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The Saddest NFL Draft of All Time

Posted on April 27, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

Like many of you, we spent the better part of our weekend glued to our TVs, watching the 2020 NFL Draft – all seven rounds, right down to Mr. Irrelevant. There were some amazing picks, some that left fans shaking their heads, but there’s one thing that they pretty much all had in common: tragic stories! At least, that’s what ESPN would have you believe with their draft coverage this year. They really committed to bumming their viewers out with calling out every personal tragedy and deceased family member in a pick’s life. We love hearing stories about athletes overcoming difficult circumstances and coming out as a better person… but we think ESPN took it too far. We’re starting to think they were hoping only those with the saddest backgrounds would get drafted.


Do the fans think ESPN when too far with their 2020 NFL Draft coverage? Yes.

What would the fans want us to focus on during the first-ever FCFL Draft? Probably anything other than personal tragedy. Here are some ideas for alternative topics to feature alongside their stats might not be the best, but we think the fans will agree that they are better than highlighting all the deaths one family has had to endure:

  • Are they a cat or a dog person?
  • Their biggest fear?
  • An embarrassing story about their childhood?
  • which character they pick in Super Smash Brothers?
  • Their favorite sports memory?
  • Which character from The Office they think is their soulmate?
  • Maybe even what they think about pineapple on pizza?

Let us know what else you’d like to know about your potential draft picks!

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Your 2020 NFL Draft Cheat Sheet

Posted on April 23, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

It’s finally here! We know that it has been rough to get through COVID-19 quarantine without any live sports, but hopefully the 2020 NFL Draft will hold you over until they’re back. We know watching Roger Goodell announce the picks from home isn’t ideal, but just know that if you’re booing him on your screens, chances are plenty of others are too 😏

When is all the action happening?

Thursday, April 23: Round 1 (8. p.m. ET)
Friday, April 24: Rounds 2-3 (7 p.m. ET)
Saturday, April 25: Rounds 4-7 (12 p.m. ET)

How can you watch?

Thursday: ABC, ESPN, NFL Network, and ESPN Deportes
Friday: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network, and ESPN Deportes
Saturday: ABC, ESPN, NFL Network, and ESPN Deportes

What positions does every team need the most, by draft order?

  1. Cincinnati Bengals: QB, LB, OL … and pretty much every other position
  2. Washington Redskins: OL, WR, CB
  3. Detroit Lions: CB, DE, OL
  4. New York Giants: T, Edge, CB
  5. Miami Dolphins: QB, OL, WR
  6. Los Angeles Chargers: QB, OL, LB
  7. Carolina Panthers: QB, OL, DT
  8. Arizona Cardinals: T, WR, S
  9. Jacksonville Jaguars: CB, LB, Edge
  10. Cleveland Browns: T, LB, DT
  11. New York Jets: WR, CB, Edge
  12. Las Vegas Raiders: CB, WR, QB
  13. San Francisco 49ers*: WR, DT, OL
  14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: OL, Edge, S
  15. Denver Broncos: CB, LB, WR
  16. Atlanta Falcons: DT, Edge, CB
  17. Dallas Cowboys: CB, S, OL
  18. Miami Dolphins^: QB, OL, WR
  19. Las Vegas Raiders**: CB, WR, QB
  20. Jacksonville Jaguars^^: CB, LB, Edge
  21. Philadelphia Eagles: DB, WR, S
  22. Minnesota Vikings*^: WR, OL, CB
  23. New England Patriots: QB, TE, S
  24. New Orleans Saints: LB, WR, QB
  25. Minnesota Vikings: WR, OL, CB
  26. Miami Dolphins**^: QB, OL, WR
  27. Seattle Seahawks: Edge, OL, TE
  28. Baltimore Ravens: WR, OL, LB
  29. Tennessee Titans: OL, CB, Edge
  30. Green Bay Packers: WR, LB, CB
  31. San Francisco 49ers: WR, DT, OL
  32. Kansas City Chiefs: OL, LB, DT

The below teams don’t have picks until the second-round

Buffalo Bills: OL, CB, Edge
Pittsburgh Steelers: DT, OL, QB
Los Angeles Rams: OL, Edge, LB
Indianapolis Colts: WR, QB, Edge
Chicago Bears: QB, CB, OL
Houston Texans: OL, CB, TE

*San Francisco 49ers received the 13th pick from Indianapolis
^Miami Dolphins received the 18th pick from Pittsburgh
**Las Vegas Raiders received the 19th pick from Chicago
^^Jacksonville Jaguars received the 20th pick from Los Angeles Rams
*^Minnesota Vikings received the 22nd pick from Buffalo Bills
**^Miami received the 26th pick from Houston Texans

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FAN Take: Draft Day

Posted on April 22, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

FAN Take is a series that highlights trending events, issues, and decisions in the world of sports and analyzes how they may or may not factor into the Fan Controlled Football League. We would love to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think about each FAN Take!

It’s NFL Draft Eve, normally one of our favorite times of the year, but things are clearly different this time around. There won’t be giant parties for the incoming rookies to celebrate, there won’t be crowds outside of every team’s stadium watching to see who they’re adding to their respective rosters, and there won’t be war rooms for every team to huddle up in and make their selections. But that’s okay, because at the end of the day, we’re going to see a bunch of talented players have their dreams come true. But no dreams will come true for Roger Goodell. His career-long dream of walking on stage without a large crowd booing him will have to wait another year at the very least, thanks to Bud Light.

