[Burt the Butcher]

Rich's bid is the winning bid, Jim, unless the rules have changed. Post-Season bidding is not under same rules as in-Season bidding:
"The first week will be from the Tuesday, 12:00 am after the games for week 14. The only teams eligible to bid on free agents at that time will be the four playoff teams (as described previously). All bidding on any players opened after that Tuesday will end the following Saturday at 11:59 PM. The final bid immediately previous to the deadline will be the winning bid. The player in question will be placed on the winning teams roster with a 1 year contract only. The winning team must comply with the usual salary cap, roster cap, and roster year requirements, and the standard penalties will apply for noncompliance."

So the first week of Post-Season bidding ended Dec 19 at 11:59pm, and Rich's bid was the winner. He should have been able to start him if he had planned to. Not that it would have mattered in our game, but them's the rules ;-)