Hello everyone and happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is having a safe holidays.

Unfortunately I will be out of town till next week with family, I'm currently away right now, and I couldn't get the time to squeeze in the Champions Bowl before I left, so expect that to be posted some time next week. That said, I did want to get on here and post something.

The Thanksgiving traditions of the NFA! Today would've been around week 12 of the season, and just like how the Lions always play irl, the Hornets always play on thanksgiving! As of now there is only one game played on Turkey Day, but as the league expands that will obviously expand as well.

For fun I went ahead and did a quick look back at the season and who the Hornets played this year for Thanksgiving and wrote out a bit of the retelling of how the game went down. For those who are worried, this didn't take too long haha. Hope you enjoy!

This season's Thanksgiving Day game was held in Philadelphia, where we saw a divisional come to town in the Boston Gaels, who came into the game 6-4. Philly was on top of the division, with a 8-2 record, coming off a close win vs the Cannons.
Boston would start the game off strong taking their first drive across the field to score the first points of the game. RB Stevie Parks would break through a big hold opened up by the left guard and pranced into the end zone untouched. Philadelphia would struggle to retaliate. The Gaels would surprisingly stop them on both of their first drives, but unfortunately for them their offense would only get 3 points out of it as the Hornets defense was caught as off guard as they were on the first drive. Philadelphia would finally get going on their third try as we got into the second quarter. It wouldn't take them long to get on the board as QB Oscar Washington would escape a collapsing pocket and would scramble with the ball until he reached the endzone, 20 yards later. Both teams would follow this up with some more defensive stops, a particularly impressive one by Philly too who would pick off QB Donald McCloud and return it for the 14-10 lead. This would lead us into to half time.

Coming out of the half Philadelphia would start to run away with it. Washington would find WR Willie King on a 50 yard TD reception on the first drive out of the half, then the defense would force another turnover which set up the hot Hornets offense on short field. Before long the lead had inflated to 28-10. Boston would knock down another field goal at the end of the third quarter but that would be the last time they'd score. Washington would be pulled in the fourth for the backup and a particularly boring Thanksgiving game would end with a score of 31-13. This put Philadelphia another half game ahead in the tight divisional standings.

As we know the Hornets would continue to stay hot and finish the season with only three losses. Boston would have their spirits seemingly crushed after this loss unfortunately as they'd lose their next three after this, finishin the season with a losing record and miss out on the playoffs

C&C appreciated, happy holidays!

You know what I’m not thankful for this Thanksgiving?












The murder and land-robbery of the Natives

Last edited by ThisIsFine (11/26/2020 11:13 pm)

Sevsdast wrote:

Dr. Pepper, the Whales helmet logo looks awfully similar to the California Whales logo of the AFA, was that your inspiration for the logo?

MyTeamIsDr.Pepper wrote:

I think I've mentioned before how much I have been inspired by Veras and his fantastic work. But no, as great as his California Whales identity is, I'm trying to go out of my way actually to not take too much inspiration from him for the Whales, because the brands are already so similar. Looking back now the secondary I came up is a bit more similar than I thought so I might even redux it and try and come up with a different logo, but I'm not too sure.

The reason I put this up is:[img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/0488128e-c26c-4d73-8a92-4c56e1c7d4df/d9mzjde-8e9bcb41-4532-49c5-b656-ad7f418357cc.png/v1/fit/w_300,h_900,strp/1976_california_whales_by_verasthebrujah_d9mzjde-300w.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD0xMTExIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvMDQ4ODEyOGUtYzI2Yy00ZDczLThhOTItNGM1NmUxYzdkNGRmXC9kOW16amRlLThlOWJjYjQxLTQ1MzItNDljNS1iNjU2LWFkN2Y0MTgzNTdjYy5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTAyNCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.u6C9mE82s8zHaNTS7PfhX8y1CTh3_9myX7jgN5jmofQ[/img] the secondary looks almost if not exactly the same compared to the whales' new secondary logo.

Last edited by Sevsdast (11/29/2020 7:59 pm)

Sevsdast wrote:

The reason I put this up is: the secondary looks almost if not exactly the same compared to the whales' new secondary logo.

There's only so many ways to make a whale logo. I think the two logos are clearly different enough.

NeoPrankster wrote:

Throughout the NFA's history, have there been any games that have been canceled or postponed?

Not in recent memory no.


