ExperiencedRookie
Well-Known Member
There are a lot of spots in fantasy football that either toe the grey line or cross it. I think we almost always know the difference between right and wrong.
Collusion is always wrong! We all know that. Then there are happenings that don't break a single league rule, but are clearly dirty.
For example, here is a situation that played out in 1 of my leagues last year. Player A has Peyton on a bye and tons of WRs. Player B has 2 active QBs, but 2 WRs on a bye. Player A sends a WR to Player B for a QB, and the next week they trade the exact same 2 players back to eachother. This is 100% flat out cheating in my opinion, but they both adamantly argued that they didn't break a single rule.
We all know situations like this, cause well, we're fantasy football junkies. I'm about to tell you another story and I want you to be the judge. There are a lot of details that aren't typical for a regular redraft league..just something to keep in mind.
12 man dynasty with hard salary cap, 21 player roster, 3 player taxi squad for players in their first 3 years in the NFL. In other words, you can store a ton of players.
This year we did an offseason auction for all free agents. Our commissioner was worried that people would intentionally drive the prices up on players that they didn't really want. This is common auction strategy in my opinion, but whatever. He put a rule in that any player acquired in this auction would need to be rostered all season and full salary be paid even if they went on IR, got suspended, etc etc. So in other words, if you tried to drive the price up on a player and then you accidently got him, you're stuck with him.
Fast forward to week 4, and this is where the ethical and moral question comes into play. I'm sitting at 3-0 and I've been the high scorer of all of the first 3 weeks. My team looks unstoppable, but my opponents have been putting up ENORMOUS games against me and I've just barely been sneaking by. My division is insanely tough and I can't afford to ever mail it in.
My opponent in week 4 is a divisional foe. His QBs are R Wilson (bye), McCown (hurt), and Locker (questionable). Heading into Sundays waiver period Locker becomes more and more questionable. I'm 99% sure he's going to pick up a QB as an insurance policy.
Both he and I have our defenses on a bye. The Ds on the wire are all pretty terrible, but Miami is available in a salty matchup with Oakland. I send him an email offering a waiver wire truce: neither of us will use the waiver wire heading into the weekend. He rejects this truce on the grounds of my roster being loaded and knowing I don't want to drop anyone. Fair is fair, and I'm fine with it. So be it, off to the wire we go.
I go and look at what QBs he'll have to choose from and notice that Fitzpatrick is the ONLY starting QB available. So what do I do?? Instead of picking up a defense, I focus my efforts on Fitzpatrick to block him from having a QB insurance policy.
Sunday morning the waivers process, and as it turns out, I out bid him on Fitzpatrick and he picked up the Miami D.
After the announcement is made that Locker is out for the game, I send him a trade offer of Fitzpatrick for a 2017 1st round pick. Apparently this didn't sit well with him. He sends me an email spazzing out about how he hates me and will be quitting the league next year. He then goes on to moan to the commissioner about me and how I'm ruining the league.
The commissioner then jumps down my throat with a bunch of BS about how that move was unnecessary. His argument is that I was a 58 point favorite, and it's just ridiculous to be pulling moves that piss people off. I explained to him that I was a 62 point favorite in week 2 and won by 2.5. Nothing is certain!
Sunday action kicks off and my opponent has no QB. Apparently my block was so disheartening that he didn't even bother to put the Miami D into his lineup. I score 165 and it really looks like my move was truly unnecessary. Going into Monday nights game I have an enormous lead! Had I sat on my hands and let him pick up Fitzpatrick, he would have likely started the Miami D as well, and would have an extra 34 points.
MNF starts and he has Charles and Kelce going. Suddenly these 2 players start having HUGE games. The commissioner is paying close attention and is doing the math. Once Kelce has a TD and Charles has 3 he figures out that the score would be 162-155 with 7 minutes left in the game.
This is where the "have to keep a player acquired in the FA auction" comes into play. The commish notices that I dropped the ARI D for Fitzpatrick, and realized that technically I should not have been allowed to do so. So what does he do?? Mid game he pulls Fitzpatrick off my roster and puts him into my opponents starting lineup. Them without even checking the waiver system to make sure this dude would have still acquired the Miami D had he been able to pic Fitzpatrick up originally, he slides that D from the bench into his starting line up. Literally trying to F me out of a win if Kelce and Charles can get 7 more points.
