Task 10:
Redbeard McFredbeard was named after the famous pirate Redbeard and a Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman who was a star for the team and had an incredible beard. Redbeard’s parents raised him to admire players who played in the trenches, and for a time Redbeard played on the defensive line. Red beard had a pretty ordinary childhood, except for the fact that his parents were football fanatics, so he grew up idolizing football players and worked very hard from a young age to perfect his craft. Early in high school, though, Redbeard discovered another passion, also connected to his name. He found quickly that he could grow a full beard. And so on the side, he started practicing beard styling. He could only really practice over the summer because his school, like so many others, have outrageous policies that police the facial hair of their students. But over the summers, Redbeard would stock up on fancy shampoos, gels, things that made the hair soft and shiny, combs, hair ties, and other fancy products. He would travel the states, entering beard styling competitions. At first, it was pretty boring because he would always win his age division. Not too many 15 year olds had bushy, full beards that they could twist into incredible shapes and designs. But around the time he got to college, the competition stiffened. Yet Redbeard just kept winning and winning. It got to the point where he was even starting to sneak up the leaderboards in contests that the pros went to (yes, professional beard styling is a thing. Just watch ESPN 8). But his football career was starting to take off too, and Redbeard was starting to get some attention from ISFL scouts. As he started hitting junior year of college, people on both sides ramped up their efforts to get Redbeard to commit to one career path or the other. The beard stylists said Redbeard was a generational talent who could shatter world records. He made a scene at one contest by styling his beard into the shape of a squirrel that, during the final round, had an actual squirrel emerge from the beard on cue. Somehow he still didn’t win that one, probably because one of the judges was a PETA member. The ISFL scouts encouraged Redbeard to commit to football by shaving his beard and entering the DSFL draft. The decision was tough. Redbeard spent hours agonizing and talking to close friends and family about the decision. You see, Redbeard is famously indecisive. Yet, eventually, he chose football. Redbeard entered the draft as a defensive tackle and played a season for the Kansas City Coyotes, where he was pretty mediocre. Despite this, he conned the yeti scouts into drafting him in the first round of the ISFL draft and promptly tricked everyone by swapping to cornerback, where he has also been shockingly mediocre. Redbeard’s ISFL career is now entering its fifth season and he will finally be starting regularly as a cornerback and his fans await with anticipation to see how he will do, while the beard stylists mourn the loss of such a promising prospect. (524 words)
Task 13:
The expansion talk has died down a little bit, and I am ok with that. I was pretty firmly in the anti-expansion camp last time around because an ISFL expansion announcement almost certainly meant DSFL teams would be forced to contract or would be turned into bot teams. And I, as a member of DSFL HO at the time, was not looking forward to that being a potentially very real issue. Fortunately, it has been avoided for now. At this point, I am still not confident that the ISFL could expand without dooming some DSFL teams to contract and filling the ISFL rosters with inactive players, which would reduce locker room activity throughout the league. But I think I have a solution that might help and allow us to expand to a full 16 teams. Allow two way players. If players can play on both offense and defense at certain positions, the league could expand easily without doing too much damage to roster sizes. I think it should be restricted to some logical positions, such as WRs may line up as CBs or safeties, but not on the defensive line. Members of the fair rubs club could also play on the defensive line. Running backs could maybe play as a linebacker or cornerback. The possibilities are endless! It would give players another set of stats to look at and allow us to expand without requiring either a huge influx of new creates or face contraction and dead locker rooms. I really do think that solution could work. Another possible alternative would be allowing users to simply create another player for their team and update two different players. The issue with that one is that it adds significantly more work for the users, update team, and sim team. I do not think I like that solution nearly as much as allowing two way players. The other idea that would allow expansion without a huge recruitment class was pitched by a teammate of mine. He suggests we create bots for OL, DL, and K/P and require users to create at other positions. By making these positions entirely bot-based, we increase the number of players at other positions of need and create fewer holes each team needs to fill with human players, which would allow for expansion to happen without doing too much damage to existing teams’ rosters. Now of all of those options, I still think allowing players to be two-way players is the easiest change to implement that could allow for expansion. It would require some changing to the rules and how teams fill out their DCs, but I think it would be the simplest change that would allow for expansion to take place with minimal damage. But the others are still worth considering too. Personally, I think people who want to be kickers or who want to create to join the fair rubs club should be allowed and encouraged to do so. For some people, those positions genuinely are a good fit and it would be a shame to take that away from them. BUT, if the league really wants to expand, I think that would be a valid option that would enable us to make that move. I do not believe expansion can happen as things stand right this second unless one of those changes are implemented. And I, for one, am perfectly ok with waiting for more favorable conditions before making dramatic changes to force through an expansion that the league probably is not ready for. (588 words)
