I know that this is a bit of an unwarrented bump, But I am bringing back the PFO. However, I have two things to do first

#1: I'm only doing the newspaper recaps for the playoffs
#2. This post will be for listing the IRL NFL teams in the other two major leagues (AAFC & USFL) of this sim and their role/importance. (In alphabetical order)

Austin Texans
Lamar Hunt was one of the two major founders of the USFL alongside David Dixon. Their two teams, Hunt's Austin Texans and Dixon's Rivermen form the league's greatest rivalry. Despite never being able to play in the USFL's title game, since the USFL's inception in 1964, nearly all of the league's championships have come down to the two annual Texans vs Rivermen games in the same vain as Hounds vs. Hawks has in the PFO. As for off the field, Hunt originally started the team in Dallas before PFO pressure (AKA, San Diego Sol owner Raul Gomez willing to spend $$$$$$$$ to see Six-Shooters blue instead Texans red at the Cotton Bowl) forced Hunt to move from Dallas to Austin in 1972, which is when Hunt chose to change colors to end the comparisons between the Texans logo and the flag of the People's Republic of China (yellow star on red background).   

Birmingham Broncos
The Birmingham (originally Denver) Broncos were started in 1958 as part of NBC's failed American Football League in order to compete with ABC's AAFC & CBS's PFO. However, due to poor play, poor attendance, and dreadful ratings (AAFC & PFO games pulled in respectable 40.0s to 45.0s while the AFL was getting out competed by PBS), the league collapsed by 1962. After the AFL folded, Broncos spent a few years bouncing the western league circuit before finally joining NBC's second attempt a Sunday afternoon sports, the United States Football League in 1966. Three years later, they moved from Colorado to Alabama in order to be closer to the USFL's money base in the deep south. Other than Floyd LIttle, Broncos fans have had little to cheer about in the Southern Division alongside Lamar Hunt's Austin Texans, John Basset's Memphis Grizzlies, and David Dixon's New Orleans Rivermen.

Chicago Bears
George Halas, the creator of the first major football league in the United States, the failed National Football League of the early 20s, is nothing be persistent. Even as his league went belly up due to the Great Depression, and even as the cross town Hounds gained immense national popularity at Soldier Field (due in large part to the signing of college stars like Illinois's Red Grange), Halas refused to take the Bears out of Wrigley Field. Even when the Chicago Whales of Baseball's Federal League threatened to have every Bears player and fan arrested if they played there during the 1938 season after the Cubs left for Soldier, Halas remained. eventually, after WW2, Halas got his second chance at the national league. In 1946, the Bears became one of the eight inaugural members of the AAFC, and one of only five still existing today. On the field, the Bears are always formidable, as like the Hounds, they haven't had a losing season since the 1930s. Currently that is due to the AAFC's biggest stars for the last decade, Gale Sayers & Dick Butkus.

Chicago Cardinals
If you were to look up "bush league" in the dictionary, you would find the Chicago Cardinals [out of context, they're my dumb meme team]. Even their logo is a mishmash of Chicago's more popular sports teams: the navy of the Bears, the black & old-gold of the Hounds, the green of the Federal Baseball League's Whales, and the burnt red of American Basketball Front's Chicago Bulls. Simply put, since 1898, the Cardinals have always been a jobber to stars. Even in the category of being old, they are outshined by the PFO's Hartford Sailors by four years. The Cardinals, owned by the Chicago White Sox of MLB's American League, have been in pretty much every football league imaginable. Including, but not limited to: the Mideastern Football Association (1912-1917), NFL (1920-1931), PFO (1932-1934; 1938, 1940-1944), Canadian-American Junior Rugby Association (1935, 1937-1938), Dixie Football Confernce (1936, 1947-1949, 1957), International Football League (1952-1956), AAFC (1948-1951), AFL (1958-1959, 1961) Canadian Football League (1960-1963), Continental Football Association (1967-1969), The Midwestern Professional Football Operations of America (1918-1919, 1947, 1971). Currently, they reside in the USFL. They have never won a championship in any league.

Cleveland Browns
If any one team could compete with the Chicago Hounds as the kings of American Sports, it would be the Cleveland Browns, the prize jewel of the AAFC. Much like Chicago, the Browns have dominated the AAFC, taking more than half of the Conference's championships. The Browns choke chokehold on the Ohio's sports dollar is so great that no other professional team, in ANY sport has been able to survive since the mid-50s when the National League's Cincinnati Reds had to move to California. Across the country, arguments between supporters of the Clark Gibson coached Hounds and the Paul Brown coached Browns is so common and vitriolic that old worlders (People outside North & South America) are often shocked to find out that in fact, "Chicago Hounds" and "Cleveland Browns" are not opposing extremist political parties.

