Curt

Ladies and Gentledudes, as I find time passing, it is getting difficult for my aging mind to remember where I've posted comments to and learned things from many of the great forums I read. I enjoy how others play the game like many of you do. I find I have my own tweaks to the game others may not have and yet find inspiration and influence from others as well, including the NFL . Perhaps someone may like or even benefit from something like this. Apologies for length and repeats from other topics. In quoting REO Speedwagon's drummer Alan Gratzer about his drum set, "This setup is mine, uniquely, exclusively mine. Go get your own." I will share some of the differences that I feel make my solitaire [emphasis on solo :)] league unique. I would like to hear your uniqueness and specialties too, please. 🙂 My league has the Houston Oilers and the current 32 NFL teams for a total of 33 teams in both home and away jerseys. I started in alphabetical order making 11 divisions of 3 teams each. Each team plays their division teams twice, once at home and once away. The 4 game season then reorganizes them from 1 to 33 based on win-loss record, then total points scored, then total points allowed. Only twice in 17 seasons so far have teams tied in all 3 categories and the previous season records were used to break the tie for a final division placement. A game takes 3 to 3 1/2 hours to complete. Playing 3 games within a 2 week period allows me to complete a season within a calendar year. I have a 12 team tiered playoff structure where the best of the 2nd place teams as my wildcard team plays my 11th place division winner and its winner meets the 4th place division winner. The 9th and 10th division winners vie for meeting the 3rd place division winner and I think you can guess the rest. After the first game, the bases are shuffled for the 5th and 6th division winners game. Each game after that, all the bases are shuffled for each game through Superbowl. Onward to my weirdness! First would be the actual setup. I apologize for not being able to provide pictures as technology and I do not get along. Taking in a homeless person gladly caused my wife and I to consolidate our "offices" into 1 room. My ultimate sized board is nestled up in the window between my desk and her printer shelf unit with just enough space to stand on either end of the small table it is on for passing and kicking. It is too small for my ultimate sized board to really fit on it but the problem is solved. I kept the box to my superbowl sized game board, using the open lid as a protection against footballs flying into the windowsill or getting lost on the floor. The open box my ultimate board came in was too flimsy for needed support. So I took my superbowl board and its box and put them inside the shipping box for the ultimate board. I now have the support and strength I need to play after taping the shipping box shut because the ultimate board fits nicely right on top of it. I took the cardboard insert that came with the ultimate board and hung it in my window to use as a deflector from wild kicks and passes just as I did the same with the lid for the superbowl game. The last weird setup feature is using an ironing board for deflecting passes and kicks at either end of the field. I use "deflection as much as possible because crawling under tables and searching desks and shelves for wild footballs is tiresome and time consuming. So I guess we're on to the next part which would be rules and actual play. Part 2 is rules. A coin toss of heads has the home team receiving the kickoff whereas tails has the visiting team getting the ball, no exceptions. The receiving team is set up like it is in the NFL from midfield. The kicking team lines up at the 30 yard line. An on-side kick must travel a provable10 yards and as many players may be turned to try and recover it unless it hits a receiving team member who can then run until tackled, out of bounds, or scores. I do not count or round up half yards. I use 3 and 7/8 inch twist ties folded in half twice and then bent into a boomerang/arrowhead shape. Balanced from the top of the triple threat quarterbacks, they are very accurate and fly very far. If a football on a kickoff, punt, field goal, or free-kick split the uprights, it's a 3 point field goal. Field goals are allowed from anywhere, any time. I've made field goals from the far 20 yard line before. My record was 16 straight field goals during kickoff for Kansas City one game. The total points between them and Arizona was 84 points. Not a problem considering in real life the record for most points ever between 2 teams is 113 points (New York Giants vs. Washington Redskins, 1966). I use a stopwatch to time my games which does not run for kickoffs, free-kicks, punts, extra points, timeouts, penalties, incomplete passes, out-of-bounds. and change of possession. I allow as many field goal attempts as available downs. Let's say a team has a 4th down. They are only allowed 1 attempt at a field goal or punt and the clock does not run. But let's say they have a 1st and 10 at the opponent's 30. I have the pro-field-turf with the 20 yard lines bounded by red stripes. To get the first down, they have to break the plane of the white stripe of the 20, not the red. The 20 and a half would not work either as I do not round half-yards up to the next yard. But let's say they make the first down at the 19 and then call a field goal attempt. The clock stops and 4 field goal attempts are allowed for each down. If the ball bounces back and hits a defender even if the field goal is good [3 points still awarded], the ball is given to the defense where the defender runs until tackled, out of bounds or scores. The same is true if the field goal is missed. If missed, and no one is hit on a bounce back, the defense takes over where the ball stopped. If good and no one is hit on a bounce back, the scoring team can kickoff or