Friday, February 28, 2014

MICHAEL SAM NO. 1 ON BAKER'S DRAFT LIST
Popcorn leaks ‘Grand Strategy’ in unguarded moment

Will the Bakers make Michael Sam the first pick in the NFFA draft?


By Ariel Mutha-Tafoya
FSN Sports


Loose lips, it was said during World War II, sink ships. Now, they also reveal draft strategies.

According to several witnesses, Bakers GM Faith Popcorn let slip that the team’s brain trust had decided to select linebacker Michael Sam with the first pick in the NFFA draft this summer.

The witnesses said that Popcorn leaked the team’s plans to Saddam Hussein early Sunday morning, over drinks in Club Gitmo’s fabled Palenque Room. “She had one too many mushroom matés,” one witness commented. “It veered pretty quickly into TMI (too much information). The draft stuff was the tame part. I’m not comfortable repeating some of the stories about QCurl.”

According to all of the witnesses interviewed, drafting Sam would be part of a strategy to obtain QB Tom Brady from the Cambridge Animals. Because Sam recently revealed that he is gay, the Bakers’ thinking went, the Animals would give anything to have him on their roster. Thus, by selecting him with the first pick, the Bakers could make a trade offer — Sam for Brady — that the Animals would be “orientationally unable” to refuse.

Hussein, who has lived at Club Gitmo since officially receiving asylum from the sovereign Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, could not be reached Monday for comment.

A person answering the phone at the Bakers team offices said Popcorn was unavailable.

“It seemed like the slip was inadvertent,” one witness said. “Who knows, maybe she was spreading some disinformation just to mess with the Animals. I mean, that’s how Sharif rolls, but Faith has always been a straight shooter.”


Dominica Eyes Christian Radio Stations


Lex Dominica, owner of the NFFA champion Atlanta Smack Daddies, was spotted in Nashville Monday during the annual meeting of Christian radio broadcasters at the Opryland Hotel.

In tow with Dominica were Toronto mayor Rob Ford, the team’s new general manager, and longtime director of the Dominica Foundation, Alge Crumpler.

Sources said Dominica was considering the purchase of a family of Christian radio stations to expand the Smack Daddies Radio Network and reach a largely untapped audience for broadcasts of the team’s games. “Personally,” said Crumpler, who continues to direct Alge’s Touchdown Club for the Daddies, “I’m all about tapping new audiences.”

Given what some have called the NFFA’s “free-wheeling, freebasing style,” some wondered whether Christian stations would be a good fit for the Smack Daddies Radio Network. “I don’t know what could be more American and more American Christian than going to church on Sunday morning and tuning into an NFFA game on Sunday afternoon,” Crumpler said. “And it’s not like our team has been linked to illegal drugs, human pit fighting, abetting North Korea, the homosexual agenda, throwing players from airplanes or attacking fans of other teams with dogs, like other teams in this league I could name. We’re the team that Christians can root for.

“Plus, we have an owner who is known around the league as Lord — ‘Lord of the Championship Rings.’”


Distraught O’Bobber Checks into Clinic


FSN has learned that Sea Hogs owner Tirik O’Bobber voluntarily checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic for the Criminally Insane last weekend.

Though few details are available, it is known that O’Bobber, who had been treated successfully at the clinic several years ago, had been distraught last week over the imminent loss of his star quarterback, Peyton Manning, under the NFFA’s new keeper rules. Witnesses had seen the reclusive owner walking around his Fidalgo Island compound muttering, “Oh Peytie, Peytie, Peytie, Peytie.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one Sea Hogs official told FSN that, while O’Bobber was currently sane, he had feared a relapse into his former lifestyle — one that had led him into kidnapping, sex trafficking and  involvement with North Korean counterfeiting, among other offenses, and had led ultimately to an invasion of Fidalgo Island by the U.S. Army.

“All of us involved in the league are praying for Tirik’s speedy recovery,” said Bakers owner QCurl Sharif in a brief statement yesterday. “And that includes Satan and Shiva.”

Saturday, February 22, 2014

THE END OF AN ERA
Sea Hogs will have new QB next season

For the first time since 2004 when he played for the Cambridge Animals, Peyton Manning will be throwing passes for someone other than the Fidalgo Island Sea Hogs.


By R.E. Porter
Associated Web Press

A somber mood hangs over the Fidalgo Island team headquarters as the organization deals with the end of an era in Sea Hogs history. For the first time in nine years, the Hogs will take the field without Peyton Manning under center.

No other team in league history has had the continuity at quarterback the Sea Hogs have enjoyed with Manning. From 2005 to 2013, he led the Hogs to a 79-47 regular-season record, five Linardo division titles and two NFFA championships.

Because of league rules, the Sea Hogs will not be able to protect their franchise quarterback as a keeper in 2014, so Manning will be donning the uniform of another team this season, leaving a 51-point-per-game hole in the Sea Hogs' offense.

"[Team owner Tirik] Obobber has been beside himself," a Sea Hogs official speaking on condition of anonymity said. "I was outside his office the other day when I heard him sigh heavily several times, then he began to sob uncontrollably. In between sobs, I could hear him saying, 'Oh, Peytie, oh Peytie, oh Peytie, Peytie, Peytie. What am I going to do without you?' Then I thought I heard him add in a whisper, 'Life isn't worth living without you.'

