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| The Smack Daddies, Animals, Goats, and Black Dogs vie for the 2020 NFFA title. |
By R.E. Porter
Associated Web Press
When East Nashville travels to Atlanta this weekend for the opening round of the 2020 NFFA playoffs, it will be a clash of the two franchises tied for the most league titles with four apiece, and each one will be aiming to be the first to get to five.
Combined, the Black Dogs and the Smack Daddies have won nearly half of the league championships, but it’s been awhile since either franchise hoisted the trophy with the Dogs getting their fourth ring in 2016 and the Daddies winning theirs in 2013.
On the other side of the championship playoff bracket, the Cambridge Animals host the Sylvan Goats, and the Animals will be looking for their second ring after winning their second consecutive Jorge division title, their fourth overall. The Goats will be seeking their first NFFA championship, although the franchise did win two titles as the Fidalgo Island Sea Hogs in 2007 and 2009 when the team was owned by franchise founder, Triki Bobber.
Other playoff news and notes:
• The high-scoring Smack Daddies secured the number one seed for the second time in the last three seasons, but so far they have not turned that into a title. Their three championships in the playoff era all came as a wild-card team. (There were no playoffs in the NFFA’s first two seasons, 2002 and 2003. The playoff era began in 2004.)
• With their fourteenth playoff appearance in the seventeen-year playoff era, the Black Dogs extended their league record for most playoff appearances.
• The Animals, who won their only title in 2015, are making back-to-back appearances in the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
• Goats owner Bronko Nagurski became the first owner in league history to make the playoffs in the first two seasons of ownership.
• When the Village Green knocked the Buena Vista Ballers out of playoff contention last weekend, it ended the Baller’s eight-year streak of making the playoffs.
