Special Edition

Yes, this is a wall of text but it's important, please read it.

I'm not surprised at how the NFL schedule has gotten scrambled. My advice is, as it was months ago, stay flexible! The latest news that I saw (Sunday night) showed a major schedule shake-up coming as a result of the postponed NE-Den game.

I received a suggestion (question) concerning 'substitute players' who would be used in a lineup should a game get cancelled, etc. The situation in which this would come into play is seen with tomorrow night's Bills-Titans match-up. Rescheduled from Sunday, there is a chance that someone could test positive prior to the game and the NFL would call it off. Anyone with a player from either of those teams would be S-O-L.

As it stands now there is no way to set that up within the MFL system (at least as far as I can see). It would be something that I would have to do manually. Owners would have to designate 'subs' prior to the start of the week's games in advance (see below) and then if a game was postponed/cancelled to a later week I'd go in and change the team's starters.

Honestly, it's not something I'd really like to get into. For many reasons. First and foremost, I don't like 'un-automating' anything. It would be easy enough to have owners email the league with 'subs' I suppose. But, again, I'd have to go in and make changes retroactively. It's worth considering. I'd be happy to hear everyone's thoughts. My thought is that: a) 18 player rosters, later lineup 'lock', and the expanded IR should give everyone enough room on their rosters to handle potential problems; b) fantasy football is all about risk/reward (and some luck). I hate seeing someone lose a player in their lineup through no fault of their own but stuff happens. If news of a potential issue with a game comes up you need to factor that into your choices. 

Bottom line, though...I'm ready to do what is needed to make the season work, and work fairly for all. If we go to backups it would only be for this season. There would be guidelines in place to make sure it worked as expected i.e. we would only allow them in situations where a game is re-scheduled for a Tuesday. If the NFL 'doubles up' on Monday night like they did last week there would not be backups allowed. Remember, in normal times if you start guys in a Monday night game and they turn an ankle in warmups you are out of luck unless you have an option also playing on Monday night. That shouldn't change.

It would require two things from owners who are in the situation described. ...an email to the whole league, and listing them in the comments section of your lineup submission. Obviously you couldn't select any player whose game has been played (or even started). You couldn't, for example, list a Thursday night player as a backup on Sunday morning. I will use the timestamp on your lineup submission to determine legal backups. Even more obviously you wouldn't name subs for guys you are not starting or are not in a game that has not been pushed to a Tuesday. And you don't get to use the higher scoring player just for fun.

A much less radical move to help this situation would be to expand rosters by a player, to 19. I'm going to put a NON-BINDING poll on the webpage. It will be up for just today and tomorrow. If we go this route I want it in place before Wednesday's waivers. Be aware that I'm using to poll to try and get on consensus but I'm not going to necessarily implement anything right now.

I'll be back with a weekly recap later this week. As always, feel free to send your comments/suggestions my way.

And there goes my season.