Pensacola Snappers
 

In 2004, one man’s dream became a reality, and 32 teams began pre-season play in the NNFL, the new competitor to the NFL.

In the ensuing 17 years, the league has proved to be the truly competitive league the NFL was intended to be. For example: there has only been one double winner in these 17 years, and 23 of the 32 teams have made the championship game at least once.

I had been watching the Pensacola Snappers since their 2004 inception, and had grown increasingly frustrated with the franchise. Despite making the playoffs 4 of the first 7 seasons, the next ten years have seen only two playoff years. Our .457 regular season winning percentage is better than only four others, and when we have been in the playoffs, we lose even more often: our playoff record is a league worst 1-6.

Five years ago we won our sole playoff game after securing a first round bye, and qualified in the wild cards in 2017. Since then we have gone 14-34, and in 2019 attendences dropped below a 40,000 average for the first time in franchise history (from a 65,600 high in 2005). The franchise has lost money (usually a lot of money) every year, prices are the second lowest in the league.

Finally I had to do something to rescue the franchise – and formed a consortium to buy out the previous owners: we succeeded and I am now in the lucky (?) position of being the new GM of the Pensacola Snappers, quite possibly the worst team in the NNFL.

The previous incumbent was generally clueless, making now major decisions, although he has managed to get a refurb of the stadium approved, which will be completed in 2023. Fan loyalty is poor, and the franchise value is bang last at $493m (no other franchise is valued at less than $600m).

The main partners have given two briefs: make the team successful, and break even. Nice mutually exclusive goals! But I do have some leeway until the stadium is completed in 2023 on the financial side.

We have 12 players under contract, and looking at previous balance sheets, our income is $80-85m over the last few years, which must be my target expenditure.

Bearing in mind our record, and the costs of coaches vs. players, my plan is two fold:

1. Sign new players on a combination of financial demands, ability and fan popularity – we need bums on seats so we can increase attendances and income.

2.. Release the existing scout and DC (HC and OC are already out of contract) and get cheap effective replacements.

Overview of NNFL history

2004
League formed.
First winners: Albuquerque Dukes

2005
The Ventura Pet Detectives post a 15-1 record, an NFFL record they would match in 2007, as would Baton Rouge Red Sticks in 2014.

2007
Carlos Zambrano of the Boise Falcons has 285 receving yards against the Scarnton Surge – a mark unsurpassed this far

2008
Move over the Miami Dolphins – perfection is achieved! The Kalamazoo Rapids post an unblemished 0-16 season!

The Snappers make the Division Final for the first time by virtue of the #2 seed, losing convincingly at home to the Austin 3:16s.

2012
Spencer Westbrook rushes 47 times for 265 yards for the Dukes against the 3:16s. Both are still NNFL records.

2013
The Springfield Rebels become the first franchise to relocate, moving to New York.

MLB Patrick Winters, a future Legend of the Game, makes 21 tackles for the Dukes against the Mobile Woodchoppers – a league record to this day.

2015
Des Moines Raccoons become the first (and thus far only) two-time NNFL champions, repeating their 2010 success.

The Raccoons also become the first time a franchise has appeared in three NNFL bowls, later equalled by the Dukes and the Burlington Turbines.

2016

Pensacola make the Conference Final after winning their first (and thus far only) playoff game against the Rapids (previously mentioned for going 0-16!). However, we lose to the Dukes.


2018
Gettysburg Foster retires having set all-time NNFL records for receptions, yards and TDs. Drafted as a true rookie in the 14th round of the initial NNFL allocation draft by the Pet Detectives, he spent 11 years in Ventura before moving to Albuquerque.

2019
Austin Martinez of the Hartford Hookers set single season receiving records of 118 receptions and 1870 yards in his second season, after being picked 1.08 in 2018. He follows it up in 2020 with 108-1729: maybe he will rival Foster’s all time records?

Undrafted Victor Giles hits 7 FGs for the Portland Riptides against the LA Angels.

2020
The best RB in NNFL history, Sherman Newman, hangs up his boots after setting records for rush attempts, yards, and TDs in his 10 year career with the Rebels.

Artie McKnight, the best NNFL QB so far, also retires after setting the marks for the attempts, completions and TDs.
McKnight is a perfect example of why the Pensacola Snappers have been a poor team thus far: we drafted McKnight 1.06 in 2006, and in 2010 he was voted Offensive Player of the Year, All League 1st QB (for the 2nd time) and League MVP. The franchise had made the playoffs three years in a row, and so when his contract runs out, the Snappers let him go! Although he never wins the big one, he is league MVP again in 2012 for the Pet Detectives, before winding down his career with the Las Vegas Riverboat Gamblers.

Interesting sidenote: the three main career offensive players [McKnight (QB), Newman (RB), and Foster (WR)] have a total of zero championships between them.

