Goon 2015+ Money Dynasty League Rules

Definitions

A “Player” is an NFL football man.

A “Team” is a fantasy football team.

A “Team Owner,” or “Owner,” is a goon who owns and manages one of the Teams.

A “Commissioner” is an Owner who has the added responsibility of managing the league.

“Dues” are the money each Owner has to pay in order to participate.

“Winnings” are the money paid out to Owners, usually at the end of a year’s play, in accordance with the league’s payout rules.

The “Treasurer” is an Owner (which may be, but isn’t necessarily, a Commissioner) who is responsible for receiving Dues from each Owner, tracking all Dues paid, and paying out Winnings in accordance with the rules.

Rules

The intent of rules is to make the game both fun and fair for everyone. If a rule is actively making the game less fair or less fun, it needs to change.

2023 Rule votes:

  1. Damar Hamlin Cancelled Game Rule:  Be adults if it ever happens again. Figure out if the FF game was even close or not before worrying, maybe do a daily fantasy league between the two teams if the game is close.
  2. Trade deadline:  We don’t want one in dynasty
  3. IR Violations:  It is allowed (with no penalty) to leave players who are obviously not playing in the IR slot through the Thursday games.  This is a risk to the manager since they will not be able to do Waivers or submit a lineup until the player is officially declared “out” usually on Sunday morning.  Risk of not being able to set a lineup versus reward of “gaming” the system and keeping the roster spot free for a few more days.
  4. We will be rebalancing the league every 5 years. Next one is scheduled for 2025.
  5. And this is the big one:  Bottom 4 team by PF through week 13 that has lucky schedule and gets into the wildcard match (even if they lose it) does NOT get to be in the lotto drawing for 1.01-1.04.   They made playoffs, they do not get rewarded with a top 4 pick.

2021 Approved Rules

  • 1.13 for consolation being changed to 2.13

  0.     Don’t Be an Asshole.

Smack talk is allowed and good but you should still be an adult, try to obey the spirit and the letter of the rules, and contribute to the league being fun and fair for everyone.

  • It’s OK to be an asshole to Leperfish, he deserves it.

  1. Money

  1. This is a money league. Owners must pay at least the current year’s Dues in order to participate.
  2. The annual Dues are US$30.83.
  1. $5.83 goes to pay the MFL fees for the league ($69.95 for 2017 and 2018).
  2. The remaining $25 goes to the prize pool ($300 for 2017 and 2018).
  1. A Treasurer may be elected by the Owners in advance of the deadline for each year’s Dues. In the event a new Treasurer replaces a previous Treasurer, all money held by the previous Treasurer (including future-paid Dues) must be sent to the new Treasurer in a timely manner.
  1. An election is held only if the previous Treasurer voluntarily steps down, or, if any Owner calls for a new election for Treasurer.
  2. Every Owner gets one vote for Treasurer. If there is a tie, the three Commissioners select a winner from among the tied candidates.
  3. The Treasurer must provide and keep up-to-date accurate contact information to all Owners who have paid Dues for current and future years.
  4. The Treasurer must provide timely payouts of Winnings to winners at the direction of the league Commissioners and in accordance with the rules.
  5. The Treasurer must keep and provide to the Owners at all times an accounting of league money.
  6. In the event there is a dispute between the Treasurer and any Owner, the league Commissioners will jointly act to resolve the dispute.
  1. The Dues must be paid to the Treasurer by the pre-draft deadline or the Owner may not participate in the draft.
  1. The pre-draft deadline is one week (7 days) before the draft. The deadline needs to allow the Commissioners time to find a replacement if an Owner fails to pay the Dues, to avoid the draft having to be postponed.
  1. Dues may be paid in advance for future years of the league.
  1. Owners may not trade (send or receive) draft picks for years for which they have not yet paid Dues.
  2. The Treasurer must ensure that Owners making a good-faith effort to deposit Dues can do so in a timely manner, particularly when time is of the essence for completing a potential trade.
  3. Owners should anticipate that delays are possible, and make future-year Dues deposits well in advance of attempting to trade future picks.
  1. Dues may be refunded:
  1. If an Owner must voluntarily withdraw from the league. In this case, pro-rated Dues are refunded after a replacement Owner is identified and that Owner has paid into the league. Pro-rated dues means an amount of the dues are refunded equal to the proportion of the remaining weeks in the regular fantasy season compared to the total number of weeks in the regular fantasy season. Pre-paid Dues for future years are fully refunded. For the purposes of refunds, the season begins on the day of the draft, and ends after the last regular season game in the last week of the fantasy league. That is, no part of the championship weeks are included. This means a player withdrawing during the fantasy post-season cannot claim a refund. The reason is to prevent sore losers from trying to take their ball and go home. We’re only talking like a few dollars by that point anyway.
  2. If, after an Owner is forcibly ejected from the league, and a replacement player has paid dues, and at least two of the three Commissioners vote to refund the ejected Owner; in this case, the refunded dues are pro-rated as for 1.6.1. If the ejected Owner is a Commissioner, the replacement Commissioner is elected and then the three Commissioners conduct the vote concerning the refund.
  1. Owners agree that the entire Dues for the current year may be forfeited to the league if they are ejected for breaking the rules, which is very unlikely to happen unless they’ve been a huge asshole.
  1. Commissioners should base their decision regarding a partial refund on whether the ejected Owner was being a huge asshole about things. Merely disagreeing with a rule, ruling, or other owner isn’t being an asshole, and neither is ordinary inter-owner trash talking.
  1. Dues deposited for future years are never subject to forfeit prior to the Dues payment deadline for that year’s rookie draft.
  2. Every Owner is responsible for ensuring the Treasurer has accurate contact information for them, in the event that a refund is necessary.
  3. In the event that the entire league is terminated for any reason, all Owners must be fully refunded for the current and any future years they have paid in.

