Curt

You are most welcome anytime. I too appreciate how inclusive and supportive the whole EF family is. EF Rocks! Blessings to all. Curt. 🙂

Part 2: Hey again Bob and thank you once more for your patience. I'm glad to see you are deciding on 24 teams. Even numbers of teams are easier to work with and supposedly you are looking to have 2 conferences of 12 teams each which include a quartet of 3 team divisions? I like the idea [and use it myself with 33 teams] of 3 team divisions. [My playoffs consist of the 11 division winners and the best of my second-place teams as a wildcard]. Playoff structure for you would be determined by how long your season is etc. but here are a few options to consider depending on how long the playoffs are to last too. [For this, you would have the 4 division winners and the 4 second place teams as your top 8 teams]: Option 1 - Take the top 8 teams, ranked 1st to 8th and whittle them down to a conference champion to meet the other conference champion in a Superbowl. Option 2 - Taking the top 8 teams: Have your 8th place [last of the 2nd place teams] visit your 4th place [last of the division winner teams]. Then have your 7th place team visit your 3rd place division winner. 6 visits 2 and 5 visits 1st place and those all pare each other down to the 2 ultimate conference championship teams for your Superbowl. Option 3 - Should you prefer a shorter playoff structure, try this for each conference: The 2nd best 2nd place team visits the 4th place division winner. The winner of that game visits the 2nd place division winner. The best of the 2nd place teams visits the 3rd place division winner. That winner visits the 1st place division winner which gives the top 2 teams a bye. And of course, teams are weeded out until conference champions meet in their Superbowl. I hope as I always ask, that this makes sense [and was helpful]. My thought processes quickly speed off on tangents and logic has to be forced back into submission but I'm still a walking, talking, electric football loving and playing miracle. Gotta love life. It is never boring. Hope I didn't waste anyone's time. Blessings, Curt. 🙂

Part 1 - Hey Bob, 4 divisions in 2 conferences [totaling 8 divisions] sparks a couple of ideas. It is going to take me a little while to put those thoughts together in a logical, readable order [because of my mental quirks caused from 3 strokes back in 2016], but I'm excited about getting those out to you. It's too late for me to construct those tonight but if a little patience pays off, I hope you will like the result when I can post Part 2. Blessings, Curt 🙂

My late and semi-different way of handling returns for kickoffs etc. in my solitaire league. I use TTQB's on all kicks, punts etc. Any player hit may run until tackled, out of bounds, or scores. KICKOFFS: Kicking team lines up at the 30-yard line. Receiving team has five across their 50 [2 on each of the numbers, 2 on each hash mark, and 1 in the middle] giving a personally preferred 20 yard gap between teams. Four players creating a diamond shape from 1 player in the middle on the 35-yard line, 2 players on the numbers of the 30-yard line, and a 4th in the middle on the 20. The remaining 2 are placed on the hashmarks at the goal line. Onside kicks have to travel 10 yards and as many as needed players may be pivoted to race to the ball where it stops. Any kick not hitting a player that goes out of bounds is awarded to the receiving team where it went out. Any kick not hitting a player but stopping in the field of play is awarded to the receiving team where the ball stopped [excepted with onside kicks of course]. All touchbacks, including balls that fly out the back of the end zone are awarded to the receiving team at the 20-yard line. Free kicks following safeties have all players adjusted back 10 yards. Punts and field goals are set up like the NFL for the kicking team and the defending or receiving team is set up with spread out versions of my 6 defensive formations as determined by the roll of a dice. The ability for any player to run a ball back is determined with the same criteria. In terms of "concussions" only this could be suggested as there are only enough players to fill 11 positions on either side of the ball in my league but if there were more and players could be switched out, if a player got knocked over then it would be considered an injury timeout and he would have to be swapped out for at least 1 play with another teammate. Does this all make sense? As I don't have a lot of opportunity for actual returns, there probably is not a lot of help in this post. Apologies for wasting anyone's time but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents worth in anyway. Happy Valentine's Day and Blessings to all, Curt 🙂

Well, Hallelujah Ladies and Gentle-dudes, Statistics never fail to surprise. In 19+ seasons, never had a 0-0 tie game before but my highest scoring tie at 23-23 was between my Indianapolis Colts and my Tampa Bay Buccaneers. My highest scoring game ever was when my Denver Broncos beat my Pittsburgh Steelers 60-59. Never heard of a 2-0 game but my Houston Texans just beat my New Orleans Saints 3-0 for my lowest scoring game ever. Any coaches have any particularly interesting final scores you would like to share about? Blessings, Curt 🙂

Loved this, thanks for sharing. 🙂

Well, that's it! The wife overrules! Ouch!

