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Tragedy strikes our league... now what? (1 Viewer)

Spin

Spin

Footballguy
So the unthinkable happened two weeks ago, one of our owners died in a car wreck. We do a relatively early draft each year due to the fact it's tough to find a date for 14 people to show up, and the live draft is important to us because it's something we've done since graduating college together. So the it's a 14 team redraft and we're trying to decide what to do with his team. Some of the options being thrown around are: finding another owner which has been tough since it's hard to find someone to pay $500 for a team already drafted in a non dynasty, having one of us set his lineup each week and if he wins give the money to his wife ($500 a team entry fee so it's nice pot each year), putting his players back into FA and use our blind bidding money on them or even just drafting again with the 13 of us, which would have to be online as some live across the country from each other.

Here's the team:

QB: Palmer

QB: Sanchez

RB: ADP

RB: FWP

RB: T. Jones

RB: Chester Taylor

RB: Fargas

WR:Roddy White

WR: Jennings

WR: Coles

WR: Gage

WR: Burleson

TE: Scheffler

DEF: Green Bay

PK: Kaeding

Just curious as to what other people think should be done in this situation... I was leaning towards having one of us set his lineup but then his team will be at a huge disadvantage without the ability to pick up FAs/trade/improve etc, so I don't like that idea anymore...

 
Freeze the roster and eliminate the team from contention.

Return his entry fees to his wife.

Make the league work with 13 teams.

 
If he has young kids I would consider taking all the money and setting up a fund for them. Then play the league for fun in his memory.

Other than that, give the $500 back to his wife and let another friend/one of his relatives take his spot for free. With any earning going to his family.

 
Tough situation.

If it were me, I would find someone who wanted to take over his team for free in hopes that they would stick around for the following year. Having an odd number of teams wouldnt work out very smoothly.

It would be a nice if you guys found a way to give the money (or at least most of it) to his spouse - regardless of the season outcome.

 
Battles said:
If he has young kids I would consider taking all the money and setting up a fund for them. Then play the league for fun in his memory. Other than that, give the $500 back to his wife and let another friend/one of his relatives take his spot for free. With any earning going to his family.
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:lmao:
 
sorry to hear the sad news.

his wife should get his buy-in back, imo. try to find someone to run his team. be tough to get someone to buy a $500 team though. if you cant get anyone, field his team every week. if you guys do worst to first waivers his team could be replenished. otherwise you could redraft with 13

 
Battles said:
If he has young kids I would consider taking all the money and setting up a fund for them. Then play the league for fun in his memory. Other than that, give the $500 back to his wife and let another friend/one of his relatives take his spot for free. With any earning going to his family.
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:lmao: it would be a very nice gesture to give the money to his family.
 
Sorry to hear about your friend. I think if you guys are all fairly close friends and you know about this guy's life enough to know whether the money would greatly help the family's situation, I'd strongly consider giving the winnings to the family in some form.

Personally, spending anything more than $100 for a league's entry fee is something I can't imagine doing - however I'm not in the income bracket where $500 something I would cut a check in that amount without a little saving first - even if your late friend was loaded, I think the right thing to do is to give back the entry fee. The great thing to do would be to donate the whole amount to his family. However, doing what's right is good enough.

 
Spin said:
So the unthinkable happened two weeks ago, one of our owners died in a car wreck. We do a relatively early draft each year due to the fact it's tough to find a date for 14 people to show up, and the live draft is important to us because it's something we've done since graduating college together. So the it's a 14 team redraft and we're trying to decide what to do with his team. Some of the options being thrown around are: finding another owner which has been tough since it's hard to find someone to pay $500 for a team already drafted in a non dynasty, having one of us set his lineup each week and if he wins give the money to his wife ($500 a team entry fee so it's nice pot each year), putting his players back into FA and use our blind bidding money on them or even just drafting again with the 13 of us, which would have to be online as some live across the country from each other.Here's the team:QB: PalmerQB: SanchezRB: ADPRB: FWPRB: T. JonesRB: Chester TaylorRB: FargasWR:Roddy WhiteWR: JenningsWR: ColesWR: GageWR: BurlesonTE: SchefflerDEF: Green BayPK: KaedingJust curious as to what other people think should be done in this situation... I was leaning towards having one of us set his lineup but then his team will be at a huge disadvantage without the ability to pick up FAs/trade/improve etc, so I don't like that idea anymore...
Click to expand...
If it were me, I might ask the league if for this one year, all prize money goes to the widow. $7000 won't go far but might help with expenses. I doubt that anyone is banking on winning it anyway. That would be a cool thing to do in his memory.However, anything done should be voted and agreed upon by the league.
 
