Link to CBNC Story on Fantasy Dispute Resolution; SportsJudge.com

Here is a link to CNBC's Squawk Box, discussing SportsJudge.com and the market for fantasy sports dispute resolution. CLICK HERE.

CNBC to Air Feature on Fantasy Sports Dispute Resolution; SportsJudge.com

Tomorrow (Wed. 8/25), CNBC's Darren Rovell will interview me about SportsJudge.com and the growing market for fantasy sports dispute resolution services.

The interview will appear first on Squawk Box at 7:50 A.M. EDT and then again on CNBC's afternoon programming at 1:40 P.M. EDT.

American Bar Journal Writes about Fantasy Sports Disputes, SportsJudge.com

Eriq Gardner had a great article in August's American Bar Association Journal about SportsJudge.com and the history of fantasy dispute resolution. The article begins:

For the love of the game or the pursuit of some prize money, about 30 million people actively play in fantasy sports leagues across the United States and Canada. Competitors build rosters of professional sports athletes and set lineups in pursuit of statistical achievement. Nothing rankles fantasy enthusiasts more than perceived unfairness, such as a lopsided player trade between two competitors that tips a league’s balance.

That’s where Marc Edelman comes in.

For a link to the full article, please see here.

Fantasy Baseball Dispute No. 8170-T: SportsJudge Court Approves NL-Only Trade of Bay for Capps & J. Hairston (Time Stamped July 27th)

SPORTSJUDGE.COM

COURT OF FANTASY BASEBALL

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -	x	Index No. 8170-T Trade Date: July 27, 2010 Date Posted: August 2, 2010 League Type: NL-ONLY ROTO Dispute: TRADE REVIEW Judge: MARC EDELMAN TRADE BETWEEN PHIRE & KENNY POWERS APPROVED
COMMISSIONER OF CAMPIONS CUP LEAGUE Petitioner, - against - PHIRE & KENNY POWERS Respondents.	: : : : : : : : : :
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Commissioner of the Campions Cup League brings this claim in the SportsJudge.com Court of Fantasy Baseball Disputes to resolve a fantasy baseball dispute involving the status of a proposed trade of Phire players Jason Bay (OF, New York Mets) and Chris C. Carter (LF, New York Mets) to Kenny Powers for Matt Capps (P, Washington Nationals) and Jerry Hairston Jr. (IF/OF San Diego Padres).

This trade was time stamped on 7/27 at 2:47 P.M. – before Jason Bay was placed on the disabled list and before Matt Capps was traded to the Minnesota Twins. The trade was viewed with these concepts in mind.

The Law on Upholding a Trade

In this court, it is the general rule that any fantasy baseball trade shall be upheld as long as the trade adequately benefits both teams. (See Public Opinion No. 101, Big Red Rockers v. Big City Bombers). Where a league constitution provides alternative criteria for reviewing a trade, the alternative criteria may supersede the general rule. (See Public Opinion No. 409-T, Commissioner of Campions Cup League v. Cartman).

The Campion Cup League Constitution, at issue in this case, has perhaps the strictest trade restrictions that this Court has ever seen. According to the Constitution, “Only the current season’s value (and past season values) of the players may be considered in the equality of any trade. The future freeze value or contract value cannot be considered as an element in the fairness of a trade.”

The Constitution also has the following restriction, “Only trades that are clearly equitable will be permitted. Trades that leave an impression of even marginally pushing the envelope shall be rejected.” As such, the ruling of Big Red Rockers v. Big City Bombers will not be used to decide this trade, and instead the trade will only be accepted if both sides of the trade are equal in value without taking into account future projections. (See SportsJudge.com Blog Opinion No. 8160-T, Commissioner of Campions Cup League v. Phire & Shazam).

