Photo by Mark Leffingwell

Sara Holladay, aka the Fantasy Football Librarian, keeps fantasy football owners from all over the country up to date on tips and advice. The University of Colorado librarian gets more than 1,000 visitors a day to her Web site, www.fflibrarian.com.

By weekday, Sara Holladay is a mild-mannered University of Colorado librarian.

By weekend, she's a football expert on which hundreds of fantasy football owners rely.

After being convinced to join her first fantasy football league in 2004, Holladay has grown into a fanatic. To the hundreds of readers of her blog, she's known as the Fantasy Football Librarian, posting insightful pigskin information every day. But she also plays in seven fantasy football leagues of her own and lives for days like the first NFL Sunday of the season.

"I started in 2004, and I actually didn't know much about the NFL. I was more of a college football fan," Holladay said. "What got me started was, I had a pretty boring job at the time. I needed to find stuff to do during the day, and my husband talked me into joining his league."

It's four seasons later, and Holladay has become about as fanatical as a fantasy owner can be. Earlier this week she had a fever that kept her away from her job. But she found a silver lining through the fog of her cold.

"Fortunately, being sick just means that I can sit here watching SportsCenter or preseason replays while I work," she wrote in a Tuesday blog entry at her Web site, www.fflibrarian.com.

Some could argue enjoying replays of preseason football games might be a sickness in itself. But that's how much Holladay likes the game.

Late-blooming love

It's a love that came out of nowhere, really. Holladay comes from a family of girls and didn't get into football until she went to Northwestern University. She was there when a little-known coach named Gary Barnett led the Wildcats to back-to-back Big 10 titles.

Holladay and Barnett would be in the same town again when she moved to Boulder five years ago and Barnett was the head coach at CU.

Barnett's time as a CU employee ended in 2005, but Holladay still worked for the school as an electronic collections and assessment librarian. She spends her days organizing the vast amount of electronic data that has become a staple of modern research and education.

It's essentially what she does with her blog. She compiles fantasy links from all over the Web and adds her own insights as well. She posts information daily and says she never thought it would become the second job it is now.

"Last season people had expectations where I would be able to blog every day, but by the end of the week I was so tired with fantasy football that I just wanted to watch the games," said Holladay, a big Denver Bronco fan. "So this year I've made a point on the weekends to take that time off as much as possible."

A devoted following

Holladay's readers depend on her to keep up that daily schedule, and she has been averaging about 1,500 visits per day this season. They were even leaving get-well messages this week.

"Sara, sorry to hear about your cold! You have been working very hard to get us the best possible info and you need to take some time off.. rest up, games are coming soon!" wrote a user named Andrew.

A user named "Fantasysportsmatrix.com" wrote, "The Librarian is back in action! Let's get it going -- can't wait for Sunday. Keep up the good work as always, FFL!"

As far as athletes she sees as good fantasy picks, Holladay likes San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore and Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler. But she admits to having a soft spot for Broncos, and has to keep herself from picking too many.

Holladay's alter ego has been growing this season, beginning with a weekly post on the New York Times' NFL blog, the Fifth Down. A guest post on that blog last year helped her own blog numbers soar, and it will likely boost visits even more.

And her presence may help the New York Times boost visits as well.

"Congrats on the Fifth Down gig!" a poster named Bruce wrote on her blog. "Actually the congrats should go to them as they've finally given me a reason to read it."