Manual history

Pictures are probably easier:

Salary Cap

Each franchise has a primary annual salary cap of $500 that refreshes each year on the first day of the new league year; March 1st. Salary cap dollars are spent at The Auction to acquire players. Snake drafts are for sissies. Salary cap dollars may also be used to acquire free agents during the year, and buy out bunk contracts before the end of the league year. Salary cap dollars do not carry over from year to year; on the last day of the league year (last day in February), all unused salary cap dollars expire. Use them, or lose them. Or better yet, trade them. Salary cap dollars are a very tradable asset.

Team Rosters

The auction is it. Our Bacchanalia. The closed session in which we rekindle the forge and alloy our bonds. It takes place the 1st weekend in August each year. Block your calendars; recurring-like, yes? Do it now! Kindly inform/ask your spouse. Choose your own verb on that one. All team owners are required to attend, or send a delegate. Missing The Auction is grounds for a league-wide vote on dismissal. Just saying.

The location of the auction is chosen by the 🎺🌤 Jankster Cup 🎺🌤 Champion. We've been fortunate enough to pick players in: Vegas, Tahoe, Bend, Seattle, Santa Barbara, and Palo Alto (naturally). Where will you choose to host the auction when you hoist the cup?

The Auction has 8 principal components spread over two weeks:

Friday - Rules Proposals, Votes & Amendments

Friday - Deal ; where = tub**

Friday - Deal() where () = tub**

Saturday - Auction

The Rookie Slow Draft begins two weeks before The Auction. Each team is given 12 hours to select a rookie and declare their intent to 'top', or 'holdover' the player selected. Picks are submitted on PAFFL.com or by texting The Commissioner. When one pick is made, the next owner is put 'on the clock' and has 12 hours to make their pick. The goal of this slow auction is to get Kama Sutra-like with many owners' favorite part of the PAFFL. Trades during the slow draft are HIGHLY encouraged. If a team pulls "a Brzezinski" and does not make their selection before their 12 hour window expires, the next team in line may jump the queue and make a selection. Teams will continue to pick, in order, until the laggard makes their selection.

1. Friday - League Meal

Each year, a League Chef will be chosen for The Auction. The Chef is responsible for planning and executing a communal league meal to be held on Friday evening at The Auction. It is a great honor to be The Chef. There might be a tshirt, or something, made and presented to The Chef each year. League members volunteer to help the chef shop, prep, cook and serve the league meal. There are only three rules for the League Meal:

The Chef plans the meal

The Chef does not clean

Nobody complains

The league meal is funded from league fees.

2. Friday - State of the Franchise Presentations

2. Friday - Rookie Draft Auction

To get things started proper-like, on Friday night, any rookies that were 'topped' in the slow draft will be auctioned off. The owner who made the rookie pick will have the option to top the last bid for $1.

3. Friday - State of the Franchise Presentations

Fantasy football is good. PAFFL-OG friendships are better. On Friday night, each franchise owner will give the league an update on the state of their franchise. In the past, we’ve had poems, slide shows, Powerpoint presentations, and songs. Family, kids, work, hopes, fears -- all are welcome topics. Catch us up on the non-PAFFL-OG goings on in your life. Give us dialog fodder for the rest of the weekend.

Friday evening, before the Rookie Draft, any member can propose a change to this league manual and our rules. No seconds required. The proposing owner must stand and summarize their proposed rule change and rationale. The League will discuss, and The Commissioner, at his/her discretion, will call for a vote. Here is the change log. New proposals are most often successful when they are entered in the log, and lobbied for, before the auction.

4. Friday - Rookie Draft

The Rookie Draft will start at ~9PM the night prior to The Auction.

During the Rookie Draft, each franchise receives the right to select an incoming NFL rookie for their roster. The sequence of these draft slots are determined by the ‘Rookie Draft “Cage Match” Tournament’ outlined above.

During the Rookie Draft, each team is on the clock in their draft slot for 5 minutes. The Commissioner keeps the clock for each draft slot. If an owner doesn’t make their selection during their 5 minute draft slot, the next franchise on the clock may make their pick ahead of the ‘skipped’ owner. The Rookie Draft will continue slot by slot until the last franchise chooses a rookie. ‘Skipped’ owners may announce their pick at any time after their slot expires -- ahead of any team that is then on the clock.

‘Skipped’ owners will have 5 minutes after the last slot expires to make, or forfeit their rookie draft selection.

Owners can call a 1 minute time out during any owner’s Rookie Draft slot.

Importantly, Rookie Draft slots are tradable assets.

Trades are permissible at any time during the Rookie Draft.IV. Administration & Operations

4. Friday - Rules Proposals, Votes & Amendments

The PAFFL is an ever-evolving entity. It is what we make it. We're never done making it. Propose a rule change, get it ratified by at 2/3 majority vote, and become a part of the legendary folks who have made this league what it is today.

