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Weirdest fantasy football rule or league? (1 Viewer)

S

secretbonus

Footballguy
We once had a rule where if a player got arrested you had to put money in the pot and drop him. Owning high profile “bad boys” became a bigger risk. We also did one where WRs and TEs are the same “position”. I’ve heard much more unusual league rules though.

Saw a league where the loser had to get a tattoo chosen by the others. 

I’ve heard of some strange leagues like eliminator leagues where the fantasy manager’s players become free agents after they are eliminated. Another league I heard of would have the winner of the prior year not get a draft choice but if he won he could poach any player on the bench of the team he defeated and where the owners are encouraged to collude against the vampire. That one sounds fun to me. A little more incentive for losing teams to care. The feeling of a “side story” of whether or not the vampire can come from the worst team to one of the best in time to win enough games to squeak into the playoffs.

so what’s the weirdest or most unconventional rule you’ve had in a league.

 
Up until last year, my main redraft league drafted coaches. You started one each week and got 4 points for a win, 2 points for a tie and 0 points for a loss.

It made a difference in the early years when scoring was TD-heavy and weekly scores in the triple digits were rare. After we switched to conventional yardage scoring and PPR, the coach scores rarely made a difference and it seemed kind of pointless to have them. Their scoring should have been adjusted too, but never was, so finally last year there were enough people who had enough and voted to boot them. 

I was once in a league that was more than 30 rounds and had no waiver wire. Anyone who wasn't drafted wouldn't be in the league that year. Your last 10 picks were (aside from backup kickers and defenses) likely to be people who weren't useful at the moment but who you hoped would become useful at some point. 

 
I joined a league 5 years ago with a weird roster requirement. You must draft and maintain 3 QBs,6 RBs,6 WRs,3TEs,2K,2Def. Makes it a pain to trade because you can't just trade an extra RB for a WR- have to do 1 of each. Also, the total points of the players on each side have to be within a certain range that's based on games played.

 
We have a no trade back rule in my dynasty league, or else the player becomes unretainable. Basically it avoids trading a player to help another avoid bye week waiver pickups.

 
Skipdog77 said:
Every team that loses each week, their owner loses a finger. 

League petered out in the middle of the second season for some reason, and towards the end we needed to hire somebody to hold the knife. 

Other than that it was fun. 
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Hire someone?  I know multiple people that would love to fill that role for free.

 
-10 for a missed XP by kickers (in a non-PPR, TD focused low scoring league) was always good for a random pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you loss a time or two each season. But had to chuck it once the XPs were moved to 33-yards. 

 
I played in a league that gave a point per completion for qbs. I won it a couple of times but it was beyond stupid.  Basically if your qb got hurt....you lost.  Garbage time took 9n a whole new meaning. 

The league basically ended after the Joe Webb fiasco.

 
Buckethead WR Rule - every year we’d designate a player - usually a WR - as the bucket head.   Said player should be very talented and in a great position to produce FF points, but a total screwup mentally.  (Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown are prime examples.)  We had a live draft, and every pick you’d put $ in the bucket, if you didn’t draft the bucket head.  If you drafted the bucket head you’d get the bucket of $, but you had to start the bucket head every week, except for his bye week.

 
I used to play in a league that had a variety of unique/antiquated rules (it had been around since the early 90s and the majority of owners were reluctant to change).  Probably the strangest was that the fantasy playoffs took place during the NFL playoffs.  So you had to manage your team to not only win games during the regular season, but also to field some players who would score for you in the actual NFL playoffs.  You could dominate the regular season and get a first-round exit because you literally put up a 0 during wild card weekend, for example.  The fantasy championship combined the conference championships and the Super Bowl, and the final score would often be something like 16-11 because by that point all you had left was like a WR and a K. 

 
I once played in a league where we had to wait until Thursday each week to get our results - in a letter sent by the commish via USPS. We entered our lineup and made waiver claims by calling the commish, often leaving a voicemail on his home answering machine. The only way to know your opponent's lineup was to call him and ask, and the only way to know if you won or lost, other than waiting for the letter on Thursday, was to do the math yourself from Tuesday morning's paper.  Of course, we all did that every Tuesday morning.

