We finally get details about what happened at the Auction and how the decision to waive Brees and Foster came to be.
1. Why did you go offline towards the end of the 2014 Auction and cause it to be delayed even further, nothing really seemed like such a big deal? Were you abusing any substances we should know about and/or try ourselves?
What happened at the end of the auction was ridiculous. No one communicated a course of action to me and teams started bidding via the chat function without having unanimous agreement from all parties with money left.
Totally unacceptable.
If everyone on the phone had come to a consensus on how to proceed then someone should have reached out and communicated this consensus so that we could have determined the best way to proceed.
I had no idea what was going on and who, if anyone, was taking responsibility for it. No one who was throwing out bids had any idea how their actions would be addressed in the software. As usual, I had to do a lot of manual adjustments in order to deal with this. I posted on the chat that I was against proceeding in that manner. My comments were ignored and swept away in the flood of nominations and bids. Ultimately, I felt that I had to no choice but to disengage.
2. You unexpectedly dropped Brees and Foster, why? Some have speculated your account was hacked or a disgruntled family member may have done it. Can you walk us thru the circumstances and your analysis (if any) of this move? Was Shades there?
My rationale for cutting Brees and Foster is as follows:
1. I mismanaged my auction and was left with too few players and no cap space. I either had to cut someone or move Stacy or Golden Tate (my only $2 players), both of whom I am planning to start, to PS.
2. I reviewed my roster and determined that Brees and Foster were, by far, my most overpriced players. I determined that any other player that I could would not clear waivers. I thought that Brees and Foster might clear waivers because:
a. Brees, at $28, would require extensive cuts by most teams and since every team already had a pretty good QB situation, I didn’t think it really made sense for many teams. I figured multiple teams would bid on him during free agency, but I didn’t think anyone would actually put in a waiver claim. Ted was my biggest concern, but I had reason to believe that he wouldn’t put in a claim. Warning to other QFL owners: Ted cannot be trusted to honor a gentleman’s agreement.
b. Foster, at $21, was more affordable, but also had and will continue to have injury concerns. Also, Foster is a Q2 and is due a 25% raise next year, so I definitely wasn’t going to be keeping him beyond this year.
Obviously, it would have been better to come to these conclusions prior to trading for Foster and giving up draft picks for Brees, but I try not to let pride cloud my decision making and didn’t want to compound those mistakes by continuing to overpay for them at the expense of team development and flexibility.
I think my rationale with these two is somewhat supported by the fact that only 1 team put in a claim for Brees and only 2 put in claims for Foster.
3. My intention was to pick them up on cheaper contracts, but that obviously didn’t pan out.
4. I considered only dropping one of them, but, again, I wanted to lower both their salaries and was pretty confident that they would clear waivers. I thought that the sooner I did it the better as waiting would only bring us closer to the time when teams had to cut people anyway.
5. I acknowledged that there was a chance that I wouldn’t get either player back and ultimately determined that it would be okay, because:
a. Some other team would be hamstrung by the high salaries.
b. Any team picking up these players would be forced to cut players, many of whom are likely to be better values.
So far I have Josh Gordon, Ray Rice and a bunch of longshots that I’m gambling on.
I’m not nearly as concerned about my team as everyone else seems to be and am willing to lay bets that I don’t end up in the bottom 4 as QSN claims many people think.
3. What do you envision for the future of QFL Masters?
I love the idea of relegation to improve the membership. There are some issues to work out there though. In the meantime, it was fun to take part in a wide open QFL auction for the first time in 15 years.
4. What rule would you change about QFL?
I’ve always thought that kick and punt return scores should go to the individual players, which would decrease value from D/ST and increase value for borderline ownable WR and RB. I’ve given up on this though.
5. Who is your favorite 2014 sleeper?
Hawkins, Turbin, Donald Brown.
6. Who is the best team in the QFL this year?
Not really afraid of anyone, but I think Benny and Hans look like the strongest teams.
7. Both teams are so different now but what are your feelings about the timing of the Quince Bowl VX rematch coming week 1?
I think it’ll be a good match up. Both teams are starting guys with high ceilings and low floors. No one is is particularly scary aside from Green and Graham, but any of them could put up big numbers.
Shades
Since Scott is questioning my integrity in a public forum I feel that I need to offer my side of the story. This is how events unfolded from my perspective:
– After the auction, I offered Scott in a trade Ridley for Bush straight up. This was before Ridley fumbled, Scott had Vereen, I had Bell, both $9 players etc, seemed like a good fit. Scott declined the trade.
– A few days later I get an email from Scott saying “I’m considering dropping Brees and/or Foster with the idea of getting them back cheaper. If you agree not to bid on either and I get them both back I will trade you Bush for Ridley.
