Some ideas for new ongoing games related to football.

[Rain Man]

I've been pondering some stuff, running some equations, fact-checking, and using an intern to get me food and stuff, and I'd like to offer up some thoughts about new games to keep us entertained.

I have three possible games and would like to gauge interest.


Game 1. Alternate Reality Chiefs


General Concept: Build your own Chiefs team over time via the draft and compare it to other people's Chiefs teams.

Number of Players: Unlimited

Time Commitment: Very Low

Basic Rules:

In Year 1 (2009), everyone starts with the current Chiefs roster. After the 2009 NFL Draft, they then select players who were available with each Chiefs selection (i.e., do their own draft).

After training camp, each owner selects 35 Chiefs players who are "their" players.

At the end of the season, we have a Survivor-style vote among the general Chiefsplanet population to determine who had the best team that year, including impacts of injuries and other issues.

In Year 2 (and beyond), the player starts with his/her core of 35 players, adds new players through the draft, and can then pick another core of 35 players from the following pool: their 35-player core, new drafted players, and any new free agent that joins the Chiefs

If the Chiefs make a trade that includes draft picks, each owner can choose to accept or reject that trade on their own team. If the Chiefs make a trade involving a player on the Chiefs roster, the owner can accept that trade ONLY if his/her own roster includes that player.


Game 2. Alternate Reality NFL


General Concept: Take over an NFL team and build/trade it through the draft.

Number of Players: Up to 32, maybe up to 40.

Time Commitment: Low to Moderate, but would need some people to help manage it.

Basic Rules:

In Year 1 (2009), each player gets a random NFL team and it's current roster. We hold a mock draft that allows them to add some players based on their team's current draft picks.

After training camp, it's the same process as above. However, trades are allowed between teams.

Additionally, we will have a supplemental draft after training camp, where players can choose any NFL player who was NOT on anybody's 35-man roster the previous year. For example, if you were the Chiefs in Year 1 and you didn't keep Dwayne Bowe on your 35-man roster, he would then be available to any team as long as they guarantee him a roster spot by dropping another player.

Via public voting, the teams are ranked from top to bottom, and a champion is crowned.

In Year 2 (and beyond), the draft order is based on the rankings above. Each player starts with his/her core of 35 players, adds new players through the draft, and can then pick another core of 35 players from the following pool: their 35-player core plus any new drafted players. The same supplemental draft above will occur each year as well.

Optional: we can play this with or without a salary cap. In a salary cap situation, we would use the
USA Today database to calculate player salary cap hits on a one-year-lag basis. If you're over the cap, you have to trade or release someone.


Game 3. Starting From Scratch Alternate Reality NFL


General Concept: Exactly like Option 2, but we would hold a full player draft first from current NFL rosters, so people start with their own rosters instead of those of Detroit or New England or whatever.

[cdcox]

I'll play.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

You should add IR spots so that injuries won't cause you to drop a star player.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

You should add IR spots so that injuries won't cause you to drop a star player.

Are you thinking this would happen during a season, or is this just in the offseason?

One thing I don't like about a lot of fantasy leagues is the whole waiver system where people can go out and get someone like a rookie version of Colston and pick up a star player in midseason, so I'd like to avoid that here. I was thinking that if we go with a 35-player roster, we could have backups, and if all your backups got hurt you'd just have a generic "scrub" in that position for the rest of the season. What do you think?

We could do a waiver system, but I'd prefer to set it up where we don't reward the most active owners and make the system more time-consuming for folks. (Though actually, if we only measure at the end, maybe we could control for that by doing the waivers only at the end of the season before the voting.)

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by cdcox

I'll play.

(High five.)

[Rain Man]

Let's ponder injury ideas. I'll set forth three systems, and what do you think?


System 1. Simple system.

You get who's on your roster. So if your 35 man roster in 2008 included Brodie Croyle and Tom Brady and Damon Huard, at the end of the year when we ranked teams you would have stats something like:

Tom Brady (1 start)
Brodie Croyle (2 starts)
Damon Huard (2 starts)
Scrub (11 starts)

That's what you'd be judged on.


