Well, I need more money to fuel my addiction into buying stocks, so I decided to write down a bit of history of my life as a GM. I am sure there are quite a few fun stories to tell. Some people will already know these stories but I have told them so often individually, and it always seemed interesting to others, so I may as well share it with others too. Most of these stories happened seasons ago now, so there should be no effect in terms of revealing sensitive information anymore.
This story starts on February 18th 2019, now over a year, almost a year and a half worth of time ago. I got a message from AdamS, in regards to my player in the NSFL. I had created as a Tight End in the minors and was prepared to stay at that position for my career, but he discussed the possibility of me moving to quarterback one day, given that quite a few teams were in need. He mentioned that he was also going to try to apply for one of the teams open GM positions in the off-season that year, which at the time looked like three, possibly even four teams would be looking for new GMs. He brought up the possibility of us working together, since we had been friendly from other leagues and had been on the same team in the weird hockey league that was around for a season or two. It seemed like it may be a good fit.
I initially was surprised, but open to the idea. I had been co-GM in the ISFL before, but that was a long time ago. I didn't really know the league very well and so that was going to be a bit of a problem for me. That being said, Adam assured me that he thought I would do well in terms of scouting and trades and just kind of being supportive, which I agree is things I tend to be pretty good at. These talks didn't seem very serious at the time yet since we weren't even sure if Adam would get a team yet, so I wasn't particularly worried about it. I wasn't super active in the ISFL at the time and figured it was not going to be my main focus anyway. I had been GM in the PBE for many seasons at that point and that was clearly my focus.
Nothing really happened for a while until in early March, I received a similar message from my good friend Bayley, who at the time was NOLA GM. He said that a birdie told him that I was interested in becoming GM in the ISFL. I replied that I had considered it but would be more happy about being a co-GM, but yes in general there was an interest. To quote myself of what I told him "i dont think id offer much as a main GM, i am not active enough in the NSFL for that. But as co GM i think i have a lot to offer".
We shared some words about struggling with sim leagues at times and life interfering and he mentioned that he had considered taking me in the upcoming season 14 draft at 4th overall and afterwards naming me new GM of the team. I reiterated that I would make a better co-GM and that I didn't know the league enough to become new GM of the team. Bayley and I had been sort of intertwined in ISFL history, given that we were in the same original draft of our careers and had talked a lot about the league and wrestling early on. I think he was comfortable with handing the team over to someone he knew as well as me.
Over the next couple days, we continued the discussion and I asked a lot of questions, from how the roster was on NOLA, what the plans were for the team, who would be around to help, who would be my co-GM (this will become entirely relevant later) and more. It looks like over the course of 2-3 days, my mind shifted a bit and I warmed up to the idea of becoming GM. In my head, I remembered Adam's wish to become GM, which at this point he had not gotten a couple of the other open jobs, so I felt like he would make a perfect co-GM and we would just do the same thing he had asked me about, but in reverse roles, with me as the main GM by name, but him doing most of the work.
There were a lot of names on the team and roster at the time that I recognized and got along with well. Majesiu was a huge part of NOLA at the time. They had also just drafted my good friend Toivo. I knew Ben from the PBE as well and from earlier NOLA days.
The draft came around and Bayley was able to grab me at the 4th pick, at which point I basically immediately took over as GM, even going as far as to take over the rest of the draft, the same draft where I had been taken in lol. It was all a bit bizarre, and I believe some of these things would no longer be allowed now, but at the time was allowed by rules.
I still felt like what I had told them before was the case. I barely knew the league at the time. I didn't know who was on what team, didn't know how the teams worked, I had played the sim before personally but never ran any tests, etc. I was practically not ready to take over a team and going back, I honestly had no business running a team.
In the initial days after the takeover, Bayley was still very helpful with any questions I had, but with his life being very busy, it wasn't really in a way that made GMing very easy either. The war room at the time was also frankly in a state of questionable help. I believe at the time, we had two guys who were semi active, two guys who were inactive and a guy or two who weren't even on the team anymore. It was not really the easiest situation to take over in and frankly it took me a bit to get settled in. Thankfully the guys that were around did help where they could and otherwise I just kinda had to settle in.
With the team in a rebuild, at the very least I was in a spot where I had time to settle in. I didn't really need to run a lot of tests for a team that had no chance anyway. I started to learn how to run tests slowly over that time but wasn't really fond of doing it.
S15 was a reddit draft and we had a lot of picks in that draft, especially some high picks, which thankfully was a good way to push a rebuild further.
