A two-thirds majority (8) of the teams is required to change a rule.

Rules may be proposed at any time, but only proposals submitted by July 1 will be considered for the upcoming season. Any proposal received after July 1st, but before the draft will be voted on at the draft. The submittor of the proposal will present the propsal at the draft. If the proposal passes with a unanimous vote, it will take affect immediately. Otherwise, it will take effect the following season. After the draft but before July 1st, rule change proposals must be emailed to a commissioner. The exact wording in the email will be put on the web site.

League is comprised of 12 teams in 3 divisions.

A team's active roster consists of 11 players broken down as follows.

In addition to the 11 active players, teams must carry 7 reserve players at any position so long as they can field a legal line-up for the upcoming week.

* If a team uses a TE in the flex position, they may designate one TE from their reserve list whose points will count towards their active roster points for that week.

The NFL player auction is held on the Sunday prior to Labor Day weekend. If this date is a problem for one or more owners, the commissioners will attempt to find a different date that can accomodate everyone attending an in-person draft. If that is not possible, then the commissioners will try and pick a date where all owners can participate in some fashion either in person, by phone, or by instant messaging. If a date that accomodates everyone is not possible, the commissioners will try and accomodate the majority of owners, but not in a way that negatively affects the same owners year after year. If an owner is unable to attend the draft in any fashion, he or she may send a proxy or a list of players and dollar values. Proxys may also be used even if the owner is participating via phone or email. The commissioners will attempt to find a proxy for an absent owner or field a team based on the owner's list.

The commissioners will serve as the auctioneers, though they may appoint a substitute.

Each team must acquire 18 players at a cost not to exceed $200^*. An owner may open a bid at a minimum of $1, and the bidding process proceeds at minimum increments of $1. Larger bid increments may be used. If two players call out the same price at the same time, a coin toss will be used to determine who gets the bid. The highest bidder acquires the player. This process continues until all 18 spots are filled for all 12 teams.

The order for nominating players will be determined randomly prior to the auction and will remain constant throughout.

The owners will take turns opening the bidding on players and defenses that they select. All bids will be made in whole dollar amounts ($1 minimum), with the highest bidder being awarded the player.

An owner will be required to cease bidding for a player if a higher bid would leave him with less than $1 auction money for each remaining empty spot on his roster.

Trades are permitted during the auction but may involve players only, auction dollars cannot be traded. The final bid price for a player traded at the auction transfers with the player and is deducted from the new owner's auction bankroll; the bid price for the traded player is also added back to the original owner's auction bankroll.

At no time during the auction may an owner possess players with total auction values exceeding $200; however, after the auction is concluded, auction prices have no bearing on owner rosters (there is no salary cap during the regular season).

Teams do not have to spend all their money in the auction.

Only players on an active NFL roster, whose draft rights are held by an NFL team, or that have previously appeared on an NFL roster, may be bid upon during the auction.

* Teams may trade cap dollars which may push their cap limit above or below $200.

There is a $40 per team annual entry fee to the Free Nate Newton League.

There will be no transaction fees of any kind.

A player's salary will be determined by his winning auction bid.

Players waived into the free agent pool and reacquired will retain their auction salary, or be assigned to a contract of $5, whichever is greater.

Any player not acquired during the auction and subsequently claimed from the waiver pool will be assigned to a contract of $5.

Players may be kept for as long as a team wishes. Once signed during an auction, or claimed from the waiver pool, a player is considered to be in year 1 of his contract. At the following auction, a player will then be considered to be in his second year. Contract years will continue to accumulate so long as the player is retained on a fantasy roster.

A player that is released and then reaquired by the releasing team during the same week will retain their contract years.

A player's salary will change from year to year according to the following formula. For salary calculations, contract years is the value at the next auction.

The following criteria are used to determine a team's placement in the standings.

1. Best total won-loss record

2. Head-to-Head record against team with same total won-loss record^*

3. Best division won-loss record

4. Most points accumulated

5. Reverse order of opponent total points scored

6. Virtual Coin Flip

^* The HTH tie-breaker cannot always be used if more than 2 teams have the same overall record. A team must hold an edge over every team with an identical record in order for this tiebreaker to apply with one exception. When division winners are being determined, the HTH will be used regardless of other non-division teams with the same record.

