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Viva Murillo!

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 looked like a tea party (the fancy kind, not the Boston kind) compared to a fantasy league trying to update its rules. There’s usually a lot of arguing, politics, frustration ... and little progress. Still, it should be a regular event, and this is the right time to make any necessary changes for the upcoming season. After all, the closer to the season you get, the harder it will be to get a bunch of competitive owners to agree on anything. Here are a few things to remember when trying to update the rulebook:

* Don’t Get Emotional. It’s easy to focus on one specific play, like the McNabb-Brown-Buckhalter touchdown last year. That kind of clarification feels good, but doesn’t accomplish much, since the odds of it happening again are slim. If you got burned by a specific play or scoring dilemma, you might be eager to add a rule for it, but you’re ignoring more important issues. Every year you have late-paying owners, lineup issues, trade questions, etc. Spend the limited time you have covering those bases and you’ll have a better league. Even if you have rules covering those issues, consider strengthening them to fix annual headaches. Don’t over-compensate for the weird play that happens once a decade.

* Avoid Flowery Language. Never put the word “shall” in your league’s rules, like “Owners shall submit their lineups no later than noon Sunday.” Nobody talks like that, and it doesn’t make your rules more official. In fact, trying to use legalese invites wannabe attorneys (and real ones) to treat it like a legal document—and start looking for loopholes. Your rules should be written in simple language, just like people talk. That way everyone knows what it means.

* Invoke the ‘Spirit of the Rules.’ In estate planning, people who have Living Trusts usually have something called a pour-over will. Basically (and, no, I’m not a lawyer. I’m generalizing here), it says that whatever you forgot to put in your Trust should go in there when you die. People forget stuff, so this catches all the things you might miss.

In a fantasy league, you’re never going to catch every bizarre workaround that a lame owner will dream up. So I suggest you specifically forbid anything that goes against the “spirit” of the league’s rules. That way you catch all the things you didn’t think about in the off-season.

Now, is that really vague? Yep. Are there going to be times when that rule gets challenged? Yep. But it’s really the most important one in the book, so don’t let someone try to wipe it out for their own benefit. The truth is that owners know what kind of league they’re in—a cutthroat league, a casual league of life-long friends, a high-stakes money league with strangers, whatever—and they know what’s considered fair play in those leagues. In fact, most owners who try to bend the rules know they’re bending the rules. They just rely on meek owners or a passive commissioner, or folks who think if it’s not specifically forbidden in the rules, you have to allow it.

Well, that’s not true. You don’t have to be psychic and foretell every stupid stunt an owner will try to pull. You just need to have a league where everyone is willing to speak out when an obvious infraction is occurring, and you need to trust the commissioner to enforce the rule appropriately. Otherwise, you’d have a rulebook that’s too big to fit on a DVD and still doesn’t cover everything. And if you can’t trust your commissioner to not abuse his power, quit the league. No rulebook can fix that problem. But invoking the spirit of the rules gives shady owners a puzzle they can’t solve easily.

* Plan To Do It Again Next Year. No rulebook is airtight. Next July there will be more tweaks you’ll want to make, issues you’ll want to address and maybe rules you’ll want to delete altogether. That’s fine. Just do your best and plan on revisiting the rules again. After all, meeting to discuss the rules reminds owners that there actually are rules to follow, and everyone could use a refresher on what’s fair and what’s foul. When you play in multiple leagues (and most people do) it’s easy to forget the nuances of each rulebook. Take a look, make changes and repeat next year. It can be evil, but it’s a necessary one to keep a thriving league running properly.

Michael Murillo doesn’t see too many “Great Compromises” at his leagues’ rules meetings. You can reach him at vivamurillo@hotmail.com.

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