Notes From The Commissioner's Desk, Sept. 6

There are a number of topics I wanted to address to the entire league, and I thought a blog post might be a more efficient way to do that than filling up the league forum. Here are a few thoughts:

Thank You

Let me thank all the members of the Player of the Week Committee, the Mentoring Committee, and the Trade Committee. It is this type of participation that has set our league apart from other user-created leagues (and the public leagues, for sure). I never once had to remind a member of the POW Committee that I needed their picks, and all trades were approved/disapproved on the same day they were submitted.

Thank You, Part II

Let me also thank the league members for the positive interaction in the forums. We did have some back-and-forth, but it never crossed the line. I would not hesitate to remove an owner that will not wish to exhibit some degree of restraint. That's not the kind of league we want, and I am real happy with the kind of league we have.

What About the Blazers?

I know, my team is 15-1. I am sorry about that. This was the first time I have ever participated in an allocation draft and I had no idea what the result would be. I actually messed up by drafting the second-oldest team in the league. But I have paid close attention to my gameplanning, depth chart, injuries, playbooks, etc. I only have two teams in MFN, so I can pay close attention to them — certainly closer attention than a certain former coach who was running 33 teams at the same time (and ignoring this one).

My goal is not to build a dynasty. I would like to win one USFL/WFL championship before I die. So, if I can win one with the Blazers, great. But, if that happens, I will drop the Blazers and pick up another team in this league that needs some TLC, provided one is available. I formed this league so that it would be a fair and fun alternative to the rest of the MFN world, not so I could fill my personal trophy case.

Early Free Agency

League members voted 9-4-2 to shorten the early free agency period from five days to three. So, beginning next season, there should be some wild-eyed bidding on decent players, because you may not get a second chance at them.

 

 

Uniform Customization

I was in an all-fired hurry to get this league up and running and missed two teams when I was customizing uniforms (Michigan Panthers, Charlotte Hornets). I promise to tend to those when the next (1975) season begins. I will also modify the New York Stars nickname to differentiate from the Baltimore Stars when looking at the league schedule. I don't know why it didn't occur to me not to have two teams with the same nickname. Again, I wanted to get this league operational ASAP.

Interventions

I will elaborate more on this under another blog post, but there are times an intervention is necessary. If a coach is ignoring his team and letting it deteriorate, I don't want the next guy to inherit a mess. More on that later.

Competitive Balance

I will also address this in another blog post, but I believe we can build competitive balance from the bottom up, not the top down. More on that later also.