Tau837
Footballguy
CBS Sportsline league. 16 teams, 14 man rosters, 9 starters - 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 D/ST.
This league has existed for a number of years. Last year, it used Sportsline as the league host site, and that carried over to this year. In this year's setup, roster limits were set up as max 2 QBs, 4 RBs, 5 WRs, 2 TEs, 2 Ks, and 2 D/STs. Though it was on the league site rules page, most league members were unaware of it, including the Commissioner. During the draft, a couple teams timed out on their picks because they were deemed invalid since they would have caused the teams to exceed roster limits (e.g., more than 4 RBs). I complained about it, pointing out that we never had the rule in the past, and the Commissioner's stance was basically along the lines of the rules are the rules, I don't want to hear it, I'm not changing the rules.
Today, the Commish sends out this message: "All, if someone discovers a illegal move, e.g. picking up a 5th RB and dropping a Defense, then holding one of the illegal 5th RB's until game day as to prevent others from picking up one of the illegal RB's. Please let me know immediately so I can discipline the offender. I cannot continuously check up on every player in the league to ensure he or she is playing by the rules. Apparently and unfortunately we cannot assume everyone will. This example is completely hypothetical of course."
This resulted in the following exchange:
Me: "I haven't done this, but I'm interested in two things:
1. Why would this be illegal? The site allows it, and it isn't against the league rules. The only thing I can find in the league rules is "Illegal rosters score zero points in standings." Are you changing the rules in midseason?
2. What will you do when you "discipline the offender?""
Commish: "If the offender does not fix his "mistake" immediately then I will. If it takes me forfeiting his team that week I WILL! And it is in the rules no team may have more than 2 QB's, 4 RB's, 5 WR's, 2 TE's, 2 K's 2 DEF's on your roster at any one time! This is just a game people, why would anyone try to "bend" or manipulate them to benefit your FANTASY FOOTBALL team. Can't everyone just play by the rules that were established before the league started??????????? I should not have to police a friggin fantasy football league to make sure people are following the rules of a FANTASY FOOTBALL league for goodness sakes."
Me: "I don't even know what team you are talking about, but how do you know anyone tried to bend the rules? The roster limits suck in the first place, and we never had them in the past, but your whole perspectiveon it when it came up at the draft was the rules stand as is. And the rules state only that zero points will be scored by an illegal roster. So now you are making up new penalties that are not part of the rules. That is BS. If you don't want to "police" the league, then don't. Let things happen according to the rules."
Commish: "I was notified by another player, who was playing Glenn. I have to address it when it is brought to my attention. Whether you like the rule or not, it is the rule. It is on the site under rules, and clearly states the limits. Sorry you don't like the rules but they are there."
Me: "You're right, I don't like the roster limit rule. I don't understand why you let it stand when you apparently did not choose to put it in place, since you didn't even know about it until it came up late in the draft, and we did not have it last year or any other previous year. I've been playing fantasy football since 1995, in many different leagues, and I have never had a league with such narrow roster limits. It's a bad rule.
That said, I accepted it because you made it clear the rules stand as they were stated at the time of the draft. But here is the thing about the rules. The penalty for exceeding roster limits is also there. But now you are saying you're going to make up a new penalty that is not specified in the rules. Why do you think that is appropriate?
I don't intend to do what Glenn apparently did, but it's the principle to me. In my opinion, you should not be making up rules during the season that were not already in place. It implies that you could make up another new rule next week. At the very least, if you are going to do that, you should put it to a vote. But if you put that to a vote, then I'd like to put the entire roster limit rule to a vote.
As for Glenn, I suspect he simply made a mistake. He added a RB through waivers. You don't even know that he looked at his roster before Saturday. For all you know, he may have taken immediate action when he saw his mistake."
Commish: "I really don't want to have to worry about this, and I don't want to argue. If you want to get technical the rules page clearly states "Illegal rosters score zero points in standings" right beneath the roster limits section. So legally I can already give him a zero because he had an illegal roster as soon as the transaction went through. Which is what the individual he was playing said I should do. He knows and so do you that you cannot pick up a RB and drop a DEF and still have 4 RB's, common you know that's wrong. Luckily I think Glenn is going to lose anyways and I do not have to worry about it."
Me: "You're wrong. "Illegal rosters score zero points in standings" means Glenn would have scored 0 points if he had an illegal roster on gameday. The site automatically enforces the limits and the consequences of violating the limits. If the rule was intended to be enforced as you have indicated you will enforce it, the site would not allow a team to make a transaction resulting in an illegal roster. So you are basically saying now that you will interpret the rule differently than its intended interpretation.
I think it is extremely weak for anyone to have told you to zero Glenn out and forfeit his game because he didn't drop Andre Hall sooner, especially when it was probably a mistake on Glenn's part, not some devious strategy to break the rules.
I think it is equally weak that you would even consider taking the stance you have taken on this. You should have told Matt (if that's who brought this up) he was wrong to say you need to zero Glenn out this week, and he needs to worry about fielding a team that can beat Glenn on the field. At worst, you should have merely reminded everyone not to do what Glenn did, not threatened some additional punishment that was never discussed or specified in the rules.
All that said, you obviously are not changing your stance, misguided though it may be. So I don't want to argue the point any more."
So... to anyone who read the whole thing, what do you think? Should he impose some penalty on teams that do this? Or just let the site handle it automatically?
This league has existed for a number of years. Last year, it used Sportsline as the league host site, and that carried over to this year. In this year's setup, roster limits were set up as max 2 QBs, 4 RBs, 5 WRs, 2 TEs, 2 Ks, and 2 D/STs. Though it was on the league site rules page, most league members were unaware of it, including the Commissioner. During the draft, a couple teams timed out on their picks because they were deemed invalid since they would have caused the teams to exceed roster limits (e.g., more than 4 RBs). I complained about it, pointing out that we never had the rule in the past, and the Commissioner's stance was basically along the lines of the rules are the rules, I don't want to hear it, I'm not changing the rules.
