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Old 11-18-2019, 10:37 AM   #267
revrew
Team Chaplain
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Just outside Des Moines, IA
Thus, Jack Ledger accomplished the impossible: He built a team of players from a single state (and not Texas or Florida or California, mind you) and forged them into a SuperBowl champion.

What's more, Ledger introduced a new age of local fan loyalty to a National Football League that had lost its mojo to the NCAA. When Ledger took over the defunct and bankrupt Detroit Lions and moved them to Des Moines, the average NFL team could only boast a handful of local players at best. But record-setting attendance and merchandise sales – in Iowa, of all places – had persuaded many owners to begin considering local fan loyalty as a viable business model. Notable college heroes began to be drafted with more regularity to their hometown NFL teams. Contracts with local heroes that had once been cut short, disheartening the local fans, began to see extensions instead, as NFL general managers became less mercenary and more attuned to their fan bases. And as a result, ratings, ticket sales, and brand impression for the entire NFL were on the rise.

As for Ledger and the legendary Des Moines Dragons, they did not repeat their Super Bowl victory. Original Dragons like MLB Dale Griffin and TE Kelvin Satterfield saw their performances begin to wane with age. WR Robbie Thompson, while he had a fine career, never did recapture the lightning in the bottle performance he found in the 2032-33 season. QB Dakota Corriveau suffered a career-altering injury just a few seasons later. On the brighter side, DE Elias "Beast" Reese and SS Mitch Plante both finished Hall of Fame careers with the Dragons, and Des Moines won several playoff games with Coach McDaniels at the helm.

Eventually, Ledger sold the Dragons to a less eccentric ownership team, and 6 years after the SuperBowl victory, Des Moines drafted its first player in team history not to hail from Iowa. Appropriately, the draft pick turned into a complete bust and one of Des Moines' most notoriously bad draft selections. But the dam had been broken, and the Dragons' Iowa-only policy was no longer enforced.

To this day, however, the most popular, most viral, and most viewed social media post on Joker.com is Ledger's post-SuperBowl offering: The Joker, in full purple suit and wide grin, arms extended, laughing to the sky, as he walks arms outstretched and spinning through a lush, Iowa cornfield. And when the Joker stops to look at a single stalk of corn, he plucks off an ear, peels back the shuck, and instead of a corn cob, the object within is a Lombardi trophy. The scene ends with the Joker laughing, and the surrounding cornfield mirrored in the trophy's silver surface.
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Winner of 6 FOFC Scribe Awards, including 3 Gold Scribes
Founder of the ZFL, 2004 Golden Scribe Dynasty of the Year
Now bringing The Des Moines Dragons back to life, and the joke's on YOU, NFL!
I came to the Crossroad. I took it. And that has made all the difference.
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