poor sports

[Old School]

this is his team .what do you think ? QB GABBERT / RB PARMELE / SNELLING / WR L ROBINSON / SPURLOCK /WALTER / TE M LEWIS / DEF JAX / K SCOBEE / SW A PETTIS . who would'nt want to play this sad ass team .

I don't buy his excuse, and didn't really understand it anyway ... it will be fun for him to have a team full of useless players while all his good players get dropped? I don't get that Tom. Personally, I'd ban from any future NFFC contest.

I think he should be punished because he has Austin Pettis as his flex, and he is not on the Jaguars.

[BLACKHAND]

I appreciate everyone's responses here but a couple of points I'd like to make:

1. This person has played with us in several leagues the last few years and at no time has anything even remotely suspicious occurred on his part. So we're not going to issue a ban on someone who has been to this point a good customer and someone who isn't causing issues of any kind in any other league he's in this year.

2. The three teams he plays in Weeks 11-13 are all currently out of the playoff hunt. Their records are 3-7, 1-9 and 4-6. So even if this person was intentionally tanking the results of his next three games are highly unlikely to impact the playoff teams in this league.

Let me state again I do not agree with what he has done. But I thought these were two important points that should not be lost in the discussion.

just read this and i have a BIG problem in what you are saying tom. if this guy was in my league or my sons league i would have a MAJOR ISSUE HERE. let me say what im sure others are thinking.

1- you say this person has played in many leagues. so i think he should know better than what he did. also it sounds like since he has a few leagues you do not want to ban him because of the money he spends. you call him a good customer.... lol what a GREAT customer he is to do this. so what you are saying is that he is ONLY scewing one league and not ALL. wow , what a great customer.

2- i teach blackhand jr to have league integrity. he is 3-7 and out of it. he still looks at fa pickups to keep the fight going. thats a GOOD CUSTOMER.

3- BIG BIG problem if he did that in my kids league.

4-you can sugar coat it all you want but it doesn't fly with me. end of story.

[Tom Kessenich]

Frank, this has nothing to do with the amount of money the person is spending. My point is he has played in several leagues and there hasn't been a hint of any problems with him at any time. I believe a person's history with us is important and that will factor into any decisions we make. If you disagree, that's fine but Greg and I are firm believers in that approach.

You say he is screwing the league. How exactly is he doing that? The outcomes of his last three matchups will likely have no impact whatsoever on the teams that make the playoffs. Each of the remaining teams on his schedule has a losing record, including another 1-9 team. The starting players that he dropped are not allowed to be picked up by another team in his league. So how exactly is he screwing an entire league? That simply isn't accurate. If anything, he's only harming himself here. Is he potentially giving three other teams with losing records a better chance to win one more game? Perhaps he is but again those results will almost certainly have no direct bearing on how this league is decided.

Once again I'll repeat that I do not agree with what he did so if you want to argue that he shouldn't have done it and he should have handled his team differently I obviously agree with you. But Greg and I are not going to get into the business of running anyone's team in any of our leagues. That simply will not happen. This person made a decision to run his team a certain way. It's a decision that will almost certainly have no direct bearing on how this league's prize winners are determined. Is it a decision I would make or encourage anyone to make? No I would not. But Greg and I believe what we have done here more than meets any requirements we should have as the commissioners of our leagues. The key players dropped will be frozen from the FA pool.

[BillyWaz]

The focus on the fact that the 3 teams he plays in weeks 11-13 are out of it is what is disturbing to me.

It is almost like it is "OK" because of this.

Do you really think this guy looked at his remaining games and said "well, since it won't affect anyone I will botch my team for fun?" I highly doubt it. So the point is.... he is doing it to be disruptive, affect the integrity of the league, etc. I mean honestly....why even put in the EFFORT of dropping your best players to pick up as many players as possible on what is arguably the worst offense in the league? If you are giving up, don't make lineup changes, don't do FAAB, but this??? This in my mind is deliberate.

The fact that he is in "x amount" of other leagues should be VERY concerning, IMO. I can tell you this....if I am ever in a league with this guy, I will ask to be moved ASAP.

Just my opinion.

[BLACKHAND]

1- if he is playing against teams that are totally out of it then it certainly changes things as long as the outcome of games played has NO meaning at all. i still don't like it.

