It's Week 17 in the NFL season and most leagues are over.

I seem to be in the minority here, but why don't more leagues use Week 17 and thus have Week 15 be the last regular season week? (Unless you have 3 rounds of playoffs, which case Week 15 would be the first week of your playoffs).

Usually leagues don't use Week 17 because many playoff-bound NFL teams rest starters ahead of the playoffs with their playoff seeding set. But this seems to be overreacting to the facts

The scenario of having a league's Super Bowl ruined in Week 17 from key players being rested ahead of the playoffs rarely happens. In my hometown league, it's happened 2 or 3 times in 15 years. If there are only a few players in the NFL who are rested ahead of the playoffs, what are the odds that these players are thus owned by the two super bowl teams? It's low.

Plus there are some compelling reasons to use Week 17:

-Why should the 6 to 12 non-playoff teams in your league lose one week of enjoyment of fantasy football just to prevent a low-odds scenario of the Super Bowl being ruined by a key player being rested.

-Why is a player being rested in Week 17 any different than a player injury in Week 4 or a bye week? A fantasy team's bench counts and that's true in the playoffs.

-Taking Week 17 off the schedule doesn't even ensure resting of players won't impact the playoffs. This season, and in 2006, the Colts had such a big lead in their playoff seeding they rested key players in Week 16 (they also rested players in Week 15 in 2006).

-I've seen a trend toward leagues using a combined Week 16 & Week 17 game for the championship (I originally made the case for playing Week 17 back in 2006). That may be a way to use Week 17 without some of the problems. But I still maintain the odds of the championship game being impacted are low enough that its worth considering using that week alone.

I know Drew Brees, the Colts and maybe the Patriots are taking Week 17 off. But should your league?