Now that I’m no longer a GM of the Austin Copperheads, I can really speak out on a league topic that always gets people going: Tampering. There is ZERO doubt in my mind that the ISFL should allow tampering. It was a rule designed for the old days, and with the constant wave of new recruits, tampering is now obsolete.
The biggest reason tampering rules exist was because there was a fear that a group of users would all gang up and join the same team, thus creating a “Super Team” that would win all of the time. Yes, that would be bad for the league, especially in its infancy. The only way around something like that in the old days would be to have one user create 7 users and run them alone. Which happened. (Hey Er!). In the early days of the NSFL, there were only 6 franchises. And unlike the rosters of today, there were a LOT of IAs running around. Basically, if a “super team” were to form, it would cause other teams to be basically IA/bot teams. That wouldn’t be good for the league, and as a result, the tampering rules were made to help prevent that.
But now? We’re a bustling community, with 14 ISFL teams and 8 DSFL teams to boot. There are actives all over the place to the point where players are staying in the DSFL longer than ever and expansion rumors are as rampant as ever. (Go to 16 teams head office!) The reasons for the original tampering rules essentially cease to exist. We have so much parity, and every team is close to full of active users at every position. Hell, people are offensive linemen ON PURPOSE again. The chances of a group of FAs gathering together and joining the same team to create a super team are basically zero. Why? Because even if that happened, they wouldn’t be that far ahead of every single franchise to make that difference. Yes, if 5 awesome FAs banded together and joined Honolulu this offseason, Honolulu would end up becoming a much better team. But would they be the best team and completely destroy the other franchises who ended up losing talent? Nope.
On top of it all, with so many actives littered throughout our rosters, no franchise really has the room for, lets say, 5 900+ TPE free agents to add to their salary cap. Teams nowadays, barring a massive amount of players leaving and/or going IA, have a nice culture going on that most teams want to keep cultivating. It’s a BAD look for a franchise to bring in a cluster of players that immediately take the starting spots away from some younger, homegrown players who worked hard for their spots, only to be replaced in the name of higher TPE.
The point is, the main our tampering rules exist doesn’t exist anymore.
But there are other reasons to remove the tampering rules. The first one is simply that IT HAPPENS EVERY WHERE ALL OF THE TIME ANY EVERYONE KNOWS IT DOES ANYWAY.
What’s the point of having a rule that is constantly broken by just about every person in some way or another. Technically, you can’t even openly chat with your friend about someday playing together. And there’s enough dregs in our ISFL society that would immediately report them. Our tampering rules are about as stupid as the laws regarding jaywalking. Does everyone cross the street at an intersection? Fuck no they don’t. Do the cops that see jaywalkers give them a ticket? Once again, nope. Why? Because it essentially doesn’t matter. On top of it all, the ISFL has a large chunk of players that are pretty loyal to the team that drafted them. Sure, we have some free agents, but we don’t have some large list of players switching teams.
Not to mention, we can cut it out with the absolute bullshit punishments that tampering brings. The constant reminder of “precedence” looms with many in the community, so even when a brand spanking new ISFLer says “you should play with me!”, he/she is jumped on and charged with tampering when in reality that should just be ignored. “BUT IT HAPPENED TO SO AND SO IN THE PAST!”. So what? Let’s leave that shit in the past. Before you know it, this new player is fined, punished, and has to go through appeals. Again, a stupid look for the league. Somehow that innocent sentence is punished the same way as “Yeah, you should leave your team and join mine. We’ll pay you $13,000,000 a season.”. The bottom line is that tampering is absolutely stupid. So is precedence in decisions, because it prevents growth, but that’s another story for another Ultimus Week.
