1. Play realistic football.. We all know the game, so play as you would if were a real coach. I dont want to hear of u being poor sports or not being very sportsmanlike in game.. Be respectful, when losing, take your loss and use it as a learning experience, and when winning, dont be disrespectful, if u are winning by a large margin, and u know your opponent has no chance to come back, run the ball.. I dont want to hear of people throwing bombs when up by 4 TD's in the 4th. qtr.. etc.. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  miss 2 games..    3rd offense.. BOOT 2. U are required to schedule games on the fourm..  Every week after advance I will post a scheule, u must reply within 48 hrs of advance with times and days u are available to play..  Your opponent will do same, then u guys can agree on something there..  If u guys work something out within that 48 hr period, then no need to post the game if its played by that time. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  miss 1 games..    3rd offense.. BOOT 3. Going for it on 4th.. .. Lets be realistic on this issue.. :note..  when going for it on 4th down..  U must wait at least 10 secoonds to call your play..  I also suggest the person on Defense wait to see if u pick a special teams formation or if u are choosing a offensive formation..   The point of this is to keep people from being suprised.. I used to make u guys pause the game and tell your opponent when going.. I dont feel this is necessary now due to the fact that u can see what formation your opponent choses.. A.  You may go for it on all 4th. and 1 or short situations, no matter if you are winning or losing.. B. If you are losing, Any Point in the game if u are down by 35 or more.. 1st - 3rd qtrs.  you may go for it as long as you are beyond your opponents 40 yd line, but only if it is 4th and 3 or less.. 4th qtr., if down by 28 or more in the 4th qtr.  ,  you can go for it from any spot on field in 4th.. Anything less than 28 you must punt unless to opponents 45 yd line.. 2 min warning, you may go at any point.. C. If you are winning, U may only go for it on 4th and 1 or short situations.. D. U may only go for a fake punt or FG if u are behind or if game is tied in a grueling defensive match. Or if game is still 0-0, but never if u are ahead.. penalties:  U will immediately give your opponent the ball at the spot of your foul if u are found to be breaking one of these 4th down rules above..    If u have finished the game, u will replay it.. 4. MOVEMENT OF DEFENSIVE PLAYERS..This is the issue I want to address the most.. We have the most controversy on this issue.. There are 3 issues I want to address here.. A. There will be NO movement of the defensive lineman before the snap..  There are no exceptions to this rule.. B. U may use an end or dt to cover the hb into the flats, or to stop the run to the outside but he may not be moved before the snap of the ball.. There are alot of offensive plays that leave the hb wide open to alot of defense formations.. In which it is necessary to cover them with your defensive end as would any NFL defense.. In the NFL or any football for that matter, its your job to fill the o's with the x's on defense and vise versa, when a team sees a hb going out for passes on a consistent basis, they start to assign that defensive end to cover that hb (or defensive tackle, but only if the end on his side is dropping back into coverage 'see *dime man zone 2*').. it is in my opinion legal to cover him into the flats (meaning sideline to sideline) but not more that 5 yrds. back beyond the line of scrimmage.. at that 5 yd mark , u must either switch control to another defensive player, or let off the pass coverage (meaning stop him or bring him back to the line of scrimmage or to the the sideline, but not any farther back into pass coverage,).. C. You may only controll ONE defensive player before the snap of the ball (except for linemen, rule a. above).... You may not reposition any other defensive players once 1 man has been moved untill after the snap.. D. You are only permitted to move a LB 10 yds. maximum into pass coverage (sideline to sideline is fine ) BEFORE THE SNAP.. Anything more is considered cheese. U may move him anywhere after the snap.. E. The is no restriction on line shifting.. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  U will give your opponent a 1st down at the spot of the foul..  3rd offense.. BOOT 5. BUMP AND RUN.. You may use bump and run..  However I will not allow it to continue to be used as it has been by some owners..  U may not use bump and run defense all game.. The reason for this being that bump and run was not designed to be used for that purpose..  Bump and run is a red zone defense, designed to jam the WR's at the line of scrimmage to give the secondary time to spread the red zone and pressure the QB by throwing the route timing off..   My rule on bump and run will be, u may only call bump and run one time in a series of downs..  Unless your opponent is inside your 20 yd line. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  U will take a loss for that game..  3rd offense.. BOOT 6. No Huddle Offense..   