Restore the Roar? It never left. A non-merger FOF9 dynasty

[Passacaglia]

So I made my first attempt at a dynasty as the Indiana Flyers, FOF9 -- Indiana Flyers Post-Merger - Front Office Football Central, which I abandoned for a couple reasons:

1. It bothers me more than it should that if I start a dynasty in 1970, the game calls it Super Bowl I. If it's the 1970 season, I should be on Super Bowl V. So I wanted to start again with the 1966 season, so that we're rightly on Super Bowl I. Very cosmetic and irrelevant, but something that just annoys me whenever I look at it.
2. I like the idea of playing with less than 32 teams, and seeing how the talent distributes differently when there aren't as many teams.
3. As I've been playing around with creating schedules, and watching a lot of college football lately, I've decided that I hate rematches in championship games. That, along with the start year, led to an idea of a dynasty where the merger didn't happen, and the leagues basically schedule independently. Some parts of FOF require intermingling of the leagues -- there's still a Super Bowl, and a common draft, and players can go between the leagues at any time. But, those things all happened before the merger was official, and I don't think they will ruin the fun of the dynasty -- if anything, I think the fact that AFL and NFL teams won't play each other will make the Super Bowl a more interesting game.
4. The idea of "conferences" with an uneven number of teams seems neat. Even though I'm starting in 1966, I didn't feel bound to recreate football exactly as it was in 1966 -- I was fine fudging things a little to fit my vision. My goals were to have as few teams as possible because of #2 on this list, to make the disparity in number of teams in each league as large as possible, and to have divisions that made sense. I ended up with 16 teams in the NFL (adding the Saints even though they joined in 1967), and 10 teams in the AFL (adding the Bengals, even though they joined in 1968). Part of me wanted to remove Miami (who joined in 1966) and Cincinnati, but I hate the idea of Houston in the AFL East, and adding Miami and Cincinnati in let me change that (even if the real AFL didn't, putting Cincinnati in the West instead). So I ended up with 26 teams, not THAT much less than 32, but it creates divisions that make sense.
5. I actually hate Indiana. Come on, I grew up in Michigan, and live in Illinois, what do you expect? I'm honestly not sure if I've set foot in Indiana other than gas stations and fast food restaurants.

Anyway, this first post is just meant to be an intro, and maybe at some point I'll put links to the files I've used if anyone wants to play along (I know you can't really "play along" I just mean you can have a look at the universe I created). Any kind of feedback, questions, or comments are appreciated so I won't feel like I'm typing this into a vacuum. Enjoy!

[Passacaglia]

Friday, April 1, 1966

I still don't believe it's not an April Fool's joke.

A little background -- ever since 1948, the Lions were owned by a group of investors called the Detroit Football Company. They paid off the debts incurred by the previous owner, and added some more folks to their membership, among them William Clay Ford Sr. and Ralph Wilson. The team president was a man named D. Lyle Fife. The next year, 1949, Fife leaves his wife for his secretary, and another member of the group, Edwin J. Anderson, convinces him to resign, taking the role of president himself. In 1958, Anderson takes the job of general manager, pushing out the guy who'd been in that job, Nick Kerbawy. In 1961, Fife and Kerbawy allied to get back into power. The whole organization was in turmoil, until Ford came in and bought the team from the Detroit Football Company, putting an end to it and keeping Anderson in charge.

However, the team suffered. From 1952 to 1957, we won the NFL West 4 times, and won the NFL Championship 3 times. But here we are, 9 years later, and no championships since then. We did end up 2nd place in the NFL West for three straight years, 1960-1962, and won the Playoff Bowl all three times, but that's not good enough. The Packers won the NFL West all three of those years, so you could say that we just needed to get past them somehow, but that's not good enough for a team with a culture of winning like the Lions, plus we never did. The last three years have been disasters, going 5-8-1, then 7-5-2, then 6-7-1.

Enter, me. I was born in Detroit, but raised in Pontiac, where my parents moved when I was young. I went to U of M in Ann Arbor, and while I was there, my parents moved to Grand Rapids, where my dad works for Meijer. I graduated in 1964, and ever since then I've been working as an analyst for Ford. The nature of my work allows me to get most of it done during random times, giving me the chance to hang out wherever the action is around the Lions. I've basically watched Ford and Anderson run the team into the ground, to put it bluntly. I wouldn't say that to them, because I'm just happy they let me hang around. Anyway, with Anderson becoming more and more occupied with his work at Goebel Brewing Company, and with so many others wanting power over the business (rather than the team), they came to me. I'm a guy that's clearly only interested in the football aspect of things, and just wants to make the team better instead of trying to get myself ahead. You won't see my name in the paper like all these guys, but those in the know will be aware of what I do.

