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| After becoming head coach in week 4 following the team's 0-3 start, Barry Switzer led West Nashville to 12-1 finish and their second NFFA title. |
By R.E. Porter
Associated Web Press
Back in 2002, the West Nashville franchise won the very first NFFA title. That year, there was no championship game, no playoffs, just one long, 17-week season at the end of which the Beelzebubbas had the league’s best record. That was a long time ago, so long ago that London Bakers owner QCurl Sharif likes to jokingly ask, “Are they still leaning on that?”
Now Sharif is one to be talking, considering he is only one of two current owners without a championship and the only founding owner without one. But still, he has a point: It has been quite a while since the ’Bubbas won a title, and despite making four trips to the title game between 2004, when the league went to a playoff system, and 2017, the ’Bubbas have not been able to get that second championship ring. Until Monday night, that is, when they raised the Dead Lombardi trophy following their 128.5-121.7 win over the Downtown Corsairs.
The ’Bubbas were the NFFA’s best team in this the league’s 16th year, winning their first Jorge division title with a 10-4 regular season mark that was two games better than the next-best record, but they won the title with less than their best performance. You have to go all the way back to their three-game losing streak to start the season to find a score lower than the one they posted in the title game. Speaking of that losing streak, it prompted GM Jorge Linardo to bring in legendary coach Barry Switzer to right the ’Bubbas’ ship. And right it Switzer did, piloting the team to an 12-1 record from week 4 forward, their only slip-up coming in week 8 against The Village Green. After that, they reeled off eight straight wins.
“Of all the titles I've won in college and the NFL, to win an NFFA championship is the sweetest of all,” Switzer said after the game. “And not just because Saddam said it means I get to live one more year.”
While great coaching powered the Beelzebubbas to the 2017 NFFA crown, the runner-up Corsairs were left to wonder about some of the lineup moves of head coach Jack White, specifically his decision to start QB Case Keenum in the title game. If White had given the nod to any one of the other three QBs (Matt Ryan, Jared Goff, Alex Smith) on his roster, the Corsairs would be wearing the crown. Considering team owner Mojo D’s volatile impatience when it comes to head coaches, one has to wonder if Coach White will be getting the axe — literally.
The Beelzebubbas became the fifth franchise to have multiple titles, joining the Fidalgo Island Sea Hogs and Downtown Corsairs with two rings apiece. The East Nashville Black Dogs and the Atlanta Smack Daddies are tied for the most championships with four each. This marks the third year in a row the championship has been won by a team from the Jorge division. The Cambridge Animals won the title in 2015 and the Black Dogs claimed the crown a year ago.
On another note, The Green won the consolation playoffs with victories over the Sea Hogs and Animals, giving the franchise with the first pick in the 2018 draft some momentum going into the offseason.
