Pope Paul to Issue “Emergency Kicker” Rule, BQP Fights $20 Fine

UPDATE: BQP ACQUITED OF ALL CHARGES! Even Benny and McD agreed two hours after it was already decided.

QFL1’s Commissioner Paul is consulting with COMCOMM on an “emergency kicker” executive order he is considering as a result of BQP starting an inactive one (Kaeding) in week 7.

BQP is preparing a vigorous defense centered around Rule 2, Section 8, Article 2 “It is legal to start players that are not active NFL players.”

Pope Paul Letter to Competition Committee.

Comp Comm,

An issue has come up regarding Nate Kaeding’s deactivation this past Sunday. You can see the emails between Shades and I regarding the $20 fine/invalid roster rule. Looking back at the legislative history, it is clear that the $20 fine for starting an “invalid” roster was tied to the “one kicker” rule, and was meant to deter situations where a bye week/deactivated kicker is forced to be in a starting lineup, which happened to Shades this past weekend. Ultimately, here, the forfeited kicker points did not turn out to be a factor in the matchup between Shades and Scott, but I wanted to hear Comp Comm’s opinion before I issued a ruling.

Personally, in this situation, I think Shades clearly violated the black letter of the rule because on Wednesday afternoon, Norv Turner acknowledged Kaeding’s deactivation and the Chargers also signed a replacement kicker. However, even though he probably should have been on notice that he had to put a FA claim on kickers, Shades’ “11:58 Wednesday” argument below is well taken. Hypothetically, if Kaeding’s deactivation was announced on game-day or at any point after free agency, I don’t think I could fine him. Quite frankly, trying to determine whether an owner should have been on notice about a deactivated kicker is quite a pain for a commissioner to sort out.

As such, I am going to propose an “emergency kicker” rule. I am still flushing out the details for the rule proposal, but essentially, at any point before game-time, a team should be able to pay $15 to pull a kicker out of the FA pool by notifying the Commish, his opponent and the bean counter/software admin by email. Accordingly, there would be absolutely no reason why a team would start a deactivated player, and as such, the commissioner could take a zero tolerance policy regarding the $20 invalid roster rule. Also, teams (and third parties affected by a team’s result) would not have worry about a matchup being determined by an invalid roster. To prevent abuse of the emergency kicker rule, the $15 fee doubles every time a team opts for an emergency kicker ($15, $30, $60…). The best argument in opposition of the proposal is that it is a pain for the bean counter/admin to have to change a roster in the software after games have started, but honestly, it cannot possibly be more of a waste of time than the commissioner having to break down news history of a kicker deactivation like the Zapruder film, and then having to put up with the b*tching and moaning from a team owner who has been fined $20.

Let me know what you think about the fine and the rule proposal. p.s. Rishi’s new 2 RB, 4 WR, no kicker formation is still invalid under the new proposal.

So far COMCOMM member Shane is ready to “fine his ass” explaining that he is a fan of dedicating two roster spots to kickers. The only other COMCOMM member to chime in last night was Ted who has an alternative proposal.

I have an alternate proposal. How about owning your kicker entitles you to a free option to swap him out for a kicker on the same team prior to gametime in a case like this but involves a $5 or so transaction fee.  This is very much like a team kicking points concept but would work better within the software.

I don’t think shades should be fined in the first place. We play in an ultra competitive league where I assume every team tries to win every week. If shades carries one kicker and this happens, that’s the cost of doing business. There are a million other crazy things that determine outcomes each week anyway. Not to mention the random luck of the opponent you draw each week.