The Proposed Trade

The proposed trade is a 2-for-2 trade:

PHIRE proposes to send to Kenny Powers (2010 statistics in parentheses):

· Jason Bay (.259 Avg., 48 Runs, 6 Home Runs, 47 RBI, 10 SB)

· Chris C. Carter (.244 Avg., 7 Runs, 2 Home Runs, 12 RBI, 0 SB)

Kenny Powers proposes to send PHIRE:

· Matt Capps (3 wins, 27 saves, 39 K, 2.68 ERA, 1.30 WHIP)

· Jerry Hairston Jr. (.251 Avg., 41 Runs, 7 Home Runs, 42 RBI, 8 SB)

The Analysis

As previously stated, pursuant to the Campions Cup League Constitution, this trade will only be accepted if both sides of the trade are equal in value without taking into account future projections as per the league constitution. (See SportsJudge.com Blog Opinion No. 8160-T, Commissioner of Campions Cup League v. Phire & Shazam). Under this strict standard, this court has not upheld a single trade in the Campions Cup since June 2007, when the SportsJudge.com Court of Fantasy Baseball upheld the blockbuster trade of Carlos Beltran for John Smoltz.

This trade nevertheless meets this high threshold for approval. According to most forms of statistical analysis, the main players in the trade (Jason Bay and Matt Capps) provide nearly identical value, albeit at different positions and with Jason Bay having a greater upside.

	Yahoo 2010 Rank (Actual)	Yahoo 2009 Rank (Actual)
Jason Bay	236	26
Matt Capps	116	389

In addition, despite the strong 2010 statistical results of Jerry Hairston Jr. (statistics that thus far almost match Bay’s abysmal performance), these numbers seem to be somewhat of a positive aberration in light of Hairston’s overall career numbers. While this court thinks that Hairston is a clear upgrade for Phire over Chris Carter (especially given Hairston’s speed and positional flexibility) we do not believe the upgrade is enough to make the trade inequitable, especially given that the Padres, at the time, were widely rumored to be close to trading for numerous offensive players that would relegate Hairston Jr. back to the lesser reserve role that he was originally signed to play (court’s note: The Padres have since traded for SS/3B Miguel Tejada and OF Ryan Ludwick), and the primary Campions Cup objectors to this trade had actually been contending that Kenny Powers was getting the better end of the trade by acquiring Bay and Carter (court’s note: Even with the Capps trade risks, we were quite surprised by this argument).

Further, beyond the equitable nature of the actual players traded, there is also great reasonableness in the fantasy trading partners. Kenny Powers and Phire have very little incentive to conspire against the league in making this deal. Kenny Powers and Phire are in second and fourth place respectively – 1.5 points apart from each other in the standings. Phire is in a dead heat with the current third-place team, Highlanders, for saves. The addition of Capps could provide a critical two-point swing in the standings. Meanwhile, Kenny Power is currently tied with the first-place team in runs and is only five RBI ahead of the third-place team (Highlanders). While trading Capps may cost Kenny Powers one point in saves, gaining Bay will likely help Kenny Powers to gain/protect points in these two important offensive categories.

Indeed, this court notes that there is some substantial risk with both players given Bay’s recent head injury and the likeliness, at the time, that Capps would be traded to a team where he would no longer be a closer.

However, even despite all the uncertainty, the court still finds this trade equitable in light of the players traded and the parties involved.

Holding

Based on the foregoing, the SportsJudge.com Court of Fantasy Baseball upholds the trade of Phire players Jason Bay (OF, New York Mets) and Chris C. Carter (LF, New York Mets) to Kenny Powers for Matt Capps (P, Washington Nationals) and Jerry Hairston Jr. (IF/OF San Diego Padres).

Legal Commentary on American Needle Ranked No. 8 by SSRN

My short legal commentary about the sports-business implications of American Needle v. Nat'l Football League was recently ranked No. 8 by the Social Science Research Network ("SSRN") in its list of Top Ten Papers Published in the Past 60 Days about Constitutional Liberties.

Article on Baseball Collusion Makes SSRN Top 10 List

Exciting news: My article on the history of collusion in Major League Baseball was recently ranked No. 10 by the Social Science Research Network ("SSRN") in its list of Top 10 papers about collective bargaining.

Hall of Fame Inductee Andre Dawson Important in Fight Against Baseball Collusion

This Sunday, power-hitting outfielder Andre Dawson will earn his induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. To many, Dawson is best known for his 438 career home runs, 314 stolen bases, and 1987 MVP Award.

However, from a sports law perspective, Dawson is also important for having signed a blank contract with the Chicago Cubs during the 1986-87 off-season--an act that helped to expose Major League Baseball's collusive practices during that era.

