High school students who love sports usually express their passion for the game that they love through playing it. For Irfan Navsariwala (12), it is different.
Although playing club soccer earlier in his childhood, Navsariwala has since started up his own podcast, which has gained a lot of success.
Navsariwala shared this unique passion to start up a Fantasy Football podcast for unsure listeners: “I started my podcast, ‘Irfan’s Crystal Ball’, right before the start of junior year. I have always loved watching football but decided that I wanted to start sharing my opinions with others. So, I started my podcast. While I started it on Spotify, I have since moved it to YouTube which has allowed me to reach a larger audience. Typically, I post predictions every week for the football games over the weekend. However, sometimes I also change it up and give Fantasy Football advice.”
Navsariwala was previously a writer for the Sport Illustrated Magazine, and has since branched off from the large cooperation. Although he mostly is known for his Fantasy Football predictions, it varies upon season what sports he talks about. Some of his main knowledge points include the NBA, NCAA Basketball, NFL, MLB and the NHL.
His podcast has been increasing the amount of viewers every week that he posts, with most of his predicted scores proving very accurate.
Navsariwala has even got a professional NFL player, Sebastian Joseph Day, onto his podcast for an interview.
Day has played collegiate football at Rutgers University, and since then got drafted in the sixth round by the Rams in 2018. He played in 38 games with 137 tackles for the Rams and six sacks. His most notable accolade is winning the Super Bowl with the Rams. Since then, he has played for the Los Angeles Chargers and the San Francisco 49ers. He currently plays on the Tennessee Titans.
Navsariwala gives more insight into his experience from his favorite interview: “The second guest that I had on was a former Super Bowl champion with the Rams, and current Tennessee Titans defensive tackle. That episode was my favorite. I got to dive into and hear what it’s like to be a NFL player while I also got to hear the different aspects of a player’s career from the highs to the lows.”
Navsariwala has received lots of public praise from his peers as well, who have listened to his podcast and followed him on Instagram.
Senior Dylan Kim states, “Listening to the Irfan’s Crystal Ball podcast has definitely helped me understand which players are going to do well for me in my upcoming fantasy week. He does lots of research, and spends lots of time researching all of the players, giving detailed analysis of what to expect.”
Navsariwala looks back upon the new skills he is able to achieve while starting his podcast: “As I reflect, my podcast has been an incredible learning experience as I have been able to learn how to interpret data and apply it to make data based predictions.”