let the defense take over where the ball stopped. So to further clarify, let's say the offense calls a first down field goal. The clock stops. Say 1st, 2nd, and 3rd field goal attempts all miss without hitting anyone. A field goal is made on 4th down, no one is hit, the offense can allow play to start where the ball bounces back on the field or can elect to kick off to their opponent. [As many extra field goals as they make count]. When the defense finally gets the ball, the clock will start on the defending team's first play. Timing applies to scores and their respective kickoffs / free kicks etc. That allows a team to be a little more conservative with their timeouts. Bases may be tweaked with each timeout. Overtime, starting with the same kind of coin toss as the game start is 15 minutes with a two-minute warning clock stop. Each team has 3 timeouts. Each team gets one drive, the highest score winning. If no winning score, then the rest of the 15 minute period is played out. If still tied at the end, then a tie is recorded for that game. Playoff games and Superbowl must continue until a winner is determined. I think that covers timing rules. Rules for first downs also apply to touchdowns as well. NO DAVE once shared an EFL rule link that I refer to sometimes which agrees with the NFL about touchdowns. Both say if the ball reaches the goal line, the score is granted. I require the plane of the end zone be broken for touchdowns and safeties. Case in point. My Panthers were close to scoring at the Steeler 15, drew a 15 yard penalty against the defense [no half the distance to the goal line if a penalty fits the space] and so Carolina had a first down at the goal line. It took 2 downs to score, oh well. I believe I can move on again. Part 3 is actual play details. If a kickoff, free kick or punt splits the uprights, it is a field goal, however if it goes out the opponent's end zone or stops in it without hitting a player, it is a touchback but any hit player may return the ball until tackled [any touch from any direction by an opponent player], out of bounds [breaking the white sideline's plane] or score's [breaking the plane of their opponent's end zone]. Progress may be stopped at any point in time to avoid yardage loss. I have enough rookie bases to load 3 full games and try to get them to run as straight as possible for as long as possible. [After the 1st game, those bases are shuffled and loaded for game 4 . They all then are shuffled after each round of regular season games]. Half yards do not count. If a ball goes out of bounds, play starts as close to the shortest possible provable yard marker. Let's say it goes out of bounds around the 10 or 11 yard line. Play starts at the 10 and a first down would be at the white stripe of the 20. If the ball hits the reflector and bounces back onto the field without hitting anyone, where the ball stops is where play starts. Two decks of poker cards determine offensive plays and are shuffled for each drive: Aces through 7's are running plays. Black and red 8's are 5 yard penalties against the defense and offense. 9's through queens are passing plays. Black and red kings are respectively 10 yard penalties, one each of the black and red jokers are 15 yard penalties against the defense and offense. The others are a 5 yard penalty with automatic first down in favor of the offense and a turnover to the defense at the line of scrimmage. The last 2 cards designed to keep a deck in play are automatic touchdowns for offense or defense. Offensive formations start at the line of scrimmage. If an offensive player is behind yet touching his ball carrier then it may allow for an automatic lateral if it would benefit the offense. Laterals behind an offensive ball carrier with no one touching him would be played like any regular pass. I have 6 defensive formations determined by the roll of a dice. Defensive formations start 1 yard out from the line of scrimmage. Special teams defensive formations follow standard NFL setup after that. If an offensive ball carrier is tackled or stopped with any part of him [ex the head or hand instead of the base] still breaking the plane of his own end zone, it is a safety so he must clearly and fully get out of his end zone to avoid a safety. If it cannot clearly be proven that a ball carrier is tackled, it is considered a "broken tackle" and he may continue. Sometimes momentum causes a ball carrier to advance a hair further when the game is shut off, even if tackled and I count those as those rare "special effort" yardage gains. The first player hit by a pass is a ball carrier. If a ball hits an offensive player then bounces into a defensive player, it is still an offense's ball. If the defensive player is hit first, it is a turnover. My special rare exception is for passes to the near side of the field. I have to turn my quarterback around to where the ball is being thrown toward my waist due to my physical game setup. Any hit player is the ball carrier. If the field is hit within 10 yards of any player, as many players may be turned to try and recover it. The plane of the first eligible [not a lineman for example] player broken is the ball carrier. So let's say an offensive and defensive player on the near side of the field are touching. If the plane of the offense player is broken first, it is a catch and he is down where tackled. If not touching, he can advance until stopped or the same applies to a defensive player if his was the first plane broken. Hopefully that is clear enough. I think that covers everything and if you thought me weird before, then that has probably increased. 🙂 As solo implies, it's my game, my rules, my weirdness. My nephew sometimes joins me but he follows everything the way I have it set up which is very kind of him. Apologies if I wasted anyone's time but I hope you enjoyed this as much as I know I will enjoy hearing your playing stories. Blessings, Curt