According to labor arbitrator George Nicolau's 1988 arbitration ruling, he notes that Dawson was so willing to leave the Expos during the collusion era that he called a unilateral press conference to announce he would sign a blank contract to play for the Cubs. Embarrassed by these events, Cubs management then offered the all-star outfielder a contract for $500,000—almost half of his previous season’s salary.

After accepting this 50% pay cut, Dawson won the 1987 National League MVP for the last-place Cubs--becoming the first play in baseball history to win that award for a last place team.

(Cross-posted on Sports Law Blog)

Fantasy Baseball Dispute 8165-T: SportsJudge.com Rejects Trade of Longoria for Howard & Sabathia

SPORTSJUDGE.COM

COURT OF FANTASY BASEBALL

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -	x	Index No. 8165-T Date Issued: July 17, 2010 Date Rendered: July 21, 2010 League Type: Rotisserie, 5x5 Dispute: TRADE REVIEW Judge: Marc Edelman TRADE BETWEEN YOONS GOONS AND MCNACK IS REJECTED
COMMISSIONER OF EP RULES BASEBALL KEEPER LEAGUE Petitioner, - against - YOONS GOONS & MCNACK Respondent	: : : : : : : : : :
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Syllabus:

The SportsJudge.com Court of Fantasy Baseball has long held under its default rules that a trade shall be upheld as long as it reasonably benefits both teams. In this vein, the court has held that, in a keeper league, a team’s likely performance in future years may be considered, and that, in a keeper league, club owners at their discretion may choose to play for the future rather than the present.

This case, however, tests the limits of how far this court may delve into the future when seeking to determine the benefit of a deal involving a non-dollar keeper league. The court ultimately rejects the notion that a team out of playoff contention in a non-dollar keeper league could incur a good-faith benefit by trading a healthy 31-year old player plus an additional "top 40" player for a healthy 25-year old player of equal statistical value.

While the court recognizes that under its default rules that age may constitute a factor in assessing the future benefit of a deal, the court concludes that age may not serve as the exclusive factor, especially where the team trading the older star also trades another player of substantial value. The court further explains that when a club makes a trade based on perceived future benefit, that future benefit has to be concrete, substantial and imminent, in light of the players traded.

Thus, the court rejects the proposed trade of Evan Longoria, Carlos Lee and Mark Buehrle for Ryan Howard, Aramis Ramirez and C.C. Sabathia.

Issue

The Commissioner of the EP Rules Baseball Keeper League brings this claim in the Court of Fantasy Baseball to determine the status of the proposed trade of Evan Longoria (3B, Tampa Bay), Carlos Lee (OF, Houston) and Mark Buehrle (P, Chicago White Sox) from Yoons Goons to McNack for Ryan Howard (1B, Philadelphia), Aramis Ramirez (3B, Chicago Cubs) and C.C. Sabathia (P, New York Yankees).

The Law on Upholding a Trade

In this court, it is the general rule that any fantasy baseball trade shall be upheld as long as it adequately benefits both teams. (See Public Opinion No. 101, Big Red Rockers v. Big City Bombers). A trade reasonably benefits both teams if it allows both teams a reasonable chance of moving up in the standings. (See Unpublished Opinion No. 468-T, Commissioner Gary B. v. Ever-Lastings and 2 Legit 2 Quit). In addition, where a league is a keeper league, a trade may reasonable benefit both teams if it is likely to improve the performance of a team in future years, especially with respect to a team that is currently ranked lower in the standings (See Unpublished Opinion No. 3704-T, Commissioner Paul Schultz v. Snakes & Blutos).

The Proposed Trade

The two lead players in this trade, Evan Longoria (2010: .302, 60 runs, 13 HR, 63 RBI, 14 SB) and Ryan Howard (2010: .299, 60 runs, 21 HR, 74 RBI, 0 SB), need no introduction. Both are among the best fantasy players at their position, as well as in the game overall. Their current values are nearly identical, with Howard providing more raw power and Longoria stealing more bases. In most leagues, it is a toss-up as to which player should be drafted first. Howard has a better track record, but Longoria is six years younger. Howard’s physical shape concerns some owners, but Longoria has more of experience on the DL with injuries. Howard plays in a better hitting ballpark, but Longoria enjoys the advantage of playing in the American League where he can occasionally serve as the DH.

