Pittsburgh Bulls Official Grievance and Decision of the Executive Committee

[bigbaldben]

This thread is for the posting of the official grievance by Pittsburgh regarding the league release of free agents as a result of no list being received from the organization by the salary cap deadline of 7 PM yesterday.

Please do not post in this thread. I will post the grievance as received, then I will post the Executive Committee decision, then I will give Pittsburgh a chance to respond to the decision. Once Pittsburgh has responded, or after 24 hours, whichever comes first, this thread will be closed.

If you feel the need or desire to discuss this further, please do so in the "Latest Salary Cap Issues" thread, where discussion has already begun.

Official Grievance Filed by Pittsburgh

1. I publically notified you that I would be turning in my list of cuts, that it would be coming on or around the exact deadline. you knew that I had a list and that it would be coming close to or at the deadline.

2. I contacted you and established a communication with you five minutes before the deadline and made it clear I was contacting you with the clear intent to go over with you my list of cuts. in the process of sitting down with me over Tuff stuff, you abruptly said "oh sorry too late" and ceased communication.

3. my trade with Zooboy was completed before the deadline (two minutes early) which was the only outstanding "real" trade I had under consideration. you maintained that I was dragging my feet, trying to make trades, which simply was not true.

4. you released players without my approval or consent, which is apparently your right by Tuff rules. unfortunately one of those players was a franchise player and one I did not wish to release. Tuff rules state that a franchise player cannot be released, only traded. you broke one rule for no apparent reason, since you could have easily released other players not under franchise category.

5. a technicality and one I won't press, because it was implied though not stated: you did not state WHEN the deadline was, clearly - merely 7:00 PM. you did not mention a time zone. though it was clear you implied YOUR time zone, it could well have been misinterpreted that you meant Mountain Time or California time or whatever. again, I know what you meant and made it clear that my intent was to be in by the deadline, so I will not press this issue.

I believe I have proven my intent to deliver the list and ask the High Council to reconsider their actions.

[bigbaldben]

Official Ruling by the Executive Committee

We find the following facts to be true:

1) The deadline for releasing players was 7 PM Central Time on June 13.
2) Pittsburgh did not submit a list before the 7 PM deadline.
3) The TUFF Constitution states the following:

Section II, Article D
Any owner violating the salary cap will be subject to the release of players from their roster at the sole discretion of the league commissioner.

4) The Commissioner, at his discretion, chose to release the least number of players to bring Pittsburgh in line with the league salary cap, consistent with what he has stated previously.

"The only exception will be Sunday, June 13, when I will allow players to be cut prior to 7 PM in order to get teams under the salary cap. If you are OVER the regular season salary cap ($145 million) at PRECISELY 7:00 PM CT, the league will automatically cut the LEAST NUMBER OF PLAYERS to get you under the cap. This means larger salaries go FIRST, so don't be late. No Email excuses this time!! "

5) One of the players released from Pittsburgh was LB Crazy Legs Wise, who was designated a franchise player by Pittsburgh.

TUFF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE DECISION

It is the ruling of the TUFF Executive Committee that Pittsburgh had ample time to submit the list and is therefore not granted reinstatement of their players. Further, it is the ruling of the Committee that "sole" in the phrase "sole discretion of the Commissioner" indicates that the decision is free from any outside forces, especially owner desire, as indicated by franchising players. However, the Committee has decided to reinstante LB Crazy Legs Wise as a Pittsburgh franchise player, on a twofold basis. First, the conflict of the wording between the two phrases is not as clear as it could be, and second, the league wishes to extend a goodwill gesture towards Pittsburgh.

Response to Individual Grievance Points

1) I publically notified you that I would be turning in my list of cuts, that it would be coming on or around the exact deadline. you knew that I had a list and that it would be coming close to or at the deadline.

Clearly, notification that an owner will do, or will be doing something is not the same as doing it. Indeed, the commissioner DID know that a list would be coming at the deadline, and made himself available via instant messenger for the explicit purpose of receiving that list before the deadline. No list was received.

2) I contacted you and established a communication with you five minutes before the deadline and made it clear I was contacting you with the clear intent to go over with you my list of cuts. in the process of sitting down with me over Tuff stuff, you abruptly said "oh sorry too late" and ceased communication.

It is a fact that communication was "established" at 6:55 PM CT. However, the phrase "sitting down with me over TUFF stuff, you abruptly said..." is misleading. The implication is that the Commissioner and yourself were in an open dialog regarding the league, almost as if the Commissioner was distracting you from your initial purpose. This was not the case. Pittsburgh was warned at the five minute, two minute and one minute mark that time was running out and he was in jeopardy of having players released by the league. There was no conversation between those warnings, only silence.

3) my trade with Zooboy was completed before the deadline (two minutes early) which was the only outstanding "real" trade I had under consideration. you maintained that I was dragging my feet, trying to make trades, which simply was not true.

The Committee feels this point is irrelevant for Pittsburgh's case, and more relevant towards the league. The Committee will even retract the Commissioner's earlier statement. However, if Pittsburgh says they were finished two minutes before the deadline with the trade, and that they had their list ready, the question must be raised: "Why wasn't the list submitted during those two minutes?"

4) you released players without my approval or consent, which is apparently your right by Tuff rules. unfortunately one of those players was a franchise player and one I did not wish to release. Tuff rules state that a franchise player cannot be released, only traded. you broke one rule for no apparent reason, since you could have easily released other players not under franchise category.