"So I went into his office and tried to console him, but he ordered me out of the room, shrieking, 'Get away from me. There's nothing you can do, there's nothing anyone can do.'"

Since that day, Obobber is rumored to have undergone treatment for depression and to be taking mega doses of the antidepressant Lexapro.

While no other team is losing a nine-year veteran like Manning, Fidalgo Island is not the only franchise that will lose a high-scoring signal caller; both The Village Green (Aaron Rodgers) and East Nashville Black Dogs (Matthew Stafford) lose Top 5 quarterbacks, too. Plus, the defending champion Atlanta Smack Daddies will lose Matt Ryan.

The Smack Daddies are the hardest hit, losing running back Arian Foster, wide receiver Calvin Johnson, linebacker Navarro Bowman and defensive back Patrick Peterson, in addition to Ryan. The Black Dogs are losing two key players other than Stafford: running back Darren Sproles and linebacker Patrick Willis. The Village Green are also facing turnover at key positions. In addition to losing quarterback Rodgers, The Green lose running back LeSean McCoy. The Downtown Corsairs are in the best situation of all the teams, losing no one this year.

Like Obobber, Black Dogs coach Jim McMahon hates the thought of losing his quarterback."We won three straight division titles, made two trips to the NFFA championship game and won the franchise's third crown with Matthew [Stafford] behind center," McMahon said. "I'm gonna miss that kid, he's a winner."

In the past, the NFFA has allowed trades during a small window of time leading up to the draft, but it is unclear whether the league will permit teams to trade players who will become free agents and be available in the 2014 draft. This is the first time the NFFA has faced such a situation since the current keeper rule went into effect prior to the 2011 season.

Speaking off-the-record, one league owner said if teams are allowed to trade their pending free agents, it will defeat the intent of the change in the keeper rule, which was to ensure players like Manning went back into the draft pool. "Bobber's gotten enough out of Peyton — I'll be damned if he's going to get another top tier quarterback through a trade for him."

Assuming Manning is in the 2014 draft pool, the 12th Avenue Bakers have the first pick in the draft and no team needs an offensive boost more the Bakes, who finished dead last in points scored in 2013, averaging nearly 12 points less per game than the second lowest-scoring team. Conventional thinking would have 12th Avenue using that first pick on Manning. But then, conventional thinking has rarely played a role in the draft strategy of the Bakers, the only team to ever use a second-round pick on a defensive player.

The following is the complete list of former keeper players who will become free agents. (Players in parenthesis are not currently on the team's roster.)

12th Avenue Bakers: WR Larry Fitzgerald, (LB Chad Greenway).
Atlanta Smack Daddies: QB Matt Ryan, RB Arian Foster, WR Calvin Johnson, LB Navarro Bowman, DB Patrick Peterson.
Cambridge Animals: TE Rob Gronkowski, LB Derrick Johnson, (DL Will Wilfork).
Downtown Corsairs: none.
East Nashville Black Dogs: QB Matthew Stafford, RB Darren Sproles, LB Patrick Willis, (DL Jason Pierre-Paul, DB Charles Tillman).
Fidalgo Island Sea Hogs: QB Peyton Manning, RB Ray Rice, (LB James Laurinaitis).
The Village Green: QB Aaron Rodgers, RB LeSean McCoy, (DB Antonio Cromartie).
West Nashville Beelzebubbas: WR Julio Jones, DL Calais Campbell, (LB London Fletcher).

Looking ahead, the following are the projected 2014 keepers for each team with the pending free agents factored out.

12th Avenue Bakers: QB Colin Kaepernick, RB Chris Johnson, WR Jacoby Jones, DL J.J. Watt, LB Daryl Smith, DB Alteruan Verner.
Atlanta Smack Daddies: QB Nick Foles, RB Eddie Lacy, WR Brandon Marshall, DL Robert Quinn, LB Lavonte David, DB Eric Berry.
Cambridge Animals: QB Tom Brady, RB Jamaal Charles, WR Alshon Jeffery, DL Chris Long, LB DeAndre Levy, DB Eric Weddle.
Downtown Corsairs: QB Andrew Luck or QB Russell Wilson, RB Adrian Peterson, WR Demaryius Thomas, DL Chandler Jones, LB Paul Posluszny, DB Morgan Burnett.
East Nashville Black Dogs: QB Tony Romo, RB Matt Forte, WR Antonio Brown, DL Lamar Houston, LB Karlos Dansby, DB Barry Church.
Fidalgo Island Sea Hogs: QB Andy Dalton, RB Danny Woodhead, WR Josh Gordon, DL Vontaze Burfict, DB Quinton Demps.
The Village Green: QB Philip Rivers, RB Marshawn Lynch, WR Dez Bryant, DL Justin Tuck, LB Robert Mathis, DB Deangelo Hall.
West Nashville Beelzebubbas: QB Drew Brees, RB Doug Martin, WR Cordarrelle Patterson, DL Carlos Dunlap, LB Sean Lee, DB Richard Sherman.