[revrew]

Do the math. In order for me to...shall we say, drive safely?...I needed to net profit $50 mil a year for three years with the Rebels. With only a 39% stake in the team, that meant I needed the team to bring in $128 million a year in gross profits. With my bank account where it was, I had a whole $25 million in reserves, just in case the team didn't hit the jackpot. With all apologies to the middle-class fans in Birmingham, seeing a Rebel game was about to get a whole lot more expensive.

With the ticket prices skyrocketing and our coaches locked into contracts, I felt I could afford to sign all-star 6-year veteran F.A. DT Van Lydon, who had held out for huge money but couldn't find a taker. After the draft, we negotiated a reasonable long-term contract that started with a cheap first year to squeeze him under the cap. Lydon looked like the kind of superstar that can anchor a team to championships. And to my great relief, the positive PR with his signing helped us to sell out our season tickets, even with the elevated prices.

Rnd 1 - Damon Pierce, WR, Virginia
Rnd 2 - Herb Ruoff, C, West Virginia
Rnd 3 - Carl Sherman, WR, Bethune Cookman
Rnd 4 - Ernest Gardner, TE, Oregon
Rnd 5 - Jamal Holmes, WR, Washington State
Rnd 6 - Dwayne Wilkerson, T, Tennessee - Martin
Rnd 7 - Matt Hruby, DT, Texas Tech

To my surprise, following training camp that year, all three of our rookie wideouts not only made the team but looked to be contributors. With a beefed up defense and an infusion of young talent into the offense, did veteran stars Spencer Knowles and Marco Turtschin have enough in the tank to fuel us to the Bowl? (And, considering the financial mess I had made...enough to secure home field advantage?)

As the season rolled on, the value of our big free agent acquisition became abundantly clear. We had built a solid, veteran linebacker corps in MLB C.J. Atkins, superstar SLB Darryl Smith, and WLB Bart Houston; but the 'backers had struggled for years to play at the top of their game with an inconsistent line in front of them. DT Van Lydon gave us not only the consistency that our linebackers needed, but the presence to free our defensive ends. Through the first half of the season, our defense was destroying its opponents by destroying the run and terrorizing quarterbacks. With all the pressure up front, our DBs were all enjoying career years in interceptions.

But the defense wasn't the whole story. Going into our bye at 10-0, QB Marco Turtschin led the league in QB rating, and while Knowles handn't really hit big runs like he had in the past, he was unstoppable at the goalline (leading NFL in touchdowns).

By the time we hit 12-0, the Rebel defense was being compared to the '85 Bears. Our opponents were averaging a mere 9.9 points per game, and we were #1 against pass, #1 against run, #1 on 3rd down, and #1 in takeaways. Van Lydon was more than an addition to this defense, he was a multiplication.

At 12-0, however, we lost Knowles to a 3-week injury, and the schedule did not favor finishing undefeated. Our arch-nemesis, Tampa Bay (for now that Davis was gone, the heat over the Pats and the 'Skins had faded) handed us our first loss, taking us to 13-1, and forcing us to wait to wrap up home field. The following week, a 31-6 win over Cincinatti, powered by reserve RB Wendell Osborne and a breakout WR Ethan Hoffman (a fifth-year, 7th round pick who earned the starter's role) wrapped up our home field.

We finished the season 15-1 (only furthering our hatred for TBay) and secured home field. In 12 games starting, QB Marco Turtschin had been a model of precision, completing 66% of his passes, with 21 TDs and only 1 INT. He led the league in QB rating, with a personal best, 107.1. Our future QB, sophomore Casey Derlange completed 65% of his passes, with 5 TDs against 1 pick, for a 92 QB rating. The passing attack set an NFL record for only surrendering 2 INTS the entire year. The defense set a record for fewest rushing yards surrendered, but a couple of high scores at the end of the year lost us the all-time anti-scoring crown.

We upped our prices, won homefield, and were the hands-down favorite to win the Bowl. But with both of our starting guards out for the playoffs, injured in our last two games, could we finally win a SuperBowl in the post-Davis era? Could we celebrate the year our former owner's death by dancing the SuperBowl Shuffle on his grave? And could the team make enough revenue to keep me alive long enough to dance, too?