[Passacaglia]

Saturday, April 2, 1966

I guess it's not an April Fool's Joke. I got a call from Bill this morning -- he wants me to meet with the coaching staff.

The Lions have had some pretty good luck with coaches over the last 15 years. Starting in 1951, Buddy Parker took over as coach. He won NFL Championships in 1952, and 1953. He quit in 1957 during a preseason training camp dinner, and a couple weeks later, was the coach of the Steelers. The Lions promoted George Wilson, and won the NFL that year anyway. Wilson had a couple bad seasons in 1958 and 1959, was in 2nd place in the NFL West in 1960-1962, then dropped to mediocrity in 1963 and 1964. After the 1964 season, management fired all the assistant coaches, asking Wilson to rebuild his staff. Instead, he resigned, took a year off, and now he's going to be the first coach ever of the Dolphins. The Lions moved on with Harry Gilmer, to coach the team in 1965. Gilmer was a former linebacker for the Lions in the 50s when we were good, but I'll note that he was on the team only in 1955 and 1956, when we did not win any titles. In 1957, he was an assistant for the Steelers under Parker, so maybe that's some good experience? He was there for four years, then an assistant with the Vikings for four years, and now he's our head coach. Not a great start for him, as we went 6-7-1 -- worse than the 7-5-2 that Wilson had the year before.

First I met with Harry Gilmer.



I'm pretty much ready to fire him right away. 6-7-1 is not going to cut it. But, Bill was pretty adamant that he be given 2 years. Which, in a way is fine -- I don't think the team is going anywhere this season anyway, so I've got over a year to see what we can do to be competitive with a new head coach in 1967.

Then I had a group meeting with the entire staff.



Our offensive coordinator is Johnny North. He's got the best chance of staying with the team, but even that is unlikely. He's bounced around as an assistant at a few colleges and is hoping to get his break. He's got some potential, but I'm figuring I'll find someone better after this season.

Our defensive coordinator is Joe Schmidt. A lot of folks saying he should be the head coach if Gilmer doesn't work out, but I disagree. He's solid and doesn't seem to have any glaring weaknesses, but is also nothing special. He'll be gone.

We've also got Lou Rymkus on staff. He was the head coach of the Houston Oilers, and won the first AFL title ever in 1960, then got fired after a 1-3-1 start in 1961. Harsh. He came back to the Oilers last year as an OL coach, and now he's here. That's great that we won the AFL back when they were barely even a league, but he's not good enough to be on the staff of a competitive NFL team. He'll be gone, too.

Anyway, after getting home, I saw this in the paper.



The Eagles just traded Maxie Baughan to the Rams, for pretty much nothing. I wish I could have been involved in that -- first, Baughan would be a great linebacker for us, and also, I hate seeing him go to a division rival. As I said, I don't think we're taking the NFL West this year or anything, but this isn't going to make it any easier.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, April 3, 1966

The paper today:



Okay, I guess. This is the kind of boring crap that makes me appreciate my position. For one, I don't care who we're playing in the preseason and why. For another, there's just too many preseason games, anyway. We're scheduled to play 5 preseason games, compared to just 14 regular season games. Seems like a waste to have that much of the season spent on games no one cares about.

Anyway, speaking of things I do care about, today I called up Night Train Lane and Yale Lary.

Even though his best years are behind him, Night Train Lane has been an All Pro CB for several years, definitely one of the best in the game. He's also by far the most interesting character in Paper Lion, which won't be out until this fall, but I've seen an advance copy of. He's been considering retirement due to his injury, but he's still a good player who can help the team.

Yale Lary was also a star defensive back who's best days are behind him. He actually already did retire last July, and missed the 1965 season. I'm not expecting him to come in and perform as a DB again, but I think he can be convinced to come back just as a Punter. A lot of teams are starting to have a guy who just punts and doesn't do anything else these days, so it won't be that weird.

Success! I was able to convince both of them to come back to the team.





In some ways, bringing these guys back may go against my interests. If they're successful, they might end up saving Gilmer's job, or getting us a worse draft pick. But, if I'm going to be in charge of the Lions, I wouldn't want to do it without these guys.

