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Before I tell you what we're discussing, I want to let you all know that Smirt asked me if this was legal or not. I know he's a lightning rod, but he could have just used the loophole without asking me first. Regardless of how anyone feels about him, he is trying to follow the rules and I, for one, appreciate him asking first.

For those that don't know, there is some way to mess around with a max contract to give yourself a slight edge when multiple "generic" max contracts are offered. I don't fully understand it myself and never tried using it, but it can be done. Perhaps Smirt and/or CJ can shed more light on this, as Smirt uses this tactic and I believe CJ doesn't allow it in his leagues.

I went through 55 pages of our message board to see if we, as a league have discussed this before and I couldn't find anything in the thread titles. If it was discussed, it's buried in a good game thread or something.

If the majority are against this, we can implement a rule starting in 2000, but it's fair game this year since there currently is no rule on the books against it.

I'm putting this out there for all to see in the interest of full disclosure, and to encourage anyone that knows how to use it if you want.

Personally I can see maybe 1 or 2 players who might even be offered max contracts this season, but we should still discuss it for that future season when someone forgets to sign their 4th year draftees.

Also, let's try and keep the discussion civil. It's OK to disagree, but please try to disagree respectfully. I am guilty of this myself sometimes, so please don't take it personally.

The way I feel about this is two fold. I don't want it to be legal if only a handful of people know how to use it. If it is going to be legal, then I'd like everyone to know how to do it so it's fair.

Not a fan, just use the sliders.

I made a poll to vote on this issue here https://usflwfl.myfootballnow.com/forums/1/2393

Some advantages are fair game, like game planning prowess, the use or non use of overrides and custom rules for in game situations. Those are all tools available to everyone and it's up to each individual as to how/when to use them.

Other advantages "game the system" like the punt block in 4.5, and this max contact thing. The difference though, between the two is that this contract loophole doesn't drastically alter the course of a game and will affect maybe 1-3 players per season. Yes, the guy using the loophole gets a player, but during game play, he doesn't get any "power ups" that make him unstoppable.

Maybe that's something that could be fixed in a future update, if there ever is one. Eliminate the max contract altogether. Let the sliders go as high as you want. Man, I gotta stop thinking while I'm typing, that won't work because I can just see some noob sliding all the way right, then wondering why he's $100 million in the hole.

Since it might be considered gaming the system, a detailed description on how this is done prolly needs to be posted and stickied.

Then everyone is on equal footing and it may not be a big deal and that's one less thing that would have to be monitored.

Before I vote I know I'd like to see exactly how it's done by those who use it.

I know the basics of it. You slide the salary and bonus all the way to the right, then you go into the boxes with the actual salary numbers and add a few bucks. As far as the actual amount to adjust, idk.

Sorry, I'm coming to this topic too late since I just saw it.

Greg has the gist of the max contract loophole right....slide both sliders all the way to the right then manually alter the base salary boxes to increase the base per year....even then their are limits so if you increase each salary too high when you hit submit....it will tell you what's wrong and it will take multiple changes to fix.

I outlawed it in my one league for simple ease of use for everyone but I don't consider it cheating overall...it just takes more work to achieve and like Greg said....maybe 1-3 players per year are really affected.

I for one have over 100 million to spend on free agents and offered nobody a max deal this year....I don't see anyone young enough or good enough to warrant it.

I'm all for anyone blowing a ton of cap space on anyone of these current free agents....they are more then welcome to them all

Not late at all CJ, if anything changes it's for next season, not this one.

Pretty sure I nailed the 2 guys who got max contracts in the D&D league chat when talking with MoonPygg. One, the WR Barfield, Smirt overpaid greatly for him and nobody else bid close.

The LB Gatlin was a different story.

3 contract offers over $250 million for a guy with 67 speed.
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All of that being said, you HAVE to overpay if you want free agents usually. Most teams have a lot of cap room and quality free agents are rare, so when demand is way higher than supply, the price goes way up.

I paid 2 backup OL $10 million a season and a 65 speed CB nearly $15 million. That's insane, and more than I wanted to pay but had I missed out on them, I'd be back at it looking at much older players. Yes they can be signed for less money but you're still mostly overpaying.