  1. Winnings

  1. The annual purse is 12 teams x $25 = $300
  1. First place gets $160
  2. Second place gets $80
  3. Third place gets $40
  4. Fourth Place gets $20
  5. Winner of the consolation bracket gets 2.13

  1. League Structure

  1. This is a “Dynasty” league. In a dynasty league, Owners draft a large team and then keep most or all of their players from one year to the next.
  1. Despite the intent, nothing prevents Owners from dropping as many players as they want, during any period that is not subject to a lock. This includes after the end of a given season and before any new season’s rookie draft.
  2. Players are locked and may not be dropped:
  1. At any time when a Commissioner has called for a special lock in order to conduct maintenance, perform an investigation, determine a player’s eligibility, resolve a rules dispute, or whatever other purpose strikes their fancy. Any one Commissioner can implement such a lock at any time; any two Commissioners can override a Commissioner’s lock as needed. A special lock may affect one or more specific players, one or more specific teams, or all teams at once.
  2. During the off-season.
  1. The off-season lock will be announced at least a week in advance of the lock taking place.
  1. To follow the spirit of a Dynasty format, Owners should manage their teams with the intent of balancing long-term multi-year success of the team, against the short-term attempt to win in the current year.
  1. Owners have very broad leeway to make their own determinations as to what actions will benefit their teams, short- and long-term.
  1. 3.1.3.1 notwithstanding, no Owner is permitted to deliberately sabotage their own team. This rule is necessary in order to preserve the integrity of the game, and to ensure that in the event an Owner leaves, their team will be reasonably attractive to a replacement Owner.
  1. Evidence that an Owner has deliberately sabotaged their own team must be extremely clear and undeniable in order for any corrective or punitive action to be taken by the Commissioners. Merely making a few “unequal” or “bad” player transactions is not sufficient to meet this standard. Neglecting to manage a team for a couple of weeks also does not meet this standard.
  1. Rosters will consist of the following: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 FLEX (RB/WR/TE), 1 LB, 1DB, 1DL, 3 FLEX (LB/DB/DL), 3 IR slots, and an active bench of 12 slots, for a maximum team size of 28 players. In addition are 4 slots for taxi squads. For more info on Taxi squads go to section 9.
  2. Players who are designated as Out (officially, by the NFL, as reflected in MFL's status designations) or on the NFL Injured Reserve list may be placed into one of a team’s three Injured Reserve slots. The software will enforce this restriction.
  1. When a player is no longer Out or on IR, the software does not automatically move them back to your bench. You must do this manually. The software will not permit you to set a starting lineup until you resolve the situation. You may not avoid busting your salary cap by leaving an ineligible player in an IR slot.
  1. There is no minimum roster size, although per rule 3.1.3.2, Owners have a responsibility to field a complete starting roster every match.
  2. The league is divided into three Divisions of four teams each.
  1. Initially teams will be randomly divided into their divisions.
  2. During the season, each team will play each other team in their division twice, and all of the teams from other divisions once each. This totals 14 games, resulting in a 14-week regular season.
  3. After the first year, in subsequent years divisions may be re-organized.
  1. Re-organization will be based on an agreed-upon scheme voted by the Owners. For example, divisions might be randomly rearranged, or organized by winning/losing records, etc.