[Izulde]

What are you using to create the newspapers?

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Izulde

What are you using to create the newspapers?

I'm not creating any, I'm just taking screenshots of old newspaper archives. That's going to work for a while, but once my universe starts diverging from reality, it will be harder. I have a couple things in mind where I have an article I want to use, but there may be minor things about the article that will be wrong. Maybe by then I'll figure out how to edit it or black things out, but I also might just ask the reader to pretend they didn't see the parts that aren't right, and just get the gist.

[Passacaglia]

Tuesday, April 5, 1966

Music for the week: The Temptations - Get Ready

The NFL released its schedule!





My expectations:

Week 1 -- Chicago -- Loss
Week 2 -- at Pittsburgh -- Win
Week 3 -- Atlanta -- Win
Week 4 -- at Green Bay -- Loss
Week 5 -- Los Angeles -- Win
Week 6 -- at Baltimore -- Loss
Week 7 -- at San Francisco -- Loss
Week 8 -- Green Bay -- Loss
Week 9 -- at Chicago -- Loss
Week 10 -- at Minnesota -- Loss
Week 11 -- Baltimore -- Loss
Week 12 -- San Francisco -- Win
Week 13 -- at Los Angeles -- Win
Week 14 -- Minnesota -- Win

That puts us at 6-8, roughly the same as our 6-7-1 record last year. Our games against the East are Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and the article is right that those should be easy wins. Although, the only really good team in the East last year was 11-3 Cleveland, no one else did better than 7-7, so it's not like we're getting much of an advantage there.

There's just too many good teams in the West for us to compete right now, even if we were good. Green Bay and Baltimore were both 10-3-1, and Chicago wasn't far behind at 9-5. We're lumped in with San Francisco and Minnesota in being around .500, then the Rams are down in the bottom at 4-10. If I had more confidence in Gilmer, I'd say we have a chance to contend if he can improve the team, but I don't think that's going to happen.

[Passacaglia]

Friday, April 8, 1966

Music for the week: Nowhere Man -- I thought about going with Get Ready again, you know, like the league better get ready cuz here I come, but I went with Nowhere Man instead. Not nearly one of their best, but I'm a Beatles guy as well as a Motown guy.





That's frustrating. Detroit really likes to think of itself as better about all this stuff because it's not the South, but there's obviously still problems. Rosa Parks moved here in 1957, and just a couple years ago said, "The residential areas are just as segregated here. I don't see too much difference" and "As long as there is so much gradualism, it just hasn't been done. I'm in favor of any move to show that we are dissatisfied and still haven't received our rights as citizens." I can understand that, and in this case, if it's true there's an inequity between Northern and a school like Redford in the suburbs, they'll get it figured it out. I'm sure it will be fine.

On to more important news...





Oh, AFL. You do something pretty good in signing Joe Namath, then you go make yourselves look like morons again. So Foss resigns moments after saying he's going to stay on as commissioner? What the hell happened there? I will say that I like Al Davis from what I've heard about him. Young guy like me, also didn't actually play football like me, but trying to get involved in the game anyway. Even if he does get the job, he's going to be in over his head trying to get the AFL to compete with us, though.

[Passacaglia]

Saturday, April 9, 1966





The AFL pats itself on the back for choosing a commissioner on the first ballot, then one of the team owners gets in a fight with a reporter that the commissioner has to break up. How bush league -- literally in this case, since it's an actual league, you know, since it's an actual league? Like I said, I like Davis, though. But that's not going to change anything about the AFL not being able to live up to the NFL. Oh, and Chicago? The AFL already failed going up against the NFL in Los Angeles and in Dallas, but they think they can compete against the Bears in Chicago? Even the Cardinals couldn't do that, and they're an actual NFL team! Good luck.

In other news....



So, Jim Brown is a great football player. Probably the best in the league. And I don't know if this all is true or not, but I'd like to think if he were arrested a bunch of times for this, like seven or so, it would be a big part of his legacy and not buried way at the end of any stories about him. I guess we'll see.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, April 11, 1966

Time to start getting to work and evalauating this team! This will be a nice place to put in my thoughts for each position.