– At that moment Brees was dead to me and that ship had sailed in my mind. I liked who I bought with that money and really had no interest in cutting guys to get an overpriced $28 player. However, Scott’s “offer” was hardly the deal of the century. What exactly was my compensation? To have him execute a pretty fair one for one trade? Its not as if we executed a trade with a promise on the back end.
– After thinking about Scott’s email for all of 5 seconds I said “Ok I won’t bid on those guys but I have Ridley out on offer but if I don’t get anything done let’s revisit afterwards.”
– Over the weekend, I realized that Rishi, my new division rival, was going to claim or bid on Brees. I believe that if Rishi had been able to secure a cheap WR before WW (otherwise he would have had to cut T Smith and was already thin there), he would have claimed Brees. He was not able to pull off a trade and thus did not put in a claim. But he was going to bid $26 in free agency for Brees.
– So I’m sitting there realizing the best team in my division is getting Brees, Scott will clear cap room to get Rishi’s cut players, and Im left with Scott granting me the trade of the century Bush for Ridley?
I had no competitive choice other than to take action. Once I really spent time looking at who I could cut to claim Brees, I decided it was worth it to prevent Rishi from getting him, even if I pissed off Scott. I apologized to Scott offline, but in the end I have no regrets as Scott could not have possibly thought he was compensating me enough to sit on my hands in this situation. If we had done a trade prior to him cutting Brees that included this promise, then I would have treated this as a live binding agreement and not have claimed Brees.
I don’t think many people would agree that Ridley for Bush would be a “pretty fair” trade as Bush is universally rated higher and is not at risk of losing his job altogether as Ridley is.
On top of that, when I made the offer I specifically indicated that I was making the offer as an effort to pay you back for illegally outbidding you on the New England D/ST. When I made the offer, I said “Would you consider that making us even?” You responded to that email agreeing to the deal without disputing the fact that it would make us even.
Regardless, the value of the trade to you is irrelevant. The fact remains that you agreed to the arrangement. If you didn’t see value in the trade then you did not have to agree to the arrangement.
Furthermore, your assertion that you thought briefly about this and then only agreed tentatively is a blatant misrepresentation. You and I exchanged multiple emails after that, confirming the arrangement. In one email your said, “I’m not bidding on your guys and feeding you info … so I don’t want any bullshit after this Ridley fumble.”
Your statement that you had “no competitive choice” is also patently untrue. If you had decided that the risk of Rishi bidding on Brees was too much for you to take, then you could have informed me in advance that you did not intend to honor the agreement. I then may have decided not to cut him, which would have eliminated the risk of Rishi getting him or you and I could have worked out a deal where I traded you Brees. You did not do so because you decided not that you didn’t want Rishi to have him, but rather that you wanted him yourself and that this was worth sacrificing your integrity.
This is evidenced in your “apology.”
You said, “Basically it came down to doing what I needed to do and dealing with pissing you off as a consequence. I didn’t decide to do to until I really looked at who I had to cut over the weekend.
Sorry dude, but why you decided this was a good risk to take I’m not sure.”
In summary, your argument is no defense of your integrity, but only a rationalization for why you decided to sacrifice your integrity for the acquisition of Brees.
You decided that having the services of Brees for two years at $28 was worth more than your word. Brees will be gone at the end of next year (if not sooner), but the black mark on your reputation will be there forever. I know I won’t ever trust you in any kind of agreement that is not systemically enforced.
Congrats.
Dude, your offer of this “arrangement” was :
“I now need to free up $6 in cap space. I’m considering dropping Brees and/or Foster with the idea of trying to get them back cheaper. If you agree not to bid on either of them (not sure that you would anyway) AND I GET THEM BOTH BACK then I will trade you Bush for Ridley.”
It did not take long after the cuts to realize a) you definitely weren’t getting at least one if not both of them back b) the most likely scenario was my division rival getting Brees and c) if you lost one or both and even if you did still trade me Bush for Ridley that I was the one getting ripped off in this quasi 3-way trade.
Listen, I get that you’re obviously bitter about turning your 2nd place team into a flaming pile of crap in such short order. To top it off, the Pats got blown out by the freakin Dolphins and clearly can’t win a legit SB without cheating. But after making some of the QFL’s biggest historical management blunders, its time for you to have some self-awareness and take a look in the mirror rather than blame others the problems you created for yourself.
Again, if you didn’t like the deal then you didn’t need to accept it (and then later confirm it). Even if you had decided to renege on your acceptance, you could have it done it in an honorable manner. You chose not to.
Your weak arguments are merely distraction tactics and are irrelevant.
You entered into a gentleman’s agreement and did not honor it.
There is no ambiguity.