  1. Playoffs

  1. Each season, five teams will make the playoffs and the remaining seven teams will enter a consolation tournament.
  1. For both the playoffs and the consolation tournament, tiebreakers when determining seeding are based on total points scored by the team through the regular season.
  1. Playoff tournament structure:
  1. In week 1 of the playoffs, the top team in each division gets a bye.
  2. In week 1 of the playoffs, the top two teams that did not win their divisions play a wildcard match.
  1. Wildcard qualification is based on win/loss ratio, not division or league standing.
  1. In week 2 of the playoffs, the top seeded team plays the winner of the wildcard match. The second- and third-seeded teams play each other.
  2. In week 3 of the playoffs, the winners of the previous week’s matches play the championship game to determine the first and second places.
  3. In week 3 of the playoffs, the losers of the previous week’s matches play each other to determine third and fourth place.
  1. Consolation bracket will be two combined scores for weeks 16 and 17.
  1. The wildcard loser from the winners bracket will be dumped into the consolation bracket which starts on week 16.
  2. Every team sets a lineup for both weeks and at the end of the two weeks the best combined score will be awarded the fifth place and the 2.13 draft pick prize
  3. In week 1 of the consolation tournament, the top-seeded team gets a bye. The remaining six teams are seeded based on win/loss record, with the best facing the worst, the second-best facing the second-worst, and the two middle teams playing one another.
  4. In week 2 of the consolation tournament, the team that had a bye in week 1 plays the worst team that won in week 1, and the other two winning teams play one another. This is the consolation semifinals.
  5. In week 2, the remaining teams (the three teams that lost in week 1, plus the team that lost the wildcard match in the week 1 playoffs) play one another; the results of these matches have little consequence, though.
  6. In week 3, the winners of the consolation semifinals play one another to determine the consolation tournament winner.
  7. In week 3, the remaining teams play one another.
  1. At the end of the playoffs, there should be First, Second, Third, and Fourth-place teams from the playoff bracket. There is also a winner of the consolation bracket.
  2. The consolation bracket winner and the other seven teams are ranked based on points scored through the regular season (week 14), excluding postseason games.
  1. This ranking determines draft order for the following season’s rookie/free agent draft, in the following way:
  1. The first, second, third, and fourth-place teams are seeded into the last four slots of the draft, in reverse order of championship standings.
  2. From the remaining teams, the four teams that scored the lowest amount of points through the regular season are randomly seeded into the first four draft picks.
  3. The remaining four teams are randomly seeded into the four remaining slots.
  1. The consolation bracket winner, in addition to the slot they are seeded into by regular season points, gets a bonus second round pick at 2.13.