Hey Andre, if I'm too late, sorry. Both arguments are good but between the two, I am partial to Nick Foles, just me. On the other semi-unrelated hand maybe a whole new entry for good vs. bad things about real players needs a start but that would not be about ELECTRIC football would it? 🙂 Just FYI, when I was 9, my dad took me to see my favorite San Francisco 49ers play Buffalo for my first ever professional football game. Pardon the pun but Buffalo ran all over my "niners" that day. 😞

And pop it does, WAY KEWL!

Just perusing the forum entries again. Wow, No Dave! I love how crisp and clean your teams look...Beautiful, just beautiful. I apologize that I am severely technology challenged and cannot provide pictures. Many of my 33 teams, both home and away uniforms were ordered as pre-painted figures and many were hand painted. The glossy enamels from Testors work well for me. It makes them look almost as bright as your teams. I just want to brag a little bit on one team I have. I use regular shiny silver on all my teams that require it except for my Oakland Raiders. On a whim to see what it would look like against the shiny gloss black, I used the chrome for a little bit of extra shine and that hooked me. I wish you could see them. They are awesome, almost as awesome as your pics. 🙂

I love all the comments about tackling and timing. I may be too late for these items but I thought I'd share mine anyway since they are seemingly quite different. That's why it's called Solitaire. The focus is on solo, that is with your own specifications etc. My nephew joins me at times but for me, I like to quote REO Speedwagon's drummer Alan Gratzer from a Modern Drummer magazine advertisement when he described his drum kit. "This setup is mine, uniquely, exclusively mine. Go get your own". So, I guess I truly go "solo" with my own Electric Football solitaire league. When possible, I try to match NFL rules and adjust things as needed for my league. I try to make progress difficult for the offense in that I allow tackles as any touch by a defender from any side of the ball carrier. A stopwatch times the games. It does not run for kickoffs, punts, field-goals, extra point conversions, any changes of possession, free-kicks, timeouts and anything else I may have forgotten to mention. If a player makes a catch or a ball carrier is stopped anywhere in the field of play, i.e. not a turnover or not out of bounds etc., the clock keeps running. A game lasts around 3 to 3 1/2 hours start to finish but I try to play a quarter per day. Any player hit by a direct pass [offense or defense] is now the ball carrier. If the ball hits the field more that 10 yards from any player it is incomplete but any ball within 10 yards of any player in the field of play allows as many players to be turned to it. The first player to the ball [offense or defense] is now the ball carrier and can continue to run until tackled, out of bounds, or scores. A ball carrier can stop progress any time to avoid yardage loss etc. If a player is knocked over on a pass [or when stopped], the furthest positive reach of the ball carrier is the spot of the ball for the next play. Ex., if his head or hand exceeds his base by even a yard then that point is the next ball spot. Hopefully that is clear enough. Even my footballs are unique. I'm not wild about the felt ones. 3 and 7/8 inch twist ties are folded in half twice and bent into a boomerang/arrowhead shape. Balanced on the very top of the Triple Threat Quarterbacks, they are deadly accurate and cover the whole length of the field, including my Ultimate sized field so I allow field goal attempts from any point on the field at any time. I've made some real difficult ones too! Well, I think that covers some of the unique intricacies of my league. Hope this was not a waste of anyone's time. Blessings!