	Yahoo Rank Actual 2010	Yahoo Rank Actual 2009	Yahoo Rank Actual 2008	Yahoo Rank Projected for 2010
Ryan Howard	15	7	20	9
Evan Longoria	16	31	112	7

By contrast, the other players in the trade are nowhere close to equal. While not a keeper in the EP Rules league last season, C.C. Sabathia (2010: 12 wins, 3.13 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 110K) remains one of the better starting pitchers in baseball and certainly deserves mention in the same breadth as two of two starting pitchers that were keepers—Felix Hernandez and Johan Santana. While Sabathia would likely not be a keeper on either Yoons Goons or McNack, he is about as good of a player that does not fall within a team’s top three. In addition, Aramis Ramirez (2010: .226, 37 runs, 15 HR, 47 RBI, 0 SB), despite his awful first half while playing with a thumb injury, is one of the better non-keeper third baseman in the league. Even despite his horrid start to the season, some reasonable fantasy owners may currently prefer Ramirez to Mark Reynolds and Pablo Sandoval—both third-baseman keepers this season in the EP League.

By contrast, Mark Buehrle (2010: 8 wins, 4.14 E.R.A., 1.41 WHIP, 54 K) and Carlos Lee ( 2010: .240, 17 runs, 12 HR, 48 RBI, 1 SB) are generally perceived to be players of far less value—both statistically and in terms of future impressions. Mark Buerhle is a far worse fantasy pitcher than he is in real life given that he gives up many hits and strikes out few batters. Meanwhile, Carlos Lee’s numbers, while possibly impressive at other positions, are far less remarkable for an outfielder.

	Yahoo Rank Actual 2010	Yahoo Rank Actual 2009	Yahoo Rank Actual 2008	Yahoo Rank Projected for 2010
C.C. Sabathia	37	36	6	40
Mark Buehrle	408	181	181	211

	Yahoo Rank Actual 2010	Yahoo Rank Actual 2009	Yahoo Rank Actual 2008	Yahoo Rank Projected for 2010
Aramis Ramirez	295	249	47	48
Carlos Lee	310	80	63	65

Analysis

Upon first glance, this seems to be a deal of A-Ram and Carlos Lee for Sabathia and Buehrle—a trade that would never pass muster—disguised by the inclusion of two equal superstars that cancel each other out.

However, McNack, quite articulately, contends that the court is not seeing the full picture. According to McNack, this trade is actually to his long-term advantage because, among the star players in the deal, Longoria (born October 7, 1985) is six years longer than Howard (born October 19, 1979 ) and thus will serve as his star keeper for many years after Howard passes his prime.

While this court has looked at hundreds of cases involving the present for the future, it has never before needed to address an argument where the future is so far away. Indeed, even if you accept the McNack argument as true, Howard is healthy and just 31. Thus, is likely would not be for another 4-5 years until his numbers begin to decline.

Not many fantasy leagues make it 4-5 years, much less beyond. While the EP Rules League is impressively in year 10, our history has found that even many of the strongest fantasy leagues destabilize over that period of time. Thus, in allowing this trade, there is a real risk that McNack, Yoons Goons and others will be gone from the league far before the future value of this deal is felt.

Moreover, even if the EP Rules league does last another decade, if the court were willing under its default rules to give substantial weight to ephemeral possibilities, the court would still have to draw the line somewhere. Otherwise, one could argue that the trade of C.C. Sabathia for Bryce Harper reasonably benefits both teams. We presume that most leagues that come to SportsJudge.com and ask us to apply our default rules would not be pleased with such a result.

Thus, this case truly tests the limits of how far this court may delver into the future when seeking to determine the benefit of a deal involving a non-dollar keeper league, especially given our belief that McNack was genuinely interested in approving his team for the long haul. In addressing this issue, while we acknowledge that under our default rules age may constitute a factor in assessing the future benefit of a deal, the court concludes that age may not serve as the exclusive factor. That is especially true here, given the high level of players traded by McNack, and that currently, there are no signs that Ryan Howard’s skills are declining.

The court further finds that when a club makes a trade based on perceived future benefit, that future benefit has to be concrete, substantial and imminent, in light of the players traded. To the extent Evan Longoria actually is a better keeper than Ryan Howard, that conclusion is not clear based on past statistics nor indicative in any significant way, at least for the next several years. Thus, the court concludes there is insufficient benefit for McNack in the deal and thus rejects it.