  1. Scoring

  1. 0.5 PPR. Each reception by an offensive player is worth half of one fantasy point.
  2. Offensive scoring:
  • Passing yards: 0.04 points/yd
  • TD pass thrown: 4 points
  • Interceptions thrown: -2 points
  • Rushing yards: 0.1 points/yd
  • Rushing TD: 6 points
  • 2pt rushing conversion: 2 points
  • Receiving yards: 0.1 points/yd
  • Each reception: 0.5 points
  • TD reception: 6 points
  • 2pt receiving conversion: 2 points
  • Kickoff/punt return yards: 0.04 points/yd
  • Kickoff/punt return TD: 6 points
  • Fumble recovered for TD: 6 points
  • Interception return TD: 6 points
  • Blocked punt or FG return for TD: 6 points
  • 1 point Safety: 1 point
  • Fumbles lost: -2 points
  1. Defensive scoring:
  • Solo Tackles: 1.5 points
  • Assisted Tackles: .75 points
  • Sacks: 4 points
  • QB Hits: .75 points
  • Tackles for a Loss: 2 or 3 points (2 if includes sacks, 3 if not)
  • Interceptions: 9 points, inclusive of Pass Defensed
  • Passes Defensed: 3 points
  • Forced Fumbles: 4 points
  • Fumble Recoveries: 2 points
  • Safeties: 6 points
  • Blocked Kicks: 6 points
  • Touchdowns: 6 points
  • Rushing yards: 0.1 points/yd
  • Receiving yards: 0.1 points/yd

  1. Startup Drafting

  1. The startup draft has a different format from the annual rookie drafts. For the startup draft, we will use a live, auction-style draft, in which bids are visible to all Owners.
  1. Each Owner has an equal budget of $200 Pretend Fake Dollars with which to construct their team.
  2. Bidding will be conducted using the Fantasy Site’s software, which determines things like how much time you have to place a bid, how long you get to rebid, etc.
  3. The maximum bid any Owner can make is equal to their remaining budget, minus $1 for each remaining slot on their team. This ensures no player runs out of minimum bids before their team’s slots are filled.
  1. Owners cannot fill their IR slots during the startup draft.
  2. The minimum bid for any player is $1 Fake Pretend Dollar.
  1. The minimum bid increment is +$1 Fake Pretend Dollar.
  2. In the event that the software used for the startup draft has a malfunction, at the discretion of the Commissioners, the draft may be paused, postponed, re-started, or moved to a new host, as the technology permits.
  3. Owners may not change their minds about bids after the fact. An obviously unintended bid may be rolled back at the discretion of the Commissioners; for example, an Owner intended to bid $10 but accidentally bid $100. If a bid is not obviously unintentional, the assumption is that it was intentional. Type carefully and verify your bids, Owners.
  4. Irrespective of intent, once an Owner’s bid has been outbid by another Owner, it cannot be rolled back.

  1. Voluntary Annual Veteran Free Agent Auction and Rookie Draft

  1. After the first year (that is, beginning in fall 2016), prior to the beginning of the regular NFL season, there is an annual Rookie Draft, followed a few days later by a Free Agent draft.
  1. Owners must clear all roster violations, including taking ineligible players off of taxi squads and uninjured players off of IR, 48 hours before the Veteran Free Agent Auction or the Rookie Draft, whichever we do first.
  1. The Veteran Free Agent Auction consists of a single, blind-bidding FAAB auction using the new season’s $100 auction budget.
  1. The auction must be scheduled at least two days before the rookie draft, but otherwise as late as reasonable, and ideally after the week 3 preseason games.
  2. By August 1st, teams are unlocked and Owners may trade and drop players. Teams can still be above their cap while doing this.
  3. 48 hours before the auction, teams are locked from dropping players. Owners cannot drop players until after the completion of the auction. At this point teams must be at or below the salary cap.
  4. When it occurs before the rookie draft, The Veteran Free Agent Auction consists of non-rookie free agent players only. Owners may not bid on or add rookies to their rosters during this auction.
  5. Winning bids set player salaries for that year’s salary cap, as normal.
  6. Conditional bidding (with groups) is enabled for this auction, if it is a blind bid auction (not applicable to live auctions). 
  7. Owners may not drop players as part of the auction.
  8. Owners must remain within their cap space through the completion of the auction.
  1. The Rookie Draft is a non-Snake ordered draft for the first two rounds. Beginning with the third round, the draft becomes a Snake draft.
  1. The Rookie Draft consists of players designated as Rookies only.
  2. Just prior to the Rookie Draft, a Commissioner will add temporary bench slots equal to the number of empty taxi squad slots each team has. If it is a slow draft, a Commissioner will add one temporary bench slot only.
  1. The intent of these temporary bench slots is to permit owners to draft up to the max of four rookies that will be placed on their taxi squads, without having to free three regular roster slots for them. MFL does not permit drafting players directly to a taxi squad, so this is a workaround.
  2. Immediately after the draft, owners must clear these three temporary bench slots by moving players onto their taxi squad. Owners cannot clear these bench slots by dropping players.
  3. A commissioner will remove the temporary bench slots before teams become unlocked for dropping players or bidding in the next regular FAAB auction.
  4. Owners are not obligated to draft to fill these four slotst their roster or taxi squad. An owner can leave one or more of the slots empty through the draft.
  5. Owners are not obligated to place rookies onto their taxi squads unless this is the only way to clear one or more of the three temporary bench slots.
  6. After owners have had the opportunity to move rookies onto their taxi squads, team salaries are checked against the cap. Teams must not have exceeded the cap. This means owners are obliged when using the temporary slots and drafting rookies to know their cap space and avoid drafting rookies totalling a cap hit too high for them to avoid through taxi squad moves.
  1. See Escalating Costs and the Salary Cap for penalties for exceeding the salary cap. In this case, an owner will be obliged to drop just-drafted rookies to free agency in order to clear cap space, starting with their last-drafted rookie and working backwards until it is possible for them to clear the cap.
  1. After determining Drafting Position, draft picks in the Rookie Draft are adjusted based on pre-existing trades of draft picks.
  2. Drafting Position is determined by: See Rule 4.5
  1. Salary of drafted players is determined based on their selection position, as follows:
  1. In the first round, the first four picks are paid $17
  2. In the first round, the fifth through eighth picks are paid $15
  3. In the first round, the ninth through twelfth picks are paid $13