Good Afternoon, I read lots of good things through these forums and enjoy the stories but I'd like to know more of your background stories. What influences your love of football? What influences your love and involvement with electric football? My dad just loved football. [I'm guessing because grandpa did. My grandpa was a drum major at Ohio State which is where dad went] When we lived in Atlanta in 1970, dad took my brother to see his favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings play the Falcons. When we moved to upstate New York in 1972, he took me to see my favorite San Francisco 49ers play the Buffalo Bills, way kewl. 🙂 We had a tradition so to speak where after church, we would stop by the cider mill for fresh cider and cake donuts. Then when we got home, we put a fire in the fireplace and watched football on TV. Shortly after having moved to New York, my dad transferred to Dallas where his boss had season tickets to the Cowboy games and sometimes let our family use them. My favorite game, probably of all time, was Thanksgiving 1973 (?). He, his boss, my brother, and I were absolutely freezing in spite of jackets, blankets, and hot cocoa but once the Cowboys started to rally against Washington and the game got real exciting all the way through to a victory for the Cowboys, the cold just disappeared. Yeah baby, I was there! Ok, I think that covers real football. Now let's talk about Electric Football. 🙂 In Atlanta, a friend of mine had an electric football set with Detroit and Miami which I enjoyed playing. My dad got my brother and me a set when we moved to New York. We ordered a few teams, painting them ourselves and started our own "league" with the Vikings, Falcons, Lions, 49ers, Steelers, Raiders, Broncos, and Eagles. My brother eventually started to drift away from it but I always enjoyed it. In time, the boards got bigger and I gradually added more teams until I had reached 24 teams in 2000. My brother visited in 2004 from Seattle. He got so excited that I had so many teams, he ordered me 8 white sets to paint and finish out the current NFL league teams. My nephew and his mother moved in next to my wife and me in 2003. Also in 2004, he showed me how adding the Houston Oilers to make a total of 33 teams would solve a few scheduling issues I wanted to clean up. By the time everything was painted and set up in 2005, my current solitaire league was in action. My nephew and I play together when we can. We set it up to remove as much control as possible so his favorite Seattle Seahawks don't always win and shotgun offenses don't always get met with blitz defenses etc. I think you get the idea. It is meant to make it seem like the teams really do play each other. COVID-19 delayed our schedule a little bit but we look forward to catching up asap. I hope you enjoyed this and that I didn't ramble on too long. I look forward to hearing more tales of your influences. Have a blessed day.

