Memories of Season 1

[Andrew-Neutral]

One for the old-timers! What are people's abiding memories of the first season of the FWL? For Paris, I remember being delt a pretty poor hand in the expansion draft and having a lame-duck QB called Steve Matthews. "Real" teams were given players from the actual NFLE teams at the time, so Jon Kitna went to Barca, TJ Rubley to Rhein, etc. Being a Fantasy team, I got a load of "has-beens" and "never-wases". My starting HB was Todd McNair, who was pretty good, however. I traded away my first round pick for QB TJ Rubley. The backup QB was "Dan McGuire" who became the starter soon after! Rubley was always getting sacked and throwing interceptions. In Paris's second game, Lin Eliot kicked five field goals out of seven, but we lost 15-20 to NY. The offense stunk!

I also remember making my very own Musketeers Homepage (the first dedicated homepage for a FWL team!) - it had a picture of the Eiffel tower on the homepage, which you could click to get game results and the roster.

[Mario ADK]

Man, i just can´t remember much. i know that i begged somebody to switch teams in order to get the DarkKnights (Paul: Who invented this team anyway??? Was that you???) and i think i even entered the scene after the initial draft and i thought i had a pretty good roster but started with a dreadful 0-3.

oh boy i just found out that the trades of season#1 are not here, instead you get the file with the trades of season#10!

Nevertheless, here is Pauls input: "GM Mario Kreiner took advantage of a weak GM in Amsterdam and pilfered the team for many star players. Kreiner made some outstanding trades and it appeared that Austria would be a power in the future."

All i can say to that is:
Marc Lillibridge best LB in the history of the league. Bought for a bread and an egg.

[Niki]

Nevertheless, here is Pauls input: "GM Mario Kreiner took advantage of a weak GM in Amsterdam and pilfered the team for many star players. Kreiner made some outstanding trades and it appeared that Austria would be a power in the future."

All i can say to that is:
Marc Lillibridge best LB in the history of the league. Bought for a bread and an egg.

grrr

But I must admit that the GM that was in control at that time of Amsterdam made some funny trades, many players had been traded away for almost nothing and most players that were traded became very good FWL players

[Andrew-Neutral]

Man, i just can´t remember much. i know that i begged somebody to switch teams in order to get the DarkKnights (Paul: Who invented this team anyway??? Was that you???) and i think i even entered the scene after the initial draft and i thought i had a pretty good roster but started with a dreadful 0-3.

We didn't have a draft before the first season, we were just given a roster full of players.

I remember the Dark Knights first win! Paris had beaten Ireland in week 3 to record their first win, and went into the ADK game looking to move to 2-2. Of course, things went badly wrong and ADK won 50-8. The game was so weird, it even confused the official stats - Paris fumbled into their own end zone, the ball rolled over the end line for a safety - but the safety never got recorded in the official stats. I think Austria got about nine blocked punts and returned four others for TDs, but my memory could be wrong on that.

[Andrew-Neutral]

Nevertheless, here is Pauls input: "GM Mario Kreiner took advantage of a weak GM in Amsterdam and pilfered the team for many star players. Kreiner made some outstanding trades and it appeared that Austria would be a power in the future."

All i can say to that is:
Marc Lillibridge best LB in the history of the league. Bought for a bread and an egg.

grrr

But I must admit that the GM that was in control at that time of Amsterdam made some funny trades, many players had been traded away for almost nothing and most players that were traded became very good FWL players

At the start of the FWL their were lots of "blockbuster" trades. It wasn't just Amsterdam trading with Austria. The usual trick was for a GM to offer four backups for your starter. Of course, being inexperienced, we always accepted! I remember Mario always seemed to offer a trade for a player who'd just had a stinker of a game, like your QB throws three ints, then Mario popped up offering a twenty-ninth round draft pick for him. You'd be so cheesed off with the QB that you'd accept. Never again! I've learnt to be wary of Mario's offers. Beware of Austrians bearing draft picks!!

[Niki]

I know it was not only Amsterdam that did bad trades but I am still surprise that the best WR of Amsterdam, best Oliner and HB JJ Smith, top admirals defender LB Wilmot had been traded away within one year for decent players. I think the same happend with other teams. I think most new GM's want to rebuilt the whole team and looking what happend with Austria at one point that star players were traded within a year and that the GM also left after that year.

[Mario ADK]

 
Oh Andrew, my lawyers are out for you!!! You uncovered my secret! things will never be the same 
 

[Mario ADK]

It is sooooooo hard nowadays to make quality-trades. If you take over a crap-team like i had for my return it is almost impossible to build up a good team. The old days are gone and Austria will never become an unbeatable force like it once was.
But we will be good gain and i guarantee a playoff-spot in season # 13!!!

