GroupThink Press Conference

sorry if I missed a ton of votes for Louisville, but as stated earlier in this challenge, deadlines will have to be made and have to be kept

We would like to announce the NFL has welcomed us aboard to take control of a new franchise in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We, like Tampa Bay, will bring our own flavor to the Black and Blue division.

Please take a moment and download the following file:Cheyenne you might have to right click and save as...

In it you will find that we are preparing for the expansion draft with the Richmond Pond Frogs. We hold the first pick in the expansion draft and the 2nd pick in the Amateur draft.

The league has appointed us with veteran scout Ronald Shepard and first time coach Charles Daniels. Shepard bring 5 playoff appearances and 1 bowl to the table. Overall they will both do nicely in our first season, though we can revisit the issue next year.

Over the next few days, we need to decide:

1. Our team name. Will we be known by Cheyenne? By Wyoming? By the Rocky Mountains? Something Else?

2. Ticket Prices. Our closest geographic competitor is the Denver Broncos. I am sure we will be hearing from raving fan, Marmel. We only have a city population of 80,000 and have a Outdoor/Natural Grass Stadium that seats 63,000, no club seats and 40 luxery boxes. Our fans are already crying for a new stadium, they'll have to wait at least 15 years just to see some improvements.

3. The Expansion Draft. There are a few serviceable players in the draft, we need to have the scouting dept: RPI-Fan and Daimyo, and the Coordinators, FishFan and Subby, and their coordinators submit and decide on a list to look for in the draft. We pick #1 in the expansion draft.

As a side note, there are only 2 pre 2001 year players in the league, Martin Gramatica and Wade Richey.

I would like to see some decisions by Thursday evening at 8pm Central. I figure the first year will probably move the slowest as we are getting our feet wet, if you feel you need more time, I can extend this deadline until Friday.

Thanks,
TRO-GM.

[duckman]

I just went through some Wyoming sites to check out it's history. I always like team names that have a historical reference to it. I went through these sites and found a good strong nickname for this new franchise.


The Cheyenne Plainsmen

The plainsmen were the Native Americans that romed the countryside.

I hope I could help.


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-Oh, You didn't know! Your ass better call somebody!

Other suggestions of the top of my head:

Cheyenne Sherrifs, given by Morgado(I think it was him )
Cheyenne Coyotes
Wyoming Mountaineers
Rocky Mountain Oysters

[Daimyo]

Cheyenne Tumbleweeds

[Ctown-Fan]

Cheyenne Bashful? Say it really slow.

I know that I'm not really involved, but could I make a suggestion? Perhaps the General Manager of the Cheyenne team might want to make a draft board site where pictures could be posted, adjusted and argued out. To help everyone be on the same draft page.

[This message has been edited by Ctown-Fan (edited 02-05-2001).]

[QuikSand]

Another thought... perhaps the team could be reframed as being from Wyoming, or even representing some nearby geographic or cultural landmark. That could expand us to a number of alternative team names...

[Subby]

Wyoming Wildfire

I am inclined to stay with cheaper players in the expansion draft and save cap room for FA.

[Daimyo]

I agree about using a geographical name... i don't really like than names cheyenne or wyoming. I like the Rocky Mountain idea. Any other names like that to consider?

[FishFan]

Ft. Laramie Fur Traders

[Kosta]

Rocky Mountain High (with a pic of John Denver as the logo)

Wyoming Wildfire isn't bad.

Cheyenne Bashful is cute to C-Town

I'm all for renaming the location, I mentioned that among my initial questions.

As for a draft board, I don't think I'll do that for the expansion draft, but might with the amateur draft.

If you want to look through the players simply start the expansion draft and look, just don't save afterwards or you'll have to reload

So, can you expand on "cheap" subby?

[Daimyo]

3. The Expansion Draft. There are a few serviceable players in the draft, we need to have the scouting dept: RPI-Fan and Daimyo, and the Coordinators, FishFan and Subby, and their coordinators submit and decide on a list to look for in the draft. We pick #1 in the expansion draft.

I just noticed this. I'll go through and look for any good second year players. Also could you post the universe as soon as the draft pool has been created so I can look through that and post some potential picks for dicussion.

[This message has been edited by Daimyo (edited 02-06-2001).]

[ColtCrazy]

I like Subby's Wyoming Wildfire. A state name seems like a better fit than Cheyenne.

[Subby]

Cheap: Not expensive.

I would be against taking anyone from the expansion draft that costs over a million per year. The early years of a franchise have but one purpose - to suck enough so that you can have good drafts while supplementing through free agency. The expansion draft can retard that plan if you take up too much cap space with mid-level guys who won't win anything for you anyway...