Oh and the co-GM situation? Well, between me thinking that Adam was going to be my choice and actually becoming GM, Adam got hired as a co-GM by another team and suddenly I had no interested parties. There wasn't really anyone who wanted to take over as co-GM so I spent that first season without a co-GM. Instead of basically handing over most responsibilities to someone who knew more than me, it was suddenly all down to me. Not an ideal situation.
With many picks and a lot of people in the S15 draft, preparation was vital, but thankfully scouting is one of the things I am pretty decent at in these leagues. I put a lot of effort into the scouting and went into a lot of depth with some of the people in the draft. In this next part below I will discuss that initial S15 draft and what my process was for drafting what in the end became a big part of the new NOLA core.
Here is the basis for the draft. In the draft we had the following picks:
2nd overall
3rd overall
13th overall
27th overall
33rd overall
38th overall
57th overall
63rd overall
There were a lot more other picks below that, since there were 130 people in the draft, but obviously these top ones were much more relevant.
In my talks with the top players, a lot of my questions surrounded their wish to help out the team and work in the war room, which at this point I knew I had to completely re-work to just include a new core. This was a rebuild that was needed on a deeper level. I mainly wanted to draft people who wanted to be in the war room, to discuss strategy, to maybe even help test or become co-GM.
For those first two picks in the top three, there were a lot of people we considered originally. The two that immediately stood out to me were slothfacekilla aka Johnny Slothface and terriblehippo aka Quenton Bode. Both were linebackers so initially I thought we probably would not take both of them, though at the time we basically had no linebacker who was active. Still, we also looked at a wide range of other players. One of the more obvious choices would have been Richard D'Attoria V, former NOLA legend with his previous player. I have nothing against him, but when he was on NOLA, I was not really around the team as much yet or anymore, so I felt like that connection was not there as much as maybe others assumed it might be. I was worried he was closer to a lot of the people that really no longer were very active on the team.
In the end, I decided to just get both linebackers and drafted Slothface and Bode, both of which ended up being absolute legends for the NOLA franchise and insane help with the war room, both still in it to this day. Bode is actually still going and beat a lot of my own records and continues to impress, while Sloth is on his 2nd player now and just took over as the starting Quarterback for NOLA. It fills me with pride to know people I took have been such an integral part of the NOLA history now, not just with breaking records on the field, but by returning to the team on their second player, helping in the war room and really representing what it means to be a NOLA player.
The second round may have been an even tougher choice. On paper, our team did not need a Running Back. Our former GM Bayley was a Running Back and young and still active at this time. We were set there really and had far more crucial holes to fill. That being said, the more I talked to one prospect, the more I felt like I needed to draft him. I went from "we dont need a running back" to "how is this guy even going to fall to the second round" in like a couple days. That guy was Forrest Gump aka Tom Hanks. We just had insanely great conversations and I felt like he was one of the best prospects in the entire league that draft.
I don't know how well this is remembered by others, but at the time, a LOT of people mocked this pick. Gump was supposedly worse on a lot of draft boards than fellow Running Back Morgan Marshall, who got picked with the very next pick. A lot of people felt like we didn't pick the best running back and I always felt like that was not the case. Well, as it happens, looking back, it seems like we made the right choice. Gump helped out with the war room immediately as well and soon after became my co-GM and took over testing duties as well and is now the main NOLA GM after I stepped down.
In the third round, we went for Deon Taylor. A quiet guy who didn't do much in the locker room, Taylor was always active and team friendly though and has set some very good numbers at cornerback as someone who had a ton of interceptions and pass defenses. He was a great pick as well.
In the forth round we picked Acho who actually didn't work out before then picking the guy that brought the first fair rubs to NOLA, Brave Ulysses, who is an Offensive Line guy and played there for many seasons before switching to the Defensive Line.
All in all, we came away with an incredible list of great guys in this draft, with the main ones being the three guys that helped me out so tremendously in the war room early on and still do to this day, in Tom Hanks, hippo and sloth. But also guys like Ulysses and Taylor who are honestly cornerstones of this time period in NOLA history and have helped the team a lot over the years and helped us win a title much later, but that's something that will come up in another part of this former GM diary.
I hope this was somewhat enjoyable and shared some interesting stories from the past and i do have a few other topics and stories I plan to write about in the near future at some point, just so I can buy more stocks lol. But yeah, this is really fun and it was interesting to think back to some of the things that happened in that time span. While it started out rough, this draft really was a huge reason in why me being GM ended up being a success rather than a failure and without these people I likely would have stepped down earlier and would have had a miserable time as a GM and instead I met some of the most amazing people in this league and really invigorated my love for this league. It was a true joy to be the General Manager of the New Orleans Second Line throughout my entire tenure but it all started in this draft and I am really happy I made some wise choices in that time and ended up with such an amazing crew of people.
