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10/16/2020 11:36 am  #651


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

What a game from Cleveland, the new look seems to be a good thing for them.
Based on this performance, would not be surprised if Cleveland maintains a competitive team for the next few years. 


 

10/19/2020 5:22 pm  #652


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

ah man the expansion teams are here. instead of asking what their names are, i'm wondering what their colors will be

 

10/22/2020 6:46 pm  #653


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

RightGuard wrote:

ah man the expansion teams are here. instead of asking what their names are, i'm wondering what their colors will be

Yes they are, however they're not the first thing coming this offseason!

1967 NFA Offseason Pt. 1 

The SFL-NFA Merger Agreement

After much anticipation and suspense throughout the season, it did come out that the NFA and the SFL had agreed on some sort of merger between the two leagues. The remaining 4 teams would be accepted to the NFA, that being the Texas Roughriders, the Houston Explorers, the Miami Stingrays, and the Denver, CO franchise, but with a catch. 
The talks between the two leagues went surprisingly smoothly according to inside sources, with the biggest hurdle being that the NFA wanted a way to clear the reputation of the 4 teams so any stink of the SFL doesn’t rub off on the NFA. That’s where the catch would come in. All 4 teams would be accepted only as expansion teams alongside the St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati franchises that were also being added to the league. SFL commissioner Tom Sweeney tried to walk this plan back originally, as both the Roughriders and Stingrays wanted to honor their championship seasons in the SFL, but the NFA owners were adamant about leaving the SFL in the past and pretty much forgetting it ever happened. Eventually the addition would pass a vote, with only the Gaels, Cannons, and Tigers owners not being in favor. 
The 2 folding SFL teams would evenly divy their rosters between the Riders, Rays, Explorers, and Denver with any who were not signed being automatically entered into an expansion draft pool, along with players given up from NFA teams, for the 3 true expansion teams. 

One of the biggest changes brought about during this time and during these talks was the NFA adopting a free agency system much like the SFL had and other systems other sports are adopting. This system went over really well in the SFL and was heavily supported by the NFA Players Association. The NFA would agree on such a system, adopting pretty much the same concept the SFL used. This will allow players to negotiate contracts with teams and set a limit of how much a team could spend on players. This will aid the league in preventing one team from winning the Champions Bowl year after year by monopolizing the league’s talent. To make the transition smoother to the new system, they also introduced a grandfather rule which allowed teams to select a few players that will abide by the older rules until they are either retired or released by the team. On top of that, when the rules officially starts to take effect, every player will automatically have their current contract shorten to either a 1, 2, or 3 year contract with the same pay they currently receive. This allows teams and players to start negotiating new deals without throwing every player into a free agency, releasing them from their current contract. For a refresher, the old rule was that a team could hold onto any player they drafted or signed for as long as they wanted, until that player was released, traded or retired. The new free agency rules won't be in effect this offseason, but will start in time for the 1968 summer.  

New Season and Postseason Structure
The conversations would also address a divisional realignment of the league, an increase to the amount of regular season games, and an expansion of the postseason. First, now that 7 teams were being added, the league would expand to 4 divisions ith 5 teams each. After a couple proposals that saw the former SFL teams being split up between 4 divisions and focusing on keeping rivalries together, the NFA would agree on a geographic based divisional alignment. The four divisions and layouts would be as followed: 

Northeast
-Boston, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore 

North
-Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Pittsburgh 

South
-Cincinnati, St. Louis, Texas, Miami, Houston 

West
-Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver 

Second, with the influx of teams, the league updates to a 14 game schedule and a 8 team postseason. The new schedule will include every team playing each member of their own division once, and every member from 2 other divisions once. Each division winner will automatically make the postseason with 4 other teams from any division. The bracket will be the same as last season’s but with the 1 and 2 seed not having a bye. 

Merger Teams Update and Unveil Their Identities 

Houston Explorers:
The first team to unveil a new look out of any of the new 7 teams were the Explorers. Previously rocking a very plain navy and white look, the team upgrades to a modern set. The new look adds yellow to the uniforms and a never before seen striping pattern where the numbers are encompassed in the stripe. The new helmets are white with a new logo added to either side. The new logo depicts a rocket, shooting through the sky, passing by a full moon.Texas Roughriders:
After the Explorers unveiled their modern look, the Riders turned back the clock and embraced Dallas football history as they planned a move to Dallas proper. The new looked strips down the colors to just red and white, which is reminiscent of the old Dallas Hawks from the Heartland Football League. Two thin stripes are found on the helmet, jerseys, pants and socks. A new logo is added to the new red helmets as well. The new logo is an updated silhouette of a cowboy, this time without the outline of Texas behind it.
Colorado Cougars:

After much speculation over nearly 2 years on what the relocated Atlanta Copperheads new identity would be, we finally got the reveal. Apparently after polling potential fans for a year the top name options were; Millionaires, Cougars, and Pioneers. Although with no proof of the polling actually taking place, many assumed this was Lawrence Daniels’, the new owner's favorite options, and had nothing to do with fans at all. In the end though, Cougars was the name chosen and to get some alliteration, the team chose to go by the state name, Colorado, over Denver. What wasn’t a surprise was that the revealed color scheme was purple and silver. Purple was clearly Daniels’ favorite color, as seen by his purple suits and ties he would wear. The uniforms that were unveiled were classy, with a simple striping pattern. The helmet and pants were both silver with the jersey being a sharp shade of purple that would stick out in a good way in the NFA. The logos were an illustration of a cougar, with a secondary logo of a paw in front of the letter C.

Miami Stingrays:

The Rays didn’t make any changes to their uniforms besides adding some stripes to their socks. 


Note: All former SFL teams removed names from their jerseys to comply with NFA uniform regulations, however, it’s theorized the NFA will make monumental changes and loosen a lot of restrictions on the uniforms next offseason.

Well there's the long awaited merger! Hopefully all the identities are well received. Also, I made a small update to my template, but next offseason will be an even bigger update to the uniform template, I'm really happy with how it looks, so be ready for that! C&C Appreciated, will have the next part of the offseason up soon!

     Thread Starter
 

10/22/2020 6:54 pm  #654


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

That explorers look is Fantastic! Could I please have a sig of that please?



Owner of the Indiana Cardinals (2005 AltBA Champions) the owner of the Memphis Kings, and new owner of the Milwaukee Mallards! #HoosierBirds #KingUp #QuackQuack
 

10/22/2020 6:57 pm  #655


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

Sevsdast wrote:

That explorers look is Fantastic! Could I please have a sig of that please?

I have a whole line of sigs that I'll post at the end of the offseason.

     Thread Starter
 

10/22/2020 6:59 pm  #656


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

First off, I was so happy that the Rangers were able to win the Champions Bowl last season! As for the merger, I admittedly wasn't expecting it to happen this soon! I'm really liking Houston's updated uniforms though. Bring on the expansion teams, especially Cincinnati! 

 

10/22/2020 6:59 pm  #657


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

MyTeamIsDr.Pepper wrote:

Sevsdast wrote:

That explorers look is Fantastic! Could I please have a sig of that please?

I have a whole line of sigs that I'll post at the end of the offseason.

That's great! When can we expect the last part of the Offseason?



Owner of the Indiana Cardinals (2005 AltBA Champions) the owner of the Memphis Kings, and new owner of the Milwaukee Mallards! #HoosierBirds #KingUp #QuackQuack
 

10/22/2020 7:01 pm  #658


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

Already some solid updates and still another 3 teams coming!
Houston's new look is sharp, the Navy-Yellow scheme works really well.
You can't really go wrong with classic red and white, so Texas looks real good
I dig the Colorado Cougars' name and the colours, but I feel the jerseys are a bit grey heavy (don't love the grey-white stripe on the purple jerseys), however, they are growing on my and might be another team I follow outside of Minne.
Not much to say on Miami, but they still look good in blue and orange

Excited to see more playoff teams, and intrigued by the new divisions, Minne is in tough heading out west for some of those games.


 

10/22/2020 7:12 pm  #659


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

Dig the updates for Houston and Texas!

The Cougars look awesome! As a person who used to live and work in Colorado, I definitely approve the design and uniforms. Honestly surprised they didn’t keep the Copperheads nickname though. Denver or Colorado Copperheads definitely sounds cool if you’re me.

I like the new alignment too! Wonder who will win the South tough as it is all expansion or former SFA teams.

Can’t wait for the Expansion teams identies!

Last edited by Rugrat (10/22/2020 9:31 pm)




 
 

10/22/2020 8:23 pm  #660


Re: History of the National Football Association - 1974-75 Season

Ah, it's all the more a shame that Charlotte didn't get a chance. Glad to see the SFL teams given a fresh start, the whole thing was pretty clearly doomed from the start but the fans deserve a chance to support their teams. Hopefully Charlotte gets another chance later on, but the teams look good. I think Colorado could use the C-paw logo on the helmets but no major complaints overall. Great work, excited for the other three expansion teams!

 

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