So in Season 18, me and @TomHanks started to write little bits of summary for our team where we handed out both an offensive and defensive game ball to our team. It is a neat little feature and highlights and celebrates the things our players do on the field. In the meantime, I am happy that others have taken over that tradition and are continuing it and I am very pleased that we still do that.
This season, I think it was @terriblehippo had mentioned that he tallied the game balls we have given so far to see who had gotten the most. It made me wonder, what if I went back and looked through every box score of a NOLA game in history and awarded game balls to players now. I won't bore everyone with a game ball for every game, but I figured it was nice to sort of create a final tally and share some thoughts and overall things here.
I also want to point out that while in newer seasons we sometimes give out a game ball to more than one person in a game, I tried to not do that when I went back to older seasons now.
Offensive Game Balls:
Maximus III 37
Fyodorovich 27
Evans 23
Gump 23
Smallwood 21
Swift 19
LeClair 16
Savea 16
Francisco 16
Law 7
Jones 7
Toriki 7
Stormblessed 6
DiMirio 6
Ulysses 5
Ross 4
Danielsson 4
Rubbe 4
McCormick 4
Tanner 3
Stone 3
Booter 3
Gore 3
Valentine 3
Bercovici 2
Crush 2
Von Matt 2
Rodriguez 2
Prohaska 2
Podolak 2
Barker 2
Blewitt 1
Baker 1
Noble 1
Tomatonose 1
Reigns 1
Halvorsen 1
Meoff 1
Jackson 1
It is great to see such an amazing number of players have won a game ball at some point in their NOLA career but obviously some NOLA legends stand out. Obviously our legendary Hall of Fame quarterback Borkus Maximus stands out at the top with 37 game balls, in the span of 10 seasons. Another team hall of famer is in second place with Vladimir Fyodorovich. He was an insane rock in our team for a long time and I am not surprised to see him that high. After that, we already see an interesting development. We see current star RB Forrest Gump, who has already put together a great career himself, putting himself into obvious contention for team hall of fame. And tied with him we see Dustin Evans, who we initially did not induct into our team hall of fame. He only spent five seasons with the team, but going through this list, honestly, it was shocking to see just how good he was for the team, especially in S5 and S6, where he was just unstoppable it seemed. More on that later, but it definitely puts him into contention for a revised team hall of fame role.
Defensive Game Balls:
Harrison 20
Bode 18
Mills 17
O'Sullivan 17
Oakes 15
Slothface 14
Stone 11
Sharpei 11
Taylor 10
Keita 9
Andrews 8
Varga 7
Fulton 7
Jefferson IV 7
Rector 6
Bayley 5
Rax 5
Ramsey Jr. 5
Earl 5
Marchand 5
Faux 5
Arianlacher 5
Ironside 5
Cox 4
Speed 4
Blade 4
Maddox 4
Stropko 4
Flimjollywop 4
Brister 4
Schneider 4
Tu'inukuafe 4
Washington 3
Shoate 2
Kronen 2
Verns 2
Broxton 2
Fyodorovich 2
Arnold 2
Ridley 2
Dissector 2
Ramrio 1
Bullard 1
Lecavalier 1
Morgan 1
Andres 1
Hackett 1
King 1
Townsend 1
Richardson 1
Williams VII 1
Kassel 1
Adams 1
Jimbo Jr. 1
Another great long list and awesome to see who has gotten some. At the top, we see some familiar faces and NOLA legends. Harrison had a really long NOLA career and while he never dominated one season, he just accumulated them over time. But getting close to that record is our current LB Quenton Bode, who is a threat to break that record. We also see former LB Slothface near the top as well. I also want to highlight that Fyodorovich actually won two defensive game balls as well, insane.
Let's look at some other statistical information bits:
Most seasons with at least one game ball:
Maximus: 10 seasons
Harrison, Fyodorovich: 9 seasons
Bode: 8 seasons
Gump, Francisco, Bode, Mills, O'Sullivan: 7 seasons
Funny that I made it 7 seasons with two players now!
Most game balls in a season:
Evans: 9 in S5
Swift: 8 in S15
LeClair: 7 in S3
Smallwood: 7 in S9
Fulton: 7 in S4
This is a really cool glimpse into how dominant one given season was for a player. Evans was insane in S5, winning more than half our game balls that year. Swift's S15 was similarly amazing. I think Swift had the benefit of playing both RB and WR that year, whereas Evans did it purely as a Wide Receiver. Evans did it in a way where he was basically the only amazing player on a really bad team (that team went 1-13 that year, but he had an insane 1500 yards that year).
Highest Game-Balls per Season:
I will point out that this measurement is a bit flawed, because if you got 0 game-balls in a season, this won't count the season as I don't know whether you played or not, since I only have who ever got a game-ball.
Fulton: 7 (7 in 1 season)
Stone: 5.5 (11 in 2 seasons)
Smallwood 5.25 (21 in 4 seasons)
Evans 4.6 (23 in 5 seasons)
It's cool to see Smallwood and Evans who just dominated while they were on the team, while Fulton and Stone only had one or two good seasons. I really think Evans is under-rated as a NOLA star player and we will have to re-consider him for the team hall of fame, in my eyes. I think he was truly a legend for our team and he deserves that recognition for his amazing play.