The only positions I want for my side of the ball from the expansion draft are Safeties and Corners with high INT rates and/or good return skills. If you can find a cheap LB, I'll plug him in the middle - but I would much rather go trolling in FA...

[Buccaneer]

Allow me to repeat what I wrote up in the other thread...

Let me tell you a little about Cheyenne since it's only 2 1/2 hours north of where I live. Cheyenne, Wyoming is truly a western city. It is the capital of Wyoming but it has no university for the Univ. of Wyoming is 45 min. west in Laramie. The geography is high plain with the relatively low Laramie Mountain range on its western skyline (it is NOT a mountain town anymore than Omaha is). Its weather is typical of high plains: hot and dusty in the summer with massive thunderheads, and cold, dry winters. Cheyenne was located along the historic Oregon Trail but it wasn't a stop since the famous Fort Laramie was but a short distance away. It did become a stop on the transcontinental Union Pacific since the route did go over the Continental Divide at the low South Pass in south central Wyoming. Nowadays, Cheyenne is famous for its rodeo, Western Days festival, a huge truck stop, and a typical clean, safe, conservative small western city.

I vote for Cheyenne Arapahoes

[FishFan]

I disagree with that philosophy, Subby. I had success in the WLC (with it's strict house rules) to reach the Super Bowl in my 2nd season. I took some more talented guys in the Expansion draft that may have cost a little more. Remember, we are not incurring any bonus money on any player selected in the Expansion draft, which means we can release them at anytime without taking big cap hits.

Usually, these guys still do not stick around that long, but it's nice to have some talent in place for a couple of years. If we draft well and select the right guys in free agency, we should have the same success.

My goal here is to win, baby. I don't want this frnachise to suffer through 3-4 years of mediocrity. I want instant gratification. Remember, we are all on one-year contracts with a very volatile, Daniel Snyder-like owner. I still want to be employed next season.

[Buccaneer]

To the Talent Coordinators: I'm going to take a look at the file tonight. What kind of input can I give? I can prepare a list of top 3 candidates per position. I'm kinda of leaning towards Fish; fun is being clever enough to be successful within the rules, not clever enough to be mediocre.

Here is some of the infomation I have found on Wyoming and Cheyeen, no offense to Buc

State Mammal: Bison
State Fish: Cutthroat Trout
State Reptile: Horned Toad

Other prominent animals:
Wild Stallions...hehe Bill and Ted
Elk
Bull Moose
Antelope
Weasels

Potential location names:
Cheyenne
Ft Laramie
Wyoming
Rocky Mountain
Beaver Pond
Oregon Trail
Yellostone

I'm continuing my search though

As for direction, what does our Owner expect from us in our first season? 1 win? 8 wins? That would help determine which philosophy is better, FishFans win now, or Subbys suck now-dominate later.

[Buccaneer]

Didn't QS say that FOF has a built-in net in that the first season will be mediocre no matter what? Perhaps if we were to build toward a playoff team in the 2nd season giving good 2-3 year contracts at the start?

Buc, that is related to FOF2, the safety net is removed in FOF2K1. Either way, it also only related to the very first season, not the first season of an expansion team in 2017. We can suck just fine, look at some of the WLC careers for proof

Subby is the expert though, he managed to suck for more that 10 years

[FishFan]

What's wrong with a win now, win tomorrow, and win forever philosophy? I would hope that we all would think this way, or we are set up to fail.

[FishFan]

Originally posted by TheRoyalOne:
Subby is the expert though, he managed to suck for more that 10 years

Should we be using this guy's philosophy then?

In ten years in the WLC, I have made the playoffs seven times. After missing the first year, I went every year except for a two-year span where we went 1-15 on the road and 15-1 at home. We were still very competitive those years, just did not have any luck on the road.

I'm all for going 160-0 through 10 years of football with 10 Super Bowl rings Fish and then calling it quits as I will have nothing more to prove but we're just talking hypothetical here

I believe we will probably take some talent in the expansion draft, even some moderately expensive talent, but we will have to weigh in salary as well.

[FishFan]

Yeah, I am not saying we should take a busted up, 23 mil QB with no ratings. But, I do not think we should take 25, minsal roster fillers, either.

[Subby]

Hey now. I won a Bowl and made the playoffs 3 times in my first ten WLC years. So suck it.

I just dont see the point of spending on mediocre talent in the expansion draft when we can save our money for FA and the draft.

But what do I know? I just coach the defense

Subby, just be on the look out for some cheap defensive talent in the expansion draft, we can't sign everyone through free agency in one year.

