WEEK 7 FANTASY FOOTBALL

October 20, 2005 3:00 PM ET

Have you set your fantasy football lineup yet? You might want to get things finalized a few days earlier than normal this week because the NFL has moved the Chiefs vs. Dolphins game, originally scheduled for Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EST, to Friday at 7:00 p.m. EST because of Hurricane Wilma. The "extremely dangerous" hurricane is projected to slam into Florida Sunday as a category three storm with winds in excess of 110 mph.

Wilma has already pummeled the Caribbean and is currently closing in on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. It was briefly the strongest Atlantic storm ever observed in terms of barometric pressure on Wednesday, when it was a category five storm with sustained winds close to 170 mph.

As people are boarding up their homes and making plans to evacuate, sporting events scheduled to take place in Florida this weekend are being postponed or moved. The NFL announced their plans on Thursday afternoon. Moving the game to Friday will allow emergency personnel to focus on making the necessary preparations. This is the third time since the start of the 2004 season that the NFL has been has been forced to move the date or time of a game because of hurricanes threatening Miami.

 

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said television broadcast plans are still being finalized by CBS. Meanwhile, travel plans for the Chiefs are being expedited. Although they were preparing to travel on Saturday, the Chiefs had contingency plans to fly to Miami on Friday, which they'll now have to bump up another day.

Many fantasy football leagues still require that you have your lineups set before the kickoff of the first game of the week. Commissioners in such leagues will obviously need to contact league members to notify them of the time change. Other leagues force you to make your lineup decisions before a given player's game kicks off. If you are in a league like this and you have any Chiefs or Dolphins, you'll need to finalize your plans.

Most fantasy owners already have Priest Holmes and Tony Gonzalez locked into their lineups, but the time change will force other decisions to be made posthaste. The only real injury concern that might affect fantasy owners is Larry Johnson's quadriceps. He is listed as probable, however, and should be ready. The Dolphins have a pair of significant defensive players—Junior Seau and Jason Taylor—nursing injuries. Both are listed as questionable and will likely be game time decisions.

Other types of lineup decisions will also be impacted by this change.

Let's say you have Ronnie Brown and Kevin Jones and need to start one. Do you go with Jones even though he has a sprained shoulder and only participated in non-contact drills on Wednesday or do you go with Brown, since you know he is healthy and will play? Or perhaps you have Trent Green and have been debating on whether to sit him out against Miami's sixth-ranked defense in light of his slow start. It's time to choose between Green and whoever your alternative might be.

Bottom line: we have Friday night football to look forward to, some fantasy football decisions to make…and hopefully a hurricane that loses its power and spares Florida from a lot of damage and casualties.