Earnest Ashley retires from football
Quarterback Earnest "Coinflip" Ashley today announced his retirement from football. The 34-year old played 11 seasons for the Maassluis Merchantmen in the IHOF. Within the franchise, Ashley ranks 4th all-time in passing yards and 8th in passing touchdowns.
A 2nd round pick for the Merchantmen in 2094, Ashley immediately became the starting quarterback for the Merchantmen. Starting all 16 regular season games, posting an 8-8 record as a starter, he threw for 4,009 yards and 25 touchdowns, but also 27 interceptions. And that where the hopeful signs started and kept the Merchantmen management hoping he could one day become a division winning quarterback.
In the next three seasons, Ashley guided the Merchantmen to 8-8, 7-9 and 10-6, keeping the hope alive. But even the acquisition of high profile wide receivers Vinny Buysse and Calvin Maxwell proved to be insufficient to improve Ashley's passing game. His tendency to complete 50 percent of his passes gave him the dubious nicknames "Mr 50-50" and "Coinflip" amongst skeptic Merchantmen fans.
Ashley remained the starting quarterback through the 2102 season, but unable to guide his team to a winning record, let alone the playoffs, the call for change kept coming back. The Merchantmen tried to trade up to acquire Terrence Levingston (the Toronto Lake Monsters won the bidding war) in the 2099 draft and in 2101 lost out on Angel Henson's services (the Tucker Tigers won the free agency bidding war).
In the 2103 off-season the Merchantmen traded for Winfred England and after his retirement, the 2104 off-season saw the acquisition of Evan Drake. After one and a half season on the bench, Ashley started demanding a trade. The Merchantmen tried, but failed in the 2104 off-season and when Ashley's demand came, the trade deadline had already passed.
Ashley retires after 144 games for the Merchantmen, all regular season games, with a 59-81-1 record as a starter. By virtue of his participation, he ranks 4th all-time with 34,171 passing yards and 8th with 197 passing touchdowns. Or to quote another IHOF general manager* "Top 12 QB? Hell no. His production, or lack there of speaks for itself. His career QB rating is in the low 70s. That's not top 12. Sorry, not sorry."
* source: IHOF Forums - View Single Post - 2104 Regular Season Week 7 Complete
Special thanks to Juggernaut for this spot on summary. I hope you don't mind that I repost it here. 