Sorry, I play any touch tackle and if there is a discrepancy about the call, the decision goes to whatever would benefit the home team the most for a bit of home field advantage. Not sure if this helps or not. Blessings, Curt 🙂

Ha, I finally found him at last in a post named Tracy...will get these taken care of asap...!!! Blessings, Curt

Ha, I found you at last...!!! I've been searching for you for a long while now! Yes, I have a pair which I do not use. If you already have a pair and would like to have some spares or you still need them, please use the envelope button at the top right-hand corner of the screen to send me a private e-mail with your address and I will mail them to you asap, free of charge. Way kewl and blessings, Coach Curt

It really boils down to the rules you are using for setting formations and the restrictions you are placing on player I follow Coach Shawn's suggestion for homefield advantage and allow an extra pivot to a TE to get off the line of scrimmage and get open faster. Hope that makes sense. Blessings, Curt

the weekend of February the 17th and 18th. The Deep South MFL is going to be having their league Playoffs and Championship Weekend in Cartersville, GA. Cartersville is approximately 30 miles north of Atlanta off of I-75. I plan on going provided the weather is good and I am not in the middle of having eye surgery for cataracts (sucks getting old). If available, it would be fun but it is doubtful making it would even be possible. Having never competed, how does that work exactly? I believe there is a 3-gram weight limit per player. Do teams have to be from the NFL or any particular league? Are coaches assigned slots in a playoff pyramid? or are there games to play to earn playoff slots. Please pardon my ignorance in this area. If it ever did become possible and not willing to break up my NFL collection, would my Texas Thunderducks even qualify as long as they met all competition requirements? Just FYI, I used to live in Dunwoody [Atlanta suburb] back when Jimmy Carter still served Georgia. It is understandable about getting old sucking [eggs]. Diminishing eyesight has now limited me to 3 stripes per team as 5 stripes are no longer possible. Playing itself is getting harder but is still possible though. 🙂 Should it be possible to do a road trip when it is time to finally quit, a visit out to see you with a museum donation would be awesome. I wish you the best of everything such as health, safe travels, and joy. Blessings, Curt

I agree with "Welcome back Greg F. Your daughter is adorable." for sure. Just a thought on being behind on a schedule. I have been playing a quarter a day which gives me 3 games in a 2 week period. Sometimes playing 2 or 3 quarters in a day really helped too in catching me up to begin season 20 just a couple of weeks late this year. Christmas should see season 20 complete on time though. Good luck. Blessings to all. 🙂 Curt

Awesome narrative!! More than welcome to help you with getting them posted. Will be glad to help you with anymore that you would like to post. ...Just flat out amazing! Most appreciated but it would involve the same process starting with Dione taking pics then e-mailing them to Chris etc. Unless somehow I can get pictures/PDF's to download to my Desktop. My flip-phone and computer don't like me. 🙂 These pictures hopefully covered all the subjects I posted comments on in the past. If something comes up that would warrant following this same procedure, then it will be done. This is sort of like trying to do long division with Roman numerals. It's not that it can't be done but rather just the wrong way to do it. 🙂 Blessings, Curt

