Not to rush past any Rays celebration, but I have the offseason ready to go and its an exciting one!

1972 Offseason:
Coming into the college season, one player was on top of everyone’s mind, QB Paul Knight. After a breakout sophomore year at Southern University where the Cowboys finished second in the nation, all eyes were on him to lead them to a Championship this year. He’d do just that. The Cowboys would finish the season undefeated and at number 1, as they had been all season. Knight would win the McCarthy award and would be pretty much assumed off the board by the second pick. However, some of his thunder was stolen by the Louisiana University star, QB John Charming. Charming, nicknamed ‘Lucky’ after his alleged obsession with the cereal brand: Lucky Charms, had his first season as the starter this year after his mentor and Herons starting QB for the past 3 years graduated last year. Charming fit right into the role and starred. The Herons would shoot up to number 2 by week 3 after an upset win and would stay in the top 5 for the rest of the season, finishing at 3. Charming came second in McCarthy votes and captured the attention of the media more than Knight did at most times. Charming wasn’t slated to go second though, he was predicted to fall all the way to 4 thanks to both the Kings and Riders. Other notable prospects were LB Luis Navarro (Pennsylvania), DE Steve Houston Jr. (Bell) and DT Randy Hardin (South Carolina State). Each of these were highly anticipated to be good coming into the season and lived up to it as some of the most talented defenders in recent draft history. Each of them could’ve gone top 5. Finally, some other offensive players of notice were RB Andre Kirkland (Southern Florida) and WR Bernard Jameson (Southern). Kirkland was a senior talent who led the country in rushing and had a motivating comeback story from tearing some ligaments in his knee his sophomore year that took him over a year to recover from. Jameson was Knight’s number 1 target and whether he’s talented or just benefitted from being with Knight his 3 years at Southern is unknown. It’ll be surprising if he falls out of the top 10 though. 
To open up draft day, the Bombers unsurprisingly took Knight. He was the best quarterback prospect, and while somehow he flew a bit under the radar for the second half of the season, thanks to the emergence of Charming, was still an easy selection for Detroit. The second pick is where some action would start. The Kings, still waiting to see some more of QB Jason Hoffman, didn’t really need a Quarterback talent in Charming, but they knew some teams like the Cannons, Gaels and Lumberjacks were definitely buying. Ultimately, they’d strike a deal with Boston, swapping the number 2 pick, and a future pick for the 5th pick, their second round pick and a future pick. It was a steep deal for the Gaels, but they got the QB they wanted and needed in ‘Lucky’. Ironic he’d go to the team with the 4 leaf clover as their logo. The Riders were also looking to try and trade down but failed to get a deal done and settled on taking Kirkland. One of the top defensive prospects would be off the board next. New York taking Navarro to seemingly bring back a mighty defense like the one they had in years prior. The top OL prospect would be taken by St. Louis next that closed out the top 5. The other 2 top defensive prospects would fall a bit, which surprised some teams but made for a very happy Bulldogs and Blue Ox. The Bulldogs were actually very active in the trades over the course of the draft. First they traded up from their 7th pick to the 6th to ensure they got Houston Jr., then they traded with Washington, who had already traded with Pittsburgh for the 20th pick where they lucked out and got Jameson, who had fallen over 10 spots. 

20th Annual NFA Draft:
1.QB Paul Knight - Southern University - Detroit Bombers
2.QB John Charming - Louisiana University - Boston Gaels (From STL)
3.RB Andre Kirkland - Southern Florida University - Texas Roughriders
4.LB Luis Navarro - University of Pennsylvania - New York Cannons
5. OL Nathan White - Arkansas State University - St. Louis Kings (From BOS)

Other Notable Picks:
6.DE Steve Houston Jr. - Bell University - Atlanta Bulldogs (From CLE)
8.DT Randy Hardin - South Carolina State University - Minneapolis Blue Ox
20.WR Bernard Jameson - Southern University - Atlanta Bulldogs (From PIT, From WAS) 

Roster Changes:
-This offseason was known as the quarterback carousel. It was first started when phenom QB Lloyd Brown came out and said he wasn’t resigning with Chicago after a falling out with the organization. Next, several teams opened up some spots to try and sign him. Colorado released their starter Wilson Richmond, Cleveland released Kurtis Mueller, and New York made some moves to try and sign him as well. But in the end his decision was to join Colorado. It was quite the shock as the Cougars were much less known then the other teams on his list. But it was their pick up of WR Ed Heinrich in the draft last year, who won MOR this past season, and a couple other moves they made after picking up Brown that made the move make more sense. First they swapped RB Red Hodges for Barbarians RB David Jackson, then they picked up WR Matt Wells, who signed with them over the Whales. All this shot the Cougars up the preseason rankings and formed a pretty good offense to go with their already decent defense led by DE James West. What happened to the other QB’s? Boston would bring in Richmond as a backup, dropping their starter from last year, Cameron Meyer, who signed as a backup with Miami. Seattle would lure in Mueller and New York would make a big splash in signing Kieth Lincoln away from the Tigers. Lincoln had spent 12 seasons with LA and was one of the best QB’s in his time. But after struggling toward the end of the season and seeing QB Patrick James flourish for them, he decided to try and get some playing time under the bright lights of New York. Chicago tried signing all of these guys but whiffed on all of them, and forced on naming former backup QB Jacky Heartly as the starter.