System 2. Natural replacement system.

If your initial 35 man roster in 2008 included Brodie Croyle and Tom Brady and Damon Huard, then when Brady went down you could pick up an UNCLAIMED backup player on the same NFL team only. So over the course of the year, you would replace Brady with Cassel, Croyle with Thigpen, and Huard with Gray. At the end of the year, you would pick your best lineup and probably end up something like

Tom Brady (1 start)
Matt Cassel (15 starts)


That's what you'd be judged on.

This system would be a little more complicated because we'd have to monitor who was unclaimed and have a weekly waiver wire or something, in case two players were eligible to pick up the same guy. There might be some salary cap adjustments too.




System 3. True waiver system.

This would work like the traditional system, where you could pick up any unclaimed player if your player was placed on injured reserve.

It would take a little more work on the waiver tracking side. I'm not really a fan of this, though, because people would end up wanting someone like Leinert to get hurt so they could pick up Cassel.

I guess this system could be combined with a regular performance-based waivers system too, but it would again require active management, whereas I'm hoping for a more low-effort management system.


What do y'all think?

Oh, and this would apply to the NFL systems, not the Chiefs game in Option 1.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Awesome. This could be a blast.

If you (or any other potential players) can think of any holes in the system I've proposed, feel free to point it out. I'd hate to get into it and realize we overlooked something and have to change midstream.

I'd play, but trying to read through that whole thing makes my head hurt.

Decide on the game, create the rules, and I'm in.

One question, though.

How many years will this game take?

I think the Chiefs might actually win a SB before a winner in this game is decided.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by milkman

I'd play, but trying to read through that whole thing makes my head hurt.

Decide on the game, create the rules, and I'm in.

One question, though.

How many years will this game take?

I think the Chiefs might actually win a SB before a winner in this game is decided.

Cool. If we have sufficient demand, I'll write up the formal rules. My goal is for this to be a pretty easy-to-play game, and I think we can do that.

In terms of "winning", my real goal would be that it's an ongoing thing where the franchises continue year after year. As players eventually drop out, I think we'd be able to find new players to replace them, and it would get more interesting over time as teams diverged.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Cool. If we have sufficient demand, I'll write up the formal rules. My goal is for this to be a pretty easy-to-play game, and I think we can do that.

In terms of "winning", my real goal would be that it's an ongoing thing where the franchises continue year after year. As players eventually drop out, I think we'd be able to find new players to replace them, and it would get more interesting over time as teams diverged.

One you have the rules in place, I can look at programming a VB module to track individuals teams.

[patteeu]

I'd definitely play the Alternate Chiefs Reality game, but I don't think I'd want to invest the effort to get familiar with other team's rosters to play the NFL options. And while I'd probably start by following along in the NFL versions, I'm sure I'd lose interest and ignore it after a while.

[Crush]

I'm in.

[bdeg]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

You should add IR spots so that injuries won't cause you to drop a star player.

If you ask me, we shouldn't grade on stats. If Tom Brady gets injured, just don't drop him. CP still knows he's good, and could vote accordingly.

I'm so in. Any and all.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by bdeg

If you ask me, we shouldn't grade on stats. If Tom Brady gets injured, just don't drop him. CP still knows he's good, and could vote accordingly.

I'm so in. Any and all.

I agree.

[cdcox]

You're gonna need some rules about rosters, to keep people from loading up on high visibility skill positions.

[bdeg]

Originally Posted by cdcox

You're gonna need some rules about rosters, to keep people from loading up on high visibility skill positions.

Good point, like you have to be able to field a starting lineup. Probably minus K's/P's? I don't know if anyone cares about them.

I'm willing to help too, I'll take a closer look at the rules you've set up when I get off work.

[Ultra Peanut]

Fun ideas, but why not just get everyone playing FOF against each other?