The DOLFLeague Rules
The DOLF's official rules, sourced from the league's actual ESPN settings -- plus the ones ESPN doesn't enforce.
League Constitution
Unofficial, unenforced by ESPN, enforced by peer pressure.
- Goose Gossage. Start a player who gooses you — zero or negative points — and you shotgun a beer on video before next week's games kick off.
- Multiple gooses, multiple shotguns. More than one goose in a given week means one shotgun per goose. No averaging, no discount for volume.
- Champion's privilege. The league champion picks next season's draft location.
- The Weekly Parlay. Whoever scores the lowest points that week places a $10 parlay, with each league mate picking one leg for the following week's games.
League Scoring
Scoring
Half-point PPR (0.5 points per reception).
Full stat-by-stat scoring (yardage, TD, turnover values, bonus thresholds) follows the league's ESPN settings.
Roster & lineup
2-FLEX / 6-bench dates from 2024. From 2016 through 2023 the league ran 1 FLEX and 7 bench spots (2020 also added 4 IR slots).
Dolfoffs
The playoffs. Six teams, three weeks, one Dolf.
Six teams make the Dolfoffs: both division winners plus the four best remaining records. The division winners take the top two seeds and a first-round bye; the four wild cards are seeded by record. Every tie — division, wild card, seed — breaks on total points scored.
14-week regular season; the Dolfoffs run Weeks 15–17. The league is split into two divisions, East and West.
Waivers & FAAB
$100 FAAB budget per team per season, no minimum bid.
A $1 minimum bid applied 2018–2020.
Waivers process daily except Tuesday, 24 hours after a player is dropped.
Standard waiver-priority ran 2016–2017; FAAB bidding since 2018.
Trades
Trade deadline is the Friday of NFL Week 13 (through 2020 it fell in Week 12).
2026 trade deadline: Friday, December 4, 2026 · 3:00 AM ET
Vetoes are for cheating or collusion only — not for a trade you just don't like.
Keepers
- You can't keep a player drafted in the 1st or 2nd round. That holds no matter who ends up rostering him.
- Keeping a player you picked up off waivers costs your 8th round pick.
- You can't keep the same player two years in a row.
- Trade a drafted player away, and the team that receives him can keep him at his original draft round.
- Draft a player and then drop him to waivers, and his keeper cost becomes an 8th round pick.
- A player you plan to keep who suffers a confirmed season-ending injury can be placed on IR.