Paul Wilson, Washington Glory's General Manager Responds to NPF Commissioner's Judgment of Grievance Filed by New England Riptide.

The Washington Glory was informed this morning by NPF Commissioner Cheri Kempf that a grievance has been filed by the New England Riptide concerning the participation of an ineligible player or players during three games involving the Washington Glory and the Rockford Thunder. The result of this judgment is a forfeiture of three Glory wins over the Thunder. I would like to state that I strongly disagree with this judgment and we're in the process of reviewing the process by which it was rendered by our commissioner.

To clarify and allow no doubt as to the details of this judgment I offer this explanation of the grievance and judgment to all of the fans and supporters of the Washington Glory and the NPF.

To better help you understand the questions at hand I'll provide the following information on the NPF rules and regulations pertaining to this grievance and judgment.

The league allows each NPF team to carry a roster of twenty players per team. However, for any given game each team is only allowed to activate sixteen of the twenty players on their roster. In order to differentiate who is active and who is not there is a form called the Daily Player Status Sheet (DPSS) that must be sent to the league office and to each team prior to the game that the DPSS pertains to. This is done by all teams through the use of email. The rule outlining the DPSS is officially stated as "The DPSS form must be submitted initially by May 26, 2007, and whenever any change occurs in the roster. All forms must be sent to each Team Office and the League Office"

On August 2nd our commissioner ruled that an inactivated player for the New England Riptide had played in three games that had led to wins by the Riptide and therefore resulting in three forfeitures. Upon receiving this judgment the Riptide filed a grievance with the league that resulted in the league reviewing each game played this year and the corresponding DPSS forms for all teams.

The results of this review called into question three missing Glory DPSS forms for Washington Glory/Rockford Thunder games on July 13th, 15th and August 2nd. Additionally, a game between Rockford and New England in which Rockford initially had won was also judged to be a forfeit to New England as a part of this review. The forms for the Glory games were sent to the league by me via email prior to the games or series however; according to the league office and teams, they were not received. Specifically for the games in July according to the league the last DPSS form received by the league's front office for the Glory did not list Germaine Fairchild as an active player and Ms. Fairchild did play in both the July 13th and July 15th games. However, we want it to be perfectly clear not only did we email the DPSS form to the league prior to our series with Rockford we only brought a total of sixteen players with us to Rockford for these games; all of whom we thought had been activated.

On August 2nd I emailed our DPSS form to the league prior to our game against Rockford activating Kelly Kretschman and Monica Abbott. This form was also not received by the league's office and again we only played the sixteen players we had activated earlier in the day. However, once again, the league did not receive the form we had sent earlier in the day thus resulting in the commissioner's ruling our win a forfeit to Rockford.

Until now, there has been no league confirmation process regarding the receipt of this form by the league or teams prior to each game's start. However, I have requested the commissioner have the league's front office confirm the receipt of each team's DPSS prior to the start of each game moving forward.

Some reflective thoughts: We came into this league this year wanting to raise the bar, run things differently, make a difference and win doing it the right way while treating our fans, players and coaches with the highest degree of professionalism possible. All of which I think we've done and proven possible. Is this league perfect? No, not even close. But, I can tell you it's doing great things, with great people for an audience that is incredibly important and precious. We have a lot of changes that are needed in our operations and procedures but all of our owners are dedicated to making them better, more accurate, more efficient and more effective.

Is all the heartache of working through all the needed changes worth it? Absolutely, just ask the young girls who stood over two hours in line recently to get an autograph from their heroes after our game with Rockford. Or, ask the parents who get to watch the joy on their daughters faces as they watch our ladies play, and while watching they realize that just maybe, someday, after a lot of hard work and dedication that they too might be able to play professionally.

It's always really easy to point out the issues and inadequacies in any organization. But, I've always been one that believes each of us was put on this earth to make a difference not just to be here to point out where the differences are needed. For this reason we'll forge ahead and make things better for those that follow behind us.

Sincerely,

Paul Wilson
Owner & GM
Washington Glory