Team stats are officially kept weekly. A week will begin with any game that begins on or after Thursday and will conclude with the game scheduled the following Monday night.

Only stats for players on the 11 man active roster will count towards a team's performance.

Standings shall be tabulated and issued in a timely fashion by the league's owners.

In the event of a scoring change made by the NFL, the league scores, where applicable, will be changed if the scoring change is made before the conclusion of the following week's games. Changes will be made to individual players affected by the scoring change, win or loss affected by the change, and any waiver pick that may have been affected by a change in standings. Starting line-ups will be adjusted if the players in question have not begun their game for that week.

Following the conclusion of the auction, players may pick up players from the free agent pool on a first-come first-serve basis. The player's salary will be $5. Any player that is released from a roster will be frozen for 24 hours. After that time, he is available on a first-come-first-serve basis unless the 1:00 PM deadline has passed for that week.

Following the conclusion of NFL week 1, players may submit claims for players in the free agent pool starting at kick-off of the week's first game until 12:00 PM (noon) Thursday of the same week.

Players may submit claims for as many players as they wish.

If a claim for a player would cause a team's roster to exceed 18 players, then that claim must be accompanied by a player that is to be dropped.

Each waiver claim by a team will constitute a round. Each round is run in reverse order of the standings at the conclusion of the previous week. Once a team receives a player, that team then moves to the bottom of the list determined by the reverse order of the standings.

If another team has claimed a team's waiver claim player, the team will be given their next choice. The player dropped will be the first drop choice unless otherwise specified.

Waiver claims are allowed beginning the conclusion of NFL week 1 games until transaction deadline for NFL week 13.

Play-off teams may continue to add and drop players so long as they have not been eliminated. Any player claimed off waivers during the play-offs may not be kept the following season.

Once waiver claims are processed, the free agent pool will be open to the league on a first-come first-serve basis and will remain open until kick-off of the first game Sunday. If an NFL game precedes that game, players from that game may still be claimed, but not entered into the active roster for that week. Any player that is dropped from a roster will be frozen for 24 hours before he can be picked up by another team. If a player is dropped within 24 hours of kickoff, he will be available in the next waiver period.

In the offseason, there will be one waiver claim period where teams may add to their roster anyone who was a free agent at the end of the previous season. This player must be kept in the upcoming auction draft at their current salary and will be considered to be entering year 2 of their contract. The deadline for this period will be midnight one week prior to the keeper submission deadline.

All players are valid for active roster submission so long as that kickoff for that player's NFL team has not happened for that week.

Players that are to be submitted for the active roster must be received by kick-off of the game in which they are participating. Once a player's team has begun kickoff, they can neither be added nor removed from the active roster.

If no roster submission is received by the kickoff of the week's first game, the commissioner will determine if the team may still field a legal lineup by waiting until later games. If this cannot be accomplished, then any positions needing a player will be filled by the player occupying that spot the previous week. If that player is no longer on the team's roster, the player not on a bye week with the highest point total will be chosen.

If an invalid submission is received, an attempt to contact the owner will be made. If the owner is unable to correct the invalid submission, the commissioner will assign a player by choosing the valid player with the highest point total.

In addition to the active roster submission, teams will submit one valid player from their reserve roster that will serve as the first tiebreaker. The reserve player is subject to the same rules as active roster players with regards to submission deadlines.

From the completion of the auction until the week 13 waiver deadline, teams may trade without limit with each other.

If a trade would cause a team's roster to exceed 18 players, then the exceeding team must include a player or players to be released into the free agent pool for the following week.

No trades will be permitted following the week 13 waiver deadline until the conclusion of the season.

Trades including contingencies of any kind are not allowed.

Trades may be submitted at any time. Upon receipt of a trade, the 3 commissioners will review the trade for validity issues, and extreme unbalance. If a trade would cause a roster to become invalid by having too many players, the owner will be notified. The owner will need to make the trade valid before it will become effective. In the cases where a trade looks to be a result of collusion, or extremely unbalanced, each owner will be notified and asked to justify the fairness of the trade. If a majority of the commissioners still believe the trade is either a result of collusion, or is so unbalanced that it would drastically change the competitive balance of the league, it will not be accepted.

If one or more commissioners are involved in a trade, or otherwise substantially impacted by the trade, then they will not be involved in any review process.

