COFFEE WITH THE COMMISH IV – RMFL “HEATS” UP; FUTURE CLEARER…
Another Hard-Hitting Story by RMFL Beat Writer: Mort Snodgrass
RMFL – In an
attempt to keep the RMFL readership completely informed, or at least as
informed as humanly possible, the well-funded RMFL writing staff has struck an
agreement with RMFL Commissioner, Jared Neumeier, to conduct a monthly series
for the web site, we want to call: “Coffee with the Commish”. In this monthly segment, we will sit down
with the long-time RMFL Commissioner and ask a series of directly pointed and
relevant questions of the day. The staff
will also entertain questions from players, coaches and fans around the league
that will be used in future Coffee with the Commish segments. This weeks
chain of questions comes direct from the staff itself, however, the questions
will be direct… no punches pulled.
MS: A lot of big
issues came up in the past month, including suspensions, fines and controversy.
What do you see as most memorable about the month?
COMMISH: Honestly, the most memorable
or significant event from this past month has got to be the Gladiators going
5-3 and making the playoffs. I think the
message to all teams is that if your team is struggling this year, hang in
there, pick up a few missing pieces and who knows about next year? As much as I hated to see Helena miss the
playoffs, someone had to miss them and Helena has had their share of state
semi-pro glory.
MS: Since the play-off picture is becoming
clearer, are there any other surprises that stand out besides the Gladiators?
COMMISH: Not significant ones. The Rockets turning it around so much is a
mild one and the Predators being in the position they are is another one, but
both of those can be easily explained enough.
I think the AA has gotten the 6 best teams in the playoffs; it will be
REALLY interesting when Montana meets Utah in the semi-final round. If both the Utah and Montana teams travel
well, I think that the same conference will win both… and I have NO idea which
one that would be. If they don’t’ travel well, then the home teams will
probably win.
MS: Lets go back
to the administrative issues; with so many players already getting suspensions
in the past, why was the Feafia suspensions any different?
COMMISH: This is just the tough part about players
being general managers. In my opinion,
Vaea Feafia has done SO much good as the GM of the Bears. His initiative and attention to detail and
quality has really put a great franchise where one was desperately needed. This game and this league have really
improved with the creation of the Bears in Logan. On the other hand, as commissioner, you
cannot let that influence how you must rule on issues. You have to strip those
other issues away and look particularly at that play and if the potentially
injury-causing action could have… and should have been avoided. I believed that it clearly could have… and
should have. The Rhinos called for
longer suspensions than were implemented, so I guess neither side was happy
about it.
MS: Is it true that the
Bears withdrew their proposal to host the All-Star game over the suspensions?
COMMISH: Yes.
MS: I guess
that’s a pretty difficult part of the job… Making difficult decisions that are
going to upset someone?
COMMISH: Yeah, it goes with the territory. Much like a football game itself. No matter the outcome, someone is likely to
be disappointed. Game officials are
always sure to upset someone every time they pull out a flag on a close
play. If you never call it because it’s
a close play, you will still upset someone.
If you cannot accept criticism and KNOW that whatever you rule, someone
is going to second guess you and/or accuse you of some sort of favoritism, you
shouldn’t be in this job.
MS: So what
about that? Where’s the “Search for the
New Commish” at?
COMMISH: As the currently identified
candidates can attest, pretty much no progress.
Make no mistake, so much of me would like nothing more than to hand the
“keys” over to someone else after the all-star game and be able to walk away
from it all, but it just will not happen that easily. In fact, I am about 95% positive that I will
have to stay on for one more year before I will really be able to do just that.
However, there is still a chance I can still get someone installed before the
January kick-off meeting. However, like I said, that chance is pretty
minimal. There is a lot to running the
RMFL. Most of it more than most people can see.
MS: What!!?!?
Let me get this right. You think
you will be back in 2007?!?!?
COMMISH: I suppose this is the point
where I say “no comment”?
MS: You opened
up this can… You gotta close it!
COMMISH: Well,
let’s just say that whatever we do as a league, the continuity of all that we
have accomplished will continue… one way or another.
MS: Well, although that is hardly fair, I suppose
we should move on with something else. Can you clear up some of the confusion
with how the All-Star game will work?
Both AA and AAA are on the same team? How will that work?
COMMISH: Actually, we did go over this briefly in the
February league meeting, but I’ll outline it again. There will be a North and South Squad. The North squad will include players from
Montana and Madison, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Boise, Matadors and Snake River
(11 teams). The South squad will include
players from all the Utah teams, Grand Junction and Magic Valley (11 teams). ALL the teams need to return a minimum of
all-star ballots, however, to qualify their players. So if you are a player and
you haven’t seen a ballot, you might want to be concerned. There will be 40 players per team with the
teams that seed the highest getting the most.
The selections will come from each teams rankings of their own
players. The All-Stars will be announced
on Sunday, June 18th. The
game will be Saturday, July 15th at Bear River High School Players will have to report by 2:30 that
day. Clear enough?
MS: What about a
AA and AAA all-star games?
COMMISH: Not the worst idea I’ve heard, however, it would
cost twice the money of the current one… or almost. We will be paying about $1800 for jerseys and
$300 for officials. Plus a few
miscellaneous expenses. There is also
the problem of timing. We have to have
a league meeting sometime that day. We
also give out post-season awards, some of which are decided upon at the league
meeting. That’s a lot of hours of
activity for one day and considering some guys will have to come a long way…
its just logistically… and financially prohibitive. Besides, what’s so wrong with having ONE
event that brings all of the best players of the league together? This will be another great event.