The now-defunct 1.13 was $11

  1. In the second round, the first through fourth picks are paid $9
  2. In the second round, the fifth through eighth picks are paid $7
  3. In the second round, the ninth through twelfth picks are paid $5
  1. Bonus pick 2.13 is paid $4
  1. All players drafted in the third round are paid $3
  2. All players drafted in the fourth and later rounds are paid $1
  3. All remaining drafted players (fifth and later rounds) are paid $1
  1. <rule deleted>
  2. Drafting is voluntary. Owners are under no obligation to fill out empty team slots.
  3. If an Owner does not have enough salary cap room to pay a rookie at a given draft position, they cannot draft at that position.
  1. The Owner can trade away the pick, or drop players from their team before the draft to free up cap space.
  2. All such drops must be made in advance of the Veteran Free Agent Auction, and those dropped players become eligible for that Auction. 
  1. During the Rookie/Free Agent draft, Owners may trade players and picks, including picks for future rookie drafts, up to two years into the future.
  2. Draft picks may be traded by Owners. In order to offer or accept a future draft pick, an Owner must pay the Dues to the treasurer for that year. E.g., in order to trade next year’s draft picks, you must pay next year’s dues first.
  1. An Owner can trade away his current turn to draft a player any time before his clock runs out.
  2. All Owners involved in a trade must confirm the trade before the clock runs out.
  3. If an Owner trades away his current pick, the new Owner gets a new full time period in which to draft a player.
  1. If the clock runs out and an Owner has not drafted a player, the pick is autodrafted (if an autodraft order has been submitted) or, failing that, skipped, and the turn moves to the next Owner in the draft.
  1. When a pick is skipped, it still “counts” for the purpose of tracking pick order, player salaries, etc.

