Season Awards
The League MVP came out not as strange as last season, but still a bit odd. Congratulations go to Ronnie Newhart, defensive end for the Philadelphia Privateers. Newhart is a rookie, the #4 pick in the 1922 draft, and was only barely beat by Darryl Briceland for the lead in sacks this year, with Newhart putting up 17.5. It was a great year, yet eclipsed in every number by Briceland himself, including wins. Newhart played for the 4-12 Privateers, while Briceland brought the Eruption to the Conference Finals before getting injured. However, Newhart is idolized (literally, 100 popularity) in passionate Philadelphia, so that must have swayed the vote.
Newhart wrapped up defensive rookie of the year as well, and deservedly so. Briceland contents himself with Defensive Player of the Year for his outing, and he certainly deserves it. The second year player upped his numbers considerably this year to lead the league with 19.5 sacks.
Offensive Player of the Year went to division-mate Martin Guzowski of the Denver Mountaineers. Guzowski is a second time winner of this honor, winning both offensive player of the year and offensive rookie of the year in his first season. This year, he put up 1240 yards rushing on an improved 4.41 average, while adding 531 yards through the air. Certainly a deserving winner here.
Offensive Rookie of the Year this year goes to Sherman Sprout, the rookie running back for the Cincinnati Eagles. He's not well known even in Cincinnati, but his 930 yards rushing and 407 catching as a rookie drew the league's attention.
Coach of the Year goes to the head coach of the Detroit Wheels, Brian Bullock. He brought his team to a 12-4 season, but a loss in the divisional round.
Most amusing award? It's always Legend of the Game, where the game attempts to figure out which player in a brand new league deserves this honor after retiring three years into their career. This year the winner was Ken Walden! Why is this amusing? Well, because I'm Ken Walden. And becaue Ken Walden was the running back I created as the lone player in the player file, when I started this league. The rest were generated randomly, using his birth year, and Walden has soldiered on as a decent running back for the San Antonio Defenders ever since. Ending his career with 2,346 rushing yards, he'll always be remembered. His name at least.
The All-League teams go as expected. The only Tornado to get attention is rookie offensive guard Kim Covington who gets picked for the second team. It's a nice recognition for the man who is clearly our most talented player.
Team Performance
I don't need a scoresheet to tell me this year didn't go well. After last year's division win, and reaching the conference finals, our coach winning coach of the year ... well, I expected even more improvement this year. What we got was a lot worse than that.
Down from an overall 76 last season, at least our franchise value creeped up. However, everything else is in the tubes, even profit which I thought would be good this year. Looking over the stats, we did make more revenue this year, but spent a lot more on salaries and particularly bonuses. Now, keep in mind, we never even came close to the salary cap. But last year, every player in the league was asking for peanuts, so naturally it's going up.
Good news, though, is that we led the league in attendance this year, with 62,300 per game. Hopefully they won't all desert us after that season.