Redbeard McFredbeard was named after the famous pirate Redbeard and a Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman who was a star for the team and had an incredible beard. Redbeard’s parents raised him to admire players who played in the trenches, and for a time Redbeard played on the defensive line. Red beard had a pretty ordinary childhood, except for the fact that his parents were football fanatics, so he grew up idolizing football players and worked very hard from a young age to perfect his craft. Early in high school, though, Redbeard discovered another passion, also connected to his name. He found quickly that he could grow a full beard. And so on the side, he started practicing beard styling. He could only really practice over the summer because his school, like so many others, have outrageous policies that police the facial hair of their students. But over the summers, Redbeard would stock up on fancy shampoos, gels, things that made the hair soft and shiny, combs, hair ties, and other fancy products. He would travel the states, entering beard styling competitions. At first, it was pretty boring because he would always win his age division. Not too many 15 year olds had bushy, full beards that they could twist into incredible shapes and designs. But around the time he got to college, the competition stiffened. Yet Redbeard just kept winning and winning. It got to the point where he was even starting to sneak up the leaderboards in contests that the pros went to (yes, professional beard styling is a thing. Just watch ESPN 8). But his football career was starting to take off too, and Redbeard was starting to get some attention from ISFL scouts. As he started hitting junior year of college, people on both sides ramped up their efforts to get Redbeard to commit to one career path or the other. The beard stylists said Redbeard was a generational talent who could shatter world records. He made a scene at one contest by styling his beard into the shape of a squirrel that, during the final round, had an actual squirrel emerge from the beard on cue. Somehow he still didn’t win that one, probably because one of the judges was a PETA member. The ISFL scouts encouraged Redbeard to commit to football by shaving his beard and entering the DSFL draft. The decision was tough. Redbeard spent hours agonizing and talking to close friends and family about the decision. You see, Redbeard is famously indecisive. Yet, eventually, he chose football. Redbeard entered the draft as a defensive tackle and played a season for the Kansas City Coyotes, where he was pretty mediocre. Despite this, he conned the yeti scouts into drafting him in the first round of the ISFL draft and promptly tricked everyone by swapping to cornerback, where he has also been shockingly mediocre. Redbeard’s ISFL career is now entering its fifth season and he will finally be starting regularly as a cornerback and his fans await with anticipation to see how he will do, while the beard stylists mourn the loss of such a promising prospect. (524 words)
Task 13:
The expansion talk has died down a little bit, and I am ok with that. I was pretty firmly in the anti-expansion camp last time around because an ISFL expansion announcement almost certainly meant DSFL teams would be forced to contract or would be turned into bot teams. And I, as a member of DSFL HO at the time, was not looking forward to that being a potentially very real issue. Fortunately, it has been avoided for now. At this point, I am still not confident that the ISFL could expand without dooming some DSFL teams to contract and filling the ISFL rosters with inactive players, which would reduce locker room activity throughout the league. But I think I have a solution that might help and allow us to expand to a full 16 teams. Allow two way players. If players can play on both offense and defense at certain positions, the league could expand easily without doing too much damage to roster sizes. I think it should be restricted to some logical positions, such as WRs may line up as CBs or safeties, but not on the defensive line. Members of the fair rubs club could also play on the defensive line. Running backs could maybe play as a linebacker or cornerback. The possibilities are endless! It would give players another set of stats to look at and allow us to expand without requiring either a huge influx of new creates or face contraction and dead locker rooms. I really do think that solution could work. Another possible alternative would be allowing users to simply create another player for their team and update two different players. The issue with that one is that it adds significantly more work for the users, update team, and sim team. I do not think I like that solution nearly as much as allowing two way players. The other idea that would allow expansion without a huge recruitment class was pitched by a teammate of mine. He suggests we create bots for OL, DL, and K/P and require users to create at other positions. By making these positions entirely bot-based, we increase the number of players at other positions of need and create fewer holes each team needs to fill with human players, which would allow for expansion to happen without doing too much damage to existing teams’ rosters. Now of all of those options, I still think allowing players to be two-way players is the easiest change to implement that could allow for expansion. It would require some changing to the rules and how teams fill out their DCs, but I think it would be the simplest change that would allow for expansion to take place with minimal damage. But the others are still worth considering too. Personally, I think people who want to be kickers or who want to create to join the fair rubs club should be allowed and encouraged to do so. For some people, those positions genuinely are a good fit and it would be a shame to take that away from them. BUT, if the league really wants to expand, I think that would be a valid option that would enable us to make that move. I do not believe expansion can happen as things stand right this second unless one of those changes are implemented. And I, for one, am perfectly ok with waiting for more favorable conditions before making dramatic changes to force through an expansion that the league probably is not ready for. (588 words)