  1. Escalating Costs and the Salary Cap

  1. Each team has a salary cap, representing the maximum dollar value the players on the team’s roster may total.
  2. The salary cap is $250 pretend fake dollars.
  1. Players on IR apply 50% of their value to the team’s salary cap.
  2. Players on the taxi squad apply 0% of their value to the team’s salary cap.
  3. Every player’s salary is initially set based on:
  1. The winning bid during the startup auction
  2. The winning bid during any FAAB period
  3. The winning bid during the annual Free Agent Draft
  4. Their draft position in the annual Rookie Draft
  1. When Owners trade players, the players retain their current salary.
  2. When a player is dropped to free agency, his salary is reset to 0.
  1. Annually, players kept on any team’s roster increase their salary value.
  1. Every player’s salary increases by the greater of $1, or 10% of their current salary rounded to the nearest whole dollar.
  2. After salaries increase, teams are unlocked and Owners whose total roster salary exceeds the salary cap must drop players until they are under the cap.
  1. Owners may not complete a transaction that would raise their team’s total salary above the salary cap.
  1. Owners may draft or trade players “directly” to discounted roster slots. For example, an Owner may avoid exceeding their cap by drafting or trading an injured player directly to their IR, or by drafting or trading a rookie directly to their taxi squad.
  1. While you may avoid busting your cap by acquiring a player that is already IR-slot eligible, by acquiring them and then immediately placing them into one of your IR slots; you still have to have a regular bench slot open in order to acquire any player. The software requires you to put incoming players into open bench slots.
  1. Owners may complete simultaneous multi-party trades. For example, Owner A may trade player 1 to Owner B, who trades player 2 to Owner C, who trades player 3 to Owner A; in this example, Owner A’s salary cap is only impacted by the difference in salary between player 1 and player 3.
  2. In the event that an Owner discovers his or any other Owner’s team exceeds the cap, their first action must be to inform a Commissioner of the situation. The Commissioner will evaluate the situation, take any action (including discussing with other Commissioners) if necessary, and then make a decision as to the corrective action. (This action may be simply asking the Owner to drop players to get below the cap, if the mistake appears to have been innocent and/or harmless).
  1. The Owner should only take action to correct the salary cap violation based on Commissioner instructions.
  1. Teams exceeding the salary cap through any cause must be considered unfairly advantaged in a match.
  1. In the unlikely event a salary cap violation is discovered during or after a match has been scored (that is, in any scoring situation where simply dropping players is no longer a fair solution), the team exceeding the match must forfeit points earned by players beginning with the player that earned them the most points that match, and continuing until forfeited players’ salaries exceed the amount by which the team’s salary exceeds the cap.
  1. For example, if a team’s salary is found to exceed the cap by $12 after a match, first the highest-point-earning player’s points are forfeited. Suppose this player’s salary was $11. The next-highest player’s points are forfeited. Suppose this player’s salary was $3. The team has now forfeited enough salary to get under the cap; the remainder of their earned points are still valid. The winner of the match is decided based on the remaining points.
  1. Owners are individually responsible for tracking their own salaries, even if there is a reference spreadsheet for the league tracking player and team salaries.

