A Little Further Explanation of an SFL game

Now remember I am taking this from my memories from over 20 years ago. SFL was kind of an early days mix of fantasy football & a board game on a larger scale. The original “field” we used was in the Anderson family’s basement in Estherville, IA. I believe it was an eight foot pool table in which we added paper stripes to emulate the lines on a football field. The goal posts we used from an NFL old style gumball helmet set (had hooks on it all around the uprights to display the helmets). Other materials you needed to play a game were paper of some sort, a large size paper clip, a die for each coach & several old style gumball helmets (the helmets were usually from the 70s/80s era). Our rosters were based on the helmets we had for our particular team. Below is some of the elements that made up the game:

· A game was comprised of 20 plays (10 for each half of play). Kickoffs & XP attempts did not count as part of the 10 play half.

· The game was 8 helmets per team on the field on offense (1 QB, 1-2 RB, 1-2 WR, 1 TE (if only using 1 RB or WR) & 3 OL. On defense, you also used 8 helmets (3 DL, 2 LBs (1 on each side), 2 CBs (one on each side of the field) & 1 safety (could be anywhere on field)

· Your offense options were run right (sweep), run left (counter), pass to left side of field (down & out), pass to right (bomb) & trick play (a version of a flea flicker).

· Defensively, your formation & what sort of defense you called was based on what your opponent was going to call (usually done on a piece of paper)

· Both sides kept their play call from opponent until right before play occurred.

· Each number on a die represented number of moves of 1 helmet length that could be executed. For instance, a roll of 3 on your die meant you could move a helmet three spaces.

· The QB could pitch the ball to a RB whenever you wished to. However, your QB could be sacked by a defender if you waited too long to pitch the ball.

· If you decided to pass the ball, you’d move your receiver out to wherever you wanted to throw the ball to. You’d call “pass” when you were ready to throw. If the roll by the offense was greater than the defense, pass was complete. If roll by defense was greater than offense, pass was incomplete. And finally, a roll of 1 by offense & roll of 6 by defense would result in a pass interception by the defender closest to that receiver.

· Same would apply to a fumble (if you were able to tackle ball carrier, you could choose to “strip” the ball instead of tackling the ball carrier). Fumble would occur if offense rolled a 1 & defense rolled a 6. However if defense attempted a strip & failed, ball carrier could advance the ball further.

· You could “kick” field goals or punt the ball based on where you were on the field (like real football) but there were a few occasions where someone attempted a FG of greater than 60 yards (nearly unheard of in the NFL). However, the goalpost measured less than 4 inches in width so a FG of any length was a risky call, so it wasn’t always done as much as in the football game we see today.