The Extra Game

[DOUGHBOYS]

In being 'old school', I have been in favor of the playoff games (or game 163) in counting towards our NFBC season.
Like Greg when he wrote the rule, I felt it was only right to include that game since they are a part of regular season statistics.
I was in favor of this rule even though it costs me thousands of dollars in knocking me down from third to fourth in the Overall Main Event in 2007.
Like others, I liked the strategy of getting possible playoff players on my team during the last FAAB.

But, I've changed my stance. And it's really not about the game going towards regular season stats or the intrigue of helping our teams with last FAAB, or none of the arguments pro and con.
Its because of US.
The NFBC.
The NFBC has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in 2004. We have all sorts of different leagues.
When started, we each had ONE team. Our Main Event team.
Then came satelite leagues. Super leagues. Draft Championship Leagues.
We now have leagues up the wazoo.

Most have us have multiple teams.
The grind of each season wears on us more than the previous season.
It's a long hard grind.
I got an email from a fella a few years ago. It was Sunday and he was excited that he had won his first NFBC Championship.
It was a DC and he felt he had finally 'made it' in winning an NFBC Championship.
I reminded him that there was a playoff game the following day, so that the standings were not final.
Being a second year guy, he was vague on the playoff game rule and didn't realize it counted
He called. He was forlorn. His closest opponent had three players. He had none.
It was a DC league. He had no chance to 'prepare' for a playoff game even if knowing.
As it turns out, he still won that league.
But it changed my reckoning on playoff games.
This fella almost had his NFBC best moment taken away from him. Over a game not scheduled.
I knew the person that had the three players trying to garner first place in that league.
Later, he said that he would have felt a little bad in winning that way.
One player forlorn over a possible loss, the other feeling a little dirty if winning. Why should we have a game that makes two contestants feel that way?
It completely changed my way of thinking about the extra game.

We play in so many leagues that it would just be nice to have that last Sunday, a day where all the MLB games start at almost the same time, be our last day of the season.
It's a miniscule rule in the NFBC, really.
Its only happened a few times.
And I realize all the arguments on both sides.
Believe me, I've argued both.
The way our game and the NFBC has evolved, it is best we end with the regular season schedule.