Quarterback



For most of our championship seasons, Bobby Layne was our QB. Although, in 1957, he was hurt in the 2nd to last game of the season. Tobin Rote came in and finished that game, and led the team to a win over Chicago in the last game of the season, setting up a tie with San Francisco for the West. In the tiebreaker playoff game, we were down 27-7, but came back to win 31-27. In the NFL Championship game against Cleveland, Tote was 12-19 for 280 yards and 4 TDs to give us a 59-14 win.

Anyway, two games into 1958, we traded Layne to Pittsburgh for Earl Morrall and some draft picks. I guess the idea is that Rote was probably better than Layne after his injury. He wasn't -- we ended up cutting him after 1959, while Layne made the Pro Bowl in 1958 and 1959. To add insult to (a lot of) injuries, Layne is said to have cursed the Lions, saying "the Lions won't win for the next 50 years." Okay dude. Other than Layne's years with the Steelers, their only winning season since 1949 was 1963, the year after Layne retired, when they went 7-4-3. Then Buddy Parker quit two weeks before the 1965 season started (hey that sounds familiar), and they're back to being bad, having gone 2-12. So maybe he was talking about the Steelers, and not us. That would make more sense.

Getting rid of Tote made way for Jim Ninowski, who we traded with Cleveland to get. This put us back on track, getting back up to 2nd place in the NFL West. But before the 1962 season, the Cleveland coach Paul Brown, wanted him back. They had Milt Plum, who had led the league in completion percentage for the last three years, and a trade was made -- we got Plum plus a couple players, and they got Ninowski back, plus a couple players. I was pretty pumped to see us get Plum.

However, turns out, when you don't have Jim Brown behind you to hand off to whenever you want, you don't do as good. Plum was just okay, and while we improved from 8-5-1 to 11-3, it was still 2nd place in the West. And ever since 1963, he's been just a guy, splitting time with Morrall.

When it comes down to it, Plum's fine. We're not going to win a championship with him putting the team on his back or anything, but we've always been a defensive team anyway, even with Layne. If I get the chance, I'll look to improve the position, but it can be hard to get a good QB, so if not, we'll just have to build a better team around him.

[Passacaglia]

Thursday, April 14, 1966



Well now I'm going to feel (a little) bad about firing him first chance I get.



Frank Ryan is the guy who took over as the Browns QB when Ninowski broke his collarbone shortly after we traded him. He's a smart guy, and just got his PhD from Rice last year, while still playing football. I liked his comment when the Jets signed Namath last year -- "If Joe Namath is worth $400,000 coming into pro football, then I'm worth a million." He's probably right mathematically, but it's obviously not going to happen -- and even if he did want to go to the AFL, the leagues have a sort of agreement not to sign each other's players. And since no one in the NFL will sign him while he's under contract from Cleveland, he's pretty much stuck unless they trade him. I'd love to have Ryan as our QB, but I don't know if taking another QB from Cleveland is a good idea. Plus we're not going to be paying him a million or anything.

[Passacaglia]

Friday, April 15, 1966

Music for the week: Monday, Monday



Pretty sad. My family went to Shaarey Zedek when we lived in Detroit, before we moved to Pontiac, and before the synagogue moved to Southfield in 1962. I'd been to the new synagogue a handful of times for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs mostly. I don't belong anywhere specific now, or attend services regularly, but go to certain places when there's a special occasion. I don't really remember Rabbi Adler from when I was a kid before moving to Pontiac, but he remembers me. Remembered me. I talked to him a few times as an "adult", but not much.

The guy who shot him, he was born the same year as me. He moved to Detroit when he was 11, which was after I left for Pontiac. I don't think I ever saw him, and if I did, don't remember it. He probably has some points worth talking about white flight and Vietnam, but covered in so much craziness that it's not worthwhile. And it was done during someone's Bar Mitzvah (though pretty much every week someone seems to be having a Bar Mitzvah there), and right after Rabbi had given a sermon about Lincoln's assassination, which had happened that day. Sick man.

How about some more fun news? There's a meeting of NFL owners coming up, May 13. I'm not going, this is more for business people, and I'm just the football guy. But, I do get a little bit of a field trip of my own. I've been invited to a meeting with some AFL folks. The owner of the Bills, Ralph Wilson, is getting together with Al Davis at Wilson's home in Grosse Pointe, just a half hour or so from my place in Detroit. They're talking about the AFL's plan to expand into Miami, and want to get my thoughts. My thoughts are they might as well not bother, but it will be cool to meet Al, see Wilson's house, which is supposed to be some amazing mansion, and maybe if I play this right, I'll get a chance to meet Danny Thomas.