Sorry for the long delay. I've had 17 seasons with the following Superbowl winners: 1. Atlanta Falcons 2. San Francisco 49ers 3. Washington Redskins 4. New York Giants 5. New Orleans Saints 6. San Francisco 49ers 7. Oakland Raiders 8. New Orleans Saints 9. New York Giants 10. Arizona Cardinals 11. Detroit Lions 12. Chicago Bears 13. Kansas City Chiefs 14. Green Bay Packers 15. New Orleans Saints 16. Chicago Bears 17. Philadelphia Eagles Having started in 2005 with this setup and sometimes my nephew, who happens to live next door and joins me whenever possible with whatever game is being played at the time, we are now in the first round of season 18 [thanks to COVID-19 delays] although we should be near the playoffs in season 19 but we'll "catch up" eventually. The Buffalo Bills are the only team waiting to get their first division win but if not this season, it will be soon, I hope.

Good Afternoon and nefgm is right, Not sure if you are done building your league. Because building it is so much fun, I suggest building it out as quickly as possible if you are not done yet, but, what is important is how many teams in all are wanted and what time schedule for a season is desired. Some teams I have are pre-painted and some are hand painted but I have all the current NFL teams plus the Houston Oilers. The glossy enamel paints from Testors have done well for me. When my league consisted of the current 32 NFL teams, they were arranged in their respective real-life divisions, each team playing their division teams once. The difficulties with that was determining who would host who and how to keep a season close to a personal goal of taking only a calendar year to complete. For each division of 4 teams, a total of 6 games were played. I had a 12 team tiered playoff arrangement where the top 4 division winners earned a "bye" and the 4 best of the 2nd place teams played the remaining 4 division winners to meet those top 4, giving an 11 game playoff total. With 8 divisions times 6 regular season games and 11 playoff games, the 59 total games in all required me to play a game a week with a couple of extra games squeezed in to complete my season within a calendar year. Then came my nephew who showed me an incredible adjustment I've adopted which now is do-able in a calendar year and evens things out for hosting games. His suggestion was to add the Houston Oilers for a total of 33 teams. The first season listed all those teams in alphabetical order, filling 11 divisions of 3 teams who played each other once at home and once away so the number of home and away games were equal. That made for a total of 66 regular home games. Using a 12 team tiered playoff structure where my wildcard team, the best of the second place teams, meeting the 11th place division winner then meeting the 4th place division winner, and, the 9th and 10th division winners fighting to meet the 3rd place division winner etc. etc. etc. makes for a season total of 77 games. I give similar details in a post to "New to Forums" but this is how it works schedule-wise. There are 52 weeks in a year which also means there are 26 two-week periods in a calendar year. If you take those 26 periods times 3 games per each 2 week period, you get a total of 78 opportunities to complete 77 games. Using a stopwatch for game timing allows playing a quarter per day [or other stops if needed] to get those 3 games done in the 2 weeks. Start New Year's week and Superbowl will then give you a very Merry Christmas!!! But then the ultimate choice is yours. How many teams do you want? How do you want to organize them? What kind of schedule do you wish to follow? Hopefully this has not been confusing but helpful. Blessings, Curt

You are welcome and just fyi on game control, I failed to mention while I use cards for offense, I have 6 defensive formations determined by the roll of a dice, sorry.

