Two decades of Personal Pro Football: Football America, 2000-2020
At the bottom of the Football America information page, there's a notation that says "Previous Football America seasons are available, contact us for details." We get frequent requests for those details! When we do, I always struggle to explain the history of Football America, and hopefully this article will help! (Next time someone asks, I'll just provide a link to this article!)
As I mention in this year's Football America season liner notes, Football America has now been around longer than any alternative pro football league—longer than the XFL 1.0 (one season, 2001),XFL 2.0 (half a season, 2020) Alliance of American Football (half a season, 2019), World Football League (one and a half seasons, 1974-75), USFL (three seasons, 1983-85), AAFC (four seasons 1946-49) and the AFL (ten seasons, 1960-69). The 2020 Football America season is the eleventh consecutive season for the league which was part of the return of SECOND SEASON Football to PLAAY Games in 2010. But, the league's history actually goes back further than 2010.
Football America was born in 2000, when SECOND SEASON Football made its official debut on PLAAY.com. I created the league as a means to demonstrate how the SECOND SEASON game works, without using the names of real pro football players. (At that time, the use of player names outside a book publication format was a legal gray area.) I had created, for my own enjoyment, a twelve team alternate pro football league, branded as the "1989 USFL." I played an entire season with the set, over the span of about two years. It was intentionally skewed toward offense, reminiscent of the early AFL but more modern in statistical performance (quarterback completion percentages were in the 60s not the 40s, field goal percentages were in the 70s not the 40s, and so on). I also balanced the league so that there were no "powerhouses," every team had its strengths and weaknesses. That way, starting the season, I had no clue as to who would win the title. Who DID win the title? The San Antonio team, which finished the season at 9-5 and lurched through the playoffs with two hard-fought, wins. It was an exciting season, and I felt like I knew the players, which made it easy to write the game demo website text. I also felt there was nothing to lose by making the set available for purchase. I was surprised at the level of interest—not exactly a tsunami, but way more than a trickle.
After the first year—the 2000 season, released in the spring of 2000—I had to decide what to do about Football America. I considered just changing the year, and keeping the player ratings the same. But I thought that would be confusing, and hard to communicate to people. But, I didn't want to leave the year the same, either, thinking it would become dated after time. So I decided to update the league, with individual player cards. We displayed these cards during the PLAAY-NOT-CON Museum Tour, they were about the size of the current hockey and soccer cards with 32 base players for each team, an additional 64 "free agents" and 32 "rookies." The set was designed so that you could re-arrange the teams however you liked, or you could keep the standard base teams (indicated by a number on the player's card) and assign the rookies and free agents as desired. We created individual card updates for the 2001, 2002 and 2003 Football America seasons. Then in 2004, I put PLAAY.com on hiatus while I focused on my radio career.
I re-launched PLAAY Games in 2009, and SECOND SEASON returned to the fold the following year. It seemed natural to pick up where we left off in 2003 with Football America. Originally the league had thirteen teams, twelve assigned cities and an un-assigned team which could be placed in any gamer's choice of cities. We eliminated the un-named franchise when Football America resurfaced in 2010 (12 teams works much better than 13!) and relocated the Birmingham franchise to Oklahoma City. Since then, we've had two franchises switch cities, both echoing shifts in the real-life pro football landscape: the Los Angeles franchise moved to St. Louis for the 2016 season when the real-life Rams moved back to L.A., and New Jersey moved to San Diego the following year when the real-life Chargers abandoned that city.
Every so often I'm asked, "How are the Football America ratings determined?" To be honest, I sort of "wing it." Well, to begin the process anyway. I go through team by team and subjectively decide which players are going to be released, or retire. I make a list of each team's departures. Then I go through and create a list of rookie player names. These are names only, positions and ability level is open-ended. Then I begin re-populating the team rosters. I do free agency first. I roll two dice for each team and add them—the higher the roll, the more "money" they are willing to spend in free agency. I let the "high rollers" pick first from the available free agents. Then, I fill out the open spots on the rosters with rookies.