(* -- My experience was similar to our narrator's in that I'd been to Shaarey Zedek a handful of times, though mine were all in the 90s. I had no idea this happened until doing research for this dynasty.)

[canuxrok]

Cool idea, this looks really interesting so far. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by canuxrok

Cool idea, this looks really interesting so far. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

Thanks! That's nice to hear someone is interested, since I figure I'm weirding people out by taking up so much space to go through two weeks in April, and not playing any actual FOF. It'll still be a while before getting to any gameplay, but I promise at some point things will level off and I'll start actually playing. A lot happens in the summer of 1966 that I want to document here, and a lot that I need to make up in order to establish the league being the way it is, but once that's done and things diverge more from reality, a lot of the real news stories I see won't apply.

[Passacaglia]

Saturday, April 16, 1966



I know I've ranted about this before, but this is just stupid. The Chargers could only survive in Los Angeles for one year before moving out, now six years later, they're going to try again? I can understand Miami and Cincinnati, they'll be fine in places the NFL isn't already in, but we've already been through this, and even with the big name investors they have, we know the AFL can't compete.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, April 17, 1966



I've never read Hiroshima, but, well, I've been meaning to. And I guess I should add this to my reading list, too. Maybe after I win my first NFL Championship or something.

* -- Probably not that relevant to anything, but this article caught my eye, since there is a high school in the Chicago area near where I used to live named after John Hersey, and I didn't really know who he was. Looked him up and some other stuff he's written will be relevant, so I included it.

[Passacaglia]

Tuesday, April 19, 1966



Again, this isn't my area, so I'm not really involved in this, but I'm glad it happened. The Tigers are pretty much where we want to be in a few years, and it will be great to have two teams that are always in contention for league titles in the same stadium. I think there's a lot of people around here who'd like to see the Lions have their own stadium, but not me.



Good get for Detroit. So much wrong with calling Tottenham the Yankees of Soccer, though. They won the England Football League once in the last 15 years, and three other teams have won it twice in that time. And what's more, the Yankees aren't even the Yankees anymore. They just started the season getting swept by the Tigers, and are 1-5. I think their best days are behind them.

[Passacaglia]

Friday, April 22, 1966

Music for the week: Cool Jerk





Normally, I'd think a bunch of kids would take any chance to get out of school, and see if they can get their principal fired, especially if he's a hard-ass. But seeing that 1000 kids are going to this "Freedom" School while less than 500 are attending the actual school... well that seems like there's more going on here. I don't completely blame Carty for this -- he has a point that kids are coming in to the school already behind where they should be, making it harder to catch up in high school. But he's not helping, and is clearly more interested in how he looks instead of addressing the problem.

[Passacaglia]

Tuesday, April 26, 1966



So, Detroit has been trying to get the Olympics since as long as I can remember and I would love to see it happen. But this is ridiculous. We've come close before, and probably could have had it in 1956 or 1968 if things went right. But with the 1968 Games already set for Mexico City, it's hopeless this time. They're not going to have it in North America two times in a row. They're not going to have it outside of Europe two times in a row! I don't blame anyone in Detroit for not bothering to try this time around. This is all just to keep our name in for the future.

And maybe that will happen. We waited our turn through 1948 and 1952, when the Games were given to London and Helsinki for reasons related to the war. In 1956, we were screwed by other US cities also submitting bids, and it went to Melbourne. We probably should have read the writing on the wall when the 1960 Games went to Rome, but I can understand thinking that when they do go to North America, it'd be Detroit. 1964 went to Tokyo, and it still seemed possible. But when Mexico City was chosen for 1968, that's it. It could happen if we wait, but not in the lifetime of the people trying to get them here since 1940. Of course it's going to be Munich in 1972, and probably won't be back to North America until like 1988 or something. Such a waste, when so much more effort could be spent on you know, the city itself. We can't even run schools that families want to send their kids to -- for free -- but we should host the Olympics? Give me a break.

[Passacaglia]

Wednesday, April 27, 1966





Two Detroits, man. So, we don't get the Olympics, but we are able to convince families that our schools are worth attending. So...yay?