As a final point of note, this conclusion is reached solely under our default rules. Should the EP Rules wish to allow fantasy owners to consider the very long-term future of their clubs, the league needs to change their league constitution to express as much.

Conclusion

Applying the SportsJudge.com Court of Fantasy Baseball default rules, the proposed trade of Evan Longoria, Carlos Lee and Mark Buehrle (P, Chicago White Sox) for Ryan Howard, Aramis Ramirez and C.C. Sabathia (P, New York Yankees) fails for not adequately benefiting both teams.

Lebron James to Europe? NBA Labor Negotiators' Worst Nightmare

At 9 P.M. tonight, Lebron James is making his big announcement about where he will play next season.

Cleveland? Chicago? Miami? New York? New Jersey?

What about Europe?

Lebron once told ESPN he might play overseas for $50 Million per year. And NBA players should hope that Lebron chooses Europe for reasons far more important than just their chances of winning an MVP Award.

As most basketball fans know, the NBA collective bargaining agreement (pdf) is set to expire on July 1, 2011. Thus far, the NBA club-owners have taken a hard line stance, demanding that players accept a reduction in the current salary cap. According to NBA club-owners, they are losing money due to the down economy.

Irrespective of whether NBA owners are actually losing money, their demands right now are credible. If there is no other practicable place for top NBA players to work, the NBA players union will have no choice but to either accept the NBA’s proposed terms, strike, or seek to decertify the union and file an antitrust suit against the league (all undesirable options — each for different reasons).

If Lebron James makes the bold decision to sign in Europe, however, everything could change. The NBA club-owners would likely abandon their proposal for a lower salary cap because capped NBA clubs would struggle to compete for top players against uncapped EuroLeague clubs. Indeed, the very moment Lebron James puts on a EuroLeague basketball uniform, the threat of other players following him overseas becomes more credible.

While the thought of a star player leaving the NBA to help fight against the salary cap is unusual, it is not unprecedented. Back in August 1989, player discontent with the NBA’s salary cap (one that disparately impacted new players) led two young NBA players, Brian Shaw and Danny Ferry, to sign contracts with the EuroLeague club Il Messaggero (now known as Virtus Roma). Shortly thereafter, Il Messaggero began to court other top NBA players including Rick Mahorn (successfully) and Patrick Ewing (unsuccessfully). As a result, the NBA clubs simply agreed to increase their salary cap.

Despite the current down economy, there are probably a few EuroLeague clubs that could attempt to get into the action for one of the world’s best basketball players. For example, the Greek team Olympiacos Piraeus—winners of the 2006-07 EuroLeague championship—are owned by billionaire Greek brothers Panagiotis Angelopoulos and Giorgos Angelopoulos. The team plays in an approximately 15,000-seat arena, has already signed former Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Childress to a three-year, $20 million contract, and is seemingly not affected by the Greek debt crisis.

The Angelopoulos brothers probably could afford to sign Lebron James to a 1-year, $50 million deal—especially if they then streamed their games on the Internet to a worldwide audience (something NBA clubs likely cannot do due to the league’s New Media and territorial broadcast policies).

Likewise, Greece might make an interesting one-year “home” for Lebron. Unlike NBA players, EuroLeague players only compete in one or two games per week. This would leave King James a lot of time for personal travel.

Of course, this all presumes that Lebron is really willing to leave his friends and family to go overseas–a move that is rare among American-born NBA players. Indeed, just 9-15% of current NBA players have competed professionally overseas, and many of these players only did so when faced with no NBA alternative.

However, on balance, maybe the thought of Lebron going to Europe is really not so farfetched. We’ll see tonight.
___________________________________________________________
Marc Edelman, Above the Law’s sports columnist, is an Assistant Professor at Barry University’s Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law. He is teaching this summer at Fordham Law School, Seton Hall Law School, and Rutgers School of Law-Camden. His full collection of law review articles is available here.

This article appeared first on Above the Law.