1968-69 NFA Champions Bowl - New York Cannons vs Philadelphia Hornets


 
The day of the Champions Bowl was surprisingly warm for a January evening, the high for the day was 81 and the sky was absolutely cloudless. That said, the game itself was just as great. As the first quarter got under way, it was clear that New York was going to have their way with the Hornets offense as it had with both the Tigers and Pirates offense. On Philadelphia’s opening drive they were immediately set back after RB Kent Ross was tackled for a loss 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Philadelphia would continue to push though, making their way all the way out to the 50. However this is when tragedy struck for New York. An anchor of their defense and captain, DT Tyree Matthews would go down with holding his knee. It wasn’t a contact injury, but the MOD award winner would have to be helped off the field. Matthews had led the team in tackles this past season and was the only member of the line to have played in every game and has been surprisingly immune to injury over the past season. Despite the Cannons depth, his presence will be missed. It would be immediately shown too as Ross would break through a hole on his side of the field and carry the ball all the way to the endzone, putting the Hornets up 7-0. As the Cannons took the field, QB Micheal Bauer, the backup, would take the field too. QB Gary Jones would continue to be benched after his poor performance last week. Bauer wouldn’t have much luck though as the Hornets defense would convert a 3 and out and give QB Oscar Washington the ball back. Washington and Ross would immediately get cooking too, leading their team back to midfield on just 4 plays. The Cannons defense would get ahold of itself though and get a big sack on Washington that swung some momentum back their way. The Hornets would be forced to punt 2 plays later. Throughout the rest of the first half, both teams would continue this back and forth. Philadelphia would try to push into Cannons defense, only to be stopped and the Cannons offense would do enough against the Hornets to keep them in the game. They would exchange punts as the first turned into the second before anything else would really happen. The first turnover of the game would be forced by CB Andy Stafford who made a big tackle on a Hornets receiver who had been left wide open in the middle of the field. WR George Parks would have the ball punched out of his hands as he started to make his way into open space and New York would take over just at midfield. New York would manage to get deep enough into Philadelphia territory to get to settle for a field goal, which would make the score 7-3. Both teams would exchange punts again and by the break we were still stuck at a 7-3 battle. 

The second half would be big for New York as on their first drive of the half, QB Micheal Bauer would find WR Edward Fischer down field for a stunning 30 yard reception. A couple plays later and RB Thomas O’Grady would set them up, deep in field goal range. New York would take this all the way down to the 1 before facing their first 3rd down of the drive. Philadelphia would come up big and survive the goal line stand, leaving New York to settle for 3. However, high off of the feeling of going for it last week, the Cannons line up one more, confident they can pull out a conversion to take the lead. LB Eli Webber had a different idea though. Webber would be the first to get his hands on O’Grady and would complete the goal line stand, tackling him for a loss. Now with the momentum back on their side, QB Oscar Washington would start at their own 1 and reach 1st and goal 6 minutes later. However, much like Philly, New York would hold firm on the line forcing a 3rd down. Washington would be forced to pass so he’d look for his favorite target this postseason, WR Willie King. The pass would be read though. Stafford, who forced a turnover in the first quarter, would intercept the pass and take it all the way down the sideline, 99 yards for the score. By this point, both teams were exhausted. Both teams had full field drives only for it to fall apart in front of the endzone. So as the third quarter closed out, Philadelphia would be forced to punt for the 3rd time in the game. New York wouldn’t do much better. After surviving 3 quarters surprisingly turnover-less, Bauer would make his first mistake. He would sail a ball over his TE and straight into the arms of a Hornets defender. Philadelphia would immediately convert this to the game tying field goal. New York would retake the field but this time with QB Gary Jones, a confusing decision since Bauer had played well enough so far. However apparently on his interception Bauer had injured his throwing shoulder and wouldn’t be coming back into the game. Philadelphia immediately took advantage of the visible nervous Jones. O’Grady would take several straight handoffs, carrying the Cannons offense on his back. But when faced with a 3rd down, Jones was forced to throw and the ball would be widely inaccurate. It would be picked off by the defender trailing his target who would set the Hornets up just outside of field goal range. However, in order to pull out all the stops, the injured DT Tyree Matthews would retake the field, greeted by the roar of the crowd. This would prove to be successful, New York would come up with a huge stop leaving Philadelphia just too long for a field goal attempt. So instead of trying it, the Hornets went for it. Washington would be swarmed though and would fumble the ball, setting New York up at midfield with enough time to get down the field for a game winning field goal. They wouldn’t be able to do it though and would end up punting the ball back to Philadelphia. Philadelphia wouldn’t have time to get back up the field and so for the first time in Champions Bowl history, the game would go into overtime. 

For a refresher, overtime is just an extra 5 minute period added to the end of the game. Philadelphia would get the coin toss and would start out on offense. In fact, they’d be the only team on offense, as thanks to the Cannons staggering defense, the Hornets took just over 4 minutes to get down the field. Once they got 1st and goal, Philly would look to their star QB, who would find WR Willie King for the potential game winning score. New York, who had gotten Bauer back, would fail to get down the field in time. Their hail mary attempt with time expired would be short of the endzone. Philadelphia would storm the field in celebration. The game was coined as the “Best Game Ever” by the commentators and local newspapers that came out the next day. The final score of the first game that finished in overtime was 17-10.




Also, I came up with a banner graphic, inspired by Wallflower! If you notice on the front page, at the bottom of the first post I added a graphic displaying the championship banners in chronological order. Those are simple little designs, but for the future ones, they're a bit better made and more complex. Here's Philly's banner for this year:



Let me know what you think of everything! C&C appreciated, and congrats to Hornets fans!

Congrats to the Hornets and their fans.