Like I said, not getting the Olympics was expected. I did not expect them to claim there's an unwritten rule that it wouldn't be outside of Europe twice in a row. I figured it would be...unsaid, and unwritten. I also did not expect Montreal to get more votes than us. I think that's the thing that probably kills it for good. And I'm not sure why that happened. Maybe it's like the article yesterday said -- the presentation was just a rehash of 1968, and we didn't try. Or maybe it's about Vietnam. Or everyone is just sick of Detroit. I don't know. There's a lot of speculation that if we got the Olympics for 1968, we wouldn't be experiencing as much of the racial tension we are now. Maybe, although bringing a huge public event to a city like this in 1968 could end up being really bad, so who knows. I don't think it's on the IOC to "save" Detroit, but the video presentation for that included an endorsement from JFK, and the IOC made their choice a month before he was assassinated. If the choice was made after the assassination, a lot of things would be different.

As for the schools, well, a lot of things probably will be different. The article is vague on the details, but if there's real change, these students will be seen just like Rosa Parks, and if there isn't, well, hopefully change happens some other way.

Some more:





Pretty depressing stuff to hear from those Northern kids, especially from those who want to learn. And this Olympic article -- what faux outrage! This was the same dude who just yesterday blasted the people presenting for Detroit for not really trying, in a situation where it's obvious they weren't going to win, and now he's blasting the IOC for not choosing us? Come on.

[Passacaglia]

Friday, April 29, 1966

Music for the week: Nothing's Too Good - Stevie Wonder

So, we've had murdered rabbis, school walkouts, sports losses for the city -- not just the Olympics, but also the Red Wings got clobbered in the NHL finals, and the Pistons, despite having the worst record in the NBA, lost a coin flip to the Knicks, so they won't get the first pick*. As a result, they'll miss out on U of M star Cazzie Russell . Although to be fair, he should probably go to the expansion Bulls team -- no idea why they're not getting the #1 pick. As much as I'd like to see the U of M guy stay in Detroit, it'd be cool to see him be the face of a new franchise in his hometown Chicago.

Anyway, let's get past all this bad stuff by talking about OUR LOSING FOOTBALL TEAM! We've talked coach, we've talked QB, but maybe a little pick-me-up will be talking defensive line.



The Lions have had a defensive identity for as long as I can remember, and this is the strength of it. Alex Karras and Roger Brown are undoubtedly the best DT tandem in football. They've held down the spot pretty much throughout the 60s, except for the season Karras was suspended for the season due to gambling on games. At DE, we've got Darris McCord who's had a great career but is getting old, and we had Sam Williams but he was taken by the Falcons in the expansion draft. That leaves us with Larry Hand and Jerry Manzatti. Hopefully one of them can take the spot opposite McCord.

* - that sounds familiar

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, May 1, 1966

Time to talk about the team some more! Today, linebackers.



We had a big loss with Joe Schmidt retiring as a player. With him off the field, the unit is led by Wayne Walker, who has made the Pro Bowl the last three years. I'm worried he may be too old for that kind of production, though.

We've also got Ernie Clark, who was a solid starter last year. And taking Schmidt's position will be Wally Hilgenberg. He was drafted in 1964, but this is his first year as a full time starter. He's really been coming into his own, and he's going to be huge for us.

[Passacaglia]

Tuesday, May 3, 1966

Looking at the secondary today.



You can see that bringing Train back was really big here. Combining him with Dick LeBeau gives us a pair of CBs that only the Packers with Herb Adderley and Tom Brown can top. Train will take over for Bobby Thompson which is huge, since he is not good. Last year we started Bruce Maher at one safety spot, while Wayne Rasmussen and Tom Vaughn split time at the other, but I'm hoping Jim Kearney can take that spot over now that he's in his 2nd year. We'll definitely need to bring in another CB for 1967 though -- if Train doesn't retire again by the end of 1966, he'll certainly have lost another step.

[Passacaglia]

Thursday, May 5, 1966

Offensive Line today.



This one is a bit of a mess.

We'll start with the easiest -- Ed Flanagan did fine for a rookie at C last year. We'll keep developing him, and hopefully he will be a solid part of the line by 1967.

At G, John Gordy made the Pro Bowl last year, and we'll hope for the same kind of production from him. At the other spot we had Ted Karras Sr., Alex's brother, but he's with the Rams now. We brought in Chuck Walton from Canada, who looks like he can take that spot over. But we've also got Bob Kowalkowski and Doug Van Horn, who look like they have potential. A lot of talent at Guard, so we may look into trading one of these guys. Walton and Kowalkowski have long-term contracts making them difficult to trade, so we'd probably trade Gordy and Van Horn. Gordy might not get much due to his age, though.

