TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S EMERGENCY HEARING ON THE
ROBERT MEACHEM FUMBLE RECOVERY TD
December 7, 2009
BAILIFF
“All rise. Court is in session. The Dishonorable Chief Injustice Bill Davies presiding.”
CHIEF INJUSTICE BILL DAVIES
Please be seated.
December 7th is a day that will go down in infamy.
(What’s that? Already taken? Dang it! OK, I’ll play it straight then.)
For those of you who don’t know me, I am FootballGuy’s answer to my real life neighbor, Honorable David S. Doty. Judge Doty, you may know, is the presiding U.S. District Court Judge on matters regarding the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. While that may impress you, he walks in my shadow on all things fantasy football.
As a sitting Injustice for over a decade, I have seen a lot of things in my day. Every once in a while, you meet someone in court who is a product of the system. When they leave the courtroom after you have delivered their sentence, you think to yourself, “I’ll know I’ll see you again.” That happened yesterday in the Saints – Redskins game.
In this case, our subject is ROBERT MEACHEM’S FUMBLE RECOVERY FOR A TD. For those of you new to town, you might think this is a pretty special and unique situation. However, this situation has walked through this courtroom before – in 2003, when I was a Junior Judge. It was disguised then as the “KEENAN McCARDELL TD”. On that day, I thought we were facing an unprecedented matter, but found out later that this situation was in a prior Court as a result of a 1997 Week 11 TD by Kansas City Chief WR Danan Hughes. It likely occurred before then, too, but records are not readily available prior to 1997.
In the 2003 matter of the KEENAN McCARDELL, this Court issued a rather lengthy and complete decision:
http://apps.footballguys.com/04davies_mccardelltd.cfm. It resulted in much discussion on message boards, in bar rooms and amongst friends. It was supported and ridiculed. But at the end of the day, it was ground in logic and withstood the test of time. A synopsis of the final decision can be found here:
http://apps.footballguys.com/04davies_faq.cfm.
This Court, like most others, recognizes precedent. It looks at the conclusion previously reached and considers that decision in light of the current facts. The Court then determines if the previous conclusion can still be supported by the facts and logic and if that conclusion can also be applied to the current circumstances. (NOTE: Sometimes, over the course of 6 years, something new comes up that was unknown at the time of the original ruling.)
In this instance, the circumstances are identical to the KEENAN McCARDELL incident. Nothing new has come up and many other governing bodies have adopted this Court’s interpretation. As a result, the previous ruling stands.
THE DECISION
The Robert Meachem fumble recovery TD was an OFFENSIVE fumble recovery for a touchdown. It should not be treated as a defensive touchdown for purposes of team defense.
ADDENDUM
We need to recognize that this situation is rare – it happens about once every 6 years. It is not unheard of but it is uncommon. League management systems (like CBSSportsline.com, MyFantasyLeague.com, Fanball.com, etc…) are system driven – they have the ability to interface with the NFL boxscores and provide quick and accurate fantasy scores. However, once in a while, their systems do not recognize oddities like this.
The important thing here is to act in accordance to what your rules state. If all TDs are worth 6 points, then you should have 6 points awarded to Robert Meachem’s score for the week. You may need to add those points manually if your league management system does not do it for you. If your rules state specific TDs that are worth 6 points and offensive fumble recoveries are not one of them, then you should not count this TD.
If your rules permit Team Defense fumble recoveries for a TD as worth 6 points and your league management system awarded 6 points for this score, you may have to reduce that team’s score by 6 points. This is NOT a defensive TD.
GUIDING PRINCIPLE
Your league rules should be the basis for your decision. If your league management system scores a play inconsistent with your league rules, then your Commissioner should make a manual adjustment so that the recorded score is consistent with your league rules.
If you do not like the way your league rules handled this situation, then address it in the offseason – not now. Leagues should not be holding a vote to see how this matter should be resolved.
FINAL WORD
If there is still some question about how your league rules apply to this matter, please e-mail a copy of your rules to us at ChiefInjustice@AskTheCommissioner.com. Your specific request will be handled at no cost as part of your subscription to www.FootballGuys.com.
I think the only fair thing to do is to have the final 500 teams replay the week. Unless, of course, my players tonight put me above the cutline. 
What do you call someone who speaks three or more languages? Multilingual.What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual.What do you call someone who speaks one language? American.Did you know until the early 1900's all H's that began words were silent? Human, Horse, Horde were all pronounced the way Americans typically today pronounce Herb and Honor, with a silent H at the beginning.Also, it wasn't until the 50's that supersede began to use two S's instead of the internal S sound being a C (supercede)Just some things that may help you understand that not every grammar or spelling infraction you note is necessarily incorrect.