U may only use no huddle in situations when u are needing to hurry the ball.. Like when u are down by 21 or more with 2 mins left in 1st half..  Or if u are down by 35 or more in the 3rd.. Or down my 21 or more in the 4th..  U may also use it sparingly during the game, maybe to catch your opponent in a vulnerable defense, but one snap is enough in those situations, no need to keep no huddling..   penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  U will give your oppenent the ball at the spot of your foul..  3rd offense.. BOOT 7. Kicking Onside kicks. A. Anytime when down by 35 pts or more.. B.  Anytime in the last 2 mins of the game ONLY!!! U must be behind, and in a situation where u MUST onside to tie or get back in game.. C.  In 4th qtr.. if u are down by 28 pts or more, u may onside kick at your discression... D. No pouch punts are allowed.  U may kick HIGH punts, but it must travel at least 20 yds or go out of bounds.. penalties: 1st offense..  U will immedialty give your opponent the ball if u break one of these rules, at the spot of the foul..    2nd offense   BOOT 8. Substitutions.. There will be some strict rules on subs set forth.. If u think someone is illegally subbing on O or D in game, pause game, tell me about it.. I can go in and look at their formation subs and etc. in league.. If I find u are illegally subbing in game, u will be suspended for 3 games.. !!!! a. There will no subbing of DB's for LB's..  I am also concerned with people coming out in dime and nickle packages on all downs, then calling audible  into a 4-3 or 3-4 package..  If this is occuring in a game with u, pause the game, let me know..  I will want to look at the game log to see if LB's are playing..  If u are found to be abusing the audibles, u will be warned, 2nd time u are suspended for 3 games.. b. There will be no subbing of WR's to DB's and vise versa..  There are only a few CB's that can play WR in the NFL, they dont know the routes, and dont catch as well as a WR would, therefor, I am going to discontinue the allowance of DB's at WR..  No need for it.. I will make an exception if u take an injury at Wide Out, and are short a WR for 4-5 WR sets..  Only exception.. c. Keep it real, No WR's at TE.. Also, I dont want to get complaints on guys coming out in 3 or 4 WR sets then audibling into a strong or weak formation to bring a WR to the line as a TE.  I know it happens, but I dont want it being done often..    d.  U MAY use TE's at FB or WR.... e. No CB's at FS or SS.. FS at SS and vise versa is fine, also Safeties can play CB. .. f. NO LB at RE or LE. U may play a DT at LB..   g. All O and D lineman are able to be subbed for one another.. h. U may play a QB at WR or HB if they are a ligitamate QB to play that role.. i. Hb's and Fb's are interchangeable and also a TE may play FB.. note: I am going to pick one or two teams randonmly each week to look at formation subs in some particular areas, if I find u are making illegal subs with your team. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  U will be suspended for 2 games.  3rd offense.. BOOT 9. QB movement.. a. You will not be allowed to repeatedly drop your QB back 15-20 yds. before attempting to pass.. This is cosidered cheese, and will not be tolerated.. If you are being blitzed, and need to roll out or drop back, thats fine, but when you are not being pressured, and you drop back 15-20 yds. it spreads the defense out too much, its unrealistic.. This will not be allowed any further.. b.  I dont mind u guys running with your QB, but this is not something that happens alot in football, QB's are your most important player on the field, its not realistic to run him 5-10 times a drive..  Be realistic about running the QB, I have been getting complaints lately on this, so be careful..  If u are playing someone who is just running the QB way too much, send me the game log, I will be able to see whats up..   He will take the loss if he is found to be abusing this rule.. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  U will give your opponent the ball at the spot of the foul..  3rd offense.. BOOT 10. Do not play games against cpu.. I will find a sub for u to play.. penalties: 1st offense..  BOOT 11. Defending the FG or EP.. You must use a FG block or EP block formation in these situations.. Anything other IS cheese.. U are not permitted to move any of the Special Teams  players before the snap of the ball..   penalties: 1st offense..  U will immedialely give your opponent a safety (2 pts) on your next possession..  2nd offense..  BOOT 12. Running the clock is fine.. I want to see u running the clock if your up by alot of pts.. I dont want to see people running the score up on others (I dont mean blowing them out, if u are able to score, go ahead and score, but if its in the 4th qtr. and u see your opponent has submitted to you and is just trying to get through the game, then please respect that).. If its 4th. qtr and your opponent has no chance to come back, please be respectful and don't try to rub the loss in his face.. Run the time out and get the game over with.. Thanks, I will enforce this very strictly..   penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  miss 2 games..    