At LT, we bring back J. D. Smith, who missed all of last season. But at RT, we need help. We'll probably go with Daryl Sanders who took over for JD Smith last year. We also started Roger Shoals last year, but he was pretty bad and won't make the active roster*. This is a spot we will definitely need to improve for 1967.

* - It took me a while to find him, but Shoals is actually on the Lions roster in my Universe, he just doesn't appear in this depth chart view, because he's on the inactive roster. He's rated 19/19.

[Passacaglia]

Saturday, May 7, 1966

Wide Receivers



We lost Terry Barr to a career ending knee injury last season, which is a shame. He had Pro Bowl years in 1963 and 1964, and was in contention for another in 1965 before the injury. We've got Pat Studstill coming off a Pro Bowl season last year. I was hoping he'd build on that, but he doesn't really look set to here. And Gail Cogdill had Pro Bowl seasons in 1962 and 1963 -- he hasn't been there in a while, but looks like he can still be productive. And we bring in Warren Wells, who played as a rookie in 1964 before being drafted by the US Army. We're already not very good at signing our guys that the AFL also drafted, but we've really got no chance competing with the Army. But he's back with us now, and looks like he can push Studstill for a starting spot.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, May 8, 1966

Running Backs



We've got Tom Watkins who was part of the Milt Plum trade we talked about earlier. We've also got Amos Marsh, who we signed from Dallas last year. They'll be a pretty good tandem. A guy we won't have anymore is this guy:



Obviously, the impersonating criminal isn't on our roster, but that's not who I'm talking about. Joe Don Looney is technically on the roster now, but I'm not counting him because we're working on trading him to Washington, and it's almost a done deal. Last year Gilmer sent him in to give the play to Plum, and Looney refused, saying something like "if you want a messenger boy, call Western Union." He rode the bench ever since. His talent is undeniable, though, so he'll get spots on other teams. But not here. Total head case.



I don't think Washington will get much out of him (maybe I should have said his talent was undeniable).

[Passacaglia]

Wednesday, May 11, 1966



Apparently there's some controversy about whether or not John Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Whatever. I'm like this writer, I'll be at Olympia Stadium when the Beatles come to Detroit. It will just be preseason, but even if it were regular season, I'm still going.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, May 16, 1966

Music for the week: Paint It Black

Well, today it really went down.

The NFL was having its owners meeting, and I was on my own. I didn't tell anyone else, but I took Ralph Wilson up on his invitation. I drove up to his house in Grosse Pointe, a ritzy suburb. It's also an office, or at least part of it was. There were a lot of people working there, and I was introduced to all of them, even though I won't remember any of their names, especially since none of them seemed to have anything to do with the Bills -- they were people who ran his other companies. The whole place was huge. I wanted to ask for a tour, but that felt pretty rude, plus it would have taken way too much time. Eventually, Wilson, Al Davis, and I sat down in Wilson's office and got down to business. At least, I think that's what was happening. They were talking about the new AFL franchise in Miami, and some details involving Joe Robbie's investment in the team. Honestly, boring stuff, the kind of stuff I tuned out when I was hanging out with Lions management in Detroit. I wasn't sure why I was there. Were they just being nice, and heard I would be on my own with nothing to do? Were they making some kind of weird flex letting me and thus the entire NFL know what they were up to? Did they want me to be involved in Miami somehow? I barely knew George Wilson, but maybe he saw something in me and talked me up to these guys. I don't know what's going on, and I love Detroit, but if there's an opportunity, I'll listen. I'm still hoping Danny Thomas, who's also investing the team, will show up. Okay, fine, I'd much prefer it if Marlo Thomas showed up instead, but that seems unlikely. Anyway, as these boring talks are going on, someone bursts in and says, "The Giants just signed Pete Gogolak." Everyone turned and looked at me.

So, the AFL and the NFL have competed on a lot of fronts. Coaches have gone back and forth between the leagues. Both leagues have talked to the same networks for TV deals. Even locations -- Minnesota and Atlanta both almost ended up having AFL teams until the NFL put teams there, and NFL teams basically drove AFL teams out of Dallas and Los Angeles. But, the two leagues respected contracts each league signed with players. Sure, both leagues would draft the same player and compete against each other to sign him -- I heard a story that Al Davis managed to sign Fred Biletnikoff to the Raiders literally on the field as the Gator Bowl ended, while the Lions, who also drafted him, were sitting in the stands waiting for him to come out. But, once a player signed, he was either an NFL or an AFL guy.

