PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) – You might think the explosion in fantasy football is a recent thing, but in fact, the game within the game has been around for more than 40 years. At last count, nearly 60 million play each week, relying on a minefield of advice to pick the right lineups to beat their buddies or to win big money. But one Valley woman, who started modeling at the age of 16, is re-defining the term “expert” and her resume runs the gamut.
[VIDEO: Meet the former Phoenix model who now is a fantasy football expert]
“I’ve been a spokesmodel for Hyundai, ADT, Panasonic and for a lot of big companies for both live and on camera,” said Rosalie Michaels.
That’s on top of acting in feature films with Will Ferrell, Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin and dozens of commercials.
“Gosh, I’ve been a mom, a wife, does those count?” Michaels asks rhetorically.
And yes, even a pageant crown was involved!
“That was fun! I was Mrs. Arizona. I won’t say what year, well OK, it was in 2000. When I added it up, I did 170 appearances during that one year as Mrs. Arizona. I guess you can call that a job as well!” said Michaels.
But when did she go from wearing a crown to predicting touchdowns?
“When I was 5 years old, I lived in Germany,” explains Michaels. “And when you live in Germany and you live on an Army base there is one TV station. And that one station on Sundays played one thing, Dallas Cowboys football. That’s when I fell in love with the game, fell in love with the breakdown of the game. So, when I was in high school, there would be guys who would assume I didn’t know what I was talking about and I usually turned out to be right.”
And it was her husband Nick Calderone, a national TV personality himself on the syndicated video clip show Right This Minute, that pushed her to make the leap.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you take what you love, fantasy football, and what you’re good at, being on camera and put them together?’ So, I started a YouTube channel with some content each week,” said Michaels.
And that’s when she found herself on the front lines of the explosion in fantasy football.
“This took football for me and took it to a whole other level. Now I’m making decisions now. I’m rostering a team. Now I’m deciding who plays and who doesn’t play. And I’m competitive and I like to win,” said Michaels.
Now Michaels is more than holding her own online and on local radio, cracking the boys club wide-open.
“Well, we have a horrible working relationship because she’s right about most things. She makes us look bad,” jokes Jeffry O’Brien, host of the Daily Blender, a free-for-all sports talk show on 1580 AM The Fanatic.
“We may be one of the only stations here in town that has a female in. But hey, we’re progressive that way,” O’Brien adds. “And she’s smart, she’s good, She knows what she’s talking about. Listeners love her, respect her advice. And people thank us repeatedly because she helps them win their fantasy football. Who cares if she’s a woman? She’s good at what she does.”
And in the past year, she’s gone national with regular stints on Draft Kings, the NFL’s partner in daily fantasy.
“They don’t have any other female analysts for any other sports. They have one female analyst and it’s me for football!” Michaels said.
And at this point in her accomplished career, she’s living the fantasy life for all little girls and football wives out there. Michaels again chides her understanding husband Calderone.
“It’s a complete role-reversal. Our first fantasy football draft, I was drafting in our home and he was making me a sandwich and bringing me a beer!” Michaels said.