Thank you for reading and I hope that the next few topics will be just as interesting to other people and we will see what comes next in this series!
This story starts on February 18th 2019, now over a year, almost a year and a half worth of time ago. I got a message from AdamS, in regards to my player in the NSFL. I had created as a Tight End in the minors and was prepared to stay at that position for my career, but he discussed the possibility of me moving to quarterback one day, given that quite a few teams were in need. He mentioned that he was also going to try to apply for one of the teams open GM positions in the off-season that year, which at the time looked like three, possibly even four teams would be looking for new GMs. He brought up the possibility of us working together, since we had been friendly from other leagues and had been on the same team in the weird hockey league that was around for a season or two. It seemed like it may be a good fit.
I initially was surprised, but open to the idea. I had been co-GM in the ISFL before, but that was a long time ago. I didn't really know the league very well and so that was going to be a bit of a problem for me. That being said, Adam assured me that he thought I would do well in terms of scouting and trades and just kind of being supportive, which I agree is things I tend to be pretty good at. These talks didn't seem very serious at the time yet since we weren't even sure if Adam would get a team yet, so I wasn't particularly worried about it. I wasn't super active in the ISFL at the time and figured it was not going to be my main focus anyway. I had been GM in the PBE for many seasons at that point and that was clearly my focus.
Nothing really happened for a while until in early March, I received a similar message from my good friend Bayley, who at the time was NOLA GM. He said that a birdie told him that I was interested in becoming GM in the ISFL. I replied that I had considered it but would be more happy about being a co-GM, but yes in general there was an interest. To quote myself of what I told him "i dont think id offer much as a main GM, i am not active enough in the NSFL for that. But as co GM i think i have a lot to offer".
We shared some words about struggling with sim leagues at times and life interfering and he mentioned that he had considered taking me in the upcoming season 14 draft at 4th overall and afterwards naming me new GM of the team. I reiterated that I would make a better co-GM and that I didn't know the league enough to become new GM of the team. Bayley and I had been sort of intertwined in ISFL history, given that we were in the same original draft of our careers and had talked a lot about the league and wrestling early on. I think he was comfortable with handing the team over to someone he knew as well as me.
Over the next couple days, we continued the discussion and I asked a lot of questions, from how the roster was on NOLA, what the plans were for the team, who would be around to help, who would be my co-GM (this will become entirely relevant later) and more. It looks like over the course of 2-3 days, my mind shifted a bit and I warmed up to the idea of becoming GM. In my head, I remembered Adam's wish to become GM, which at this point he had not gotten a couple of the other open jobs, so I felt like he would make a perfect co-GM and we would just do the same thing he had asked me about, but in reverse roles, with me as the main GM by name, but him doing most of the work.
There were a lot of names on the team and roster at the time that I recognized and got along with well. Majesiu was a huge part of NOLA at the time. They had also just drafted my good friend Toivo. I knew Ben from the PBE as well and from earlier NOLA days.
The draft came around and Bayley was able to grab me at the 4th pick, at which point I basically immediately took over as GM, even going as far as to take over the rest of the draft, the same draft where I had been taken in lol. It was all a bit bizarre, and I believe some of these things would no longer be allowed now, but at the time was allowed by rules.
I still felt like what I had told them before was the case. I barely knew the league at the time. I didn't know who was on what team, didn't know how the teams worked, I had played the sim before personally but never ran any tests, etc. I was practically not ready to take over a team and going back, I honestly had no business running a team.
In the initial days after the takeover, Bayley was still very helpful with any questions I had, but with his life being very busy, it wasn't really in a way that made GMing very easy either. The war room at the time was also frankly in a state of questionable help. I believe at the time, we had two guys who were semi active, two guys who were inactive and a guy or two who weren't even on the team anymore. It was not really the easiest situation to take over in and frankly it took me a bit to get settled in. Thankfully the guys that were around did help where they could and otherwise I just kinda had to settle in.
With the team in a rebuild, at the very least I was in a spot where I had time to settle in. I didn't really need to run a lot of tests for a team that had no chance anyway. I started to learn how to run tests slowly over that time but wasn't really fond of doing it.
S15 was a reddit draft and we had a lot of picks in that draft, especially some high picks, which thankfully was a good way to push a rebuild further.
Oh and the co-GM situation? Well, between me thinking that Adam was going to be my choice and actually becoming GM, Adam got hired as a co-GM by another team and suddenly I had no interested parties. There wasn't really anyone who wanted to take over as co-GM so I spent that first season without a co-GM. Instead of basically handing over most responsibilities to someone who knew more than me, it was suddenly all down to me. Not an ideal situation.