At this point, I assign tentative player ratings. Once all twelve teams are filled out, though, I will go back and add everything up so that the league is properly balanced. That is to say, I want to see an average of eleven points league-wide for offensive and defensive pass and run ratings. Where there are imbalances, I'll adjust. Then, I do a final run-through for the overall competitive picture, making tweaks here and there. I generally don't want one team to be a heavy favorite. Finally, I'll go through again to try to catch typos and errors—it's difficult to catch them ALL, but I try. I do make mistakes. Sometimes, a rookie or free agent will wind up on more than one team (because I neglected to remove the player from the available free agent list and then later forgot that I'd already assigned him). I rationalize this by saying they switched teams at some point during the season.
I do enjoy inserting a few quirks, just to see if people are paying attention. Former Kentucky/New York Giants quarterback Jared Lorenzen caught my attention in 2014, when he made sports news for being player/commissioner for the Ultimate Indoor Football League. The heaviest player ever to play pro quarterback, there's some amazing video of him that went viral where he displayed jaw-dropping agility for a guy so big. I sneaked him into Football America as a backup quarterback for Ubiya Foster Owens in Oklahoma City in 2014. A fringe player in 2015, he made one last hurrah in Football America as back-up for Archie Graham in Memphis in 2016. In 2017, I got an email from Lee Ursich, a long-time PLAAY Gamer. Lee had always wanted to be a pro football player, and asked if I could put him on a team for Football America—he didn't ask to be a superstar, just wanted to make a roster. I made him a third-string rookie offensive tackle for New York. He earned a starting role for a depleted New York squad in 2018, though he still had a lot to learn. Lee was shifted to center in 2019 had a breakout year, and helps anchor the New York line for the 2020 season. A real FA success story! Then there's Max Occupancy, a backup offensive lineman who made the San Antonio roster as a rookie in 2019. Sadly, his occupancy of a FA roster spot ended after just one season.
As the years have clicked by, we've added more features to Football America. We added an Instant Results table in 2010, fringe players in 2011, PDF availability in 2014, finder columns 2016, an official league schedule in 2017. We're always thinking of ways to make the league more compelling. One idea we've considered is sharpening the league definition by adding team nicknames, logos and colors to the mix. We've always felt that gamers preferred making these aesthetic decisions themselves, but we're learning that there's a sizable segment of tabletop football fans who want a ready-made league that they can spread out and play right away.
A number of folks have asked about expansion: we've considered it, but there's a lot to like about a twelve-team football league. I feel that an alignment of three four-team divisions, with a playoff field consisting of three divisional champs each getting a bye week and a wild-card "play-in" game is just about the perfect pro football set-up. It works with either a ten or fourteen game schedule. There could be another franchise shift or two down the road, though. We've considered re-branding the Philadelphia franchise as "New England," which would allow gamers to place the team in any of a number of northeast cities. It's also possible that Portland, Memphis or Oklahoma City could be shifted. There are no plans in place at the moment, though.
To commemorate the league's longevity, I thought it would be cool to name a Football America "All Decade Team," similar to the "All Decade" teams the NFL has created in recent years. It's a little harder for Football America, as there are no statistics to examine, no "championship rings" to count. I pored over the individual season team sheets and made note of superior performers—I created an all-league team for each season, and then looked for players who showed up multiple times on the single season all-star rosters. Here's our first and second-team rosters, presented in team sheet form. How would these guys stack up against NFL competition? Watch for an inter-league all-decade match up, FA vs. NFL stars of the 2010s, to be streamed live on the PLAAY Games YouTube channel Tuesday, September 29th!
I'd like to close by thanking everyone who's been a part of Football America over the years! Thanks to your support and enthusiasm, what started out as a "demonstration" league has become a distinct pro football league with its own stars, heritage and tradition! Here's to the NEXT decade of Football America!