STATE OF THE NAAF

Hey everyone, it has been a wild ride so far. 21 seasons have been simulated since the project began back in February 2020. The league has expanded from 7 to 13 teams, and many champions have been crowned. It is now the end of the 1960s and that means it is time to roll out a Decade in Review, but also a few other things. So, I am going to say it may be a few months until the next season officially gets kicked off as I want to work on some other aspects of this project. Especially, since the 70s are likely going to be a massive change for the NAAF and the world of football around it. There will be a lot of exciting stories happening over the next decade and I am excited to get to them, but I would like a chance to gather myself and make some under-the-hood changes. So here is a list of things I am going to be working on over the next while. 

1960s Decade in Review
The first is obvious. I still would like to recap the decade in much the same fashion I did in the 50s by ranking the teams based on performance and just recapping the crazy decade that was. I have some other ideas like doing some top 10 lists and potentially some voting stuff to see what the community loves about the project over the last decade. More information will be out soon about this part of the project, but this is pretty much going to be the bulk of the content for the next while.

Visual Revamp
With a new decade, I think it is time to revisit the graphics of the league and give them a bit of a refresh. The revamp will include pretty much all graphics from week-to-week to season-end recap. However, the most exciting will likely be a league-wide update for logos and uniforms, due to a new uniform template to kick off the 70s. So, I will be hard at work looking over the team’s looks heading into the 1970 season.

Under-the-hood Simulation Updates
One thing I have been hoping to at least look through is some of the aspects of the league that you all don’t see, like the balance of the rating system and various other things. The most likely change will be to give players some archetypes or basic outline roles that can help me better construct teams to better fit certain coaches or schemes they prefer to run. This will also be helpful in the writing of the project as I have sometimes unintentionally changed players' play styles just based on how I feel they would play or what team they are on, rather than what people have sent in. Not much of this project will likely be talked about a whole lot publicly, but it will be happening.

Scouting Revamp
If I do go ahead with adding archetypes, I will likely add them as a question in the scouting report submission so you guys can give me a general feel for your players. I also may take some inspiration from all the other player submission pools that many of the other projects on this site have been doing. So, in short, I would advise holding onto prospects until I have officially released the revamped scouting report. 

Blogspot Revamp
The last big project I have is to make some updates to the blogspot. I hope to add pages for each team to highlight their histories, before the NAAF, during the NAAF, and their looks through history in a similar format to say a Wikipedia page. I hope it can be a better place for new readers to go and get a better idea of what has happened in the NAAF over the last 21 years. This will likely take the most time as I still need to flush out some of the history prior to the NAAF years, and I have to write a lot, but it is the one part I think I have wanted to do the most in the last year or so.

In the end, as mentioned before, there will still be posts coming with the Decade in Review and other stuff after that, so it isn’t a full hiatus or anything, but rather a breather and a chance for me to work on some other aspects of the NAAF. 

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who has continued to follow along and show an interest in the project. It has been a lot of fun to do this as my hobby over the last almost 3 years. Thanks to everyone for sending prospects or voting in the awards, or however you have contributed to the project. It means a lot. 

Now, before we kick off some new stuff coming, I have something to ask you all, I would like some feedback on the project thus far. 

First, I will have this form to get an idea of what people currently think of each team’s current look in the league and we may get a ranking of what the community thinks is the best-looking teams in the league within the decade in review. 

RATE THE LOOKS OF THE NAAF
*Fixed missing 0's on part of the poll, if you submitted and it said it was not accepting responses I did not get a response.

Otherwise, I will open the floor to the community to respond to a few questions:

1 - What is your favourite aspect of the NAAF? (could be anything, but what keeps you returning to the project?)

2 - What might you want to see in the Decade in Review? (are there any stats or things you would like to know, that I could include in the Decade in Review).

3 - In the overall simulation, is there anything that you would like to see? (Essentially, any suggestions or things you think would be interesting to you to see in the project.)

I am also willing to take critique on aspects of the project that maybe don’t work or think could be improved.

Now some fun questions:

4 - Off the top of your head, what is one of the most memorable moments in the league’s entire history? (It could be anything, but if there is anything you remember as like a defining moment or just one of your own favourites, like, for example, a championship run, a specific game, or a bigger league event or change.)

5 - Do you have any favourite or memorable players? You can list as many or as few as you wish.

Don’t feel pressured to answer all the questions, but I would certainly appreciate any answers!

Lastly, if you have any general questions at all, this is a great time to ask I will be keeping up to answer as many as I can. 

Thanks again, everyone!

Wallflower.

Last edited by Wallflower (11/19/2022 8:27 pm)

TheEnigmaticOne wrote:

Just some questions, since I just got back to the site.

1. What happened with Xerxes Wynn? Last I checked he was playing at the semi-pro level and hasn't started or served as a backup for the Victors. The question I have is if he is playing in one of the non Hybrid Football leagues, like the GLFL or the ACFL.

2. Since the Boston Independents had a good year, and made the playoffs, how was Carlton Vanderbilt's first season? As far as I can recall, you don't list OL stats.

3. I would ask about Sterling Underhill since he got his first TD of his career this year, but how is Le'Darius Wynn doing? I l know that he got a fumble recovery for a TD this year, but is he developing to be the starter they intended him to be?
 