Today, the Commish sends out this message: "All, if someone discovers a illegal move, e.g. picking up a 5th RB and dropping a Defense, then holding one of the illegal 5th RB's until game day as to prevent others from picking up one of the illegal RB's. Please let me know immediately so I can discipline the offender. I cannot continuously check up on every player in the league to ensure he or she is playing by the rules. Apparently and unfortunately we cannot assume everyone will. This example is completely hypothetical of course."
This resulted in the following exchange:
Me: "I haven't done this, but I'm interested in two things:
1. Why would this be illegal? The site allows it, and it isn't against the league rules. The only thing I can find in the league rules is "Illegal rosters score zero points in standings." Are you changing the rules in midseason?
2. What will you do when you "discipline the offender?""
Commish: "If the offender does not fix his "mistake" immediately then I will. If it takes me forfeiting his team that week I WILL! And it is in the rules no team may have more than 2 QB's, 4 RB's, 5 WR's, 2 TE's, 2 K's 2 DEF's on your roster at any one time! This is just a game people, why would anyone try to "bend" or manipulate them to benefit your FANTASY FOOTBALL team. Can't everyone just play by the rules that were established before the league started??????????? I should not have to police a friggin fantasy football league to make sure people are following the rules of a FANTASY FOOTBALL league for goodness sakes."
Me: "I don't even know what team you are talking about, but how do you know anyone tried to bend the rules? The roster limits suck in the first place, and we never had them in the past, but your whole perspectiveon it when it came up at the draft was the rules stand as is. And the rules state only that zero points will be scored by an illegal roster. So now you are making up new penalties that are not part of the rules. That is BS. If you don't want to "police" the league, then don't. Let things happen according to the rules."
Commish: "I was notified by another player, who was playing Glenn. I have to address it when it is brought to my attention. Whether you like the rule or not, it is the rule. It is on the site under rules, and clearly states the limits. Sorry you don't like the rules but they are there."
Me: "You're right, I don't like the roster limit rule. I don't understand why you let it stand when you apparently did not choose to put it in place, since you didn't even know about it until it came up late in the draft, and we did not have it last year or any other previous year. I've been playing fantasy football since 1995, in many different leagues, and I have never had a league with such narrow roster limits. It's a bad rule.
That said, I accepted it because you made it clear the rules stand as they were stated at the time of the draft. But here is the thing about the rules. The penalty for exceeding roster limits is also there. But now you are saying you're going to make up a new penalty that is not specified in the rules. Why do you think that is appropriate?
I don't intend to do what Glenn apparently did, but it's the principle to me. In my opinion, you should not be making up rules during the season that were not already in place. It implies that you could make up another new rule next week. At the very least, if you are going to do that, you should put it to a vote. But if you put that to a vote, then I'd like to put the entire roster limit rule to a vote.
As for Glenn, I suspect he simply made a mistake. He added a RB through waivers. You don't even know that he looked at his roster before Saturday. For all you know, he may have taken immediate action when he saw his mistake."
Commish: "I really don't want to have to worry about this, and I don't want to argue. If you want to get technical the rules page clearly states "Illegal rosters score zero points in standings" right beneath the roster limits section. So legally I can already give him a zero because he had an illegal roster as soon as the transaction went through. Which is what the individual he was playing said I should do. He knows and so do you that you cannot pick up a RB and drop a DEF and still have 4 RB's, common you know that's wrong. Luckily I think Glenn is going to lose anyways and I do not have to worry about it."
Me: "You're wrong. "Illegal rosters score zero points in standings" means Glenn would have scored 0 points if he had an illegal roster on gameday. The site automatically enforces the limits and the consequences of violating the limits. If the rule was intended to be enforced as you have indicated you will enforce it, the site would not allow a team to make a transaction resulting in an illegal roster. So you are basically saying now that you will interpret the rule differently than its intended interpretation.
I think it is extremely weak for anyone to have told you to zero Glenn out and forfeit his game because he didn't drop Andre Hall sooner, especially when it was probably a mistake on Glenn's part, not some devious strategy to break the rules.
I think it is equally weak that you would even consider taking the stance you have taken on this. You should have told Matt (if that's who brought this up) he was wrong to say you need to zero Glenn out this week, and he needs to worry about fielding a team that can beat Glenn on the field. At worst, you should have merely reminded everyone not to do what Glenn did, not threatened some additional punishment that was never discussed or specified in the rules.
All that said, you obviously are not changing your stance, misguided though it may be. So I don't want to argue the point any more."
So... to anyone who read the whole thing, what do you think? Should he impose some penalty on teams that do this? Or just let the site handle it automatically?
Last edited by a moderator:
Do any or all of those things automatically follow questioning how a commissioner handles any issue?
Do any or all of those things automatically follow questioning how a commissioner handles any issue?
Do any or all of those things automatically follow questioning how a commissioner handles any issue?
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My league here at work has roster limits and no IR. You can only have 2 QBs so if you have Peyton Manning on a bye and Drew Brees is injured that week you have to drop one of them to pick up the likes of Kyle Orton. 
I was surprised at the support for the Commish, but that's why I started the thread - to get unbiased opinions.Like I said, it is merely the principle I objected to. Clearly, he's made up his mind, so it's over, no hard feelings. I didn't enter into it expecting a change to the roster limit rule, I was just questioning the penalty he announced. I'll suggest that he check with Sportsline on setting it to preclude transactions that result in illegal rosters - good suggestion.In the meantime, I'll just hope that no one makes a mistake that results in a forfeit.