 
CletiusMaximus said:
I once played in a league where we had to wait until Thursday each week to get our results - in a letter sent by the commish via USPS. We entered our lineup and made waiver claims by calling the commish, often leaving a voicemail on his home answering machine. The only way to know your opponent's lineup was to call him and ask, and the only way to know if you won or lost, other than waiting for the letter on Thursday, was to do the math yourself from Tuesday morning's paper.  Of course, we all did that every Tuesday morning.
Click to expand...
This was my league for our first 10 years at least, except rather than a letter, you had to stop by the bar to check the results/standings.  

 
CletiusMaximus said:
I once played in a league where we had to wait until Thursday each week to get our results - in a letter sent by the commish via USPS. We entered our lineup and made waiver claims by calling the commish, often leaving a voicemail on his home answering machine. The only way to know your opponent's lineup was to call him and ask, and the only way to know if you won or lost, other than waiting for the letter on Thursday, was to do the math yourself from Tuesday morning's paper.  Of course, we all did that every Tuesday morning.
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My commute to work consisted of picking up the Philly Daily News (our official scoring paper)....then doing the stats at lunch.  I miss it a little bit.  I remember the first time I got a computer program, I could enter the stats and it would calculate the scores and standings.  Then one year they offered a deal to download the stats from a service and it was like discovering fire.  I still had to mail everything.  I think we set aside $20 for stamps, envelopes, paper : 🤣

 
The Big Guy said:
We have a no trade back rule in my dynasty league, or else the player becomes unretainable. Basically it avoids trading a player to help another avoid bye week waiver pickups.
Click to expand...
We had that.  Almost all of our "weird" rules were the result of a particular team priding themselves in finding the loopholes in our rules.  Had a team trade his stud to another team to cover a bye week to help his playoff chances.

TLEF316 said:
I played in a league that gave a point per completion for qbs. I won it a couple of times but it was beyond stupid.  Basically if your qb got hurt....you lost.  Garbage time took 9n a whole new meaning. 

The league basically ended after the Joe Webb fiasco.
Click to expand...
I played in a league where they wanted to add PPR.  I was against it.  They argued that a reception, even for zero yards was a beneficial play.  I countered that rushes for zero yards could be beneficial as well.  For that matter, throwing an incomplete pass was better than a sack.  I thought that would put an end to it, but instead we added PPR, points for rushes, points for pass attemps, and points for completions.  Totally stupid, and the scores were rediculous.

CletiusMaximus said:
I once played in a league where we had to wait until Thursday each week to get our results - in a letter sent by the commish via USPS. We entered our lineup and made waiver claims by calling the commish, often leaving a voicemail on his home answering machine. The only way to know your opponent's lineup was to call him and ask, and the only way to know if you won or lost, other than waiting for the letter on Thursday, was to do the math yourself from Tuesday morning's paper.  Of course, we all did that every Tuesday morning.
Click to expand...
We started in 1990, so this was our league for over 10 years until we moved to a website.

 
I played in a 32 team homer league where between (I think) weeks 6-7 you had to protect 3 players. 
Worst to first each team had one chance to poach a player from someone else’s team. 
Once someone tries to hit your team no one else could.

Fun league

 
I played in a league years ago that I think was 12 people.

Anyway, we had 12 drafts. Everyone got to pick from every position in the draft.

It was an all-play, total points league so once you drafted that was your team. No waivers. 

 
secretbonus said:
We once had a rule where if a player got arrested you had to put money in the pot and drop him. Owning high profile “bad boys” became a bigger risk. We also did one where WRs and TEs are the same “position”. I’ve heard much more unusual league rules though.

Saw a league where the loser had to get a tattoo chosen by the others. 

I’ve heard of some strange leagues like eliminator leagues where the fantasy manager’s players become free agents after they are eliminated. Another league I heard of would have the winner of the prior year not get a draft choice but if he won he could poach any player on the bench of the team he defeated and where the owners are encouraged to collude against the vampire. That one sounds fun to me. A little more incentive for losing teams to care. The feeling of a “side story” of whether or not the vampire can come from the worst team to one of the best in time to win enough games to squeak into the playoffs.

so what’s the weirdest or most unconventional rule you’ve had in a league.
Click to expand...
I heard Matthew Berry describe a vampire league a few years ago (back when I still paid attention to Matthew Berry) and I've been intrigued by the idea ever since. I would think you'd have to do a shallow league (10 teams max) or else the vampire team will be too bad to challenge the others. Also, I think the rule in his league was that you could poach any player in the starting lineup of the team you beat. So if you're facing the vampire team and you're a heavy favorite, you might want to bench some of your studs so that they're not at risk. But if you play it too safe, it could cost you the matchup.

