A Modest Proposal

For some reason, this just seems an appropriate choice for 2020

I know you guys generally hate any and all ideas I have for improving the league, and I wouldn't suggest this if the world weren't going to hell this weren't a uniquely challenging time.  But considering the fact that, even in the unlikely event that there IS a 2020 NFL season, it could end at any moment, it seems like we should seriously consider playing a different format this season.

And that format is: Guillotine league.  (Actually, a modified guillotine league, but there's no reason to --- ahem --- split hairs).

Since I would estimate that there is approximately NO chance the NFL plays a full 16-game season, the guillotine league format provides a sort of escape hatch.  Here's the basic idea.

There are no head-to-head matchups.  Everything is based on points until the championship game in week 16, if things last that long.

Every so often, the 'guillotine' will fall, and the team with the fewest points on the season will be kicked out of the league.  All of the players on that team then return to the player pool to be picked up on waivers (and what a great thing that we now use a blind-bidding auction system for waivers!).

Specifically, the team with the lowest point total will be kicked out after weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.  Week 16 will still be championship week, with a head-to-head matchup between the remaining two teams, who will be STACKED!

And if the NFL shutters the 2020 season at any point, the money in the prize pool will be split equally among all surviving teams.

Or, if we want to reward the high-point scorer and punish the low-point scorer, we could agree to split the prize pool proportionally.

So anyway --- thoughts?

(Another fun league format is called vampire, but it really isn't helpful in the current circumstance.  But I'd be happy to describe it to anyone who's curious)

Strap In Tight, Homies

On the one hand, we have this:

Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's chief medical officer, said Thursday night that the NFL hopes to plow a road for the entire country as it deals with the pandemic.

"I think this is important not just for the NFL or for professional sports -- not even for sports at all levels," Sills said at a virtual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. "I think what we are trying to do -- which is to find a way to mitigate risk and to coexist with this virus -- this is really key information for schools, for businesses, for all segments of society. I think we have a unique opportunity but also a responsibility to use the platform and resources of the NFL to really study and learn and to take that knowledge and apply it for the benefit of the other segments of the society. That is what we plan to do."

And on the other hand, we have this:

So I really don't know what to expect.  If I were a betting man, I'd bet that there won't even be an NFL season.  I mean, look what's happened to colleges that tried to start their football season:

Some of those were college athletes. Through Wednesday, at least 426  had tested positive for the coronavirus among roughly 50 Division I programs, but the number of cases is likely much higher. About half of American universities either did not respond to requests for testing results from The New York Times, or declined to provide numbers, under the auspices of protecting the privacy of student-athletes. 

But of course, the NFL is a billion-dollar business, capable of devoting many more resources to the safety of their players than colleges can.  For example, I especially like this part of the NFL's plan for dealing with the virus:

If there is a fear of in-game exposure, the NFL will make use of radio-frequency identification tracking devices embedded in each player's shoulder pads to determine whom that player was within 6 feet of during the game.

 It's great that the NFL plans to use technology to determine that a given player came within 6 feet of LITERALLY EVERY OTHER PLAYER AND COACH on his own team during the course of the game, and HALF of the players on the other team.

Obviously, if there's no NFL season, then there's no fantasy season.  And just as obviously, if the NFL cancels it's season, it's not going to happen until the last minute.  So I've actually scheduled our draft for Wednesday, September 9 at 7:30 PM Central time.  I haven't made any other changes to the league yet, but I STRONGLY recommend that we add 3 IR slots to our rosters.  In the event that there actually is a season, players will get sick, and we will probably want to have the IR slots available when they do.

So.  Uh.  Start your engines?  I guess?