The removal of tampering means that people can breathe easy as they talk with their friends about their ISFL futures. Nobody has to watch what they say during a chat with a friend just in case the wrong person is around. This goes for GMs, HO, players, etc. Everyone. It’s a weight off of everyone’s shoulders and honestly, I think a very high percentage of ISFLers would be happy with it’s removal. The only ones who aren’t are most likely to be the bad GMs who know they’ll be losing their players because they can’t keep them happy. I believe we should remove tampering and make the ISFL a better place for all. Thank you. (909)
The biggest reason tampering rules exist was because there was a fear that a group of users would all gang up and join the same team, thus creating a “Super Team” that would win all of the time. Yes, that would be bad for the league, especially in its infancy. The only way around something like that in the old days would be to have one user create 7 users and run them alone. Which happened. (Hey Er!). In the early days of the NSFL, there were only 6 franchises. And unlike the rosters of today, there were a LOT of IAs running around. Basically, if a “super team” were to form, it would cause other teams to be basically IA/bot teams. That wouldn’t be good for the league, and as a result, the tampering rules were made to help prevent that.
But now? We’re a bustling community, with 14 ISFL teams and 8 DSFL teams to boot. There are actives all over the place to the point where players are staying in the DSFL longer than ever and expansion rumors are as rampant as ever. (Go to 16 teams head office!) The reasons for the original tampering rules essentially cease to exist. We have so much parity, and every team is close to full of active users at every position. Hell, people are offensive linemen ON PURPOSE again. The chances of a group of FAs gathering together and joining the same team to create a super team are basically zero. Why? Because even if that happened, they wouldn’t be that far ahead of every single franchise to make that difference. Yes, if 5 awesome FAs banded together and joined Honolulu this offseason, Honolulu would end up becoming a much better team. But would they be the best team and completely destroy the other franchises who ended up losing talent? Nope.
On top of it all, with so many actives littered throughout our rosters, no franchise really has the room for, lets say, 5 900+ TPE free agents to add to their salary cap. Teams nowadays, barring a massive amount of players leaving and/or going IA, have a nice culture going on that most teams want to keep cultivating. It’s a BAD look for a franchise to bring in a cluster of players that immediately take the starting spots away from some younger, homegrown players who worked hard for their spots, only to be replaced in the name of higher TPE.
The point is, the main our tampering rules exist doesn’t exist anymore.
But there are other reasons to remove the tampering rules. The first one is simply that IT HAPPENS EVERY WHERE ALL OF THE TIME ANY EVERYONE KNOWS IT DOES ANYWAY.
What’s the point of having a rule that is constantly broken by just about every person in some way or another. Technically, you can’t even openly chat with your friend about someday playing together. And there’s enough dregs in our ISFL society that would immediately report them. Our tampering rules are about as stupid as the laws regarding jaywalking. Does everyone cross the street at an intersection? Fuck no they don’t. Do the cops that see jaywalkers give them a ticket? Once again, nope. Why? Because it essentially doesn’t matter. On top of it all, the ISFL has a large chunk of players that are pretty loyal to the team that drafted them. Sure, we have some free agents, but we don’t have some large list of players switching teams.
Not to mention, we can cut it out with the absolute bullshit punishments that tampering brings. The constant reminder of “precedence” looms with many in the community, so even when a brand spanking new ISFLer says “you should play with me!”, he/she is jumped on and charged with tampering when in reality that should just be ignored. “BUT IT HAPPENED TO SO AND SO IN THE PAST!”. So what? Let’s leave that shit in the past. Before you know it, this new player is fined, punished, and has to go through appeals. Again, a stupid look for the league. Somehow that innocent sentence is punished the same way as “Yeah, you should leave your team and join mine. We’ll pay you $13,000,000 a season.”. The bottom line is that tampering is absolutely stupid. So is precedence in decisions, because it prevents growth, but that’s another story for another Ultimus Week.
The removal of tampering means that people can breathe easy as they talk with their friends about their ISFL futures. Nobody has to watch what they say during a chat with a friend just in case the wrong person is around. This goes for GMs, HO, players, etc. Everyone. It’s a weight off of everyone’s shoulders and honestly, I think a very high percentage of ISFLers would be happy with it’s removal. The only ones who aren’t are most likely to be the bad GMs who know they’ll be losing their players because they can’t keep them happy. I believe we should remove tampering and make the ISFL a better place for all. Thank you. (909)
![[Image: tTMB4jP.jpg]](https://imgur.com/tTMB4jP.jpg)
