Bang the Gavel: SportsJudge.com's Sample Decision of the Week

Last week was a rough one in New York City, with continued decline of both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the New York Mets relief staff. Therefore, our featured case of the week was one that SportsJudge.com handled for a group of lawyers and bankers in New York City, most of whom long for the days of bull markets and good bullpens.

Team A (the unlucky owner of the injured Tom Brady in a 12-team league that requires two starting quarterbacks) approached the week with just one healthy quarterback on his roster. Making matters worse, the other teams in the league gobbled up all the other starting quarterbacks from waivers and placed them on their reserve rosters. This meant there was not a single starting quarterback available for Team A to claim.

As Sunday's games approached, and Team A was still short a starting quarterback. So, Team A reluctantly agreed to trade his star tight end Jason Witten (TE-Cowboys) to Team B in exchange for JaMarcus Russell (QB-Raiders) and Dante Rosario (TE-Panthers). Immediately after this trade was announced, several owners objected, complaining that Witten is far more valuable than what Team A got in return.

Nevertheless, SportsJudge.com Court of Fantasy Football ultimately approved the deal. Writing for the court in the case Commissioner v. Team A & Team B (Case No. 2101-T), the court explained that "a trade shall be approved as long as it reasonably may improve both teams." Applying that standard, the court then found Team B was feasibly better off because this trade allowed Team A to start a full roster." The court then went on to explain that "while this trade is not one that would have likely been approved under a traditional league format (with just one starting QB per team), the fact this league requires two starting QB changes the nature of competition."

Indeed, one cannot ever really evaluate a fantasy trade absent knowing a particular league's rules.

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