Battles said:
If he has young kids I would consider taking all the money and setting up a fund for them. Then play the league for fun in his memory. Other than that, give the $500 back to his wife and let another friend/one of his relatives take his spot for free. With any earning going to his family.
Click to expand...
This.
 
Give the $500 back to the wife and find a shark to play with his roster this season, for free, in the the hopes of winning it for the deceased's family.

 
That's a tough situation, sorry to hear about your loss.

We also have a $500 buy-in and we have a rule in our bylaw that covers this and I think it is pretty fair.

1. Give back the entry fee to the family

2. Freeze his roster (don't put the players back into the FA pool, it would just mess up the balance of the league)

3. Use a "ghost team" each week. Each week whoever would have played this owner will play the league average and it will be scored as a regular H2H game. MFL can do this automatically.

4. The ghost team is not eligible for the playoffs.

 
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I had an owner pass away a few days before the draft last year. She was rounding second base and collapsed. It was strange intermixing the seriousness of life with a fun part of life (fantasy football).

I returned the entry fees to the memorial fund and let her boys determine what to do with it. I found a new owner (it was the first year for the league).

GL

 
I believe that the money should be refunded to the wife/family ASAP. With regards to the team, if you are unable to sell, which is pretty likely to be the case, simply set the lineups each week. The team would not be in line to win the championship and the prize pool would be reduced accordingly ($250 less for first, $150 less for third, etc.).

I don't think the wife/family is concerned with fantasy football at this time and the $500 in hand now would help more than keeping their team in contention for a later payday, which isn't guaranteed, to say the least. And, IMHO, it just seems like the right thing to do.

 
Itchy Amos said:
Tough situation. If it were me, I would find someone who wanted to take over his team for free in hopes that they would stick around for the following year. Having an odd number of teams wouldnt work out very smoothly. It would be a nice if you guys found a way to give the money (or at least most of it) to his spouse - regardless of the season outcome.
Click to expand...
Definitely return the money to the wife and I like the approach of finding a new player that would pick up the spot for the following year, but allow them to play with this team for free this year and any earning from that team going to the wife/family.
 
I am very sorry to hear of your league-mates passing. Here is my solution, although it may not be the best.

1. Try to find an interested party to take ownership of the team. If this can be accomplished, great. If not do this:

2. Play out the year in honor of your fallen mate. Re-name the championship trophy in his honor. Keep his team intact and make no changes. Use his best possible starting lineup, after the week is over, to give him the best possible score each week. Let his team earn whatever it can in monetary awards throughout the season. If the team needs a bye week fill-in for the TE and K positions, use the highest score possible of any free-agent out there on the WW those weeks, without actually making the transaction. Always give his team the highest points it could possibly score. Any money won by his team should then be handed over to his widow without hesitation at the end of the season.

3. Find a replacement for next year by means of a recruiting process this year.

HTH,

Rody

 
My solution is definitely not the best posted, so you can ignore the previous post.

Good luck with everything.

God Bless.

 
This one is easy. Have the commish set his starting lineup every week. Donate all of the league fees for this year to his widow, and play for fun this year, while trying to find a replacement as soon as possible to manage the team for this "free" year.

 
stugnut said:
That's a tough situation, sorry to hear about your loss.We also have a $500 buy-in and we have a rule in our bylaw that covers this and I think it is pretty fair. 1. Give back the entry fee to the family2. Freeze his roster (don't put the players back into the FA pool, it would just mess up the balance of the league)3. Use a "ghost team" each week. Each week whoever would have played this owner will play the league average and it will be scored as a regular H2H game. MFL can do this automatically.4. The ghost team is not eligible for the playoffs.
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Unless it's a close group of guys, this is the most reasonable solution. It allows MFL to take care of things without involving human judgment (which can set the stage for future problems).
 