  1. Taxi Squads

  1. Rookies (as defined by the NFL) and sophomores (players who were officially NFL rookies the previous football season) that have never been started in a match by any Owner can be placed onto the Taxi squad. Once a player is activated (locked into a starting position at the beginning of a game their team is in) by an Owner, it cannot be placed back on a taxi squad.
  2. Rookies and sophomores traded onto a team or picked up off of free agency may be placed on a taxi squad only if no previous Owner has previously started them.
  3. Non-rookies (veterans) traded onto a team or picked up off of free agency cannot be placed on a taxi squad.
  4. The previous rules notwithstanding, a player may be kept on a taxi squad throughout their rookie year and sophomore year.
  5. There will be taxi squads for each team, consisting of 4 slots.
  6. Players on your taxi squad do not cost any money towards your cap. Salary info for them is based on draft position or FAAB paid. Traded players retain their salaries as normal.
  7. At any time you can promote players off your taxi squad and onto your bench. Doing so only affects your cap, which you have to stay under.
  8. HOWEVER, once you "start" (activate) a player - that is, put them in a starting position that then becomes locked because the game that player's team has hit its scheduled start, that player has been "started" and is forever ineligible to be placed on any taxi squad. Note that this is the case even if in real life that player does not play in that game, and irrespective of that player's in-real-life status... e.g., a player on a real NFL practice squad that you "start" still counts as being started, because you are an idiot and deserve what happens to you if you do this.
  9. At any time up to 72 hours before a player's team is scheduled to play, Beginning at Noon Eastern time on the Monday before the first game of the season, and continuing until Noon Eastern time on the Thursday before the final game of week 14, you can attempt to steal a player from another owner's practice squad:
  1. Players playing Thursday Night Football matches may be declared for a theft attempt any time between Noon Eastern time Tuesday, and Noon Eastern time Wednesday.
  2. Players playing on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday matches may be declared for a theft attempt any time between Noon Eastern time Tuesday, and Noon Eastern time Thursday.
  3. For example, if the player has a Thursday night game this week, you can try to steal the player no later than Monday night, 72 hours before the TNG begins.
  1. To initiate a steal requires $5 FAAB to be removed by the commish once a steal goes through.  The fee is paid even if the steal is subsequently blocked per 9.10.2, but is refunded if the steal is canceled per 9.10.3.
  1. You attempt to steal a player by posting in the thread, as well as sending messages via the MFL interface to the entire league. 
  1. You must also send a trade to the person you are stealing from consisting of a compensatory draft pick that aligns with when the player was drafted or a higher round pick.  Example: Stealing a player that was drafted in the 3rd round requires you to send next year’s 3rd round pick for that player as well as announcing the steal to the league in the aforementioned methods.  Note: This requires you to pay your dues a year in advance.
  2. Free agents being stolen from a taxi squad require a 3rd round pick or better to be sent.
  1. The owner of the player then has up to 48 hours to block your steal attempt. The only way to block a steal attempt is to commit to starting that player in his next NFL game. That means you must promote the player - dropping players as necessary to make roster space and/or cap space - and then put that player into a starting spot and leave him there until his game locks.
  1. if the original owner of the player wants to block a steal, the player - whether already in IR/O/S/Q/D status, or moves to such a status later in the week: up to and including a move from Q/D to O just before game time, may optionally not start an Out, IR, Suspended, or dropped to free agency player. That is, you have to start the player if he's in a playing status, but if he's in a non-playing status you can bench him.
  2. Even if the owner elects to bench (that is, not start) the player based on this rule, the player still becomes permanently ineligible for taxi squad. So, blocking the steal means having to keep the player on your bench (or IR), paying his salary (or half-salary on IR), etc. This still sticks to the player even if the player goes to another team via trade, drop/waivers, etc.
  1. Exception: if, after a steal attempt is initiated, the player being stolen is injured (reported as questionable, doubtful, out, placed on IR), suspended (placed on S), or dropped to waivers/free agency by their owning NFL team, either owner may back out and restore the status quo. That means the stealing owner can cancel their steal attempt - the player stays with the original owner. An owner who already initiated the blockage of a steal by rostering the player may back out of their block, permitting the other owner to steal the player (if they still want to). And, the player remains eligible to return to a practice squad (or, if applicable, IR), according to the owner's desire.
  1. You can no longer back out & restore the status quo for players who become injured and move to Questionable, Doubtful, or Out status. This rule still applies to players who are placed on IR, Suspended, or dropped to waivers/free agency.
  2. Once the player becomes locked into a game, none of this stuff applies... it's just like any other NFL man who fucks you over with his failure during a game. You can't put him back on a practice squad.
  1. All of the above notwithstanding, players are added to practice squads in the normal way, by moving them from your bench (if eligible), trading for them, picking them up off of waivers via FAAB, or drafting them during the Annual Rookie or Free Agent Drafts. You are permitted to transit a player via your bench to your taxi squad and not bust your cap in the process, if the MFL software won't let you move the player directly to your squad from wherever you got him.
  2. Owners whose win/loss record have mathematically eliminated them from the (non-consolation) playoffs are immune to taxi squad theft, and cannot steal taxi squad players.
  3. Teams cannot steal taxi squad players while they (the player’s team) are on a bye week.
  4. Taxi squad players may not be stolen after the Week 14 NFL games are played. This means there is no taxi squad theft during the league playoffs.
  5. An owner may only attempt to steal one taxi squad player from a given team each week. (You can still attempt to steal one taxi squad player each from several different teams.)
  6. If you successfully steal a taxi squad player, you cannot avoid starting that player by trading him away or dropping him.

