Real life, or fantasy?

ESPN: "The NFL will ask the competition committee to review integrity-of-game and competitive-balance concerns with clinching playoff teams that choose to rest starters at the end of the season." - Is this the first evidence of fantasy football influencing the game? Why would the NFL care what a team does with its' starting lineup? Are you going to make injured players play, probably not, so why bring up such a stupid question?

One day we'll have a scandal around fantasy football. One day someone will throw a game because they've had their pocket stuffed with some amount of money they couldn't resist. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Labels: Football, Stupidity

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You’re currently reading “Real life, or fantasy?,” an entry on Rob Fahrni

Published:: 7:54 AM; by Rob

5 Comments (Post a Comment)

# Tommy Williams 9:04 AM
I'm going to take a naive view and say that it wasn't fantasy football, but recognizing the money that fans pay for tickets--it costs the same for an end-of-regular-season game as it does for the first game of the season. By giving up and just going through the motions, teams are not giving fans the value they paid for.

They might even be worried about a class-action lawsuit along these lines and are trying to get out in front of it.
# Rob 9:13 AM
Naahhh, that's not naive, it's one of the claims from the article.

I would hope the NFL doesn't make bad rules around this. Teams should be allowed to do what they think is right for the continued success of their team.

As a fan I would think you'd much rather see your team succeed deep into the playoffs than see a possible disaster in the season finale.

Just my opinion. :-)
# Mike McBride 3:18 PM
I also think the fact that they basically gave up in a game against a team fighting for a playoff berth has other teams willing to look at it too. After all, how frustrated would you be if the team you were competing with for the playoffs was scheduled to play the best team in the league, only that team decided not to even try and win? It's one thing to do that this week with Buffalo, who isn't going to the playoffs anyway, it's another to mess up the playoff chase for other teams. I still think teams should be allowed to do what they want, but I can see where the integrity is lost.
# Rob 4:10 PM
Mike,

Thanks for the feedback.

The thing is... These teams have 16-games to determine who goes to the playoffs. If one team runs off and leaves their division in the dust and can afford to coast, why shouldn't they? It's up to the coaches to make that determination.

If my team were one of those teams vying for that final playoff spot, well, they should've played better all season long, and won at least one more game. :-)

Thanks again for participating in this conversation Mike, I love this stuff!
# Rob 4:17 PM
Hey, here's something wild to chew on.

Why can the Oakland Raiders start a crummy QB for the first half of the season? Yes, I'm talking about JaMarcus Russell. Bruce Gradkowski is clearly a better player, but they were allowed to start the players they wanted to?

How is resting your good players any different?

Should the NFL create the starting lineup for teams? I think not. :-)

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Rob Fahrni has been a Software Developer for 20 years. He's developed DOS, Windows, Linux, iPhone, and Palm based applications in C, C++, Objective-C/Cocoa, C#/ASP.Net, and, yes, even BASIC...
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I work at Pelco. The opinions expressed here are my own, and neither Pelco nor any other party necessarily agrees with them.