We have reached the beginning of the 2020 season and it is time for the club to once again open its doors. Despite the uncertainty of the how the season will turn out, we are happy to welcome back 17 of 18 club members from last season who signed up to play once again. Along with the returning members, one person happened to sign up as a rookie player, which gives us the group of 18 players that we need for Head to Head and Pro Bowl to work perfectly. This season’s club is entitled The Football Club 2020 – Nineteenth Year Trophy Edition II. Following up on the success of our first trophy edition held in 2011, the winner of this season’s club will receive a prestigious trophy to display on a shelf at home. To see what the trophy will look like, check the previous post to see the winner’s trophy for last season. This season’s winner can choose to receive the trophy in either a small, medium, or large size. (I chose large since it took me 18 long years to finally win one, while 2018 champion Double-Double chose medium, and 2012 champion Hoosier Daddy chose small.) To help refresh your memory regarding what transpired last season in the club, feel free to go back and reread the 2019 Season in Review post. (Scroll down to the post beneath the picture of the trophy to find it.)
As we get started with the 2020 NFL football season, there are no major changes to report in regards to the club. Everything will be stay much the same as last season. However, there are a couple of minor changes. First of all, in Head to Head all the divisions will be changed up for this season. The players in the divisions will now be grouped by alphabetical order from top to bottom. Second, there is one minor adjustment when it comes to Triple Crown and Double Stakes games. As you’ll see, this adjustment will make sense. Below, I am copy and pasting it over from the Official Rules page here on the site.
RULE #10 – TRIPLE CROWN AND DOUBLE STAKES 2020 UPDATES
Due to the possibility of games being called off during this season due to COVID-19 and player protests, we are making an adjustment to Triple Crown and Double Stakes games. If for any reason some of the games from these two categories are not played, the remaining games will fully count toward receiving the Points. So for instance, if 1 of the 3 Triple Crown games is not played for whatever reason, the remaining 2 games will count toward the entire 7 Points. In addition, due to the increase of tie games in the league (because of shortened overtime periods), tie games within the Triple Crown and Double Stakes will not mean that everyone lost those Points. Thus, the remaining games being played will count toward the full amount of Points for Triple Crowns and Double Stakes even if some games are called off due to COVID-19, player protests, or if there are tie games.
As a side note, the one thing that made me have to think twice about running the club this season was the fact that the sporting world seems to be getting a lot more political. If this trend continues, I will have to at some point in the near future retire the club for good. It would be nice if sports and politics could be kept separate, but we know this world will continue to get worse and more divisive. It feels like this system is surviving on life support at this point. But for the time being, the club can remain open and I’m going to enjoy keeping in touch with all of you and having our friendly competition trying to correctly pick the winners of the games each week.
As with last season, I will post the scoring sheets for all players so that everyone is free to double check scores and see what the rest of the club picked. The Autopicker is returning once again after a mostly disastrous 2019 season. But I’m sure it will improve in making picks this season. As always, you are free to change your pick away from The Autopicker at anytime before kickoff of the game. Keep in mind that during Week One, there is no Triple Jeopardy option, there is no Head to Head play, and there is no Pro Bowl Team play. All three of those aspects of the club start up during Week Two. Also, keep in mind that the club’s web site with its table charts (for Current Standings and other things) is best viewed on a home computer screen. I wish everyone a great season and hope you and your families continue to stay safe from COVID-19. For this season, I am changing my codename from Fearless Tuna to Low Fat Tuna. I worked hard during the off-season to shed 35 lbs. of tuna fat and thus using the new codename will help motivate me to continue toward my final goal of losing 50 lbs. -Low Fat Tuna