4) Final Four: London Royals
After being an expansion team last season and pretty much the worst team in the league (at least as far as records were concerned), the Royals had a remarkable turnaround this season going all the way to the Ultimini, where they did sadly just fall short of a miracle.
This was a challenging season and the Royals had to pull off several upsets to get this far in the first place, including some incredibly important games late in the season that saw them edge out the Pythons for the 2nd spot in the division. A major part of this was the crucial game in Week 11, where the Royals were able to hold their home field advantage and defeat the Pythons 29-20. Of course there was a little bit of luck involved with the scheduling as well, as Portland had back to back away games in the last two weeks at Norfolk and at Tijuana.
Overall this season, while the offense was much improved with most skill positions maxed or closed to the max TPE limit for the DSFL, they still struggled at times and had to rely on the ever trusty London Royals defense to keep them in the game. The passing offense was the true weapon for the playoff run, which was the 3rd best in the league and seeing QB Jack narrowly miss out on the QB of the year award, despite having a better QB rating than the eventual winner, but we won’t dwell too much on that.
On the defensive side of the ball, there was a substantial rebuild after basically the whole active defense and star linebacker de Ville were called up to the NSFL. However, the war room and the GMs did a fantastic job of closing the defensive gaps in the draft and through the waiver market. Eric Richards would become the new start linebacker at the middle of the defense (earning himself LBOTY in the process) and this really helped tie the defensive play together. Special teams was also much improved as instead of a bot kicker and punter, the Royals were able to rely upon the excellent addition of Datsum Phastbawls, who ended up winning Punter of the year while being in close contention for kicker of the year as well.
Ultimately though the team really came together both on the pitch and earning TPE off the pitch, and the excellent locker room culture really resulted in high levels of activity and engagement, which meant fun and success combined. After pulling off yet another upset in the Conference finals the Royals were just 5 points short of a title, which is a stellar achievement.
7) Derred de Ville arrived as the center piece of the London Royals in the developmental league last year with a bang, with 3 sacks in his first game. From then on, he was terrorizing the opposing offenses. His rookie career saw him tally up nearly 150 tackles, 9 sacks, 8 passes defenses and involvement with several fumbles as well as a rare linebacking interception. In short he was a one man wrecking crew on the field against the run and the pass on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
This was promptly recognised by the league’s award committee, where de Ville took home more awards than he could carry with two hands. He became the Linebacker of the Year, the Defensive Rookie of the Year and the Defensive Player of the year, a coveted triple crown. He was also nominated for league MVP, which as a player on the defensive side of the ball says a lot about the season and the performance he had and he also earned himself a unanimous pro bowl appearance. Further he was drafted in the first round of the NSFL draft by the Baltimore Hawks an exciting team with a core group of young and active players.
All that said though, ultimately, none of this will matter when it will be time for de Ville to retire in 10 or so seasons, unless he continues to perform and impress at the next level & gets some real championship rings and awards under his belt. The ambition for him to become a future Hall of Famer is definitely there, but to achieve this he will have to deliver season after season after season. After the sensational DSFL year, the first year in the NSFL was a much quieter affair, as de Ville was eventually overshadowed by some of the all time greats like Mo Berry and some other rookies that simply had much better campaigns.
While deVille hit his tackle and sack performance bonus as per his contract, it wasn't quite enough to raise many eyebrows in the league when it came to awards time, and he didn't receive a single nomination and also missed out on the pro Bowl. He will be back next season with more TPE, on an even stronger more developed team and should have plenty of opportunity to shine.
There is no doubt in my mind that de Ville will be on a HoF ballot one day, the passion, dedication and work ethic are there, so success should surely follow. Hopefully, he will be remembered as one of the all time greats by the end of his career.
After being an expansion team last season and pretty much the worst team in the league (at least as far as records were concerned), the Royals had a remarkable turnaround this season going all the way to the Ultimini, where they did sadly just fall short of a miracle.
This was a challenging season and the Royals had to pull off several upsets to get this far in the first place, including some incredibly important games late in the season that saw them edge out the Pythons for the 2nd spot in the division. A major part of this was the crucial game in Week 11, where the Royals were able to hold their home field advantage and defeat the Pythons 29-20. Of course there was a little bit of luck involved with the scheduling as well, as Portland had back to back away games in the last two weeks at Norfolk and at Tijuana.
Overall this season, while the offense was much improved with most skill positions maxed or closed to the max TPE limit for the DSFL, they still struggled at times and had to rely on the ever trusty London Royals defense to keep them in the game. The passing offense was the true weapon for the playoff run, which was the 3rd best in the league and seeing QB Jack narrowly miss out on the QB of the year award, despite having a better QB rating than the eventual winner, but we won’t dwell too much on that.
On the defensive side of the ball, there was a substantial rebuild after basically the whole active defense and star linebacker de Ville were called up to the NSFL. However, the war room and the GMs did a fantastic job of closing the defensive gaps in the draft and through the waiver market. Eric Richards would become the new start linebacker at the middle of the defense (earning himself LBOTY in the process) and this really helped tie the defensive play together. Special teams was also much improved as instead of a bot kicker and punter, the Royals were able to rely upon the excellent addition of Datsum Phastbawls, who ended up winning Punter of the year while being in close contention for kicker of the year as well.
Ultimately though the team really came together both on the pitch and earning TPE off the pitch, and the excellent locker room culture really resulted in high levels of activity and engagement, which meant fun and success combined. After pulling off yet another upset in the Conference finals the Royals were just 5 points short of a title, which is a stellar achievement.
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444 words7) Derred de Ville arrived as the center piece of the London Royals in the developmental league last year with a bang, with 3 sacks in his first game. From then on, he was terrorizing the opposing offenses. His rookie career saw him tally up nearly 150 tackles, 9 sacks, 8 passes defenses and involvement with several fumbles as well as a rare linebacking interception. In short he was a one man wrecking crew on the field against the run and the pass on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
This was promptly recognised by the league’s award committee, where de Ville took home more awards than he could carry with two hands. He became the Linebacker of the Year, the Defensive Rookie of the Year and the Defensive Player of the year, a coveted triple crown. He was also nominated for league MVP, which as a player on the defensive side of the ball says a lot about the season and the performance he had and he also earned himself a unanimous pro bowl appearance. Further he was drafted in the first round of the NSFL draft by the Baltimore Hawks an exciting team with a core group of young and active players.
All that said though, ultimately, none of this will matter when it will be time for de Ville to retire in 10 or so seasons, unless he continues to perform and impress at the next level & gets some real championship rings and awards under his belt. The ambition for him to become a future Hall of Famer is definitely there, but to achieve this he will have to deliver season after season after season. After the sensational DSFL year, the first year in the NSFL was a much quieter affair, as de Ville was eventually overshadowed by some of the all time greats like Mo Berry and some other rookies that simply had much better campaigns.
While deVille hit his tackle and sack performance bonus as per his contract, it wasn't quite enough to raise many eyebrows in the league when it came to awards time, and he didn't receive a single nomination and also missed out on the pro Bowl. He will be back next season with more TPE, on an even stronger more developed team and should have plenty of opportunity to shine.
There is no doubt in my mind that de Ville will be on a HoF ballot one day, the passion, dedication and work ethic are there, so success should surely follow. Hopefully, he will be remembered as one of the all time greats by the end of his career.
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