Please Outlaws, weigh in here. Is my move to block him at QB a dickish one or is this dude a cry baby? Is my commissioner way out of line?
Collusion is always wrong! We all know that. Then there are happenings that don't break a single league rule, but are clearly dirty.
For example, here is a situation that played out in 1 of my leagues last year. Player A has Peyton on a bye and tons of WRs. Player B has 2 active QBs, but 2 WRs on a bye. Player A sends a WR to Player B for a QB, and the next week they trade the exact same 2 players back to eachother. This is 100% flat out cheating in my opinion, but they both adamantly argued that they didn't break a single rule.
We all know situations like this, cause well, we're fantasy football junkies. I'm about to tell you another story and I want you to be the judge. There are a lot of details that aren't typical for a regular redraft league..just something to keep in mind.
12 man dynasty with hard salary cap, 21 player roster, 3 player taxi squad for players in their first 3 years in the NFL. In other words, you can store a ton of players.
This year we did an offseason auction for all free agents. Our commissioner was worried that people would intentionally drive the prices up on players that they didn't really want. This is common auction strategy in my opinion, but whatever. He put a rule in that any player acquired in this auction would need to be rostered all season and full salary be paid even if they went on IR, got suspended, etc etc. So in other words, if you tried to drive the price up on a player and then you accidently got him, you're stuck with him.
Fast forward to week 4, and this is where the ethical and moral question comes into play. I'm sitting at 3-0 and I've been the high scorer of all of the first 3 weeks. My team looks unstoppable, but my opponents have been putting up ENORMOUS games against me and I've just barely been sneaking by. My division is insanely tough and I can't afford to ever mail it in.
My opponent in week 4 is a divisional foe. His QBs are R Wilson (bye), McCown (hurt), and Locker (questionable). Heading into Sundays waiver period Locker becomes more and more questionable. I'm 99% sure he's going to pick up a QB as an insurance policy.
Both he and I have our defenses on a bye. The Ds on the wire are all pretty terrible, but Miami is available in a salty matchup with Oakland. I send him an email offering a waiver wire truce: neither of us will use the waiver wire heading into the weekend. He rejects this truce on the grounds of my roster being loaded and knowing I don't want to drop anyone. Fair is fair, and I'm fine with it. So be it, off to the wire we go.
I go and look at what QBs he'll have to choose from and notice that Fitzpatrick is the ONLY starting QB available. So what do I do?? Instead of picking up a defense, I focus my efforts on Fitzpatrick to block him from having a QB insurance policy.
Sunday morning the waivers process, and as it turns out, I out bid him on Fitzpatrick and he picked up the Miami D.
After the announcement is made that Locker is out for the game, I send him a trade offer of Fitzpatrick for a 2017 1st round pick. Apparently this didn't sit well with him. He sends me an email spazzing out about how he hates me and will be quitting the league next year. He then goes on to moan to the commissioner about me and how I'm ruining the league.
The commissioner then jumps down my throat with a bunch of BS about how that move was unnecessary. His argument is that I was a 58 point favorite, and it's just ridiculous to be pulling moves that piss people off. I explained to him that I was a 62 point favorite in week 2 and won by 2.5. Nothing is certain!
Sunday action kicks off and my opponent has no QB. Apparently my block was so disheartening that he didn't even bother to put the Miami D into his lineup. I score 165 and it really looks like my move was truly unnecessary. Going into Monday nights game I have an enormous lead! Had I sat on my hands and let him pick up Fitzpatrick, he would have likely started the Miami D as well, and would have an extra 34 points.
MNF starts and he has Charles and Kelce going. Suddenly these 2 players start having HUGE games. The commissioner is paying close attention and is doing the math. Once Kelce has a TD and Charles has 3 he figures out that the score would be 162-155 with 7 minutes left in the game.
This is where the "have to keep a player acquired in the FA auction" comes into play. The commish notices that I dropped the ARI D for Fitzpatrick, and realized that technically I should not have been allowed to do so. So what does he do?? Mid game he pulls Fitzpatrick off my roster and puts him into my opponents starting lineup. Them without even checking the waiver system to make sure this dude would have still acquired the Miami D had he been able to pic Fitzpatrick up originally, he slides that D from the bench into his starting line up. Literally trying to F me out of a win if Kelce and Charles can get 7 more points.
Please Outlaws, weigh in here. Is my move to block him at QB a dickish one or is this dude a cry baby? Is my commissioner way out of line?