 
In a family league the last few years it was 1 point per carry.  This year they also have 1 point per completion, and -6 for a pick 6.  Dak was at 47 points in the first half so far I think, going to be stupid high scores this year.

 
CletiusMaximus said:
I once played in a league where we had to wait until Thursday each week to get our results - in a letter sent by the commish via USPS. We entered our lineup and made waiver claims by calling the commish, often leaving a voicemail on his home answering machine. The only way to know your opponent's lineup was to call him and ask, and the only way to know if you won or lost, other than waiting for the letter on Thursday, was to do the math yourself from Tuesday morning's paper.  Of course, we all did that every Tuesday morning.
Click to expand...
When I first started playing FF, you had to call waiver pickups into the Commish and leave a message so that there was a time stamp on his answering machine.  If I recall correctly, there was no waiver order, it was first come first serve.

 
 back in the day we used to have live drafts and when you picked a guy you had to lookup his ethnic background and perform a traditional dance of his people or prepare a traditional food dish if you could not dance but that was before the internet made everything easy for lazy fantasy players who dont understand what it used to mean to play the game take that to the bank brohans

 
Have had a few interesting ones over the years.

Have used coaches with points for margin of victory but 0 for a loss or tie.
Have used punters with net punting yards.
Large lineups with 1 QB, 2RB, 1 flex RB/QB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 2 flex WR/TE.  Full 4-3 IDP defense.

First leagues I was ever in you had 3 IDP. For each DL you started, your opponent's RBs lost 10% of their points while his WRs gain an extra 10% and TE not affected.  DBs hurt WR and helped RB. LB had no effect on anyone.  So you could tack on a -30%/+30% if you started 3 DL or 3 DB. And since the roster was 1 RB, 1 WR, 1 TE and 3 flex RB/WR/TE, there was definitely some strategy involved.  Unfortunately the host site (this was a coded option they had) didn't hide lineups until games started so it got into people doing last second lineup changes.
 
Probably the coolest league I did was the Interleague Challenge, that had 5 FF boards including Footballguys each send 12 people to play in 5 connected leagues. Collectively, every board got 1 of each draft slot. So between the five leagues, a board would get slots 1, 5, 11 in one league, spots 2, 6 in another, spots 3, 8, 12 in another, etc.  While each league drafted separately, the final rosters were all combined into a single giant 60 team league that sported 5 copies of each player, one that came out of each of the 5 separate drafts. You could only have 1 copy of a player on your own roster though. And so you could trade between drafts.  Like if I had the 1.01 pick in League 1 draft, I could trade it to a team in the League 2 draft for his picks or already drafted players. The drafts also were staggered so they didn't all start at the same time.  So one interesting part was, Maybe I'd see a player available in an earlier draft in the 8th round that I thought was worth a 6th round pick. I could decide my value on him was wrong and he might go that late in my league, or I could just take and trade my 7th in my draft to the guy on the clock in that league and get him at what was still a discount.

 
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Pip's Invitation said:
I was once in a league that was more than 30 rounds and had no waiver wire. Anyone who wasn't drafted wouldn't be in the league that year. Your last 10 picks were (aside from backup kickers and defenses) likely to be people who weren't useful at the moment but who you hoped would become useful at some point. 
Click to expand...
I was in a league like that for many years.  Undrafted players were deemed to have signed with the Canadian Fantasy League and therefore unavailable.

 
ChiefD said:
I played in a league years ago that I think was 12 people.

Anyway, we had 12 drafts. Everyone got to pick from every position in the draft.

It was an all-play, total points league so once you drafted that was your team. No waivers. 
Click to expand...
Sounds like this would be an interesting experiment  but not much fun in real time

 
ignatiusjreilly said:
I heard Matthew Berry describe a vampire league a few years ago (back when I still paid attention to Matthew Berry) and I've been intrigued by the idea ever since. I would think you'd have to do a shallow league (10 teams max) or else the vampire team will be too bad to challenge the others. Also, I think the rule in his league was that you could poach any player in the starting lineup of the team you beat. So if you're facing the vampire team and you're a heavy favorite, you might want to bench some of your studs so that they're not at risk. But if you play it too safe, it could cost you the matchup.
Click to expand...