Plaid Boxer said:
Give the $500 back to the wife and find a shark to play with his roster this season, for free, in the the hopes of winning it for the deceased's family.
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:lmao: THIS. Easy answer. 1. Wife/family get his buy-in back, the league pot is $500 short for the year. His team remains in tact.2. A league outsider generously offers up their time to run his team pro bono. Any winnings that the tribute team wins would obviously go to the family in some form or another. If any owners in the league have any issue with this scenario then they aren't worth playing with. Heck, I'm pretty sure every owner in my league would be cheering on the tribute team all year. You definitely need an outsider to run the team though IMO - Otherwise there's too much potential for arguments with that much money in play. Where do you host? Fanball? Yahoo? Etc..
 
I'm not going to claim that I am a shark in FF, but if you need someone outside of your circle to run the team for a year and then step away, I'd be glad to help out. It's redraft right? So all I'd have to do is make sure the team has a solid lineup each week and let the rest take of itself. I would only do this if the rest of your league felt it was in the best interests of everyone involved. I would take no offense if the answer to my offer was a resounding NO.

Best of luck with whatever your league decides.

 
bentley said:
stugnut said:
That's a tough situation, sorry to hear about your loss.We also have a $500 buy-in and we have a rule in our bylaw that covers this and I think it is pretty fair. 1. Give back the entry fee to the family2. Freeze his roster (don't put the players back into the FA pool, it would just mess up the balance of the league)3. Use a "ghost team" each week. Each week whoever would have played this owner will play the league average and it will be scored as a regular H2H game. MFL can do this automatically.4. The ghost team is not eligible for the playoffs.
Click to expand...
Unless it's a close group of guys, this is the most reasonable solution. It allows MFL to take care of things without involving human judgment (which can set the stage for future problems).
Click to expand...
I would go with this solution as well.
 
GregR said:
bentley said:
stugnut said:
That's a tough situation, sorry to hear about your loss.We also have a $500 buy-in and we have a rule in our bylaw that covers this and I think it is pretty fair. 1. Give back the entry fee to the family2. Freeze his roster (don't put the players back into the FA pool, it would just mess up the balance of the league)3. Use a "ghost team" each week. Each week whoever would have played this owner will play the league average and it will be scored as a regular H2H game. MFL can do this automatically.4. The ghost team is not eligible for the playoffs.
Click to expand...
Unless it's a close group of guys, this is the most reasonable solution. It allows MFL to take care of things without involving human judgment (which can set the stage for future problems).
Click to expand...
I would go with this solution as well.
Click to expand...
+1I think it's logical to give the entry fee back to the family. Anything else is up to your leaguemates, but the above sounds like as good of solution as any.
 
If the remaining 13 guys can afford it I would give the entire $7000 to the wife and family and play this year for fun. Also rename the Championship trophy after him. Sorry about the loss of your league mate.

 
dino259 said:
Have the shark pool run his team through a thread, then give the winnings to the family.
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Oh, that would an awesome gesture. Give the family the link and we could all check in with our well wishes for them. Waiver pickups and trade proposals are voted on by the Shark Pool and majority wins. I'd take wisdom of the SP in a redraft league over darn near anyone. That way the rest of the league still gets to play it out, but your friend gets one last season in his memory. He drafted the team, I'm betting he'd want to see it to the finish line.
 