Xerxes Wynn: Wynn is currently the 3rd string QB in Indiana still developing, probably will be a long-term backup in the NAAF, but you never know if he develops further he could take a shot at a starting job at some point.

Carlton Vanderbilt: yea I mean what stats are there to track? He started this season on the line, but that's about all I can give you, but expect him to be a starter for a long time. 

Le'Darius Wynn: Wynn is the best LB Louisville has at the moment. He's got a solid starting rating, not quite elite, but he's good. For a late 1st round pick, he's exactly what they would have hoped for out of him. He's maybe not all-star level, but still good and should be a long-term starter for Louisville or at least the league depending on how much Louisville shakes up their lineup this offseason. 

1960s Team Rankings

Okay, I will start going through the teams and rank them based on how they performed during the 1960s. Since they have only played 1 season in the NAAF, I am going to leave Minnesota as unranked as it is too difficult to rank them based on a single season. So I will use that team as an example of what to expect over the next several posts. 

NR - Minnesota Serpents

We start with the main graphic which will show basic information about how a team performed over the last decade, from win-loss records to championships. Followed by a little summary of their decade.

The Serpents came out of the gates swinging in the NAAF. They rolled onto an 8-4 season in their first year, beating the record for most wins in a team’s first season in the NAAF, previously held by Boston in 1949 and Toronto in 1964. The team is very set for the future with 1969 COTY, Soni Dionne, leading the way along with plenty of talent like WR Sebastian Dassler, RB Hugo Hughes, DL Albert Sullivan, OL Elias McCarren, and rookie LB Garrett Roberts. They were unable to top the Royals in the East Division Semi-Final, but they look to be a team on the rise early in the 1970s. 

Decade Timeline

The next graphic will show the ups and downs of the decade for teams.
Legend:
P under year = Playoff Appearance
“WD” or “ED” under year = Division Title
“-DF” and “-DSF” above dot = Which round they made it to in the playoffs
The Trophy above dot = Championship.

All-Decade Team

Finally, I will do a 10-player all-decade team for each team except for Minnesota since again there just isn’t enough of a sample of players. 

Other Announcements

I have received 8 vote submissions for the rank the jersey votes, I still have it open as I won’t reveal anything until after I am done with the team rankings so if you still want to vote, you certainly can.

I have also been working on the team pages on the NAAF Blogspot (linked on the first page of the thread). Boston’s is the only one complete so far, but if you want to check that out you can. 

12 - Pittsburgh Blacksmiths

The Blacksmiths entered the NAAF in 1965. Since then, they obviously had to go through some growing pains over their first 4 seasons, but they did manage to still be quite a competitive team, much better than some previous expansion teams. Coach Ted McMahon has helped to build the team into a contender led by their star QB Louis Vaughn. Pittsburgh just showed that they are ready to start contending for a cup heading into the 1970s with their best season to date in 1969. Overall, their place at 12 is partly due to their record of 24-36, but also since they only had 1 playoff appearance this decade, so overall Pittsburgh was not spectacular this decade

Timeline

Pittsburgh has been on a steady rise from a rough 2-10 season in 1965 to a strong 8-4 year this past season. 

All-Decade Team

Having only 5 years of history, there isn’t a boatload of talent for the Blacksmiths, but they have some rising stars that certainly warrant some recognition. Making the team is the team’s first-ever draft pick in OL Erik Nelson, who has developed into an elite offensive lineman. OL Wally McRose joins Nelson on the line after he was one of 2 players to be Pittsburgh’s first All-Stars. Of course, the biggest star is probably QB Louis Vaughn who took home MVP this season and will certainly continue to be the face of the franchise. A couple of Vaughn’s weapons over the years join him on the team in WR Taylor Austin and WR Nathan Murray-Lawrence, who the other player to be Pittsburgh’s first All-Stars. To round out the offensive players is the team’s first captain RB Stavros Black. As for defence, there are a lot of up-and-coming athletes in DL Arthur Bradshaw and DB Zed McLaughlin, but also a couple of under-the-radar stars in DB Aiden Sargent and LB Patrick Hamilton. 

11 - Toronto Steelheads

The Steelheads joined the NAAF in 1964 and immediately showed that they could compete with the best of the NAAF. They made the playoffs in their first 3 seasons, including a West Division title in 1965. However, their talent took a significant drop in 1967 as the team plummeted to a 2-10 record, but they once again rebound to win a second West Division title in ‘68, before another poor performance this season. Toronto managed a perfect .500 record in the decade, which is a solid record, but their 0-4 record in the playoffs certainly tanks their position in the rankings. Overall, Toronto was solid but frankly overperformed to some extent, as they have never been a team that looked like a top-half team on paper, but nonetheless, they were a playoff team more times than not. 

All-Decade Team

The Steelheads have many stars that came over from the OFU and maintained their strong position as some of the best players of the decade for the team. Their star QB Todd Baker had some strong games in those first 3 seasons. He was helped by fellow offensive stars like WR Edmund Landry and OL Gregory Farrell. DL Lawrence Armstrong, LB Daniel Carpenter, and DB Orville Blake also continued to be key pieces for the Steelheads when they first made the transition to the NAAF. On top of the other talent moving over, the Steelheads have also had success with bringing in young talent like star RB Max Tracy, who is sometimes the only reason the team still wins games, S Charles Clerk and DL Johnathan Ellison have developed into strong stars, and young LB Judge Barrett has already shown a lot in his first two seasons in the league.