Thousand Dollar Sundays

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$1,000 a week. Nine slots. No draft, no waivers, no keepers. Everybody shops the same board every week, and season-long head-to-head standings decide who makes the bracket.

Still deciding? Read the full rulebook or try the playable demo — build a lineup against the cap and watch an insurance claim resolve. Neither needs a spot.

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Name your team

This is what everyone sees on the scoreboard all season. Nobody is checking it for taste.

Week

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Status

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Updated

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All matchups

$0 of $1,000

Season insurance bank —

Insure my lineup this week

The election closes at the week's first kickoff, even though slots stay open — otherwise you could watch Thursday and then buy cover.

Covers all nine slots. If any starter is ruled out, his slot becomes that team's whole position group and one other slot is swapped to that team's best player at its position. Resolved automatically.

Ordered by record, then points for, then head-to-head, then all-play. All-play is your weekly score measured against every other manager's — in a format this volatile it is the honest read on who is actually playing well.

How this scores

Everything that decides your week, on one page. The full constitution is at /rules, and there's a playable walkthrough at /demo.

1 · The cap

You get $1,000 every week. It does not roll over and it does not carry. Every player is priced fresh each week off that week's salary board, rounded to $5 — a top receiver runs about $180, a punt tight end about $50.

Nine slots against $1,000 means you cannot afford nine good players. Every legal lineup punts somewhere. Picking where is the game.

Slot	Takes
QB	One quarterback
RB · RB	Two running backs
WR · WR · WR	Three receivers
TE	One tight end
FLEX	Any RB, WR or TE
BACKFLD	One team's entire running back room

No kicker and no defense. They aren't on the board at all — the price list only contains QB, RB, WR and TE.

Every row carries the week's matchup and the line from that team's side — vs. MIA -3.5 means home to Miami and laying 3.5 — plus the forecast at kickoff. Hover or tap the icon for temperature and wind.

The week runs Thursday night through Monday night (Wednesday on a holiday week), and the board covers all of it. A Thursday receiver counts exactly like a Sunday one.

🏟️	Dome or closed roof — weather is not a factor
☀️ / ☁️	Clear / cloudy
🌇️ / ❄️	Rain / snow
💨	Wind at 15 mph or better

Lines and forecasts are ESPN's, refreshed every poll. They are information, not a rule — nothing about scoring depends on them.

2 · Team Backfield

This slot does not buy a running back. It buys a franchise's whole backfield — every carry and catch by every RB on that team, added together. If the lead back goes down on the first drive, the backup's touches are already yours. It is the one slot an injury cannot hurt.

It costs the sum of that team's RB salaries × 0.40. A three-man committee nobody wants to touch is usually the best value on the board, because you get all three.

You cannot own the room and a man in it. Christian McCaffrey plus the 49ers backfield is rejected at submission — he's already inside what you bought, and no player scores twice. Pick one or the other.

3 · When your slots lock

There is no whole-lineup lock. Each slot is live until the player in it kicks off, then it settles and greys out. Your Thursday quarterback is finished Thursday night. Your Monday flex is still yours after you have watched every other manager's Sunday.

That is the format, not a loophole. Holding a slot for Monday buys you information — you know exactly what you need — and costs you the cap room you did not commit, plus the risk that Monday's options are thin. Managers who spend to the cap on Sunday have nothing left to play with.

🔒	That player has kicked off. The slot is settled and the money is committed.
Open	Still editable, with whatever is left of your $1,000 after the settled slots.

Two guards. You cannot fill an open slot with somebody who has already played — that is picking a score you have watched, not making a decision. And insurance must be elected before the week's first kickoff, even though slots stay open; otherwise you would watch a starter limp off on Thursday and buy cover for him on Friday.

No lineup on file at all by the week's last kickoff is a forfeit — the game is lost and the bank is charged a premium.

4 · Insurance

Optional, and it never touches your weekly $1,000. It comes out of a separate season bank — not real money — that does not reset. A flat $125 covers your whole lineup for one week.

If any starter is ruled out, two things happen at once on that player's team:

His slot	Becomes that team's entire position group for the full game. Chase goes down, you get every Bengals receiver.
One other slot	Swaps to that team's best player at its position, if that scores more. Started Caleb Williams? He becomes Burrow.

It resolves automatically — nothing to claim, no deadline. Two starters hurt, you get the more valuable of the two claims. The Backfield slot can't trigger it; it's a room, not a man.

You cannot buy a claim. A player who is ruled OUT — Out, IR, PUP, suspended — cannot be started at all; the board shows him but you can't pick him. And a claim needs him to have been expected to play when you chose him: anyone already DBT (Doubtful) at submission may start, but cannot trigger anything. Questionable is fully insurable — that is the case this exists for. Without both, the best lineup in the league would be nine ruled-out scrubs and a $125 premium.

If you stacked two receivers from that team, the second one is already inside the group, so his slot shows zero. You aren't losing him — he's counted in the group. It just means stacking and insurance work against each other.

5 · Points

Full PPR. Bonuses are per player — three backs splitting 120 yards earns nobody the 100-yard bonus.

Event	Pts	Event	Pts
Passing yard	0.04	Reception	1
Passing TD	4	Receiving yard	0.1
300+ pass yds	3	Receiving TD	6
Interception	−1	100+ rec yds	3
Rushing yard	0.1	Return TD	6
Rushing TD	6	Two-point conv.	2
100+ rush yds	3	Fumble lost	−1

6 · Standings and playoffs

Head to head, one game a week, in an East and a West division. Ties are broken in this order: record, then points for, then head-to-head, then all-play.

All-play is your score against all the other managers every week, not just the one you drew. In a format this streaky you can play well and sit at 1–3. All-play is the honest read on whether your process is working.

The top four in each division make the playoffs, drawn across divisions — 1 East v 4 West, 4 East v 1 West, and so on — so the two division winners can only meet in the final. Three rounds, single elimination. It is not all-play: lose once and you are out.

Insurance does not carry into the playoffs. Whatever is left in your bank when the regular season ends is gone. The bracket is played uncovered, by everybody. Spend the bank while it can still win you a game.

Tell us what's broken

This is a trial run — the format has never been played by anyone. Confusing, unfair, boring, buggy: all of it is useful. Goes straight to Levi.

0 · The roster

Signup is open to the first 12. You are exempt: you can add somebody past the cap, and reopen signup if a spot frees up.

1 · Refresh rosters

Pulls all 32 team rosters from ESPN. Positions live here, and the Team Backfield slot cannot be scored without them. Run before the first board of the week.

2 · Post the week's board

Upload the week's salary CSV (Position, Name, Salary, TeamAbbrev). A league week is every game — Thursday through Monday, Wednesday in a holiday week. One main-slate file only covers Sunday afternoon, so uploads add to the board: post the Thursday and Monday files too. Any team playing with nobody priced is listed after upload.

3 · Run the week

You do not normally lock anything: slots lock themselves at each player's kickoff. Lock lineups is an emergency freeze that stops all edits at once.

4 · Draw the bracket

Once the regular season is scored, draw the quarter-final. Draw each later round after the one before it is final — the winners pair automatically.

Playoff week