blonde NFL Fantasy League 2019/20

[Tal]

DLeague Update / Ruling:

I had a couple of people contact me over the weekend who were unhappy about the use of the IR slot positions by our runaway leaders, #freejoshgordon, in their matchup with me.  For those who've not noticed this, which included myself initially, they currently have three players designated 'Out' (Jamison Crowder, Randall Cobb and AJ Green) in three of their IR slots, which effectively creates 3 additional usable slots on their roster for team changes.  They used them this week to pick up a kicker and a defense late on Sunday to cover bye weeks and injuries in those positiions.

I've discussed this with Tal, in his role as Co-Commish, prior to posting this as I'm conscious that I was the manager directly impacted by these changes.  At the time prior to last night's game they were showing as heavy favourites to win our matchup, but I woke up this morning to see that I'd won the fixture (thanks for keeping me out of 10th place, OBJ).  However, if this had involved two other managers or if I'd lost the fixture, the conclusion which follows would not change.

Essentially, the changes made by #freejoshgordon are possilble due to Yahoo changing the way IR slots work compared to when the league was set up initially.  At that time, only players designated 'IR' would trigger the IR slot showing on screen and players added to those slots couldn't subsequently be moved out of them again that season.  I'm not sure exactly when the functionality changed, possibly before the start of this season, and presumably in response to the changes to the real-life IR designations that have occurred in recent seasons (where players are now eligible to return after sitting out a number of weeks).  However, a quick scan of Yahoo's site rules shows that IR slots are now open to players designated as 'IR', 'PUP' and, most controversially, 'O' (Out).  The IR slot is also reversible in-game, so a player on IR can be moved back onto the active roster without any minimum waiting period.
 Unhelpfully, Yahoo gives me no option to adjust these rules within the settings, which would have been the simplest way to deal with the situation as league Commish, by keeping the settings as a non-reversible 'IR' slot only, so we basically have to live with this functionality being there.

This software change fundamentally changes the nature of the IR slots in our league and my gut reaction is to say well played to David and Rich for spotting and exploiting it.  To be clear, they haven't broken any rules with these changes, as these are actions that the site allows.  However, the site changes have resulted in these slots being available to be used in a way that was never intended in this league.  It doesn't break the rules, but if there was a way I could amend the settings to prevent it, I would do so, so it's best described as being against the spirit of why the IR slots are there.

In terms of what to do about it, I could simply ban it and rely on everyone to abide by the rules as they were originally intended.  The problem with this is that this is reliant on manual policing of internal roster changes and is therefore very difficult to enforce.  In the worst case scenario, it would require all sorts of manual unravelling of roster changes which, in my view, should only be used as a last resort measure.  Consequently, I think it's unworkable.

The alternative option, which I also don't like but which does allow the league to operate without much interference, is to flag these software changes up to everyone so that there's no longer a knowledge gap between managers which can be exploited, and to allow the IR slots to be used in this way for the remainder of the season.  I'm doing this now, ahead of the next round of waivers, so that everyone has an opportunity to factor this into their thinking with regard to pickups for this week.

Longer-term I will review options ahead of the start of next season as to how we can make things work better.  This could include removal of all IR slots completely from our league, or looking at alternative sites where there is more flexibility in the settings (if one exists) or to see if Yahoo's settings next year allow me to amend the settings as I would like.  We could also continue with these amended rules in place, but I will throw it open to manager feedback before we start next season's draft.

Hopefully this message provides sufficient clarity to why I've taken this decision.  I don't like it, but it's the best available option of a set of crappy options.  I also want to re-iterate that #freejoshgordon haven't broken any league rules.  They've managed to discover and exploit a loophole that I wish Yahoo hadn't allowed to be there (guys: if you ever want to change careers, tax planning is tailor-made for you).  Consequently, I'm not taking any action against them.  However, I do think it's only fair to eliminate the knowledge gap and clarify the situation going forward so that everyone can assess if/how they wish to use it.

I concur entirely.

I think IR slots should be used by IR and PUP designations. They're long term injuries and thus not part of your fantasy team's active roster. You move them aside and pick up someone else. But I don't see taking action now to be fair, for the reasons Sheriff says above.

Thanks to those who spotted this, by the way. It's an interesting case.

A team named after a patriots player mired in controversy over an imaginative interpretation and questionable use of rules. Who would have thought?

#IRgate

[TightEnd]

no problem with the ruling

Don't think using IR for non IR/PUP is in the spirit of it but there you go, someone is always going to spot the loophole

 

[LeKnave]

I think it’s an absolute joke that players listed as Doubtful, Questionable and most importantly Probable can’t be added to the IR loophole to be honest.