MS: Besides you maybe coming back, is it too
early to talk about next season?
COMMISH: No. I suppose not. I expect more growth, believe it or not. We may lose a team or two, but I even doubt
that and I already know of a bunch that may “enter the frey”. The biggest problem will be to determine who
will be AAA next season. There are MORE
than 2 AA teams that make a strong statement for AAA and their really aren’t
that many AAA teams that seem like they should obviously move down. Probably only the Matadors have fallen on
hard enough times to justify the move down outright. The Managing Board will have a real tough
decision on that one. Some of these
issues also contribute to the potential need for me to stick around for one
more season of heck. I’m not sure the
‘ol RMFL ship is locked into a good true course quite yet. But… who’s to say, eh?.
MS: What about
Colorado????!!
COMMISH: What about Colorado? .
MS: Could they
become part of the RMFL in 2007?
COMMISH: Obviously, that is up to them. They will have an off-season to do a
cost-benefit analysis of what the RMFL offers as to what the RMFL charges and
what the CFC management offers and charges and determine what is best. I personally, think the RMFL delivers a lot
more AND offers a deep rich history. The
CFC has been around longer than the RMFL, but looking at their web site, you
would never know it. They seem to just
live year to year over there with no connection to the past, past stars,
traditions or lore. I feel sad for some
of those GM’s. I really think they are
getting the short end of the stick.
Quite frankly, however, I see our biggest challenge will be to hopefully
expand in Montana by a team or two.
MS: Do you know any current
new team start up efforts in Montana already?
COMMISH: Actually, right now I don’t.
But every year we have a lot that happens in the off-season, so there are still
a lot of possibilities up there. I just
know that for us to REALLY consider graduating one or two of these fine teams
into the AAA, there will need to be enough of the remaining teams for a solid
AA conference.
MS: So, are
there any other off-season issues or League Meeting controversies coming up
that you can see?
COMMISH: Actually, no. We will see some more new teams and we will really
have to fine-tune our acceptance criteria for letting them in. I think we have already batted around a
couple of solutions to prevent the Treasure Valley debacle that happened after
the League meeting this year. Video of a
practice being one… and having the league meeting no later than the end of
January would be the other. There is an
issue surfacing now where some teams seem desperate to add that one more guy
after the add deadline… in time for the playoffs. Of course, they are told “No”, but it begs
the question of what the philosophy of the Managing Board really is in these
situations. We will need to talk about
that.
MS: So, what’s
the big deal about adding one player?
Isn’t it about being a “player’s league”?
COMMISH: Of course it is. But what about the players already
on your team. You know, they guys
that have been with a team all year… maybe even riding some pine, not getting
much playing time. PLAY those
players. How would you feel if you were
the 3rd string wide receiver and when the team finally loses a
couple of guys, you think your time has arrived and all they do is bring in
someone else who immediately plays ahead of you? The teams that have requested that “one more
player” all have full rosters and have plenty of players capable of playing
whatever position they seem desperate to fill.
This is what I mean when I say it’s a Managing Board Philosophy
discussion. What constitutes your TEAM
? And at what point should we say… “all right, NOW you have your team…” If you just add all year long, then teams can
constantly be changing and it becomes a matter of who can recruit the most guys
as the season goes on so that by the time the playoffs roll around, you have
the studs to win it all. I play on a
co-ed softball league and they have an add deadline after 3 games… and they
play 10!! Why is that??? Because,
otherwise, teams would spend all year recruiting and win it with people they
pick up later in the season. Bottom line
is: build your team before the season starts… not during and definitely not
2/3’s or ¾ of the way through the season.
But… maybe the majority of the Managing Board has another philosophy.
We’ll find out at the league meeting when we can all bat this around.
MS: Any other
issues?
COMMISH: Yeah, I really think that
the 2007 AAA/AA field will be a very heated discussion. I don’t think we can take everyone into the
AAA that wants to be in. I think it has to be more exclusive than that.
On the other hand, how do you NOT put a team like the Nemesis in the AAA? What if Montana teams go 1 and 2 in the
AA? Would you still take the top two
Utah teams into the AAA? What if Montana teams go 1 and 2 and we don’t get any
more Montana teams in the off-season? There will be some real hard decisions
that will have to be made at the 2007 kick-off meeting, but everyone is going
to have to start thinking about what their team’s position will be now.
MS: Finally, a few predictions. Obviously, the AA is set. But in the AAA, it looks like Ogden, Cache
Valley, Madison and Idaho Falls are in.
Who of the rest do you feel is most likely to make it in at the final
two spots?
COMMISH: Jared Neumeier will be
answering that in another article that will be out on the site Friday evening.
I have a soft spot for the 3 teams with the best shot right now: Boise,
Pocatello and the Wolverines. Boise or
Pocatello will win 4 games, maybe both.
Pocatello and Boise meet this weekend and that will decide a lot. The Wolverines can GUARANTEE a spot with a
win in either of their last couple of games.
Saturday, they see the Rhinos who will be without Stireman for a part of
the game and might have a chance, so that could make the difference, too. The winner of the Boise/Pocatello game can
make post-season plans and if the Wolverines pull off the upset, they can make
post-season plans.
MS: What about
the Heat and Nemesis?
COMMISH: Just read the article tomorrow...
MS: Well, thanks again and from the well-funded RMFL writing staff… we’re looking forward to an absolutely unforgettable post season!!!! So until next month…