  1. FAAB Waivers

  1. Each fantasy football season, each Owner gets a budget of $100 fake pretend dollars spendable on free agents.
  2. During the course of the fantasy football season, each week after the last game is played (typically Monday night), all Owners may attempt to pick up free agent players from the waiver wire.
  1. Owners desiring to add a free agent to their team must enter a blind bid no later than the waiver deadline.
  2. On Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 11 AM Eastern time, the system automatically processes bids in order from highest to lowest. The highest bidder for a given free agent gets that agent for their bid.
  3. When there is a tie between two bidders, the tiebreaker is the inverse order of team standings, reset each week.
  4. When processing a bid, if the Owner does not have an available slot on their team, and has also not used the system to identify a player to drop for this free agent, the bid is canceled automatically by the software.
  5. Players dropped from a roster are locked for 24 hours and cannot be added via FAAB until the lock expires. This prevents an owner from using the FAAB system to quickly drop and then re-add a player at a much lower salary.
  1. The software is not aware of the salary cap. 
  1. Owners are responsible for reviewing their own bids and canceling mistakes before the bids are processed.
  2. If an Owner exceeds their salary cap by FAABing one or more players in a given waiver period, a Commissioner must examine the FAAB bids and transfer players as needed. Players are picked in the order from highest to lowest bids by the violating team, and transferred to the next-highest bidder (if any) or the free agent pool, until the team no longer violates salary cap.
  3. Violating teams may not drop other players after the fact to get back under the cap. You have to drop players in advance, or as part of the automated FAAB process, or else you have an unfair advantage.
  1. [Should the waiver process be locked for the playoffs?]
  2. [What should happen during the post-season?]

  1. Commissioners

  1. As team creator, Leperflesh will serve as the permanent member of the security council League Commissioner Triumvirate.
  2. Two other Commissioners are selected by the Owners from among any volunteers.  
  3. All Commissioners must make themselves available for public or private communication from Owners, such as by having PMs or providing email addresses, and by checking messages sent from the league software regularly.
  4. Unless otherwise indicated in the league rules, the three Commissioners are jointly responsible for resolving issues and disputes and performing management and maintenance tasks.
  1. Whenever time and circumstances permit, Commissioners should deliberate among themselves and attempt to reach consensus before taking action on matters of significant import, such as:
  1. Penalizing Owners for any reason
  2. Reversing any Owner action, such as a dropped or added player, bid, trade, etc.
  3. Anything having to do with real money
  4. Any change to these League Rules
  1. When time and circumstances do not permit, or when the three Commissioners do not reach a consensus in a reasonable amount of time, any two Commissioners may take joint action on these items.
  1. Previous rules notwithstanding, any Commissioner may resolve routine issues, giving priority to timely resolution while being as fair-minded as possible.
  2. Whenever an Owner disagrees with the action of any Commissioner, the Owner may first appeal to that Commissioner: if they are unsatisfied, or if they do not want to appeal to that Commissioner, they should bring the matter to the three Commissioners publicly or privately.
  1. The Commissioners are obligated to take appeals seriously.
  2. Any two Commissioners can overrule the third, but when doing so, must deliberate, give the third Commissioner the opportunity to present their case, and present a reasoned argument for making the overruling.
  1. Rulings made by any Commissioner which involve interpreting the league rules should be presented publicly to the entire League.
  2. Any Owner in the league may call for a vote of no confidence in a given Commissioner.
  1. A Commissioner can be dismissed from their position by a 2/3s vote of the Owners.

  1. Annual Calendar of Events

  1. The day after the superbowl: Teams are locked for the summer. Owners may exceed salary caps. Owners may hold ineligible players on taxi and IR squads. Rules changes are discussed in the thread, and the commissioners may update league rules to apply changes agreed upon during the season and during the summer.
  2. May, June, or July: the Treasurer renews the league in MFL, paying the annual fees, and updates the spreadsheet as needed.
  3. July-August: Owners are polled and dates for the rookie and free agent drafts are set.The rookie draft may be live or a slow draft as needed. Commissioners determine and perform any divisional rebalancing. The league match schedule is constructed.
  4. August 1st: Rules changes are finalized and published. Teams are unlocked. Owners may drop players, and may make trades, including draft picks.
  5. 72 hours before the first draft, owners must be under their salary caps and have compliant IR and taxi squads.
  6. 48 hours before each draft, owners are barred from drops, although they can continue to make trades up to and through the drafts.