I think that's all the cool statistics I have, here. Hope this was enjoyable!
I don't know why I did this in the middle of the season but oh well lol.
This season, I think it was @terriblehippo had mentioned that he tallied the game balls we have given so far to see who had gotten the most. It made me wonder, what if I went back and looked through every box score of a NOLA game in history and awarded game balls to players now. I won't bore everyone with a game ball for every game, but I figured it was nice to sort of create a final tally and share some thoughts and overall things here.
I also want to point out that while in newer seasons we sometimes give out a game ball to more than one person in a game, I tried to not do that when I went back to older seasons now.
Offensive Game Balls:
Maximus III 37
Fyodorovich 27
Evans 23
Gump 23
Smallwood 21
Swift 19
LeClair 16
Savea 16
Francisco 16
Law 7
Jones 7
Toriki 7
Stormblessed 6
DiMirio 6
Ulysses 5
Ross 4
Danielsson 4
Rubbe 4
McCormick 4
Tanner 3
Stone 3
Booter 3
Gore 3
Valentine 3
Bercovici 2
Crush 2
Von Matt 2
Rodriguez 2
Prohaska 2
Podolak 2
Barker 2
Blewitt 1
Baker 1
Noble 1
Tomatonose 1
Reigns 1
Halvorsen 1
Meoff 1
Jackson 1
It is great to see such an amazing number of players have won a game ball at some point in their NOLA career but obviously some NOLA legends stand out. Obviously our legendary Hall of Fame quarterback Borkus Maximus stands out at the top with 37 game balls, in the span of 10 seasons. Another team hall of famer is in second place with Vladimir Fyodorovich. He was an insane rock in our team for a long time and I am not surprised to see him that high. After that, we already see an interesting development. We see current star RB Forrest Gump, who has already put together a great career himself, putting himself into obvious contention for team hall of fame. And tied with him we see Dustin Evans, who we initially did not induct into our team hall of fame. He only spent five seasons with the team, but going through this list, honestly, it was shocking to see just how good he was for the team, especially in S5 and S6, where he was just unstoppable it seemed. More on that later, but it definitely puts him into contention for a revised team hall of fame role.
Defensive Game Balls:
Harrison 20
Bode 18
Mills 17
O'Sullivan 17
Oakes 15
Slothface 14
Stone 11
Sharpei 11
Taylor 10
Keita 9
Andrews 8
Varga 7
Fulton 7
Jefferson IV 7
Rector 6
Bayley 5
Rax 5
Ramsey Jr. 5
Earl 5
Marchand 5
Faux 5
Arianlacher 5
Ironside 5
Cox 4
Speed 4
Blade 4
Maddox 4
Stropko 4
Flimjollywop 4
Brister 4
Schneider 4
Tu'inukuafe 4
Washington 3
Shoate 2
Kronen 2
Verns 2
Broxton 2
Fyodorovich 2
Arnold 2
Ridley 2
Dissector 2
Ramrio 1
Bullard 1
Lecavalier 1
Morgan 1
Andres 1
Hackett 1
King 1
Townsend 1
Richardson 1
Williams VII 1
Kassel 1
Adams 1
Jimbo Jr. 1
Another great long list and awesome to see who has gotten some. At the top, we see some familiar faces and NOLA legends. Harrison had a really long NOLA career and while he never dominated one season, he just accumulated them over time. But getting close to that record is our current LB Quenton Bode, who is a threat to break that record. We also see former LB Slothface near the top as well. I also want to highlight that Fyodorovich actually won two defensive game balls as well, insane.
Let's look at some other statistical information bits:
Most seasons with at least one game ball:
Maximus: 10 seasons
Harrison, Fyodorovich: 9 seasons
Bode: 8 seasons
Gump, Francisco, Bode, Mills, O'Sullivan: 7 seasons
Funny that I made it 7 seasons with two players now!
Most game balls in a season:
Evans: 9 in S5
Swift: 8 in S15
LeClair: 7 in S3
Smallwood: 7 in S9
Fulton: 7 in S4
This is a really cool glimpse into how dominant one given season was for a player. Evans was insane in S5, winning more than half our game balls that year. Swift's S15 was similarly amazing. I think Swift had the benefit of playing both RB and WR that year, whereas Evans did it purely as a Wide Receiver. Evans did it in a way where he was basically the only amazing player on a really bad team (that team went 1-13 that year, but he had an insane 1500 yards that year).
Highest Game-Balls per Season:
I will point out that this measurement is a bit flawed, because if you got 0 game-balls in a season, this won't count the season as I don't know whether you played or not, since I only have who ever got a game-ball.
Fulton: 7 (7 in 1 season)
Stone: 5.5 (11 in 2 seasons)
Smallwood 5.25 (21 in 4 seasons)
Evans 4.6 (23 in 5 seasons)
It's cool to see Smallwood and Evans who just dominated while they were on the team, while Fulton and Stone only had one or two good seasons. I really think Evans is under-rated as a NOLA star player and we will have to re-consider him for the team hall of fame, in my eyes. I think he was truly a legend for our team and he deserves that recognition for his amazing play.
I think that's all the cool statistics I have, here. Hope this was enjoyable!
I don't know why I did this in the middle of the season but oh well lol.
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