Consent was given by Pittsburgh's failure to submit a list before the deadline. It is also true that the Commissioner could have released another player not under franchise category, since it was his "sole discretion" to release whomever he saw fit. Again, "sole discretion" means independent of outside forces, including franchise designations. In addition, the franchise player rule states the following:

B. Franchise players are not eligible for free agency, retirement, or release from their team for the two year period.

"Release" is the franchise owner designation and is synonymous with a restriction on the owner only. The Commissioner did not break a rule, and whether there was a reason for selecting Wise or not is completely irrelevant.

5) a technicality and one I won't press, because it was implied though not stated: you did not state WHEN the deadline was, clearly - merely 7:00 PM. you did not mention a time zone. though it was clear you implied YOUR time zone, it could well have been misinterpreted that you meant Mountain Time or California time or whatever. again, I know what you meant and made it clear that my intent was to be in by the deadline, so I will not press this issue.

The Committee refers Pittsburgh to the following quotes:

First as stated by the commissioner:

The only exception will be Sunday, June 13, when I will allow players to be cut prior to 7 PM in order to get teams under the salary cap. If you are OVER the regular season salary cap ($145 million) at PRECISELY 7:00 PM CT, the league will automatically cut the LEAST NUMBER OF PLAYERS to get you under the cap. This means larger salaries go FIRST, so don't be late. No Email excuses this time!!

Second, as stated by Pittsburgh, clearly indicating his knowledge of the 'time zone:'

"Pitt has several trades on deck that should / may go through shortly, my goal is to have everything under the cap with releases announced on or around 7:00 PM CST (the deadline). I'll touch base with you, Ben, via PM to make sure everything is rosy smooth as a baby's bottom."

SUMMARY

As a result of these rulings by the Executive Committee, LB Crazy Legs Wise will be reinstated to the Pittsburgh Bulls, with full remaining franchise designation at 7 PM CT tonight. Additionally, all bids and subsequent cuts releated to Wise are now rendered null and void.

At that time, additional players will be selected by the Commissioner for release from Pittsburgh and will be available for free agent bids tomorrow at 7 PM CT. Also, all free agent release rules still apply to Pittsburgh as stated in the Constitution. Specifically:

B. If you cut a player and wish to re-sign him, the following applies:
i. You must bid a minimum of 100% of his pre-release salary within two weeks of cutting him
ii. You must bid a minimum of 75% of his pre-release salary anytime, within the season, after two weeks have passed since you cut him.

[bigbaldben]

Once again, only Pittsburgh may post a response here, and only within 24 hours. Then this thread will be closed. If you feel the need to discuss this ruling, please do so in the League Salary Cap Issues thread, and please only address questions to the league, not to Mister Dominator.

[Mister Dominator]

I submit to the will of the Tuff Executive Council.

I do not agree, but for the sake of the league that I love, the players on the field who sweat and bleed for the game, the owners who picked my team's carcass dry of all talent like the opportunistic weasels they are, the Tuff Commish who bent me over and raped me of a 10, two 9's and arguably the best QB in the league, I submit.

There is no question that I was there five minutes early with clear intent to provide a list of cuts. For whatever reason communications were broken - which looks, at this time, to be a technical issue between my laptop, my wireless NIC, and my Netgear wireless access point, the same exact issue that occurred on draft day - I did not / could not get my list of cuts in by the clearly established time. One second I had two minutes to go and was asking if Ben was ready for my list, the next second I had "so sorry, too late". Regardless, I could have done this earlier and did not, and the blame ultimately lies solely with myself. I will still personally hold grudges against every dirt sucking scum weasel that pillaged my players after the grand raping of the Bulls, and look forward to at least peeing on your team bus with my last-placed crappy shell of a team after your team beats the crap out of me using my best players I worked so hard to gather and build up.

I have painstakingly spent the past six seasons building up my team into a dominant... the dominant force... of Tuff. To see that team get torn apart in a matter of seconds over something like this is not only painful to me as an owner, it is painful to witness as a football fan. Tragedy is never enjoyable, and this incident was a tragedy. Could it have been avoided? Am I solely to blame? Apparently yes to both counts. I am content to be the object lesson of Tuff, the "don't ever be late or you'll lose all your star players!". In fact, I'm so happy about it, and about seeing my power rankings crash, to see my six seasons of hard work and empire-building crumble, to watch my shot at the Tuff Bowl literally vanish, I'm just tickled pink. I have personally spoken with the citizens of Pittsburgh who have alredy broken into angry rioting - now is not the time for rioting or looting or destruction. Now is the time for celebration of another glorious season of Tuff. We must look forward and not back, must press on.

This has been a learning experience for me, and I want to thank the Tuff Executive Council for restoring Wise to his rightful team - it was a gesture of good will that will not be forgotten. I would also like to congratulate all the dirt sucking scum weasel owners of Tuff who got some amazing deals as a result of this little object lesson. While I am disappointed and a tad angry over this experience, ultimately I can blame only myself, and as such, will get over it with time, perhaps within twelve or so years. I look forward to beating you all senseless on the football field with my now-decimated team of 2's and 3's, and buying wings for everyone with my 1-15 team (I hope to beat Newark maybe once...) God bless Tuff and God bless the United States of America.