Fantasy Football Dispute No. 5105: Proposed Pick-Up of John Carney Disallowed

SPORTSJUDGE.COM

COURT OF FANTASY FOOTBALL

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -	x	Index No. 5105 Date: December 14, 2009 League Type: Fantasy Football Dispute: Injured Reserve Rules Authoring Judge: Marc Edelman Concurred By: Stuart Shiffman COMMISSIONER’S RULING UPHELD
DOUBLE Ds Petitioner, - against - COMMISSIONER NELSON Respondent	: : : : : : : : : :
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SUMMARY:

The plaintiff in this case, the Double D Fantasy Football Team (“Double Ds), has asked the SportsJudge.com Court of Fantasy Football to resolve the league’s fantasy football dispute and overrule Commissioner Nelson’s ruling that kicker John Carney is ineligible for injured reserve status pursuant to the league’s “OUT Rule.”

This court rejects the appeal, upholding Commissioner Nelson’s ruling that John Carney is ineligible for injured reserve.

The basis for the court’s ruling is that John Carney is not injured, but rather inactive due to what Carney’s real-life coach perceives as poor on-the-field performance. Demotion for poor on-the-field performance is not grounds for an injury replacement based on the clear reading of the league rule, nor was it necessarily one that the parties would have included within the scope of the rule had the issue been broached.

In addition, even if the rule is in some ways harsh, it was the rule to which the fantasy football league members had accepted, and a rule that teams had the opportunity to consider in setting their late season rosters (for example, The Take Down Fantasy Team carried two kickers for probably that reason). It is a rule that Double Ds should have considered more carefully when choosing not to select a backup kicker for the playoffs, even though each team is allotted a generous seven reserve slots.

FACTS:

A. The League Rules

Commissioner Ken Nelson has overseen his fantasy football league for the past 15 years. The league runs on a blind pickup system, in which each week teams submit bids for free-agent players. The teams that submit the highest bid gain rights to that player.

To prevent collusion risks, this league ends its regular free agent signing process after week 12, with rosters generally frozen at that point. However, the league maintains a limited exception to the free-agent freeze rule, which applies when a player on one of the teams’ rosters is injured and thus certain not to play. Under this rule, a team with an injured player may place that player on injured reserve (“IR”) and replace that player with another on that player’s same NFL team if that player is listed as “OUT” by ESPN, Sportsline, Huddle.com or Rotoworld.com. Thus, these four sources serve as the exclusive means of information about player status, and a listing of “OUT” is the only basis for initially moving a player to IR.

In addition, the rules for picking up an “emergency player” to replace an IR player after week 12 state as follows:

Your player must be listed as OUT as of each Thursday. THIS MEANS THAT IF YOUR PLAYER IS DOUBFUL ON THURSDAY THEN IS LISTED AS OUT ON FRIDAY - YOU'RE [OUT OF LUCK]

Further, once a player is placed on IR pursuant to these rules, the rules become somewhat more lenient on keeping the player on IR. According to the rules “[i]f a player’s status is moved from OUT to doubtful or inactive the next week - you can still keep them on IR - but if they PLAY - you will lose that player and get a ZERO for their position … YOU MUST EMAIL THE COMMISH ON THURSDAY OF THIS.”

B. The Fantasy Football League Dispute

The most recent dispute in this fantasy football league involves the issue of whether the Double Ds may replace kicker John Carney subsequent to week 12 in the season pursuant to the league “OUT” rule. What makes this proposal controversial is that John Carney was not in fact injured nor listed as “OUT” on any of the four approved websites. Rather, for each of the past two weeks Carney was designated as “inactive” 15 minutes before kickoff. This means Carney was one of the eight players on the Saints’ 53-player roster who was designated by his coach not to make the team’s starting lineup that week.

Upon reviewing this matter, Commissioner Nelson ruled that Carney was ineligible for replacement because “[a]lthough not explicitly stated in the rules, but certainly implied - IR moves and emergency pickups are set up for players Injured.” Commissioner Nelson went on to recognize that in his view this was “a fluke with regard to kickers” but not necessarily something leading to a need to change the league rules.

Thereafter, Double D’s put forth an extremely thoughtful and well-written brief, seeking to appeal on three separate grounds: (1) league rules are ambiguous on IR moves, internally inconsistent and unenforceable based on their spirit and intent; (2) the emergency pickup rule was intended to protect teams such as Double D from an “unforeseen event,” and (3) even under the literal interpretation of the rules, the IR move should be allowed because Carney was inactive for the prior week’s game.