3rd offense.. BOOT 13. Running the ball.. U must try to run the ball, I dont want to hear of people complaining that their opponent is not at least trying to run, unless u are down by 2 td's in the early 4th, u must at lest try to run once every drive, I dont want to see bombs all day..  The exception is if u fall behind by 21 pts or more at any point in the game, u dont HAVE to run when down by 21 or more.. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  miss 2 games..    3rd offense.. BOOT 14.  Shotgun..  Ok.. U guys cannot run shotgun formation all  game..  Mix it up..  I will allow it if u are taking alot of sacks, send me the game log afte game, and i will be able to tell whether u were pressured alot or not.. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  Give your opponent the ball at th spot of your foul..  3rd offense.. BOOT 15.  Repeating the same play over and over will not be tolerated..  U may only run the same play twice in a series of downs..   This does not include passing plays in which u may throw to a different WR..  U may use the same passing play more than twice, but these are situations as in using NO HUDDLE offense, and etc..  In those situations, I will make an exception... note:   This applies to defense also..  U may not run a blitz all game.. It is totally unrealistic..  Im am specifically talking about the 3-4 stunt blitzes..  U may run them of course (cant really ban a  blitz from football) BUT it is totally unrealistic to run a blitz of that nature all game, especially on runs..  It is not real for your QB to get drilled trying to hand off the ball more than once or twice a game..  Play real ball fellas, or go play ranked..  :) penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  Give your opponent the ball at th spot of your foul..  3rd offense.. BOOT 16.  Goal line Offense/Defense..  U may only use a goal line Offensive formation or Defensive formation on 2 yd or less situations..  UNLESS u are inside the 5, then u may use it at your will.. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  On defense ..Give your opponent a 1st down        On offense..   Give your opponent the ball if u are on offense at the spot of the foul..  3rd offense.. BOOT 17.  If a Rule is Broken in Game..   If u are in game, and u see a rule that is broken.. Pause it and have your opponent go over the rule..  Then if still not in agreement, pause the game, hit quit save..  Then come talk to me on yahoo.. If i am not here, talk to Steelerfan81..  If Steelerfan is not here, talk to xwreckingxcrewx ...   One of us will make a decision about the rule, then u two will continue from there..  IF u guys finish the game after a rule has been broken, I will not do anything about it, UNLESS i find substantial reason to do so, in that case, u will replay the game.. 18.  U must control your team..  U may NOT let the PC call your defensive plays, and WILL not let the PC play QB..  I know things come up and there are brief moments when u got to get up to get door and etc. or whatever..  Those situations are ok.. U MAY not let eh PC pick D plays for more than 3 snaps..   On offense, I know that sometimes the PC throws the ball before u can do it, not sure why, but it does happen, but your opponent will know if u are letting the PC play QB or not, I can always tell..  If u dont want to control your team, I can arrange that.. penalties: 1st offense..  warning..    2nd offense  Take a loss..  3rd offense.. BOOT 19.  Collusion..  U will not add or drop players from your roster for the purpose of helping another owner better his team..  If u are found to be releasing players or making trades after deadline through the FA wire, U will be booted with no warning.. penalties:  1st offense..   BOOT 20.  Depth Chart..  The rules for substitutions still applies to depth chart movements also..  On issue i want to clear up is that I DO NOT want to find #1 WR's playing slot all game..  Playing him in a few formatins at that position is fine, as its done in the NFL to create mismatches all the time..  Although playing him there for a whole game is totally bogus and I think cheap..  The reason for this is the fact that playing a #1 WR for example I. Bruce (92 CAT. 95 AWR) playing slot all game is very unfair to any opponent who may face him..  THese are the mismatches that are created in that situation.. A. 4-3         Bruce vs OLB.. B. 3-4         Bruce vs #2 MLB C. Nickle  Bruce vs #3 CB (example D. Bly 71 OVR  75 AWR vs Bruces 95 AWR and 92 CAT) D. Dime    Bruce vs  #3-4 CB.. :NOTE   If any of u think that is a fair way to play this game, u may as well go find a new league.. I had no idea this was going on.. I would have done something about it earlier if I had known..  Some of u have told me that u think there is nothing wrong with that, and I totally disagree..   People shouldnt have to sub a #1 in slot to win games, and if they do, then they arent as skilled as they lead guys to believe.. penalties:  1st offense..  2 game suspension..   2nd offense   BOOT If you can think of some other rules youd like to see added, let me know asap.. ANYONE REPORTED AS HARRASSING ANYONE ELSE BY EMAIL OR IN LEAGUE CHAT OR YAHOO MESSENGER WILL BE IMMEDIATLY REMOVED FROM LEAGUE..