But that all changed today. Gogolak had been a kicker for the Buffalo Bills, and was considered a big asset for their 1964 and 1965 AFL title teams. His contract ended a couple weeks ago and he was a free agent, and I didn't even bother looking at the article, since he was an AFL player, and it had nothing to do with us. But now he's signed with an NFL team. Obviously, the AFL and NFL don't like each other, but this move by Giants owner Wellington Mara takes the competition between the leagues to a new level. And for a kicker?? The Giants improved to 7-7 last year, and they missed 13 field goals in a row. How much better could they have been with a good kicker? Probably not good enough to catch the 11-3 Browns in the NFL East with Jim Brown running all over everyone, but maybe up to 9-5, and in the hunt if they keep improving in 1966? Even so, find another kicker! I don't see the need for the Giants to sign this particular kicker, especially when I have to be in the room with these guys when they find out.

I don't even know what I did. I think I grinned like an idiot? I hope not. Hopefully I looked serious, or somber, or something. Wilson looked mad. Davis looked fine, and maybe had a little smirk. He said to Wilson, "Don't let it upset you. You just got a merger of the leagues."

The merger. Of course I've heard talks about it. It felt like a presidential election, that a lot of people are interested in it, but you don't know which way it's going to go. It didn't stop every blowhard from telling you how they thought, nay, were sure, it would go. The AFL teams were run almost completely by people who wanted NFL franchises, but missed their chance. Either they tried buying the Chicago Cardinals and failed, or they tried to create expansion teams, and failed. But they all wanted to be part of the NFL, and it makes sense that would still be their goal now. The AFL has made splashes and signed some great players, like Biletnikoff that I mentioned earlier, and Joe Namath, but the NFL is the best league and where for the most part, the best players are. Even the Bills winning two AFL titles in a row are still seen as lesser than any NFL team. No one thinks they'd have any chance at all against the 1964 Browns or 1965 Packers. So they all still of course want to be part of the NFL. A few years back, the NFL offered them the chance to merge, for $50 million, which was an absurd price tag that the AFL refused.

They didn't get to explain any more of their feelings on it, because they walked off, barking orders to get people on the phone, and leaving me alone, as if I wasn't even there. In retrospect, that's probably for the best. They could have yelled at me, or even kicked my ass, even though I had nothing to do with it. I slipped out to my car and drove home. Once there, I made a few calls myself, and found out that at the NFL owners meeting, Mara told everyone the news. Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom said, "if you needed a kicker that much, I'd have just given you one!" Everyone was pretty pissed off. But, since the contract didn't violate any rules, just an unwritten gentleman's agreement, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle had no choice but to approve it.

I spent the evening pacing around my apartment. Was Davis right? Would this lead to a merger of the leagues? The NFL already seems too big with 14 teams, does he really think we would add on 8 more (not to mention all the expansion teams in the works)? Especially teams of lower quality? Just because the Giants signed some lousy kicker? I wanted to tell everyone I knew what he said, but for one, it sounded too ridiculous to worry about, and also, I didn't want to tell them I was meeting with the enemy. And what were they doing when they walked out of that office? Part of me wanted to stay and listen to what they were up to, but I didn't want to get caught doing that.

All I know is I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight.

* - No newspaper articles for this since it's closed-door stuff, but the real-time happenings are cribbed from the Al Davis biography, "Just Win, Baby" -- I couldn't resist inserting our narrator into the conversation once I read that it happened in the Detroit area.

[Passacaglia]

Tuesday, May 17, 1966

While I'm waiting to see if there's any fallout from this Gogolak thing, I might as well put together the whole team, since I've covered most of the position groups at this point.



All in all, it's not a terrible team. We have some needs -- first a new RT, then someone who can play MLB so we can move Clark back to OLB. Once that's done, maybe a TE and DE? All while keeping an eye out for a new QB if possible, and a CB to replace Train. If we can do that while keeping everyone else, I'd feel good. Bonus points if I can bring in another WR.

Kickers and Punters aren't included in this view. I've already mention Yale Lary, who I was able to bring back as a Punter. We also drafted a Kicker this year, named Garo Yepremian so we feel pretty set in this area, too.

[Young Drachma]

Catching up and it's mildly making me itch for FOF9 though I've so far resisted.