The ownership group and commissioners have reviewed the appeal submitted by @Ace regarding the punishment set yesterday. We hold GMs to a high standard and do not take this offense lightly. The rulebook outlines punishments for making trades with picks that are not owned as follows:

Quote:If a GM trades a pick they do not possess at the time, they will lose their closest 3rd round pick. A second offense will result in the GM being fired.

The ownership group believes that the spirit of this rule is to give a GM a chance to reform and correct how they are handling things to avoid another mistake. In this particular case the two trades happened so closely together that Ace could not be warned about making the same mistake again. We do however feel that this situation can't be counted as a single offense, as such the punishment needs to fall in between the two punishments outlined in the rulebook. The punishment linked above is void and the ownership group has decided on the following punishment:

- Ace will be placed on GM probation for 5 seasons. Any GM mistakes made in the next 5 seasons will result in Ace being terminated from the GM position.
- Ace will forfeit his GM pay for the next 5 seasons, inclusive of S54.
- The New England Wolfpack will forfeit their next available 2nd round selection. In this case: S56 NEW 2nd Round Pick.

We would like to mention that we don't feel that Head Office made a mistake in levying the harsher of the two punishments outlined in the rulebook, we will be working with the commissioners and head office to look at this rule and make suitable adjustments for future cases.