FantasyTrader said:
dino259 said:
Have the shark pool run his team through a thread, then give the winnings to the family.
Click to expand...
Oh, that would an awesome gesture. Give the family the link and we could all check in with our well wishes for them. Waiver pickups and trade proposals are voted on by the Shark Pool and majority wins. I'd take wisdom of the SP in a redraft league over darn near anyone. That way the rest of the league still gets to play it out, but your friend gets one last season in his memory. He drafted the team, I'm betting he'd want to see it to the finish line.
Click to expand...
worrying about his fantasy team if he knew he was going to die would be the last thing on his mind.
 
chihawk said:
Itchy Amos said:
Tough situation. If it were me, I would find someone who wanted to take over his team for free in hopes that they would stick around for the following year. Having an odd number of teams wouldnt work out very smoothly. It would be a nice if you guys found a way to give the money (or at least most of it) to his spouse - regardless of the season outcome.
Click to expand...
Definitely return the money to the wife and I like the approach of finding a new player that would pick up the spot for the following year, but allow them to play with this team for free this year and any earning from that team going to the wife/family.
Click to expand...
:cry:
 
I had the same thing happen a few years back. We tried the idea of having multiple people help run the team. It didn't work very well and I would not recommend it.

First, give the $500 back to his family. Find one person to run the team for the season, with no entry fee.

The one thing we did correctly was naming the league trophy after him. You will find that the league will do nothing but bring up good memories of your buddy for years to come, even if it is a little wierd at first.

Sorry about your loss.

 
That's awful news Spin, my condolences.

Since you guys are comfortable with using the $$$ potentially as a donation, I would absolutely make that a part of this solution.

I think the 'coolest' thing to do would be to make him undefeated for the year, giving everyone a L in the weeks they face him, and then providing a check for half of the total to his family [or more than half depending on the comfort level your leaguemates have]. I would then remove his team from playoff contention and seed the next four [or six as the case may be] teams.

 
tex said:
If the remaining 13 guys can afford it I would give the entire $7000 to the wife and family and play this year for fun. Also rename the Championship trophy after him. Sorry about the loss of your league mate.
Click to expand...
This was my thought too, but I was thinking rename the league after him. Sorry for your loss.
 
Jason Wood said:
That's awful news Spin, my condolences.Since you guys are comfortable with using the $$$ potentially as a donation, I would absolutely make that a part of this solution.I think the 'coolest' thing to do would be to make him undefeated for the year, giving everyone a L in the weeks they face him, and then providing a check for half of the total to his family [or more than half depending on the comfort level your leaguemates have]. I would then remove his team from playoff contention and seed the next four [or six as the case may be] teams.
Click to expand...
:goodposting: I definitely think this would be the coolest way to honor your friend both monetarily and ceremoniously. Of course you have to get the buy-in from the rest of league.
 
chihawk said:
Itchy Amos said:
Tough situation. If it were me, I would find someone who wanted to take over his team for free in hopes that they would stick around for the following year. Having an odd number of teams wouldnt work out very smoothly. It would be a nice if you guys found a way to give the money (or at least most of it) to his spouse - regardless of the season outcome.
Click to expand...
Definitely return the money to the wife and I like the approach of finding a new player that would pick up the spot for the following year, but allow them to play with this team for free this year and any earning from that team going to the wife/family.
Click to expand...
Best option by miles.
 
Give his widow the $500 back. I don't think you need to give her all of the other leagues fees though. But it would be a nice gesture to give her some donations from the league.

If you can't get someone to take over his team, I think the commissioner should set his starting lineup each week by using a weekly cheatsheet from FBG, ESPN, or something that everyone can access. (ESPN is free)

If his team wins the championship, give his widow the money.

 
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Horrible news and very hard to manage, best of luck to you!

I would give the widow back the $500 and do another draft with a new member added... We are still many weeks away from the 1st game so it wouldn't be that big of a deal to do... I would like many have suggested name a prize / trophy after him. There are other good suggestions here but we are in August. If your group feels a memorial donation is in order that would obviously be the "coolest" thing but running a league myself it would be hard to get everyone to agree on the format though this one "should" be easy.

 
Plaid Boxer said:
Give the $500 back to the wife and find a shark to play with his roster this season, for free, in the the hopes of winning it for the deceased's family.
Click to expand...
I read the solutions to my wife. Of the options, this is the she would appreciate the most.
 
I say, the money is irrelevant at this point. Keep the $500 in the pot.

