International Shoe Fantasy Football League Rules

This post will summarize the special league rules:



The Reggie Wayne Rule Players who are picked up as free agents must remain on a team's roster until all the games for that week have been played.
Update: Due to complaints from owners, a vote was held on August 14, 2010 to determine whether the Rule should be abolished. The owners, however, voted to uphold the Reggie Wayne Rule.


The Josh Teague Rule When players are cut, they cannot be signed as free agents until they have gone through blind bidding.

The Jessie Chatman Rule
When a team drops a player, the team cannot re-acquire the player at a lower salary during the season.

The Doug Good "OH Shit I don't have kicker!" GameDay Transaction Rule
[REPEALED 8/16/10]
No pick-ups are allowed after midnight EST on Saturday night prior to NFL games. In the event of a Thursday or Saturday game, players can be picked up until game time. Free agents playing in a Thursday or Saturday games cannot be picked up until they go through blind bids.
UPDATE: As a result of the furor surrounding the September 27, 2009 illegal signing of Brent Celek, several owners have petitioned to have a vote at next year's draft to determine whether the Doug Good Rule should be repealed.
UPDATE: The Doug Good Rule was repealed on August 14, 2010 pursuant to a league vote. Players may now be added or dropped any time prior to 1 pm EST on Sunday as long as they are not playing in a game with occurs earlier in the week. If a player plays in an earlier game (i.e. Thursday night or Saturday afternoon), the player cannot be added or dropped until the blind bid period expires.

The Kinko's Rule
Due to the fact that several owners had limited computer access, it was agreed that the open period for signing free agents would begin at noon, EST on Wednesdays. The blind bid results are generally posted before this time, and owners can pick-up the players they won through blind bidding, but must wait until the noon deadline to pick-up additional free agents.

The LaDanian Tomlinson Rule
The salary for any player who finishes in the top 5 in scoring at his position in consecutive seasons will increase by 20%

The David Akers Corollary to the LaDanian Tomlinson Rule
If the 20% salary increase effectuated by the Tomlinson Rule does not result in a higher salary than the 10% increase, the salary automatically bumps an additional dollar.
This is considered the "Pluto" of league rules, because many league pundits argue that this is no rule at all. Byron Emeson once explained, "This would not be a new rule. This would be an interpretation of an already existing rule that is necessary to implement that rule’s intended purpose. "

The Petros Rule
Wide receivers, running backs and tight ends can be started in the flex position. This Rule was added on August 14, 2010.

The Toilet Bowl
At the end of the season, the two teams with the worst records have a final game to determine which team is actually the worst of all. This usually occurs in week 16 of the NFL season. In the parlance of our times, it has become customary for the two cellar-dwellers to wager players, unborn children or mentally disabled relatives on the game's outcome. The game was actually canceled in 2010 due to a lack of interest from the participants (the Manimals and Athens)

A Ginsburg Dump
Owners are permitted, though not encouraged, to make "Ginsburg dumps" during the season. This is a practice in which an owner randomly drops a player without acquiring another player during the season. The owner can then fill the dumped player's roster spot at a later time. Usually this occurs as a knee jerk reaction when an owner is either irate at the dumped player, himself, another league owner, and/or a close family member. All dumped players must go through blind bids, and owners must have reasonable notice of the dump so that they have the opportunity to bid on the dumped player. This practice is discouraged because of the confusion it can cause, but not prohibited.

The Franchise Rule
This Rule was enacted during the 2011 draft and will take effect prior to the 2012 season. Under the Rule, teams can choose to "franchise" a player after the player has played 3 full seasons for their team. The salary of a franchised player will increase by the lower of either 10% or a top 5 salary. Teams can only franchise one player per year and cannot franchise the same player twice. The player must be on a roster continuously to be eligible; if a team drops a player and picks him back up, any prior time spent on the roster will not count towards franchise eligibility. For 2012, players who have played for the same team for the entire 2009, 2010, and 2011 seasons will be eligible to be franchised.