[quote name='RamesuThe1']No question, unequivocally, if this were a regular season game, I would have absolutely taken my proverbial foot off the gas. But, because the only practice we get against humans with our backups are these games, I thought it useful to get my rookies some reps in a normal offensive gameplan.[/QUOTE]
Here's the thing: Nobody has an issue with this being a competitive league and people trying to improve their game. We're all competitive, including me, and we all want to win. But in this league, even more important than winning is being part of this community, and sometimes that means striving to get just a little bit better (or getting those last few XP points) needs to take a back seat to considering the feelings of someone else. That's what not running up the score is all about, and it's the same in the regular season or the preseason.
You're not going to be terribly inconvenienced by getting slightly fewer reps with the bottom of your WR depth chart. Especially since you're already in the top tier of players in this league. Whatever incremental gains you might make in terms of Madden skill from this doesn't seem worth the price of humiliating a fellow league member, at least to me.
If this were one of your friends in the league and the two of you had no problem with going all out for the full 20 minutes in preseason, I'd be fine with it. In fact, in my game against Chetty he was up 2 scores or so and I sent him a message saying he didn't need to milk the clock. But the fact that it was against someone who made it abundantly clear that he had an issue with it and you completely dismissed him (and continue to do so) is what rubs me the wrong way.
We've heard a lot of justifications and explanations, the only thing we haven't heard is an apology to fero. Since even though you obviously didn't see anything wrong with what you did, it was still enormously uncool from his perspective. Ultimately it's up to you whether that's something worth considering.