Hope I'm not too late. The links No Dave gave you pretty much are what I have. I use a stopwatch to time my games including timeouts and two-minute-warnings. Go with the Ultimate board and you will find it is named correctly! Knowing it will take you time to build a league you may like to know that I have 33 teams, the current NFL teams and the Houston Oilers from days past, both in Home and Away jerseys. My first season began with the teams in alphabetical order. They are divided into 11 divisions of 3 teams. Each team plays their division teams twice, once at home and once away. They are then ranked 1-33 for the next season first by win-loss record, if tied, then by total points scored. If they are still tied, then the ranking continues to total points allowed. Only twice in 17 seasons have 2 teams tied in all three categories and I used the same criteria found in their previous season etc. to break that tie. The regular 4 game season is followed by a tiered 12 team playoff structure with the top 4 division winners earning a "bye" where the wildcard or best of the 2nd place teams visits the 11th place division winner. The winner of that game visits the 4th place division winner. The 9th and 10th place division winners meet for that winner to visit the 3rd place division winner and I think you can figure out the rest of the playoff structure from there. A whole season for me takes about a calendar year to complete. I try to remove as much control out of the game as possible, but I'll get to that in a second. One season, my Philadelphia Eagles, San Diego Chargers, and Tennessee Titans ended up in the same division and at the end of that season, ended up in a higher ranked but still the same division! Philadelphia won division both times too, kewl! Here's how I try to remove control from the game. I use 2 decks of poker cards, both of which have a red and black joker plus an extra card that is designed to "keep the deck in play" if a card gets lost or damaged for a total of what I call 6 specialty cards. Aces through 7's are designated running plays. Black 8's are 5 yard penalties against the defense. Red 8's are 5 yard penalties against the offense. 9's through Queens are pass plays. Red and Black Kings are 10 yard penalties against the offense and defense. The remaining 6 cards involve 15 yard penalties against the offense and defense, a 5 yard penalty with automatic first down in favor of the offense, turnover to the defense at line of scrimmage and automatic touchdowns for either the offense or the defense. I shuffle them for each possession during the game. I try to eliminate control over the bases too. I have enough bases to "load" 3 full games. I try to get them all to run as far and straight as possible. I load the 1st 3 games. After the first game, I shuffle their bases then load game number 4 etc. through each game until "round 1" is complete. I then shuffle all the bases and load the 1st 3 games of round 2 and do likewise for all 4 rounds of the regular season. I then load the 1st 3 games of the playoffs and treat the game between the 5th and 6th place division winners like game 4 of a regular round. I then shuffle all the bases through each of the remaining games of the playoffs through its Superbowl. While I do try to leave bases "untouched", I allow bases to be tweaked with each timeout if needed. While this works perfectly for me, You have to discover what works best for you. Hope this helps. Welcome and enjoy! Curt.

Hello all, I have a few thoughts on solitaire leagues. My nephew and I, since we live next to each other. play a lot for ourselves. To curb possible "iffy influences" here is how we take "personal control" out of the game as much as possible. Using 2 decks of cards, the Aces through Sevens are the mutually agreed upon running plays we have. The black Eights are 5 yard penalties that are against the defense and the red Eights are 5 yard penalties against the offense. The Nine through Queen cards are mutually agreed upon pass plays we have developed. Kings are, depending on black or red for defense or offense, are 10 yard penalties . The jokers have been labled as specialty cards. We have 15 yard penalties against the defense and offense, turnover to the defending team at the line of scrimmage, turnover for touchdown by the defending team, 5 yard penalty with automatic first down in favor of the offense, and automatic touchdown for the offense. We shuffle the cards for each change of possession and start of the first and third quarters. We have 6 defensive plays which are determined by the roll of a dice. We have home and away uniforms for 33 teams. This includes the Houston Oilers. It makes for 11 divisions of 3 teams. We started way back in 2005, first listing the teams in alphabetical order. Each team plays their division teams twice, once at home and once away. We have a 12 team playoff tier where all 11 division winners plus the best of the second place division team [ranked from 1 to 12] meet and the top 4 division winners earn a bye as they narrow things down to our Superbowl winner. Example, the 12th placed wildcard meets the 11th place division winner and that winner then meets the 4th ranked division winner. 9 and ten's winner meets the 3rd place division winner and I'm guessing you can figure out the rest of the playoff picture. A whole season takes about a calendar year to complete but we love it. The teams are ranked 1 to 33 by win-loss record, if tied, the offensive point scores, and if still tied, the defensive points allowed [just like our playoffs]. Just once 2 teams have tied in all 3 so I then reviewed previous season results to determine where those teams ended up in what division for the following season. Still we have quite a few teams that have not played each other but it is real interesting to see how teams and seasons develop with as little "intervention" as possible. While this works beautifully for us, you have to develop what works best for you. Hope you enjoyed this brief post. Blessings of health and happiness to you all