mpgerma

This is an easy one to answer. Since the commish doesn't publish weekly newsletters, since the commish is a first time commish and doesn't realize how important it is to communicate to the league, since I don't sit in the same building, and since I don't know most of the other owners, I never found out about it until it happened to me. I didn't know what I didn't know....if you know what I mean. What is amazing to me is it happened on three separate occasions before mine. While the other owners agreed to the punishment since they were aware of the rule, but had "forgotten" it, it seems logical to me that any commish would think, "hmmmmm, three owners have made the same mistake....maybe I should send an email to the league making them aware of this common mistake so they can avoid it in the future". Of course, now I'll know to call the commish every week to ask if there's been any happenings going on in the league that I should be aware of. While it would be good to send this email to the commish, to see his response, unfortunately, I may have to ask the commish for a job in the future and I don't want to burn any bridges.

It is official. On friday the commissioner agreed to let the other owners of the league decide if the commissioner's ruling should stand or be reversed. I was allowed to send an email to the other owners with my side of the story (basically the same wording put together at the top of this forum topic). While not everyone has voted, there are now enough votes in favor of the commissioner's original ruling. Only one owner voted on my side. I am dumbfounded. What seemed to me like a cut and dry case for me apparently isn't. Something must be going on with the other owners. I can't believe they are all idiots and don't understand right from wrong. I know a couple of them actually work for the commissioner and a few others work with the commissioner so maybe I'm not getting a fair vote because they are too afraid, for job security, to vote against the commissioner. I don't know, this is just a guess. I expect the commissioner will send me an email or phone call on monday confirming the outcome of the vote. In my 15+ years in FFL, I have never come across something like this before.

That's why I don't allow trades in my league....too many people wondering if there was some kind of under the table deal.

Ralph, you're correct I should probably cut him some slack for drafting for me. I've been commissioner in another league for over 10 years and I've on occassion drafted for myself and another owner who couldn't make it....while it isn't the best thing to do, it is possible. Had I known about the previous punishments, I would certainly have asked why. Unfortunately, I am the only owner that doesn't sit on the same floor or building as the other 11 owners and so when it happened, according to the commissioner, it was a big discussion on the floor, but no emails were sent out about it. So I never knew about the other punishments until the commissioner told me this past week when I had broken the rule. I did ask one other owner after the draft how the draft went and he said it was a typical draft and we started talking about who got LT, etc. No mention of the rule though. I appreciate your input, Ralph. If I decide to play next year, I definitely won't miss the draft.

I was the only owner that missed the draft back in August. The commissioner drafted a decent team for me. This past week I won the weekly championship for the first time this season. The commissioner sent me an email stating that since my bench lineup was against league rules, that my win was disqualified. In addition, they realized just now I've also had another week where I had an illegal reserve bench so they have to reverse the points from that week as well. It turns out at the draft, the owners and commissioner agreed to a league rule requiring you to keep at least a QB and a DST as one of the four possible bench positions. Since I don't know most of the other owners as I'm new to the league, no one ever communicated to me via email or phone call to let me know the new rule. In addition, the commissioner sent out revised rules after the draft, but forgot to include this new rule in it. So I've been setting my lineups each week based upon an incomplete set of rules. The commissioner agreed that he never let me know about the new rule, but he said he still has to enforce the punishment because he's disqualified a couple of other owners in previous weeks (unbeknownst to me) for the same rule violations. And he feels because he punished them, then to be consistent, he has to punish me too even though I never heard of this rule before. In addition, the league rules state that for a rule to pass, ALL owners must vote. The commissioner hasn't addressed this point, but I suspect he'll tell me that it didn't really mean ALL. Should I be kept to the same standards as the other owners even though I don't have a complete set of rules.....or is my commissioner a jerk? Mike