Set his line-up every week, and treat it as if he's still in the league.

If he wins the league, his family gets the money. If somebody else wins, they could still donate the money to the family. I'm sure money is one of the last things on their mind at the moment.

Don't you think he would've wanted his team to win?

 
Jedi Knight said:
Spin said:
So the unthinkable happened two weeks ago, one of our owners died in a car wreck. We do a relatively early draft each year due to the fact it's tough to find a date for 14 people to show up, and the live draft is important to us because it's something we've done since graduating college together. So the it's a 14 team redraft and we're trying to decide what to do with his team. Some of the options being thrown around are: finding another owner which has been tough since it's hard to find someone to pay $500 for a team already drafted in a non dynasty, having one of us set his lineup each week and if he wins give the money to his wife ($500 a team entry fee so it's nice pot each year), putting his players back into FA and use our blind bidding money on them or even just drafting again with the 13 of us, which would have to be online as some live across the country from each other.Here's the team:QB: PalmerQB: SanchezRB: ADPRB: FWPRB: T. JonesRB: Chester TaylorRB: FargasWR:Roddy WhiteWR: JenningsWR: ColesWR: GageWR: BurlesonTE: SchefflerDEF: Green BayPK: KaedingJust curious as to what other people think should be done in this situation... I was leaning towards having one of us set his lineup but then his team will be at a huge disadvantage without the ability to pick up FAs/trade/improve etc, so I don't like that idea anymore...
Click to expand...
If it were me, I might ask the league if for this one year, all prize money goes to the widow. $7000 won't go far but might help with expenses. I doubt that anyone is banking on winning it anyway. That would be a cool thing to do in his memory.However, anything done should be voted and agreed upon by the league.
Click to expand...
:lmao: There seems to be a trend here that I fully agree with... Maybe also name the league trophy, if there is one, in his memory.
 
bentley said:
stugnut said:
That's a tough situation, sorry to hear about your loss.We also have a $500 buy-in and we have a rule in our bylaw that covers this and I think it is pretty fair. 1. Give back the entry fee to the family2. Freeze his roster (don't put the players back into the FA pool, it would just mess up the balance of the league)3. Use a "ghost team" each week. Each week whoever would have played this owner will play the league average and it will be scored as a regular H2H game. MFL can do this automatically.4. The ghost team is not eligible for the playoffs.
Click to expand...
Unless it's a close group of guys, this is the most reasonable solution. It allows MFL to take care of things without involving human judgment (which can set the stage for future problems).
Click to expand...
I agree. It is the only solution that runs no risk of allienating the owners.
 
If I were the commisioner I would tell all the other owners that along with returning the entry fee that I'm taking donations for the family for anyone that would like to contribute.

 
I would say return the entry fee to the family, find an owner to manage the team with no entry fee, split whatever he might win between the family and the new owner, just reduce the prize money less the 500.

This man's death is tragic, and while raising money for the family is a great idea, trying to get 13 owners to give up 500 bucks apeice could end up destroying the league. What if 2 owners don't want to do it? Or 3, or 4?

Get the league together, and organize a fund rasing event(s) for the family. A bar/pub event, a raffle, a joint garage sale.... whatever. That way, who ever can afford to, can contribute as much money or time as they have to spare.

 
Wow.. thanks for all the great replies and the offers from members who PM'd me they were willing to take his spot for the year for free. A few even offered to cover the $500 fee and take his team/spot in the league for years to come. You don't know how much this means to me at the moment. SP may bicker over small details/projections but it truly is an amazing community.

That said we've all come to a conclusion along with his wife. His 8 year old son will be taking the team over this year with help from an outside friend for the next couple of years till he gets the hang of FF. I guess him and his dad had decided he was old enough this year to start anyway and had joined a Yahoo league together. The league has unanimously agreed to forfeit this year's prize to be given back to his family where his wife has agreed to buy her son's spot for the next years to come.

Although we don't have a trophy we, have decided to shop around and look for something we can get in his honor.

Thanks again for the overwhelming support and suggestions.

 
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