Fumble Rule Proposal Revision

** This Rule Has Passed **

Okay guys, after some valuable feedback from Enright, Weldin, and Hammond, we may have stumbled upon a revision of my proposed rule change that makes sense.  The goal is to penalize players slightly for fumbling (even if the fumble isn’t lost), hits them harder for losing the fumble, implements a reward to players for recovering a teammate’s fumble, and leaves defensive scoring alone.  So here goes:

Current Rule:

1) A player gets -2 points for a fumble lost to the opponent

2) A player earns +2 points for a fumble recovered from the opponent.

Rule Change:

1) A player gets -1 points for ANY fumble

2) A player earns -1 point for a fumble lost to an opponent (thus, -1 point for the fumble plus -1 point for losing it = -2, which is the same as we currently score it)

3) A player earns +1 for recovery of a teammate’s fumble

4) A players earns +2 points for recovery of an opponent’s fumble

Rationale:  Our current rules states that a player gets -2 points for a fumble lost to the opponent.  However, this doesn’t account for the loss of yardage/down that the offense suffers when a player fumbles the ball.  Even if the same team recovers the ball (this usually happens on offense, but you’ll see it on defense after a turnover, too), there is a cost to a fumble.  Thus, the penalty for ALL fumbles, not just those lost to the opponent.

Things will mostly stay the same with the proposed rule change:
If a player fumbles and recovers his own fumble, the net change is 0 just like the current scoring system (-1 for the fumble, +1 for the recovery).  Likewise, if the defense recovers the ball, it’s -2 for the offensive player (-1 for the fumble, -1 for losing it) and +2 for the defensive player just like the current scoring system.

The difference, of course, happens when a player fumbles the ball and it is either A) not recovered  or B) recovered by another member of the same  team.  Under the new rules, the fumbler still loses a point, but the OTHER player is rewarded +1 point for being head’s-up enough to recover the fumble and saving the fumbler’s bacon.  In that instance, the net scoring for the offense and defense doesn’t change from the current rules, but the fumbler is punished and the head’s up guy is rewarded.

Mechanism:  We can do this now due to an update in the scoring options on MyFantasyLeague.  Or past options were limited, but we can now implement the proposed scoring options.

If passed,the rule would take effect immediately.

Note:  For the full comments, please check below my previous proposal.

© 2013, Adam Franssen. All rights reserved.