HOLDING:

A. General Ruling

While recognizing the language in the league constitution is at times imperfect, this court upholds Commissioner Nelson’s ruling, agreeing that the plain meaning of the league rule limits the emergency pickup to a player who has been listed as “OUT” by one of the four approved websites. See Commissioner Mike D. v. Sweaty Baseballs, Index No. 3466-C (June 9, 2009); see also Hermann’s Head v. Commissioner of Yale Football League, Index No. 247 (Sept. 1, 2006) (noting that clear language in league constitution trumps all other considerations).

The rule does not even allow moving to IR a player who is listed as doubtful. Indeed, the league constitution states in no uncertain terms that “THIS MEANS THAT IF YOUR PLAYER IS DOUBFUL ON THURSDAY THEN IS LISTED AS OUT ON FRIDAY - YOU'RE [OUT OF LUCK]” (emphasis provided). Thus, it is clear the rule was contemplated to be both narrow and specific in scope, and hence should be applied as clearly written.

In addition, this court believes that even Commissioner Nelson gave too much importance to this matter by noting it as “a fluke with regard to kickers.” While John Carney may be the first discussed fantasy player demoted from starter to inactive for reasons other than health issues, this same problem could plague a team such as Beetle who is not carrying a backup quarterback to Aaron Rodgers, especially if a late-season Packers game proves meaningless in the season.

Recognizing the possibility of a healthy player being deemed inactive at any time, a properly prudent owner would have used his seven reserve slots to carry a backup at every position. Indeed, the team Take Down properly hedged for this risk at kicker by carrying two at that position. It would be unfair to a team like Take Down who properly hedged all positions at the risk of depth at wide receiver, running back or defense to now compensate a team that chose not to hedge.

B. Double Ds Defenses

While Double D’s defenses are each interesting and extraordinarily well presented, none overrides the clear language of the league rule, even where the language of the league rule is at times imperfect.

First, this court rejects the contention that the league rules are ambiguous on the issue of whether a non-injured player is eligible for IR status, and finds the issue of whether the rules are ambiguous in other areas entirely irrelevant for purposes of this dispute. While it may be true that official injury reports are not released until Friday thus making it a plausible argument that no player is ever eligible for IR status, this matter is particularly about the IR status of a non-injured player and not when official injury reports are released. The court will not get lost in that red herring analysis. Moreover, according to league rules, “OUT” status is determined by four chosen websites and night by the league’s official injury report per se. Thus, it is possible a website may deem a player “OUT” even if the official injury report has not yet done so.

Second, based on the clear reading of the league OUT rule, there is no reason to believe the rule was intended to cover any type of unforeseeable event. Rather, the rule seems intended only to cover a single type of unforeseeable event—an injury that occurs prior to Friday. While this may not seem logical to Double Ds, there is certainly an argument that demotion for poor play is more foreseeable than an injury. Indeed, with respect to Carney, various websites including Rotowire had been warning for weeks that would potentially lose his starting job due to inconsistent kicking. Thus, one could make a stronger argument that Double Ds should have hedged Carney by signing a backup kicker than that a team should have hedged a player who was performing well but injured during a game.

Finally, Double Ds argues that even under the literal interpretation of the rules, the IR move should be allowed because Carney was inactive for the prior week’s game. While this court finds this reason to be the most compelling grounds of the three, the problem with this reasoning is that the rules, as written, do not allow a player that was inactive in a given week to be placed on IR for the following week. Rather the rules only mention the term “inactive” in one place, where they state as follows:

If a player's status is moved from OUT to doubtful or inactive the next week - you can still keep them on IR - but if they PLAY - you will lose that player and get a ZERO for their position

In this context, the court believes inactive status is relevant only for “keep[ing]” a player on IR that is already on IR, and not placing the player on IR in the first place. However, if Double Ds is able to present evidence that the court in the past has allowed inactive status in a prior week as a basis for placing a player on IR, the court would be willing to reconsider this aspect of our ruling based upon this practice.

JUDGMENT:

For the foregoing reasons, unless Double Ds can present irrefutable evidence of Commissioner Nelson allowing a team in the past to place a player on IR (rather than keep a player on the IR) based entirely on the player’s inactive status from the previous week, Commissioner Nelson’s ruling shall stand and Double D may not pickup a replacement kicker for John Carney.

It is so ordered.

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