Arianimal

It was actually Patriots and New England Revolution owner, Robert Kraft, in this case. He wanted to ensure he could watch the Revolution lose their 4th MLS championship game in 6 years...to THE back-to-back major league soccer champions....THE HOUSTON DYNAMO! *crickets*

I said FOOTBALL smarts. Ya know, the same kind that wonderlic failing Vince Young used to destroy everyone en route to an undefeated national championship season, Heisman hose-job, and NFL Rookie of the Year award. And not completely unlike the football smarts used by those Red Raiders yesterday. Tough break, guy.

Yeah. Too bad it doesn't remotely hinder the Pats' chance at an undefeated season and yet another world championship, or the fact that the Bengals lose to the Cardinals and the Browns haven't been relevant for at least a decade. He could wear a pink scarf around his neck and still obliterate any secondary.

Tom Brady is meticulously precise. His timing is perfect, his throws are spot-on, and any pass that is more than 6 inches off is a surprise to each and every person watching the play. Moss is a physical freak - bigger, stronger, faster, and more athletic than just about every other player playing within 10 yards of him. Both players have impeccable football smarts to boot. Granted, at 25 years old, I haven't seen a lot of football in my life, but these guys are unbelievable. I can't even imagine two such elite players ever being on the exact same wavelength at such critical positions.

12 teams. 17 Roster spots with 11 starters: 1 QB 2 RB 3 WR 1 TE 1 PK 3 IDP 6 Bench

Thanks for the input guy. That's the secondary point of this thread. IMO, giving up midway through the season and stockpiling draft picks for next season diminshes the integrity of the league. All that's left now is for the other teams that are actually UNDER .500 start trading away their studs for next year's draft picks. And if you buy into the 'everyone can do it' idea, then those of us that have and want a legitimate chance of winning this year will have next to no chance of winning next year. We'd have given away all our draft picks in return for studs (to compete with the team in this scenario) and will be playing against GMs that have stockpiled 8 draft picks in the first four rounds. I need help picking the appropriate rules to prevent these sorts of 'firesales' in future seasons.

My job as commish is not to create and maintain a framework to facilitate fun and competition in the league?

1) Neither Addai nor LT have any 'keeper' value for next season. 2) The team giving up LT/Addai would give up his last four picks of the drafts. 3) It is not mandatory to designate keepers. And yeah..the payment thing was a must. I can't stand the idea of reducing such a fun, competitive league of friends to just a contest for prize moneys. Matter of fact, this particular trade was accompanied by this message, 'This trade will GUARANTEE you a spot in the playoffs. Think about it, $300 now is worth $300 two years from now.' F that. I just need to think of a fair way to fix it.

The rules this year also state that the league has the ability to vote on trades. So the fate of THIS trade is ultimately up to the league. Looking ahead though....

There has to be SOME sort of preventative measure against a trade ruining the season for everyone else in the league.

Lots of great ideas here. As far as this particular trade goes, one of our rules is that I have the ability to veto trades outright if they are blantantly lopsided or collusion. On more questionable trades (such as this one), I reserve the right to put them to a league vote, in which case the trade is allowed and processed unless there is a majority vote to veto. Ultimately, this particular trade looks to be vetoed. But again, the league is only in its second season, so everyone has an understanding that the kinks in the rules are constantly being worked out. I like the one player for one draft pick rule. Although this won't eliminate forms of firesales altogether, it will at least limit the detriment to the league competition year to year. The only problem then is that the Addai/LT owner would just throw in two scrubs to get his two extra draft picks...

Again, thanks for everyone's input. The point of the rule is to keep the studs available for a more interesting and exciting draft the following year. 'Who are you gonna pick first? Addai or Gore? SJax or SA?' I think the rule has done its job in the past.

The league is 12 very loyal and competitive friends of mine. Although Team B wouldn't 'win and run,' I question whether he'd be very interested or active with a team having its 1st pick of the draft in the 5th round. If there was any chance of salvaging the team moving forward, he'd basically be drafting potential keepers for future years (while depleting the 'potential keeper' pool for the rest of us who are still trying to win next year).

Agreed. But then it's a slippery slope, isn't it? Just last week, I traded Andre Johnson/Addai away for Houshmanzadeh/2008 2nd Round Pick. At what point does it go from simply strategic to jeopardizing the integrity of the league?

He's not mathematically eliminated. I s'pose he's just decided that he would rather give up on this season at the chance of dominating next season. Let me remind you that Addai and LT are both unkeepable and in the free agency pool again next year (as they were both drafted in the first 3 rounds this year) Pushing the trade deadline up seems like the only failsafe solution so far - although I'm not at all a fan of stifling the trading activity so early in the season.