Once a trade passes commissioner review, it is effective immediately. If one or more teams feel the trade should not be allowed, they have 48 hours to make a case to one or more of the commissioners at which time, the commissioners will justify their reasons for allowing the trade to pass. If upon hearing arguments from one or more teams, the commissioners reverse their decision, the trade will be reversed. If a trade reversal would cause problems with one or more teams fielding a legal lineup, the reversal will not become effective until the following week.

Once a trade is valid, players may be placed on the team's active roster so long as their NFL team has not begun kickoff for that week. If a player whose team has already begun play in that week's game is traded, their results will count for the trading team in whatever capacity he was being used at the time of the trade.

Keeper slots and draft dollars may be included in traded. A team may not trade more than 4 keeper slots in a single season. Draft dollars for the upcoming draft only may also be traded. Only players, keeper slots, and draft dollars may be traded.

The season will run from NFL week 1 until NFL week 16.

Playoffs will begin NFL week 14 and conclude NFL week 16.

6 teams will make the play-offs including the 3 division winners, and 3 wild card teams as determined by the next 3 teams in the standings. The top two division winners in the standings will receive a bye for week 14. The 3rd ranking division winner will play the 6th ranking team, and the 4th and 5th place teams will play in week 14.

The 1st ranking team will play the winner of the 4th and 5th ranking teams, and the 2nd ranking team will play the winner of the 3rd ranking division winner and 6th ranking team in week 15.

Week 16 will feature the winner of the two week 15 winners deciding the Super Bowl Champion.

For the playoffs, the home team will always be the higher-ranking team according to final season standings

Each week, a team will play one other team with the winner being the team whose active roster scores the most points. In the case of a tie, the following tie breaking criteria will be used.

1. Points by the designated bench player

2. Home team

Total team points are awarded to players on the active roster as follows. Team scores will cumulated to 5 decimal places.

Passing touchdowns - 4 points

All other touchdowns - 6 points

Rushing yards - 1/10 point for every 1 yard

Receiving yards - 1/10 point for every 1 yards

Receptions - 1/3 point for every reception

Passing yards - 1/3 point for every 10 yards

Interceptions thrown - -2 points

Fumbles - -2 points

Field goals - 3 points

50+ yard field goals - 4 points

Extra points - 1 point

Passing PAT - 2 points

Rushing PAT - 2 points

Receiving PAT - 2 points

Team defense will be awarded points as follows.

0 - 75 yards allowed 8 points

76-150 yards allowed 6 points

151-225 yards allowed 4 points

226-300 yards allowed 2 points

301-375 yards allowed 1 points

0-3 points allowed 8 points

4-10 points allowed 6 points

11-14 points allowed 4 points

15-20 points allowed 2 point

Touchdowns 6 points

Safeties 2 points (Starting in 2005)

Interceptions 2 points

Fumble recoveries 2 points

Sacks 1 point

Touchdowns by all special team units 6 points (starting in 2007)

All players receive offensive points for any type of participation in a play.

The team defense will be defined as the unit that is on the field for all plays where the opposing team controls the ball excluding punt returns (including fakes), field goal attempts (including fakes), and kick-offs.

Points allowed by a defense will only be considered as any points given up while the team defense is on the field.

Defensive touchdowns will be considered any touchdown scored by a defensive player while the team defense is on the field.

All entry money less stats service fees will be awarded as prize money as follows (under the assumption of a $70 service fee to MyFantasyLeague.com):

Super Bowl Champion - $125

Super Bowl Loser - $45

Division Winners (3) - $40

Wildcard Teams (3) - $20

High Point Winner (not including play-offs) - $20

Most Points Scored Against (not including play-offs) - $20

Nate Newton Award Winner - $20

Total Cash Paid - $410

The regular season schedule will be comprised each year by the three commissioners.

NFL weeks 1 through 3, and 11 through 13 are designated for intra-division games.

From NFL week 4 through 10, each team will play all but one non-division team, one time. The team not played will be randomly chosen by the commissioners and will rotate each year. The commissioners will try and schedule non-divisional matchups of interest every year. These matchups include, but are not limited to, family member vs family member and commissioner vs commissioner.

The two teams finishing at the bottom of the standings will have their team name for the following season decided by the Super Bowl winner and loser.