With many picks and a lot of people in the S15 draft, preparation was vital, but thankfully scouting is one of the things I am pretty decent at in these leagues. I put a lot of effort into the scouting and went into a lot of depth with some of the people in the draft. In this next part below I will discuss that initial S15 draft and what my process was for drafting what in the end became a big part of the new NOLA core.
Here is the basis for the draft. In the draft we had the following picks:
2nd overall
3rd overall
13th overall
27th overall
33rd overall
38th overall
57th overall
63rd overall
There were a lot more other picks below that, since there were 130 people in the draft, but obviously these top ones were much more relevant.
In my talks with the top players, a lot of my questions surrounded their wish to help out the team and work in the war room, which at this point I knew I had to completely re-work to just include a new core. This was a rebuild that was needed on a deeper level. I mainly wanted to draft people who wanted to be in the war room, to discuss strategy, to maybe even help test or become co-GM.
For those first two picks in the top three, there were a lot of people we considered originally. The two that immediately stood out to me were slothfacekilla aka Johnny Slothface and terriblehippo aka Quenton Bode. Both were linebackers so initially I thought we probably would not take both of them, though at the time we basically had no linebacker who was active. Still, we also looked at a wide range of other players. One of the more obvious choices would have been Richard D'Attoria V, former NOLA legend with his previous player. I have nothing against him, but when he was on NOLA, I was not really around the team as much yet or anymore, so I felt like that connection was not there as much as maybe others assumed it might be. I was worried he was closer to a lot of the people that really no longer were very active on the team.
In the end, I decided to just get both linebackers and drafted Slothface and Bode, both of which ended up being absolute legends for the NOLA franchise and insane help with the war room, both still in it to this day. Bode is actually still going and beat a lot of my own records and continues to impress, while Sloth is on his 2nd player now and just took over as the starting Quarterback for NOLA. It fills me with pride to know people I took have been such an integral part of the NOLA history now, not just with breaking records on the field, but by returning to the team on their second player, helping in the war room and really representing what it means to be a NOLA player.
The second round may have been an even tougher choice. On paper, our team did not need a Running Back. Our former GM Bayley was a Running Back and young and still active at this time. We were set there really and had far more crucial holes to fill. That being said, the more I talked to one prospect, the more I felt like I needed to draft him. I went from "we dont need a running back" to "how is this guy even going to fall to the second round" in like a couple days. That guy was Forrest Gump aka Tom Hanks. We just had insanely great conversations and I felt like he was one of the best prospects in the entire league that draft.
I don't know how well this is remembered by others, but at the time, a LOT of people mocked this pick. Gump was supposedly worse on a lot of draft boards than fellow Running Back Morgan Marshall, who got picked with the very next pick. A lot of people felt like we didn't pick the best running back and I always felt like that was not the case. Well, as it happens, looking back, it seems like we made the right choice. Gump helped out with the war room immediately as well and soon after became my co-GM and took over testing duties as well and is now the main NOLA GM after I stepped down.
In the third round, we went for Deon Taylor. A quiet guy who didn't do much in the locker room, Taylor was always active and team friendly though and has set some very good numbers at cornerback as someone who had a ton of interceptions and pass defenses. He was a great pick as well.
In the forth round we picked Acho who actually didn't work out before then picking the guy that brought the first fair rubs to NOLA, Brave Ulysses, who is an Offensive Line guy and played there for many seasons before switching to the Defensive Line.
All in all, we came away with an incredible list of great guys in this draft, with the main ones being the three guys that helped me out so tremendously in the war room early on and still do to this day, in Tom Hanks, hippo and sloth. But also guys like Ulysses and Taylor who are honestly cornerstones of this time period in NOLA history and have helped the team a lot over the years and helped us win a title much later, but that's something that will come up in another part of this former GM diary.
I hope this was somewhat enjoyable and shared some interesting stories from the past and i do have a few other topics and stories I plan to write about in the near future at some point, just so I can buy more stocks lol. But yeah, this is really fun and it was interesting to think back to some of the things that happened in that time span. While it started out rough, this draft really was a huge reason in why me being GM ended up being a success rather than a failure and without these people I likely would have stepped down earlier and would have had a miserable time as a GM and instead I met some of the most amazing people in this league and really invigorated my love for this league. It was a true joy to be the General Manager of the New Orleans Second Line throughout my entire tenure but it all started in this draft and I am really happy I made some wise choices in that time and ended up with such an amazing crew of people.
Thank you for reading and I hope that the next few topics will be just as interesting to other people and we will see what comes next in this series!
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