Other notable moves included Atlanta picking up another young piece, this time outside of the draft in DT Cameron Harris-Towns, who’d spent the last 3 seasons in Texas. Finally, recent MOD award winner Leo Smitts, who struggled with injuries last season, signed with Minneapolis, who made their second big pickup on defense this offseason. It’s unknown how much of an impact he’ll have there though.

Recap:
-QB Lloyd Brown to Colorado
-QB Wilson Richmond to Boston
-QB Cameron Meyer to Miami
-QB Kurtis Mueller to Seattle
-QB Keith Lincoln to New York
-Barbarians and Cougars swap RBs
-WR Matt Wells to Colorado
-DT Cameron Harris-Towns to Atlanta
-DE Leo Smitts to Minnesota

-Finally, the last roster change, RB Charley Rodgers retires. This came at the end of the offseason after the announcement of the birth of Rodgers’s second daughter. Originally he said he wanted to play at least one more, but he’d decided to be there to support his wife in raising his kids. Rodgers had a monumental 12 year career. 9 of those seasons were spent with the team that drafted him, Detroit. He’d later play for Washington. While in a Bombers uniform Rodgers won a Champions Bowl, and won an MVP. As a Pirate later in his career he won another Champions Bowl. Rodgers’s success would’ve been profoundly greater had he not played in the same conference as the Zephyrs early on in his career. He’ll always be remembered by fans for the famous run, nicknamed “The Play that Ended the Dynasty,” that pushed them to victory over the Zephyrs in the 1962 NFA West Championship.

Coaching changes:
-Detroit fires John Poplawski. Hires Sean McDonald.
-Cleveland fires Sean McDonald. Promotes OC Sam Austin
-Minnesota fires Ray Grant. Hires Phil Painter.
-St. Louis fires Joseph Pierce. Hires Ray Grant.
-Randolph Brunswick is given at least 1 more year from the Zephyrs after the fiasco of a season last year.

League News:
-The Board of Owners and Commissioner Cassel voted on and announced a shortened list of 8 cities that are going to be forwarded to the official expansion council. They have also voted that the expansion will consist of 4 teams with 2 of them starting play in the 1974-75 season, and the other two starting play in the 75-76 season. Thanks to some uncertainty about whether or not the league is prepared for more expansion teams, considering Texas, Colorado, and St. Louis have struggled to find some footing in their short existence, these dates can be moved back if it’s necessary. 
-Cassel also organized plans for a new CBA deal. If the plan is accepted, starting in the 1973-74 season, CBS would air all Northeastern and Northern Division games, and ABC would air all Southern and Western Division games. For inter division games the program of the home team would broadcast the game. The Champions Bowl will be rotated yearly between the two networks. This allows ABC, who broadcasted SFL games, to get back into the football world as they so desired without CBS being too upset. NBC would also try to get in on the deal, but they’d get the short end of the stick, being given one game per week on Sunday Nights, most NFA games are played on Saturdays. 
-In other miscellaneous news, the Blue Ox officially change their name from the Minneapolis Blue Ox to Minnesota Blue Ox. This coincides with some uniforms tweaks the team is also unveiling this offseason.-Finally, after bickering between the Explorers and the league occurred two years ago, the NFA finally approved of overtime to occur in regular season games. Overtime rules will be the same as they are in the postseason.

Preseason Rankings:
1.Miami Stingrays
2.Houston Explorers
3.San Francisco Whales
4.Pittsburgh Ironmen
5.Philadelphia Hornets
6.Colorado Cougars
7.Washington Pirates
8.Los Angeles Tigers
9.Atlanta Bulldogs
10.Cincinnati Sabres
11.Milwaukee Barbarians
12.New York Cannons
13.Minnesota Blue Ox
14.Chicago Zephyrs
15.Detroit Bombers
16.Seattle Lumberjacks
17.Texas Roughriders
18.St. Louis Kings
19.Boston Gaels
20.Cleveland Rangers

C&C Appreciated, Minnesota's tweak will be out later. Let me know what you think of this busy offseason!

One exciting offseason that's for sure! Sucks to see the Rangers last in the power rankings, but we will surprise a lot of people hopefully! 

Nice to see the Colorado Cougars making some moves, they might be my number 2 team moving forward, since I used to live there. 

Expansion sounds interesting, wonder what cities will be in the final 8! (Hopefully a certain city named after a mythical bird is one of them). Like the Blue Ox name tweek because Minnesota is more familiar to me than Minneapolis or St. Paul for a team location to me. 

Great offseason as always! Keep up the amazing work!

Another action packed season! Not surprised the South and West had all the success (outside of Pittsburgh). Hate to see Cleveland sucking, but we will be back. Now that Colorado and Texas made the post-season, every NFA team has earned a playoff spot, yes even Seattle has made the playoffs (the Jacks should fold) Have a feeling Pittsburgh vs Colorado in the Champions Bowl, with the Ironmen winning. 

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Last edited by Rugrat (4/14/2021 5:40 pm)

Can I see Minnesota's uniform tweak?