One of the leagues I play in is a "swinger" league, which has similarities to a vampire league but doesn't have a designated vampire.  Instead, after games go final, the winning team in every game gets to swap a player from the team they just beat.  It has to be starter for starter, position for position, and there are no flexes.  There are a lot of diverse strategies at play here (e.g.; some teams draft backup QBs very early in case one gets swapped out while others underspend looking to swap in a stud QB early in the season).  I myself am known, when I have an insurmountable lead and still have a player set for Monday night, to get a last-minute FA, start him over the player I planned to start, and then swap him to the team I beat.  It's not my main league but it's a very fun format.

 
One league I am in is adopting a "WWE Format" this year.  Each team is named after a wrestler, past or present (mine is "Macho Man" Randy Savage).

Week 1 is Backlash, where in addition to the scheduled games, there is a "Battle Royal".  Highest scorer wins the Battle Royal and wins the WWE Title and the second-highest scorer is the last one eliminated and wins the Intercontinental Title.  

Weeks 2-15 - Games will be as scheduled. The WWE Champion will have their title be defended every week with the winner of their game winning or keeping the title. The same will be true of the Intercontinental Title, except if the WWE Champion meets the Intercontinental Champion, only the WWE Title will be on the line. If the Intercontinental Champion wins the WWE Title, the Intercontinental Title will be vacated. The following week, the top team in the standings not in the WWE Title game that week will be deemed to be the #1 contender and their game that week will be for the vacant Intercontinental Title. In the event of a tie, the champion retains or a vacant title remains vacant.

Week 16 is the Royal Rumble - The WWE Champion will defend the title against the first-place team in the standings (second if the WWE Champion is in first place). The remaining teams will be placed in the Royal Rumble. The Intercontinental Champion will enter the Royal Rumble unless they are challenging for the WWE Title. Order of entry will be the reverse order of the standings. The first two entrants will start out at +0, the third at +5, the fourth at +10, the fifth at +15, the sixth at +20, the seventh at + 25 and the eighth at +30. After these bonuses are added in, the highest-scoring entrant is the winner. In the event of a tie, the entrant with the smallest bonus wins. If the first two entrants tie, the team higher in the standings shall win. If the Intercontinental Title is vacant coming into the Royal Rumble, it will remain vacant. Only the WWE Title match will count in terms of win-loss record for the standings.

Week 17 is WrestleMania - The WWE Champion will defend against the winner of the Royal Rumble. If the Intercontinental Champion wins the Royal Rumble, then it will be a Title vs Title match. If the Intercontinental Champion is not in the WWE Title match, then they will defend against the team highest in the standings that is not in the WWE Title match. If the Intercontinental Championship is vacant, then the two teams highest in the standings that are not in the WWE Title match will meet for the vacant title. If a match for the vacant Intercontinental Title ends in a draw at WrestleMania, their share of the prize money will be awarded to the WWE Champion. Additionally, the two teams lowest in the standings who are not in title matches will meet in a loser-leaves-town match. The loser of this game will have their wrestler retire (though the manager can return next season with a new wrestler). If the loser-leaves-town match ends in a draw, then no one loses the match and both wrestlers can return next season.

No prize for holding titles during the season.  Whoever leaves WrestleMania as WWE Champion wins 80% of the prize money and whoever leaves WrestleMania as Intercontinental Champion wins 20%. 

 
Lowest score wins.

Players who put up a 0.0, though, get a 25-point penalty added to their score

 
TLEF316 said:
I played in a league that gave a point per completion for qbs. I won it a couple of times but it was beyond stupid.  Basically if your qb got hurt....you lost.  Garbage time took 9n a whole new meaning. 

The league basically ended after the Joe Webb fiasco.
Click to expand...
The no-waiver league I was in also had that rule, and it had the same effect, and was one of several reasons why I eventually bailed. The logical way to handle a rule like that is to have team QBs, but the others had no interest in that. 

 
TLEF316 said:
I played in a league that gave a point per completion for qbs. I won it a couple of times but it was beyond stupid.  Basically if your qb got hurt....you lost.  Garbage time took 9n a whole new meaning. 

The league basically ended after the Joe Webb fiasco.
Click to expand...
My long-time family league awards 0.25 per completion. One year I made the finals with Tony Romo, who bruised his hand on the second play of the game. I knew that was it for me.

Then a few years later I was facing my brother in the first round of the playoffs and he had Dalton, who broke his hand in the first half. I figured I had it in the bag, but my team put up such a stinker that he still beat me.

 
Wow. These stories make me feel like a FF newb all over again. And they also sound like way more work than I'm interested in. 

 
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