Good Evening Ladies and Gentle dudes! And thank you Chris for helping get out what I hope ya'll enjoy are way long overdue pics. Apologies for any repetition but I had this narrative prepared: Ladies and Gentle-dudes, It's been awhile since posting but being sick these past weeks has caused huge delays in many things like settling the house from our summer move [a huge and complete horror story] and catching up season 19. Well, season 19 is now finally over. My Detroiy Lions whooped my Houston Oilers 30-0. Close games are great but blowouts have their own appeal too. Now it is finally time to start season 20. New space for my Ultimate sized game has afforded me much joy so season 20 should be a hoot. 🙂 However, here's something I thought ya'll might like. You may know technology does not treat me well. With help from my wife taking pictures which are long overdue, I thought ya'll might enjoy these. Foe those who are familiar with previous posts, here are my 33 teams. The back section has the Arizona Cardinals through the Kansas City Chiefs, which also includes the Houston Oilers. The middle section has the retro Los Angeles Rams through the Washington Redskins. [I like the Commanders name but the Indian head helmet decal is just way too cool to paint over. Also, my wife's family heritage is full blooded Cherokee so the name and logo stay]. Apologies to any whose feathers that may have been ruffled. Now then, the front row which include painting difficulties and possible solutions. These show the helmet logos and stripes that are due "honorable" mention. Hopefully, all the logos and stripes are clear enough. First are the Baltimore Ravens. The pre-painted home jerseys have a very faint yet perfectly detailed raven on the helmet. It's the away jersey team I want to mention. for whatever reason, instead of matching raven decals, they came with a gold triangle sticker that looked like anything but a raven. Nested dots matching the raven emblem colors was the plan. It took large gold dots to cover the stickers but that gold dot looked kind of classy against the black helmet so that is where it stopped, no other colors were needed. On to Dallas. Cowboy blue jerseyed players came with blue star helmet stickers which look sharp. White jersey players were hand painted. Although bigger than the stickers, a straight line leaving room for stripes but starting near the top of the helmet comes down to the middle of the helmet. Small diagonal lines fron the bottom of the vertical line: up away to the left, and down away to the left, up away to the right, and down away to the right complete the star. It suffices for me. There seemed to be no mention of difficult helmet logos in previous posts but there were plenty about stripes. Those who need 7 stripes are too difficult. Those with 5 stripes are hard. San Francicso's red-white-red-white-red socks might be visible but if not, Denver's retro orange-blue-white-blue-orange hopefully are. On to more painting difficulties. Retro New England Patriot helmets started with 2/3 of a blue triangle starting at the bottom left corner coming up to the middle while allowing room for stripes then going down to the bottom right corner of the helmet. Three red dots are placed in the middle connection and the end of each line. This is as close to a crouching patriot as possible. It works for me. 🙂 Next are difficult paint colors such as Miami or Jacksonville so those were ordered. Retro Tampa Bay colors were easier. Testor Enamels using 5 drops of bright yellow mixed with 1 drop of bright orange to create a satisfactory creamsicle color works. Tennessee Titans have nested dots with a small tail to come as close as possible to their helmet logos but that is good enough. Last, there was talk of a mailing league or something like that. Not wanting to send away any of the NFL teams, a fantasy team has been created. A local Dallas college has a green and yellow team called the Thunderducks. That is so awesome a name. While San Francisco and Detroit are my 2 favorite NFL teams, I like the black and silver combination so that is how they were painted, home and away with small accents of red. Now older, eyesight is getting a little less accurate. 7 stripes were never possible. 5 stripes are now too fifficult. 3 stripes are hard but still possible making their uniforms a little simpler than desired. But, The Texas Thunderducks will be ready to play if joining some kind of fantasy league becomes possible. I hope these pictures were clear enough and that you enjoyed them. Sorry they were so late but without my wife, they would still be non-existent. Apologies for the long post too. Blessings, Curt First pic - Including in alphabetical order, all 33 professional NFL teams [with the Houston Oilers] and my Texas Thunderducks. Second pic -All teams from the other side of the Ultimate gameboard. And you see the Samsonite briefcase everything fits in. Third pic- All the painting difficulties I was able to address that I shared comments on plus my Texas Thunderducks. Last pic - A few examples of helmet logos that were difficult but do-able and the results in creating the creamsicle bucs. BLESSINGS TO ALL -Have a rocking year with your EF leagues. Thanks again Chris. 🙂

Good Morning, Wishing you and those you love a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. 🙂 Blessings. Curt

Apologies for being technology challenged and unable to provide pics. I really need to replace my flip phone with one that I can learn how to do that stuff with. As for twist tie footballs, I take 3 and 7/8 to 4 inch twist ties, fold them in half twice and bend them to make an arrowhead/boomerang like shape. They balance well at the top of the Triple Threat Quarterbacks and can fly the whole length of my Ultimate board and beyond. That with being very accurate, I allow field goals from anywhere on the board and I have made dome doozies. 🙂 It's all a part of "my game, my rules, my weirdness" but it works very well for me. Good luck with finding your best solution. Blessings, Curt

Ladies and Gentle-dudes, here's a wild shot in the dark such as throwing a message in a bottle into a stormy ocean and hoping it will come back. I do not remember who was looking for this but if memory serves, I believe I had seen a post where someone was looking for a pair of goal posts, the old kind that had a plastic point inserted through a hole in the board and then locked into place underneath it by a plastic washer. I just found a pair exactly like this while still trying to settle the house from our recent move. If I'm correct and that person still needs them, please let me know by using the messages selection to send me an e-mail. I'll be happy to cover the cost as shipping is not going to be much and I already have a box to send them in so it will be considered a small gift for Christmas. How does that sound? I hope they find who was looking for them. Blessings, Curt

