We discussed the Saints Fumble Recovery TD by Robert Meachem at length in yesterday’s post, so be sure to review that first, but we wanted to address a few other discussions and comments that have come up since yesterday, so here goes…
First, we’d like to thank Footballguys.com for explaining a lot about this issue and a very clear and concise manner with their “fantasy court ruling” from back in 2003 when this same type of play last happened in the NFL. You can review their logic and explanation on their web site by clicking here. We agree with their logic and explanation, and we also agree that this is exactly the same circumstances as happened back then. They also cover the whole theory that says as soon as a turnover happens, then the offense becomes the defense and the defense becomes the offense, and explain how that doesn’t make much sense from a fantasy perspective.
Second, we’d like clarify what some are pointing out as an inconsistency in the way MyFantasyLeague.com is scoring the play. As previously discussed and explained, this is scored as an “Offensive Fumble Recovery TD” for Robert Meachem (if your league has defined that rule for the WR position). But it is also scored as a “Fumble Recovery (from Opponent)” if your league has defined that rule for your Team Defense position. The main comment or complaint we are getting from customers is along the lines of “how can you award this as defensive fumble recovery for the Saints Defense, but not a defensive fumble recovery TD.” This is not true — our system is not classifying this as a Defensive Fumble Recovery. Rather, it is just awarding this as a “Fumble Recovery from the Opponent.” MyFantasyLeague.com admittedly does not have a separate set of rules for fumble recoveries on offense versus defense or special teams, so they are all lumped together into one rule. That’s why the rule is worded the way it is, because it includes all recoveries from the opponent, no matter what the situation or circumstances. For what it’s worth, there currently isn’t any way to specify a rule on our system that specifically includes fumble recoveries on defense and exclude all other fumble recoveries. So while it may not be ideal for this rare type of play, it is consistent with the way the rule is defined and worded, and consistent with the way this type of play was scored in past situations.
Third, we’ve had several people try to assert that the NFL has officially stated that this TD is a Defensive TD because of certain reports on NFL.com. That is also not correct. The most common report cited is this report on NFL.com. If you scroll down to Meachem, you’ll see that he has 1 TD in the “Def” column. But that doesn’t really “prove” anything, because this report is for “Touchdowns”, and it doesn’t have separate columns for Fumble TDs. In fact, they just list all TD’s in the “Def” column if they don’t fit under any other column on that particular report, and the only other choices are “Rush”, “Rec”, and “Ret”. As a case in point, if you take a look at this same type of report for 2008, you’ll see this report on NFL.com. If you scroll down to Rashied Davis in this report, you’ll see that he has 1 TD in the “Def” column. But if you research this TD, you’ll it comes from the 2008 Week 7 Bears game. You can view the box score here, which shows this play-by-play description:
(12:23) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 18-K.Orton pass short middle to 88-D.Clark to MIN 1 for 35 yards (23-C.Griffin). FUMBLES (23-C.Griffin), recovered by CHI-81-R.Davis at MIN -1. TOUCHDOWN.
There clearly was not a turnover on this play, as Kyle Orton of the Bears passed to Desmond Clark of the Bears, who fumbled at the 1 yard line, and then Rashied Davis of the Bears recovered his team’s own fumble and scored the TD. And yet the NFL still classified this as a TD under the “Def” column of their “Scores” report. Why? Because that particular report doesn’t have a column for “Fumble TDs” of any type, so they had to put the TD somewhere on that report.
Fourth, we’ve had several folks knock us for not awarding this TD to the Saints Defense even though ESPN or some other service has done exactly that. Well, we definitely don’t believe that just because ESPN (or anybody else for that matter) says that something in fantasy football is true, that it is true. If that were the case, then MyFantasyLeague.com wouldn’t be what it is today. We strive to be as consistent and transparent as possible about all of our options, while offering as much flexibility and customization as possible, without following the lead of other league management sites. In fact, ESPN didn’t even have a fully functional site in 2003 the last time this type of touchdown happened, so they are surely dealing with this for the first time in the life of their product. In addition, if you check all of the comments on the various fantasy football boards that we linked to in our previous blog post, you’ll see quite a bit of discussion about the various other “major” services such as Yahoo, ESPN, and CBS, and how they have apparently changed the way this TD is scored in their system many times in the last 24 hours. Conversely, we reviewed the TD as soon as the official stats were final about 10 minutes after the end of the game, and we updated our system immediately at that time to make this TD score consistently with the way our rules work. Then we immediately updated our Help System to include a detailed explanation of how this TD is scored by MyFantasyLeague.com.
So what does all of this mean? Most likely, if you are still reading this, then it means your league has been affected by this TD play, with a win or a loss hanging in the balance of how this is scored. We hope our explanations and background have helped you decide how to handle it in your league. If not, you have the ability to use the Score Adjuster to change the way it is scored (or to add the appropriate scoring rules as needed).
Edited to Add: ESPN actually reversed course and changed the way they are handling this play on Monday. Here is the link to the article on their site, which says that it will be scored for Meachem but not for the Saints Team Defense… Also, Yahoo changed it in their system as well on Tuesday, so they have also removed the TD from the Saints Team Defense.
