You Gotta Be Kidding Me...

With plenty of advance warning regarding the approach of hurricane Ike, the NFL chose to postpone the Sunday game between the Texans and Ravens until Monday night. Now, in the wake of the storm, league officials have discovered that Reliant Stadium in Houston is unfit for play, and may be for several weeks. So, no Monday game. But instead of relocating the game to one of the MANY available venues in Texas or surrounding states, the NFL has decided to screw up the schedule and move the game to November 9th (week 10). Now, in descending order, let me explain the many reasons this decision has pissed me off:

• On a personal level. In my office money league I lost Marques Colston to injury for 4-6 weeks on Monday. While I have backups at QB and RB, I didn't have a single WR/TE to spare, and I wasn't prepared to drop any of my bench players. So I started working a trade immediately. By Thursday night I was able to close a deal for... wait for it... wait for it... Andre Johnson. I was relieved to close the deal in time for week 2, but now, less than 24 hours before Sunday kickoff, I am once again down a receiver with no wiggle room on my bench.
  
• I'm also upset at the giant "eff you" this represents in terms of the NFL's treatment of fantasy players. There were multiple available venues for Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. But instead of just moving the location, the NFL has screwed up week 2 for every fantasy player out there with a Raven or Texan in their lineup. I appreciate that while the NFL marketers want to court the fantasy football players of the world, league officials still see us as basement-dwelling geeks not deserving of their consideration. Wake up. Fantasy football players represent one of the most rabid segments of the NFL fanbase and they should be accommodated whenever possible.
  
• League managers. Sorry folks, but you are screwed this week. Right now, your owners are frustrated, scrambling for waiver wire pickups and looking for concessions (can you wait until week 10 to make the week 2 scores official?). And of course there is absolutely nothing you can do to make this situation better. Well, that's not entirely true. I would strongly advise you to extend an olive branch to your owners and offer to expedite any trades involving teams affected by this massive screwup. This gives affected owners some kind of option after the wire has been picked clean and allows your unaffected owners the chance to try and vulture good Texans and Ravens from their desperate counterparts.
• Houston and Baltimore fans. My apologies to you too. Nothing gets the season going by taking two weeks off after your first game. And I'm sure you won' t mind when week 10 rolls around and all those banged up players that could really use a week to rest up before the playoff push will stay banged up straight through week 17. That's right, 15 weeks and no break. Where the hell was the league's competition committee on this one?
• Houston and Baltimore players. So, this was your bye week. Did you enjoy it? Was it relaxing practicing non-stop and watching film to prep for a game that won't happen until November? Well, at least you can relax this week. No? You mean you have to keep practicing and watching film in preparation for next week's game? Once again, where the hell was the league's competition committee on this?

I'd keep ranting about this, but I need to go and figure out where to find a receiver ASAP.