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All good things must come to an end, and for a majority of fantasy football leagues, Week 16 marks the final matchup of the season. Sure, there are games to be played in Week 17, but most leagues learned long ago of the perils of playing their championships during a week in which NFL teams that have already wrapped up their playoff seeds sit their studs after a few snaps, wreaking havoc with fantasy football lineups and matchups. No longer would the best team win; rather, the victory often ended up in the pocket of the owner who best guessed which NFL head coach would be quickest on the trigger to go to his backups.

While I'd guess most fantasy football players are aware of this final-week pitfall, I also realize a large number of people are completely oblivious to the concept, even with several seasons under their belts. Why do I say that? Perhaps it's because I have several seasons of writing this column under my belt, and I have long since stopped being surprised when e-mails arrive in my inbox in the final weeks of the football season asking questions that make me wonder what sport they've been watching all season.

Let's start with Kyle from New Jersey, who writes: "Hey AJ, we've got a problem, and in a discussion with my co-commish, we figured you're the one to go to. In our recent playoff game, one team had the Cowboys defense/special teams, and lost by two points. For whatever reason, the safety counted against the Cowboys defense, thus losing that team fantasy points. Had those points not been counted against the Cowboys D/ST, said player would have won. Of course, we're both of the mind that those points should not count against the Cowboys defense since they didn't [allow the points], and after all we drafted D/STs, not points the offense gave up. The problem here is that the player who's losing is me. This is an issue our league has never faced before, and never been brought to the league's attention. My co-commish and I are afraid to make a decision because it would look like we're conspiring against the other eight members. Obviously, it's a conflict of interest, and my objectivity would be called into question. So I offered to propose this question to you, as a sort of arbitration. Like I said, it's a playoff game … winner goes on to the championship and gets guaranteed money, so it's quite important. Please help!"

Kyle, I appreciate that you would consider turning to me for advice in this matter. However, what confuses me is that you claim this is an issue that has never reared its head in your league before. The fact is that, including the safety that took place in Sunday night's game, there have been a total of 21 safeties recorded in the NFL this season. This makes it highly unlikely that at no other time this season did a D/ST in your league get charged with two points as a result of a safety. Perhaps nobody paid much attention to this happening before, as the outcome of the game didn't hang in the balance, but that doesn't make the fact that it occurred any less important. These points have been charged to the D/ST in the past, and therefore, even if you don't think they "ought" to be counted, they must be counted now because you've allowed them to count all season.

If you don't want these points to count next season, then hard-wire it into your rules, and be prepared to adjust the stats manually since you are now completely aware that the default is to count safeties against the D/ST. Just be prepared to also go back in and deduct all those pick-sixes thrown by the quarterback, and gird yourself for the lengthy debate that will surely follow on whether or not the extra point that follows such a score is also to be ignored. After all, an extra point always occurs against the special-teams unit, does it not?

I'm really not hating on Kyle, even though I can't side with him on this one. After all, this probably was the first time he'd noticed this situation because nobody bothered to bring it up to him any of the other times it happened this season. I don't blame him for that. However, there's one thing I don't get: People who complain about so-called "scoring errors" that aren't actually errors but merely the result of a lack of knowledge of the rules of the game.

For example, many people are furious this week that Tony Romo and Dwayne Bowe did not get points deducted for their respective lost fumbles. Certainly, I'd be upset, too, if I was going to lose a game as a result of what I believed to be an obvious scoring mistake. The problem is that neither player actually lost a fumble. Tony Romo intentionally slapped the ball out of the back of the end zone, which resulted in that dreaded safety being charged against Kyle's fantasy defense. Since nobody on the Giants recovered the fumble, it's not a lost fumble. The subsequent "change of possession" comes not as a result of Romo's fumble but as the result of the ball crossing the back line of the end zone and a safety being declared.

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Whether or not you agree with the NFL's ruling in this case is irrelevant. You can't lose points for doing something when you didn't actually do it. It would be the same as deciding that the refs shouldn't have used replay to award Pittsburgh their touchdown against the Ravens. Just because you might not agree with the call on the field doesn't mean you have the right to pretend it never took place. Similarly, Bowe did not fumble the onside kick attempt that the San Diego Chargers recovered. Because it was ruled that he never had possession of the ball, he could not have fumbled it, even though he did attempt to grab the ball and simply failed to hold on. Can you be mad at him? Certainly. I was livid when Bowe's inability to grab the football led to Vincent Jackson's touchdown, as I was playing against Jackson in my league's semifinals. But can you deduct two points for a fumble? Not a chance.

My best advice to all you fantasy commissioners out there is to take the next few weeks and ask your owners what rules they liked and didn't like this past season. Do it now, while the wounds are still fresh. Then take some time to consider their concerns and craft your rules for next season sooner rather than later. If you, like Kyle, want to score D/STs a little bit differently next season, don't wait until the first safety of the 2009 season happens to suddenly remind you that you wanted to make that change.

Every league's rules need a tuneup every now and then, because just when you think you have every situation covered, you can suddenly be faced with a new twist on things that was never addressed before. Our final question of the season comes from Ryan in San Francisco. "AJ, I need your help! I'm the commissioner of a 12-team keeper league. An owner just put up a post saying he has picked up Michael Vick. The thing is, Vick is not on the 'list of available players,' and now some owners are up in arms. It is a keeper league, and I have no problem with the idea, except that some are arguing that if he was available to pick him up on ESPN's site, they would have. What do I do?"

Here's where your own league rules matter. I agree with you that the signing of Vick right now is a clever, low-risk move in a keeper league. Certainly, if whatever owner had Vick on his roster at the time the quarterback's troubles with the law began had decided to keep him up until this point, it would be perfectly acceptable for that owner to still own his rights today. Because of that, I'd side with the owner who was first to announce his intention to add Vick to his roster. After all, you could snatch up Shaun Alexander right now if you wanted, and he's not on an NFL team. Travis Henry is there for the taking, legal troubles notwithstanding. Now, what you don't want is to open up the player pool to allow for an owner to make a claim this week on Sam Bradford or some other college player. Actual NFL service should be a prerequisite for a player's free-agent eligibility. However, if someone wanted to take an enormous flier on Tiki Barber in the ridiculous hope that he's itching to get back in uniform for 2009, then by all means, be my guest.

Just remember, if he ends up not playing, you won't get any fantasy points for him. Even if you imagine that he fumbles.

AJ Mass is a fantasy football, baseball and college basketball analyst for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him here.