[jcompton-Orlando]

I remember missing the Week 1 free agency period, which in all seriousness might have made the difference between winning and losing a playoff game in those first few seasons because I missed out on some excellent players for free--but I got into the league very quickly because later that season I was actually checking results from a cybercafe in London where I was on vacation. I remember not being able to build a running game to save my life, rotating through Tony Vinson, Eric Ball, and the waterboy trying to find an answer.

[Paul-London]

I actually started off with Raleigh-Durham ! I had no rushing attack, however i started 3 different QB's that year, my NFL ex favourite QB Todd Marinovich failed, in the final week i started Chuck Clements.  Only FWL action ever but in his one start he played well

I had DT Anthony Butts and Aundray Bruce and that was about it !

I remember Ohio had a great offense but then Babe Laufenberg was injured but backup Pat O'Hara became the top QB that year and was excellent

Marco made the best trade ever for Stoney Case.  I remember London started a few QB's that year !

Mario shocked us all in the offseason that year by trading for unknown Josh LaRocca ! Yet again another classic move

Dont pester him at all (!) but the former Admirals GM Levi Ramsey is a regular on the Claymores message board.  I dont think he knows who i am there as i've spoken to him a few times.  Some of his trades were truely shocking !!!

[Mario ADK]

LEVI RAMSEY!!!
THE CO-FOUNDER OF MY ADK-DYNASTY!
Still love him. We have a shrine here in the ADK-Stadium right next to the Kreiner-Monument.

crazy trades indeed
 

[Niki]

Dont pester him at all (!) but the former Admirals GM Levi Ramsey is a regular on the Claymores message board.  I dont think he knows who i am there as i've spoken to him a few times.  Some of his trades were truely shocking !!!

oh you mean trading away all the good players

[jcompton-Orlando]

I remember London started a few QB's that year !

Just two in games that counted, Stan White and Billy Joe Tolliver (panic-traded for him when White had one bad game. The guy would only go on to be a league MVP!) We had a good comeback from, I believe, 2-4. I may have started a backup (Spence Fischer? I know he was on one of the early squads) in Week 14 in a game that didn't matter. I'm fairly certain this season is the only year I've started three different quarterbacks in meaningful games.

[Paul-London]

Just looked at the history file, totally forgot Stan White was FWL MVP !

Remember his last ever FWL action ?  He started for Austria against London and had a miserable game and was injured and had to leave the game.

[jcompton-Orlando]

Yeah. White's Austrian tenure seriously hurt his all-time statistical standings, actually, he had some pretty crummy games for the dismantled Dark Knights. I feel bad about that but at least he was playing!

[Marco_Frankfurt]

Just one more unbelievable fact to the Amsterdam GM
He relased DL Lamar Mills during the season and I got him as FA ;-)

Other memories were of course my QB trade with BARC.
Bevor that I had Chad May, Steve Pelluer and Brad Bratz as QBs
2 of them I did cut before the season started. None of them did throw
a pass for my team ever.

By the way I liked the FA that were inserted in the list almost each week.
Mostly older players, but it was fun to hunt for them thru the list and then
try to name the best 3 each week to get them in the FA lottery.

I think most of my first season success came with FAs

[David-Montreal]

You remember that time we all got together and put on women's clothing and went down to the tavern.... errrr.... wait a second... wrong forum.  (jk) 

Sorry the rest of us don't have so many fond memories (my first year was in 2001).  I do have one funny story though. I took over the 0-12 Montreal Machine, and had 2 games to get a win.

My first move was to aquire QB Browning Nagle.  After going 0-2 and getting sacked twice for 25-yards, he was out the rest of the season.  Needless to say, I ended up losing 13-16 @ NY.  The following week was a heart-breaking 10-13 loss vs. OHI.

[Niki]

Just one more unbelievable fact to the Amsterdam GM
He relased DL Lamar Mills during the season and I got him as FA ;-)

I think the first GM in Amsterdam that was building up a team was Ton. I think I also made some mistakes in my first season with trades or releasing FA but I think I have everything under control now.

Ps: if we both win the coming two weeks and we both win wildcard playoffs game, I will play at home

[Niki]

from the FWL site about season 1:

Austria meanwhile looked good despite a losing record. GM Mario Kreiner took advantage of a weak GM in Amsterdam and pilfered the team for many star players. Kreiner made some outstanding trades and it appeared that Austria would be a power in the future. Amsterdam on the other hand shipped a ton of veterans off for hardly anything and limped to a miserable 1-13 record, the worst in the league.

[Paul-London]

I'm sure the first Amsterdam GM was the famous Levi Ramsey ?

Ton took over a few seasons later and did a good job getting near the .500 mark several times.