[ChipRich]

Apologies! I really didn’t think this was a problem and it was just the way the Yahoo site worked their IR and it was open for everyone to do the same and certainly didn’t think we were getting one over on anyone with use of the ‘loophole’

I was pretty sure I’ve seen another team do this at some point and that’s how we found out about it but not 100%

[Sheriff Fatman]

Apologies! I really didn’t think this was a problem and it was just the way the Yahoo site worked their IR and it was open for everyone to do the same and certainly didn’t think we were getting one over on anyone with use of the ‘loophole’

I was pretty sure I’ve seen another team do this at some point and that’s how we found out about it but not 100%

It's entirely possible that was the case.  I didn't refer to it in my post, but one of my issues is that I couldn't be sure that this was the first time it's happened, as the internal roster changes don't show up as easily as for trades, adds, drops, etc.  It might simply be that it's the first time anyone has noticed it.

Not sure why Yahoo don't allow any flexibility with this in their settings, but the ability to control how IR slots work in a league would be the perfect solution.

[LeKnave]

Click to see full-size image.

[MattyHollis]

They did it against me a few weeks ago too. Proper scummy move I thought at the time but nobody else had said anything so assumed it was the norm.

Agree it's not in the spirit of the league.

[bobby1]

It looks like you have trimmed down the squads Curtis .Can you let me know which players you dropped from my squad.I can't remember which ones are missing.

I have players that are listed as inactive as they don't have clubs or have retired and also on PUP. Couldn't those players be placed on IR to leave room for the players dropped?

Cheers

The IR option only becomes accessible to players with an IR status, so PUP, Inactive, etc doesn't qualify.  Also, if you put anyone onto IR from this point forwards they will stay there for the entire season, so don't use the option lightly.

ttt for Tal, not sure it can be any clearer than that.

The Yahoo site hasn't changed at all. you could put players that were out on IR in previous seasons too, I've done it myself because others were. I've spent all season using the ruling above, including having Dez and Rishaard Mathews on my active squad when they didn't even have clubs because of the post from Curtis above. Because Out players have been put on IR in previous seasons  it's only fair that some leaway is allowed to the guys, what I would say tho is I haven't seen anyone doing it all season until this episode. ( I'm not disagreeing with Matty  btw, I just hadn't noticed it) There are some teams that would have benefited a lot by putting their 'Out' players on IR and picking up to 5 more players.

Can't see how now allowing something that you already stated couldn't be done is that fair to everyone else in the league just because its now happened. You are opening up a complete can of worms because any team that is lucky enough to have no players on IR but 5 players that are out can now stash all those 5 out players on IR and pick up another 5 players without dropping anyone. Same right down to having 1 player on IR, just stick anyone that can't play this week in an IR spot and pick 1,2,3,4,5 more players up free and hope you hit one that becomes relevant.  In every other league you have to drop someone to pick someone else up, we just changed that mid season instead?

What I would prefer is for the guys to be asked to drop 3 payers from their squad so they have paid the price everyone else has had to pay to pick up new players but that the 3 they drop cannot include the Kicker and D that they took for free on Sunday night. That way their squad includes those 2 players going forward because they played them last week and they, like everyone else can pick up the players they do drop from the waiver pool if they want them back.

Cheers

[bobby1]

It looks like you have trimmed down the squads Curtis .Can you let me know which players you dropped from my squad.I can't remember which ones are missing.

I have players that are listed as inactive as they don't have clubs or have retired and also on PUP. Couldn't those players be placed on IR to leave room for the players dropped?

Cheers

The IR option only becomes accessible to players with an IR status, so PUP, Inactive, etc doesn't qualify.  Also, if you put anyone onto IR from this point forwards they will stay there for the entire season, so don't use the option lightly.

ttt for Tal, not sure it can be any clearer than that.

The Yahoo site hasn't changed at all. you could put players that were out on IR in previous seasons too, I've done it myself because others were. I've spent all season using the ruling above because that's why I asked about it on the thread, including having Dez and Rishaard Mathews on my active squad when they didn't even have clubs because of the post from Curtis above. Because Out players have been put on IR in previous seasons  it's only fair that some leaway is allowed to the guys, what I would say tho is I haven't seen anyone doing it all season until this episode. ( I'm not disagreeing with Matty  btw, I just hadn't noticed it) There are some teams that would have benefited a lot by putting their 'Out' players on IR and picking up to 5 more players.