DT Lincoln Walker becomes the first inductee to the NNFL Hall of Fame. Walker made a lot of money in his 12 year NNFL career, playing for the Athens Olympians, Scranton Surge, Saginaw Lumberjacks, Madison Bumblebees, Louisville Derby and Des Moines Raccoons. He won 1 Bowl ring in 2015 his final season, and sole year with the Raccoons, but by this time was a back-up. Walker was All-Pro 2006 & 2007 (both with the Surge) and made the Pro-Bowl three times (2006-8), the final time in his first year with Saginaw.

2021
QB Les Brown joins Walker in Canton, after a 14 year career split between the Boise Falcons and the Austin 3:16s. Brown won one NNFL Bowl and Bowl MVP in 2007, was League MVP in 2008, making the Pro Bowl in 2008 & 2010, all with the Falcons.

2021 Off-Season

We offer Greensboro Gates OC Duane Karpel our HC position, and he accepts a drop in salary for the opportunity to be the top guy. He is joined by Monty Aidoo as OC, who had been out of the NNFL for a few years, and Nathan Holmes at DC, his first pro coaching opportunity.

All are offered 5-year deals, publicly to show that we are aiming for continuity, but privately because the contracts we offered are very low and we want to keep them that way! At 69 years old, Aidoo in particular is perhaps unlikely to see out his deal.

We also sign another golden oldie as Head Scout: Earl Lassiter has never been a Head Scout, but we again give a five year deal to the 67 year old.

The effect of these changes? Coaching and scouting costs in 2020: $28.12m. Projected costs in 2021: $7.6m! The overall losses last year were $37m plus the stadium costs: this has immediately accounted for $20.5m of that – not bad for three weeks in charge.

That leaves us about $70-75m dollars to spend on the playing side this year: (we’ll assume ticket prices will remain the same). The cap figure is $147.7m, so I’m aiming to spend around half that – not good.

I have no desire to pay a franchise level contract, but we do have Herb Turlington, a 6th year 65/65 UFA tackle selected 1.16 in 2016. I decide to tag and trade… and get Lincoln Imps’ 1.31 pick this year.

We also trade 45/47 centre Troy Hartrick to the Hartford Hookers, but can only get a 6th round pick: he’s a decent player, but in the final year of his contract – we can get better for the $2m+ salary Troy is slated to earn.

So after trading these two guys, the remaining players under contract (or those who will be retained) are as follows:



We look to have some decent defensive starters, but I don’t like anybody on the offensive side of the ball – a whole new team is required, but without spending any money.

Free Agency

Given we have no money to spare, free agency is spent scouring for bargains: where there is a popular guy available in our range, we take him, but the overriding factor at this stage turns out to be cost. As such we fill our roster with decidedly average players – but they are better than the previous year’s team and are also more popular.

Free Agents of Note (Projected New Starters):

Draft:

We pick up a couple of excellent looking prospects, and our D Line in particular looks to be very strong: I continue the trend of selecting a D lineman with our early pick, and we have now players picked 3rd, 6th and 7th overall in the last three years as projected starters.



We also pick up 10 undrafted rookie free agents, and given our financial restrictions, a few are likely to make the roster.

I’m on a roll: I like the players I have been able to get for our budget, and I like our draft class. But I encounter a major problem that our financial situation will create: I want to offer the minimum bonuses to rookies right now, while their agents want the highest. As a result we only sign 7 of 9, and Paul Sanders and Ben Bauer will not be at camp.

Post Camp

Two of the undrafted rookies look promising, with gains of 7 in potential, and despite not being in camp, top pick Paul Sanders has risen by 1/2.

However… all of the other eight draftees do not look as promising as I thought (although our OC is a fantastic coach, he does have more of an effect on verterans’ skills than rookies – let’s hope there are a number of temporary setbacks only). Could be a tough year. And to add to the post camp blues, we sell… 25,200 season tickets – the Pensacola fans are not impressed by my roster moves.

We do have a couple of trade offers, but both are for players that have progressed, so I ignore them. And to cheer me up, both Bauer and Sanders sign the same offers I made before camp immediately afterwards, and we are set for the year.

Mid Season Report

We sit bottom of the AC South at 2-6, but we’re not totally horrible – only one of our games has been decided by more than 7 points, and three of our losses have come to late 4th quarter scores.

QB Bob Scanga, WR Donnie Flad and CB Blaine Singleton look to be on course for decent seasons, while DE Brian Long is causing a lot of mistakes up front without necessarily getting the statistics to prove it.

7th overall pick DT Paul Sanders has had a solid, if unspectacular 1st half of the season, but while a couple of other rookies have been OK, none have made a major impact.

In order to try and minimise costs, we haven’t IR’d any of our major injuries: we’ve lost starters Billy Joe Ballard (WR), Darnell Everett (C), Ray Cowsette (RT) and Ernest Dixon (WLB) to season ending injuries, while a number of guys have been in and (more often) out.

Looks like our financial side is going to be tough: I predict we’ll make around a $15m loss in addition to the stadium payments – I can’t see where we can realistically save more cash, so we need to increase revenue quickly.