5. Friday - Deal Tub

Friday nights are known for great deal making. The haze of enthusiasm, camaraderie, and booze frequently leads to blockbuster deals. Late night hot tub (AKA “deal tub”) sessions, have frequently been the alchemic crucible that render championships and heartbreak. Deals get made in deal tubs. Ask Weaver; then bring your trunks! In addition to the Deal Tub, we have witnessed the Deal Deck, the Deal Path, the Deal Dock, the Deal Boat, the Deal Bike, and other Deal situations. Deal() FTW

6. Saturday - The Auction

Get your bid on. Come prepared, and get it right -- you build a dynasty. Shank it, and years of shame ensue. There are no mulligans at The Auction.

Auction Order

Before the auction, each owner draws a number from a hat to determine the auction order. Each owner announces a player to start bidding in the order drawn from the hat. We go in a circle. Like time. Clockwise.

The Auctioneer

All hail. The Auctioneer:

Finds the next owner and asks for their player nomination

Loudly repeats the player name called by the owner

Solicits and acknowledges bids with a pointed finger, or a prop

Calls out: “Going once, twice, sold!”

Adjudicates disagreements on timing/bid amounts

Keeps shit moving

Guest Auctioneers are occasionally indulged, and enjoyed.

Bidding

Announcing a player’s name implies an opening $1 bid

Owners may start the bidding on a player at any price > $1

Increasing bids must be made in a minimum of $1 over the prior bid

Owners may not bid sequentially against themselves to inflate player prices

An owner may “pass” when it’s their turn, but in doing so forfeits their right to call out players in subsequent rounds

Bidding continues for four complete rounds through the owners

After each section of four rounds, the league takes a ~fifteen minute break

Bidding, and The Auction, ends when no owner announces a new player

Each owner may purchase as many players as s/he can afford at The Auction.

Winning Bids & The Website

Each time The Auctioneer awards a player to an owner, The Owner must call out:

Their franchise name (e.g. IMT)

The player’s name (e.g. Chris Gardocki)

The winning bid amount (e.g. A nickel)

All player acquisitions will be captured in real-time on the website. The website is our 'source of truth'. This prevents two teams from thinking they won the same player - it's happened.

During breaks, owners are responsible for reviewing how much money they have left to spend. If they see a discrepancy on the website they must raise it to The Commissioner immediately for adjudication. Regardless of what the website says, or anyone has in their favorite google sheet, if the owner exceeds his/her budget for any reason, it is the owner’s fault. More on this later.

Time Outs

During the draft, each team is allocated one five minute “time out”, to be used at any time to add up money and assess draft strategy. During the auction, trades may only be consummated and announced during breaks, any trade unannounced during a break, won’t be official until following the draft’s completion or during the next break, whichever is sooner. This helps us avoid 'gaming' scenarios where teams announce bids with 'surprise' cash. Time Outs are not tradable assets.

Fiduciary Duty

Teams are required to keep track of their finances at all times. Owners must disclose money spent and available cap space upon request by another owner. If, during the auction, any team is found to have exceeded their salary cap, that team’s most recent player acquisitions are immediately returned to the player free agent pool, one-by-one in reverse order of acquisition, until the team is once again below the salary cap. Teams do not have the opportunity to make trades to adjust their total money spent and avoid this penalty – the punishment is immediate, and non-negotiable. Additionally, the overspending franchise is penalized $40, plus the amount overspent, against next season’s cap. For example, if, after bidding $75 to win Drew Bledsoe, The BeaverCats’ total aggregate salaries equal $512, then:

Drew Bledsoe is immediately returned to the player pool

The BeaverCats aggregate salaries returns to $437 (leaving $63 to spend)

Bidding on Bledsoe re-opens at $1

Note: the BeaverCats may bid again

The BeaverCats $500 cap for the following year is reduced by $52 ($12 overbid amount + $40 penalty) to $448

Important: A team need not win a player to violate their fiduciary duty and become subject to the over-bidding penalty outlined above. At any time, if an owner makes a bid that exceeds his/her available salary cap, whether intentionally, or erroneously, even if s/he doesn’t win the player, s/he will forfeit the overbid amount + $40 in salary cap for the following season.

Bottom line: bring your calculator, be smart, and don’t let this fate befall your team!

As mentioned, salary cap dollars are a very tradable asset, which makes crisp accounting a very important skill for PAFFL-OG owners.

Opening Players Up to Competitive Bids

During the auction, an owner may ‘open up’ any player on contract to competitive bidding. When this happens, there are two possible outcomes:

Nobody bids on the player - Nothing happens. The player remains on the contract that was opened up.

Another owner bids on the player starting at least $1 more than the player’s current contract. In this scenario, the current owner may choose to try to win the player back, or let someone else take the player.

If another owners wins the player, the current owner is relieved of all contractual obligations for the player

If the current owner wins the player back s/he may choose, or not choose, to put the player on a new 3-year contract

7. Saturday - White Elephant Player Exchange

Everyone submits

5. Friday - Deal Tub

Deals get made in deal tubs. Ask Weaver.

IV. Administration & Operations

League Calendar