2- where do you draw the line. if this was a higher stakes league and you had a big money owner which has tons of teams ( sorry chad and nelson. your my boyz )i don't think your story of how teams are run would be the same. you can say different but i don't buy it. this is a situation that opens the door to problems in the future. if you don't see this then there really is a problem.

3- yes , i feel strongly on league integrity

[Tom Kessenich]

Billy, if people are going to argue that he is damaging the league than who he is facing the next three weeks is a significant variable in the discussion. It's arguably the most important one. I'm also not sure why you or anyone else would think we consider this "OK" for this to have been done when we have removed several players from the free-agent pool. As you should know as one of our longest customers we RARELY do that. In fact, we've resisted requests and even demands from people here on the boards who insisted some players should be removed (I recall a lengthy debate about Donovan McNabb several years ago). So it should be rather obvious that Greg and I took this matter seriously and we enforced something that is clearly stated in our rules. If we didn't care or thought it was "OK" we would've just ignored it and moved on. Clearly we didn't do that.

Frank, in the nine years we've run the NFFC this is the first time anyone has done anything like this. We've never had a situation where so many top players were dropped from one team. My guess is it may be another nine years before we see something similar to this again, assuming we ever do. But as Greg and I always do, should something like this occur we'll evaluate the situation and respond accordingly, just like we did here.

[Sandman62]

The key players dropped will be frozen from the FA pool.

Tom,

As you know (seeing you emailed us), I am in this league. Though I think I understand why you only put back selected players (i.e. sort of a retroactive "undroppable" list), the fact that this guy dropped ALL of his players obviously means he quit and is just trying to screw with the integrity of the league. That by itself should warrant a lifetime ban from the NFFC, IMO. Or do you wait until he does the same thing next time in a Diamond league?

I think the fairest approach is to simply put back his ENTIRE ROSTER as it was before waivers ran last night. There are several other dropped players that could help other teams in this league and would likely not be available over the next few weeks. Even still, if this clown were still playing with an ounce of integrity, I would have no issue with him dropping any of those other 13 players you deemed unnecessary to put back on his team - because it would be within the context of continuing to compete. And realistically, no one would really drop more than a few players at a time, so the pool wouldn't be flooded all in one week. But the fact that he ISN'T playing to compete, and instead is just trying to disrupt the league, IMO, warrants putting his roster back the way it was last night and freezing him from doing any further waiver activity this season.

I can't imagine anyone in this league would object to putting this guy's roster back the way it was last night and freezing his waiver activity from here on (unless their team desperately needs one of these other minor upgrades). But I always try to form opinions and make decisions based not on how I personally gain from something, but rather, with integrity and the best interests of fair competition in mind.

I hope you'll reconsider your decision on this.

[BLACKHAND]

let's get a straight answer. if the situation comes up in a league with owner like myself and say other high profile owners who have been here since day one and someone pulls this crap with games that mean something , what will happen in the future. i'm sorry if i sound mad but just speaking for myself , i will not stand for total disrespect in a league i am in as is the case here. the key here is what happens next time.

[kjduke]

It is certainly better that this guy will not impact league standings, but he IS IMPACTING the league FAAB pool because those players he picked up are out of the pool in addition to those he dropped. A death sentence probably isn't warranted in this case, but a warning for him and for all is certainly in order ... as in, pull this crap again and you will be shown the door.

Waz and Frank above are correct - this is disruptive to the league and it shows a lack of integrity. There needs to be a line in the sand on the "we let guys manage the way they want" policy. If he does it for one league and it's allowed, why would you expect him to not do this or something else disruptive down the road without a dis-incentive?

[Tom Kessenich]

The decision is final, Mike and there's no need for the eye roll. If you and others disagree with our decision that's fine. It's not the first time and I doubt it will be the last time we do something you and others may not agree with. Greg and I evaluated the situation, we took measures that are clearly stated in our rules and responded accordingly.

As far as how we would handle it in the future should something similar occur again, if you disagree with how we handled it here feel free to post your suggestions. I would like to believe all of you know that we'll obviously consider all suggestions to make our games better. Hopefully after nine years of doing this we've proven that to all of you by now.