Although an arthritic finger ended my music career, I find I still am able to use TTQB's and my homemade footballs from twist ties. They are very accurate. If a pass lands between players, they turn and race to the ball. So for me the only way remains with passes that are actually thrown but the concept of dice determining a receiver sounds intriguing for when things start becoming more difficult. When really old age finally gets the best of my playing ability, I honestly hope to be able to give all my EF resources to nefgm.org because I do not have someone that I can turn it over to that would enjoy it nearly as much. But that is a future hope which may still have to wait awhile. At least dreaming is free, right? 🙂 Blessings, Curt

Way Kewl...! And Happy Thanksgiving from the south! 🙂

You guys are most welcome but all of you coaches have been such a great influence on me. EF is a wonderful community and today I find myself very grateful, giving thanks for being included in this particularly awesome family. I so look forward to future games and forums. Blessings, Curt

Hoping this is relevant. In 1971, my dad was transferred from Rochester New York to Atlanta, Georgia where I was first introduced to EF by a friend. I just loved it and was hoping one day to get my own game set. Just after the school year 1973 completed, we moved back to upstate New York. My dad got me my own game set in late June for my birthday, but my obnoxious brother just had to have his teams and constantly bugged dad [ a lifelong habit it would turn out to be, the bugger - pun intended] for dad to paint him his favorite Vikings and Falcons. Patience finally won out in CHRISTMAS of 1973 when dad ordered and then painted my favorite 49ers and Lions. So, technically I started playing EF on my own set 50 years ago on "my" set on my 10th birthday but Christmas always has fond memories of what was the beginning of my adding teams and building my own solitaire league without my brother, nyah, nyah, nyah,nyah nyah. 🙂 My brother started losing interest in EF and throughout life found other ways to endlessly bug our parents for things he wanted which was great for me. It gave me my own private world to escape to. Boards and numbers of teams slowly grew and ashamedly I have to admit I was extremely selfish with my hobby. I didn't like playing with anyone for a long time, so it wasn't until much later that I learned to share. My oldest foster girl liked playing with me and until she finally beat me for the first time, EF was quite enjoyable. My nephew and his mother moved in next to my wife and me in 2005 and he graciously liked to play too but he wanted to play with me by the regulations I set up, which helped me learn to share even more. My brother visited in 2005 at which point my league had grown to 24 teams. He ordered me enough teams to fully outfit the whole active NFL which was kewl but then his mind started reeling. "Bro, you gotta get all the teams in all their past, present, and whacky Thursday home and away colors." My immediate thought was: So, once again, you are only thinking what you deem best and not what I care to do with my hobby. I use everything I got, and I don't need a bunch of extra pieces that may not get used. This is my league and while I appreciate the enthusiasm, I'll run my league the way I run my league so butt out bro." Then I calmed down and politely refused his idea. so, to him I just smile and say once more nyah, nyah, nyah,nyah nyah. 🙂 Thanks to my nephew's suggestion, I added home and away Houston Oilers for a total of 33 complete NFL teams. My schedule is set to start New Years' week and complete the season on Christmas week. Every game is a Christmas celebration for me, especially today as Covid delayed my schedule. I've been pushing a very aggressive schedule to complete season 19 on time this Christmas. I'm just a few more games away from Superbowl 19 and get more and more excited as it nears and my season 20 should be able to start 2024 as planned. Every Christmas brings fabulous memories and excitement but this one to be, will be extra special as I should finally be caught up on my EF schedule. So, with that, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. Blessings, Curt

Good luck and Best wishes from the Dallas Texas area.

Way Kewl sir. Thank you for sharing this. Let me quote you: You will be surprised how kids of all ages including teens will be fascinated by the game when you demonstrate how to play. So set aside some time to teach.......the best sports game in the world. Now, let me see if I can give an appropriate response. You are absolutely right about boundless age constraints on the love of the game. It reminds me of the time my oldest foster girl beat me for the first time when she was only 7 years old. 😞 The 2 younger girls didn't seem to be as interested in it. Since her godmother broke all ties with Texas and moved her out of state, I have no way of knowing if she enjoys it still or if it was a joy the two of us shared while we were together. A friend from church had a son who fell in love with EF the first time he came to visit. I'm not hip on this generation's slang terms but he called his friend and told him "You would not believe this game. It is totally Beast dude." I take that to mean totally awesome, especially since he ended up getting his own board later on. 🙂 So, I can vouch for a 7-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy getting hooked on our most awesome hobby. As a thank you to Terry43, quoting his "Enjoy the journey" salutation on his posts, I can only hope they are enjoying and pursuing their own EF journeys. Blessings, Curt

Really good information, thanks much...! I plan on working with these when Season 19 is complete, and Season 20 begins. 🙂