feeds from every NFL team, a few select NFL news feeds, some great blogs and even podcasts and videos. You can even add your own feeds to really customize it.

After you download this puppy you immediately start getting information. From then on the second something new is posted from one of the feeds, a little box pops out of the bottom right hand corner of your computer to let you now about it. Very slick.

How much does this bad boy cost you say? Not a damn thing. It is 100% free.

Now, for some of you more experienced fantasy news freaks - like me - there may be a few things missing, or, some things that could make this tool even better. I had a few ideas and a representative from the AFR was kind enough to address some of my concerns. Here’s a snippet of our conversation.

FFGoat - Why a download? One of the great things about web 2.0 applications is the fact that you don’t have to bog down your computer by downloading cumbersome programs. Also, it is just downright handy being able to access the information from anywhere you can get access to the web. If its on your home computer and you need to check some info at work using the news agent, you are up the crick unless you download it again (which could be against company policy). Are there any plans to have this web based?

American Football Newsreader - I like this idea and I will forward this to my management. The problem is that we literally have a couple of hundred customized Readers so it will be hard to get them all converted to an online tool, but it is something to think about.

FFGoat - Lets face it, when the season kicks in, most of the time you are only concerned with the players on your team. That means that much of the team info becomes redundant. Are there any plans for having a feed for individual players?

AFR - It would be a serious project to add all the players into the reader, i understand it would be helpful but in the never stopping world of the NFL it is almost impossible i think. The easiest solution is to add your own feeds in the reader for the players you like.

In conclusion this may not be the right solution for those of you who already have a feed reader set up, but, keep an eye on this reader. From the discussion above I think you can see that they aim to improve it. A reader dedicated exclusively to football could be a valuable resource.

As for those of you just finding out about RSS, this is a great way to start using the technology. Building your own reader from scratch takes time and a pre-loaded reader like this is huge time saver.

Overall, I think the American Football Newsreader is on the right track. If they get the word out about this over the summer, this could be huge come kickoff. Go see for yourself and download the American Football Reader now.