Can't see how now allowing something that you already stated couldn't be done is that fair to everyone else in the league just because its now happened. You are opening up a complete can of worms because any team that is lucky enough to have no players on IR but 5 players that are out can now stash all those 5 out players on IR and pick up another 5 players without dropping anyone. Same right down to having 1 player on IR, just stick anyone that can't play this week in an IR spot and pick 1,2,3,4,5 more players up free and hope you hit one that becomes relevant.  In every other league you have to drop someone to pick someone else up, we just changed that mid season instead?

What I would prefer is for the guys to be asked to drop 3 payers from their squad so they have paid the price everyone else has had to pay to pick up new players but that the 3 they drop cannot include the Kicker and D that they took for free on Sunday night. That way their squad includes those 2 players going forward because they played them last week and they, like everyone else can pick up the players they do drop from the waiver pool if they want them back.

Cheers

[LeKnave]

Absolutely zero chance are we dropping any players because sheriff randomly warned you about something (that he had clearly misinterpreted) in a random post with intentions toward having you not accidentally lose a player you may have wanted to keep.

We will maintain the huge edge exploiting this loop hole has caused us and continue to work with future hall of fame prospects Tim Patrick and Corey Coleman as well as riding our 3 kickers to glory.

[ChipRich]

I mean...it’s not remotely a HUGE advantage at all. We could have just dropped some totally useles guys like Tim Patrick and some other geezer.

Just thought we would do it randomly on Sunday night when realised had not done our team.
Could have easily just dropped one of those guys and would have made absolutely 0 difference to any outcomes.

[LeKnave]

It looks like you have trimmed down the squads Curtis .Can you let me know which players you dropped from my squad.I can't remember which ones are missing.

I have players that are listed as inactive as they don't have clubs or have retired and also on PUP. Couldn't those players be placed on IR to leave room for the players dropped?

Cheers

The IR option only becomes accessible to players with an IR status, so PUP, Inactive, etc doesn't qualify.  Also, if you put anyone onto IR from this point forwards they will stay there for the entire season, so don't use the option lightly.

This isn’t sheriff telling you you are not allowed to store FA/retired players on IR, it is him telling you that it won’t let you store those players on IR (wrongly), he’s already admitting to not knowing you can do this until this week.  So clearly wasn’t him publishing a league specific rule towards this season.

[bobby1]

I mean...it’s not remotely a HUGE advantage at all. We could have just dropped some totally useles guys like Tim Patrick and some other geezer.

Just thought we would do it randomly on Sunday night when realised had not done our team.
Could have easily just dropped one of those guys and would have made absolutely 0 difference to any outcomes.

Absolutely this.

[bobby1]

It looks like you have trimmed down the squads Curtis .Can you let me know which players you dropped from my squad.I can't remember which ones are missing.

I have players that are listed as inactive as they don't have clubs or have retired and also on PUP. Couldn't those players be placed on IR to leave room for the players dropped?

Cheers

The IR option only becomes accessible to players with an IR status, so PUP, Inactive, etc doesn't qualify.  Also, if you put anyone onto IR from this point forwards they will stay there for the entire season, so don't use the option lightly.

This isn’t sheriff telling you you are not allowed to store FA/retired players on IR, it is him telling you that it won’t let you store those players on IR (wrongly), he’s already admitting to not knowing you can do this until this week.  So clearly wasn’t him publishing a league specific rule towards this season.

 if you put anyone onto IR from this point forwards they will stay there for the entire season, so don't use the option lightly.

Just in case you misread it Dave. How would he be advising not to use it lightly if nobody but players out for the season on IR could be added to the IR spots?

[LeKnave]

It looks like you have trimmed down the squads Curtis .Can you let me know which players you dropped from my squad.I can't remember which ones are missing.

I have players that are listed as inactive as they don't have clubs or have retired and also on PUP. Couldn't those players be placed on IR to leave room for the players dropped?

Cheers

The IR option only becomes accessible to players with an IR status, so PUP, Inactive, etc doesn't qualify.  Also, if you put anyone onto IR from this point forwards they will stay there for the entire season, so don't use the option lightly.

This isn’t sheriff telling you you are not allowed to store FA/retired players on IR, it is him telling you that it won’t let you store those players on IR (wrongly), he’s already admitting to not knowing you can do this until this week.  So clearly wasn’t him publishing a league specific rule towards this season.

 if you put anyone onto IR from this point forwards they will stay there for the entire season, so don't use the option lightly.

Just in case you misread it Dave. How would he be advising not to use it lightly if nobody but players out for the season on IR could be added to the IR spots?

That’s sheriff assuming that that’s the case, he was under the impression that when you place someone on IR, they are now locked to IR for the year, which they are not. 

Players can have an IR/PUP designation and not be out for the season