Houston Oilers
The last survivor of the AFL (not counting the Cardinals), the Houston Oilers has been a thorn in Lamar Hunts side since 1957 when Bud Adams pushed to deny Hunt's admittance into the AFL in favor of a much more cash strapped owner from St. Louis. Although the AFL failed, the Oilers proved to be a success, winning all 5 of the AFL championships before being allowed admittance into the AAFC, serving as a new pillar for the Conference. In fact, had it not been for Adams purchase of the Denver Bears minor league baseball team in 1968, the Broncos would have been able to stay in Denver, which would have greatly expanded NBC's reach with the USFL. (In fact, due to Adams, Houston is the largest city in the United States without an affiliate from all three of the major networks; only having ABC & CBS).

The final team IRL team in this alt history league is the San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers, like the Bears, & Browns, were an inaugural member of the AAFC. While the 49ers saw success in the 40s, when the San Francisco Seagulls and the International Football League arrived in the 1950s, all of the 49ers thunder was completely gone. However, despite consistently placing a distant 3rd to Cleveland & the Bears within the AAFC's Western division (and even the Los Angeles Dons once Cleveland was moved to the Eastern division), the 49ers were able to outlast the Seagulls in the City by the Bay, as once the late 60s came around and the Seagulls started toppling down the standings in the more difficult PFO, the Bay Area market started to shift back towards the 49ers to the point that the Seagulls left for Boston in 1971. However the 49ers do not fully control the Bay Area market, and they are easily the worst AAFC team of the 1970s.The Portland Renegades annual preseason scrimmage with Tom Adams's Alma mater of San Jose State at Candlestick Park has routinely outdrawn every 49ers game for the last five years, even when they host rival Los Angeles & Cleveland. The 49ers grasp on San Francisco is so weak that they couldn't even sign University of San Francisco star and 1978 AAFC #1 overall draft pick Teal Fox, as he chose to play across the country in Tampa for 2nd year Tampa Bay Typhoon.

Poor New Jersey... hopefully they turn it around someday. 

"Portland Observer" wrote:

Renegades crush expansion Typhoon 31-3 and head to 3rd straight Royal Crown - Monday, Christmas Day 1978
Portland had 1 bad play yesterday and Tampa Bay had 1 good play yesterday. The other 100 or so plays in the Christmas Eve playoff matchup were all good for the Renegades or bad for the Typhoon. Spring Green, as he has several times this season, muffed the opening kickoff return. Tampa Bay recovered it, but then got pushed back to about the 40 yard-line before all-PFO 1st team Kicker (you figure that if an expansion team had and all-pro, it'd be the kicker) Abe Thurman hit a 58-yarder to give the Typhoon a 3-0 lead with about 58 minutes left in the game. From that point, despite a lacking performance by Spring (4 rec, 51 yards, 0 TD) Portland dominated. At half time, the Portland defense had only allowed Tampa Bay to gain +18 yards of offense. By the end of the game, the Typhoon had +11 yards of total offense and rookie Renegade linebacker Harvey Watson & defensive tackle Vincent Thomas combined for 10 sacks alone. On the other side of the ball, the Renegade offense averaged 12 yards per play in the second half with Navy-graduate Brian Francis throwing for over 300 yards passing for the first time in his career. Next week, we host the winner of tonight's clash between the heavily favored San Diego "Hand the ball off to McCray"s, or the geriatric Hawks at Yankee Stadium.

"New York Times" wrote:

The Hawks upset McCray, San Diego; "We still have one final flight." - Tuesday, Boxing Day 1978
Last night was a throwback performance for the ages by New York's old pros. Although many of the past greats from the "Black Angel" days of the late 60s were long gone, and the new arrivals were clearly not even up to the quality players that would be starting in New Jersey (top draft pick Yancy Norfolk was so bad New York traded their both of their top two draft picks in 1980 & 1981 just to get fossilized 35-year old Ralph Curtis from Kansas City, and none of New York's other rookies from 1978 are even in football anymore; ex. #10 overall pick safety Ryan Hollis just got cut by the USFL's Montana Muskrats, his 3rd team in 3 months). Heading into the game with San Diego, oddsmakers in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City had the Sol as two-touchdown favorites; but that's why they play the game. From the opening minutes of the game, New York's Ralph Curtis proved the oldest Blue Devil (Central Connecticut, not Duke) could still run with the finest Tar Heel, as Curtis got 45 yards on 11 carries while McCray got 4 yards on 3 carries. Throughout the game, many in attendance on a windy Christmas night we waiting for McCray to breakout the big one as he had all season... except he never did, and the Hawks had nine players key in on the MVP rookie all night, leaving San Diego's "uninspiring" duo of passers, Jack Kniles and Geno Lane, to guide the Sol through the air. San Diego's predictabilty allowed the Hawks to keep the Sol out of New York territory until the very end of the 3rd quarter when 10x all-pro DB Marcus Drew made a rare lapse in his coverage, and San Diego got a 77-yard passing touchdown. Fortunately for New York, they were leading 19-0 when that bomb was thrown. other than a useless Sol field goal as time expired, no major offensive progress was made in the 4th quarter, and as 17-year veteran Hawks QB Craig Young, the organization's oldest player, said in the post game interview "We still got one more flight left boys."

Last edited by TargetToad (6/26/2021 1:46 am)