Player Rosters

[Bob Davis]

Hi all,

I use player rosters from the 1978 era give or take a couple years either way. There are a few exceptions of course. For instance, I have Lawrence Taylor (1981) playing with the Giants, and Mike Rozier (1985) playing for the Oilers. I use that era because 1978 was the first year I started my electric football league. For the most part, I try to keep the players with the teams that they played for in the real world. Again, there are notable exceptions. For instance, there was a blockbuster trade a couple seasons ago between the Giants and the Oilers that brought Earl Campbell to the Giants. And Doug Williams was drafted by the LA Rams in Season 9 since I didn't have the Tampa Bay Bucs at that time. Also, John Jefferson was drafted by the Baltimore Colts many seasons ago. 

So, what rules or guidelines if any do you use to determine player rosters? 

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Bob Davis

[NO Dave]

My NFL Fab 5 teams are coming from the 70's to the 90's, and I use players I remember watching and use Pro Football Reference to fill in gaps. 

When I was a kid, I would do one "big" trade per year. A few of those included the Saints trading for Billy Sims instead of Earl Campbell (early 80's) and Bobby Hebert going to the Phoenix Cardinals instead of the Atlanta Falcons. 

As far as my Big Man League, that will include player drafts. 

 

[Bob Davis]

Yes! I too use the Pro Football Reference! However, my main source is a pro football guide that I bought umpteen years ago, probably in 1978. I don't know the title of it, because the cover came off. It has a brief narrative for each team about their 1978 season, a one or two sentence description of each game that season, full roster, draft picks, and schedule for the upcoming season. It's a great old school reference guide.

[nefgm.org]

Yep, Pro Football Reference but, for the most part, I stick strictly to historical rosters such as the '66 Packers or '67 Raiders, etc. Occasionally I will do all-time great player rosters. I prefer to stick to the pre-merger teams ('66-'69) since that is when I was growing up and my first game set was the AFL with the Jets and Chiefs.  

[Ravenna Al]

My old NFL teams were made using TV guide rosters and watching a few minutes of the game so I could get the skin tones and the players positions correct - left guard vs right guard or left corner back vs right corner back etc. Unfortunately, sometimes the starting player was injured and I wasn’t familiar enough with the team to know it. That’s how I got Neil  O’Donnell for the Titans QB instead of Steve McNair. It took me a year to realize the mistake and correct it though it really didn’t matter much, They still lost to the Rams anyways.

[RickLM30]

When I first started playing with just 5 teams, I tried to use current rosters based on Pro Football Weekly, but as my league expanded and my seasons took longer, that was not possible.  Now with 16 teams of 54 active players and 10 taxi squad players for each, I have gone to all star players for each team.  I try to pick the best players who were actually on each team between 1960 and 2000, and in some cases just my favorite players on those teams. as well.  I use Pro Football Reference to help me determine who should start, make the active roster, or be relegated to the taxi squad.  I don't make trades between teams, because I like the players where they are.  I keep career stats on each player, many who have been in all seven of my seasons over 57 years of playing EF