[Buccaneer]

I'm getting the feeling that it may have been an ambitious overkill to do a groupthink. I mean, FOF is designed so that 1 person can play. I think between TRO, Rip, Daimyo, Subby and Fish, they can easily handle all decisions. Input from the rest of us would just be redundant or superflous. I had said from the beginning that this is best handled by a 4-5 person team. Maybe if there are two 4-5 person teams, each can take an expansion team in 2017? I don't know, just mouthing off again...

[FishFan]

Please quit mouthing off, Buc!

Seriously, I plan on taking into account the opinions of anyone who want to offer them. Of course, I have the final say, but my decisions will be made with everyone's input in mind. I mean, one person can make all the decisions themselves, but the goal of this is to get many people involved in running one franchise.

The five of us that were assigned positions just take the fall if the franchise fails.

That wouldn't be a half bad idea, though if we had thought of it earlier we could have got two cities(I had one save with Louisville and Cheyenne as the expansion cities actually) and let the two teams go at it and use concurrent deadlines, that could have been fun.

Any further thoughts from anyone? Since we haven't started, do we want to form another team and then re do the files so that each of us can take an expansion team. I think the original vision was that the jobs could rotate and let more than the 4-5 that started participate. I'm more inclined to stay with that format for now and go to the competing franchises with TCY potentially when the universes can have the same players throughout.

Ya, FishFan his the nail with that one, we are the scapegoats, I'm the main one and I will make the least decisions I am mainly just the hub of the operation.

[FishFan]

I hate to disagree, TRO, but the Coordinators will be the first to go if the team's performance does not meet the expectations of our righteous owner.

That would be because I give you the axe because I feer for my job Fish I suspect if I lose my job, most of you will too

[Buccaneer]

If I interpret our illustruous owner, he had been against "roles". It appears that you guys are treating this more of a role-playing exercise instead of an intellectual challenge, as QS may have intended from the beginning.

Additionally, in reading those memos going back and forth, does small differences in ratings really make that much of a difference in FOF2001. For example, you talk about a CB with high INT rating. Will that CB give you high INTs? I have had CBs and Ss with lower INTs ratings that lead the team in INTs.

[Subby]

Buc - Its also possible to have a shitty LB rack up over a hundred solo tackles. The point of focusing on ratings is because the better a players ratings, the better chance a player has of succeeding in plays which involve the skill set in question.

As far as role playing is concerned - I have been guilty of that and I'll cut it out immediately - my whole intention is too make decisions with input from the group (see my defensive notebook). I have decided not to 'hire' any defensive assistants, but rather take input from whoever is interested in giving it at any particular time.

[This message has been edited by Subby (edited 02-06-2001).]

An excercise in group psychology or not, I believe that "roleplaying" is part of the fun of the challenge and will continue to do so, in fact it has been encouraged from the start with the submissions of "resumes" and "applications".

Either way, I beleive all of us plan on taking input from all willing to give it and participate.

[RPI-Fan]

First, TRO, I the file download doesn't work for me. It's an invalid archive when I try to unzip it. Could you please e-mail it to me at [email protected] ? Thanks.

Second, as Veteran Scouting Director, I feel a large part of the expansion draft falls on my shoulders. I'm tending to agree with FishFan, and believe that we should get players that will contribute to winning now.

Also, I'd like to build a core defense at first, with solid veteran players to play S, LB and DT, and then eventually see the Young Talent Coordinator plug in studs, especially at CB and DE. As for offense, if we're able to make a "home run swing" and sign a star RB or something early on in Free Agency, I'd be all for it, as long as we're commited to keeping him around. I'd like to have the same offensive strategy as defense--build a core of veterans on OL, FB and TE, and plug in studs, especially at QB, RB and/or WR.

Agreements, disagreements?

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Secant, Tangent, Cosin, Sin, 3.14159!

[Subby]

I would say dont make the mistake I did in the WLC and get a running back first in the draft or in FA - you'll get very good backs in the middle rounds of the draft - backs that wills erve us well for 3 years at a time.

As far as the defense is concerned, just remember that we are going to employ a 3-4 with nickel tendencies and a high volume of blitzing. So - I need LBs, run-stuffing linemen, and secondary guys with high interception rates...

[Buccaneer]

You have to download from IE instead of Netscape. IE has 'Save Target As', Netscape does not.

[ez]

... that is related to FOF2, the safety net is removed in FOF2K1.

before this grows longer legs than it apparently already has: there is no "safety net" in FOF...

I must have missed that experiment to ez, I was never able to suck in FOF2 in the first year and everything I read, especially from QSs challenged said safety net. my bad

[QuikSand]

I concur with ez on the "safety net." All my posts (I think) on that topic were located in the various "grassy knoll" threads, where idle gossip and innuendo are allowed...nay, encouraged.

I pretty much buy ez's "complex system" argument to explain the observed phenomena (first year teams with dreadful rosters still posting 3-4 wins) away.