Either way, we’re excited to see how teams use their picks to shape their 2020-21 season rosters, especially teams like the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Redskins, who practically need to rebuild their teams entirely to get back on track. We think this is something that our fans can resonate with, because they will be doing the same thing in our inaugural year – building their team from the ground up. We asked the fans to sound off on what position they would be gunning for with their first pick in the FCFL Draft, and it’s becoming pretty clear that our fans want to nail down the perfect quarterback before filling out the rest of the roster. But what about the next few picks? Are they going to move straight into snatching up all the best receivers? Or do they want to cycle through receivers, o-line and d-line? Maybe they want to take cues on what positions should come next from their respective offensive and defensive coordinators? Or even their Team Owners | Fan Captains? Let us know how you’d use your picks in the first-ever FCFL draft!

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Last Dance With MJ

Posted on April 20, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

ESPN did us all a huge favor by dropping The Last Dance two months early, with the first two episodes airing last night. The 10-part series chronicles Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls – the good, the bad, and the Dennis Rodman Vegas trip. Fans were pretty excited for its early release, treating the premiere as an entire event, even planning their outfits for themselves and family members to wear while posted up in front of their televisions. We won’t spoil the first two episodes for you, but we highly encourage you to check them out before the next two drop on Sunday.

What other dynasty team, iconic moment or unreal athlete would the fans want to see ESPN cover? The Office’s Michael Scott, maybe? We’re kidding – although the spoof trailer did have us contemplating binging the show for what feels like the 100th time. We’re sure they’d be into a deep dive on Walter Payton, Bill Russell, or Wayne Gretzky – all absolutely amazing in their respective sports. But we’re going to go out on a limb and say they want to know everything about the greatest season in the Indoor Football League – 2017. You know the one, where our proof of concept team, the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles came to life, paving the way for this league to launch 😏 That is – until we’ve completed our inaugural season, in which case there would definitely need to be a follow up.

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FAN Take: Like Taking Candy From a Baby

Posted on April 15, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

FAN Take is a series that highlights trending events, issues, and decisions in the world of sports and analyzes how they may or may not factor into the Fan Controlled Football League. We would love to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think about each FAN Take!

We know, you’ve probably moved past the nightmare that is the new Los Angeles Rams logo (unless you’re a Rams fan), so now we need to talk about the Indianapolis Colts. While they didn’t do an entire overhaul of their brand, they did release a new secondary logo that includes an outline of the state of Indiana. Sounds pretty cool, right? Cathedral High School sure thought so, considering they’ve been using a nearly-identical logo for four years.

The logo was designed by their previous football coach, Jere Kubuske after the school needed a new one…because they had been infringing upon Notre Dame’s famous Leprechaun logo. Before you say “Okay, like the Colts are going to know about some high school logo, get real” – like we did at first – there are a few reasons the team SHOULD have known. Aside from the Colts regularly being tagged in posts because of the school using their facilities – the Irish have played in five state championship games at Lucas Oil Stadium – the Colts even have some Cathedral High alumni on their roster.

We need you to sound off, fans. Do you think the Colts’ secondary mark is a direct rip-off of Cathedral High School’s? Do you think the Colts should move on to a new logo, or should they come to some kind of agreement with Coach Kubuske and the school? Should it be taken into consideration that plenty of high schools use logos similar to that of professional and collegiate teams? And more importantly, are you planning on doing your own due diligence when coming up with logo ideas for your FCFL team?

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Pour One Out for the XFL

TAMPA, FL - MARCH 1: Taylor Cornelius #4 of the Tampa Bay Vipers running against the DC Defenders during the XFL game at Raymond James Stadium on March 1, 2020 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Marc Serota/XFL via Getty Images)

Posted on April 13, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

It’s time to add the XFL to the list of things COVID-19 has ruined. On Friday, it was announced that the XFL had laid off all their employees, and have no plans for a return in 2021. We’re going to miss the mid-game sideline interviews, the interesting kickoff rules (even If we don’t love kicking), and live play reviews. We’re still holding out hope for the XFL to make another go of it. Their 2.0 version was fun – whether you were watching the action on the field, the sidelines, or in the stands. Who knows, maybe they don’t have plans for 2021 because they’re just waiting to see what the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and others are going to do with their seasons. After all, it seems like shifts in season dates for the next year, at the very least, are inevitable.

While we may have roasted the end of the AAF (just a little bit!), we are sad to hear about the end of the XFL. It’s one thing for a league to not do well because of its own shortcomings, but it’s entirely different when a global pandemic destroys its future and potential for success. That is why Darren Rovell’s tweet on Friday comparing the number of games played between the AAF and XFL stung more than it should have. Never fear, the DC Defenders were quick to stand up for the league as a whole, and fire back with some serious snark. Don’t get us wrong, we LOVE us some Darren Rovell, but we love snarky burns even more.

Do we think the fans are going to miss the XFL? Yes. How can you not miss giant beer snakes? We’re sure fans were more than willing to ‘pour one out’ for the league and make their own beer snakes at home. Do we think the fans want to see the XFL make another go of it, once we all have a clear view of the future? Absolutely! We firmly believe fans always need more football in their lives. But more importantly, do we think the fans are ready for the return of sports? DUH!

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FAN Take: Playing Together

Posted on April 8, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

FAN Take is a series that highlights trending events, issues, and decisions in the world of sports and analyzes how they may or may not factor into the Fan Controlled Football League. We would love to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think about each FAN Take!

Leave it to Nike to swoop in and hit people in the feels this morning with the release of their newest ad. With images of athletes – famous, not famous, young, and old – set to an orchestral arrangement you typically hear during a major turning point in a movie, we’re reminded that we’re not alone in this. There’s one powerful line of text that appears in the ad that we can’t get out of our heads: “We may not be playing together, but we’ll keep moving forward – all 7.8 billion of us.” If that doesn’t give you some kind of sense of hope or inspiration, we don’t know what will.

Tell us fans, how are you “playing at home”? Are you devoting some time to Madden, to really keep your play-calling skills up to date ahead of our inaugural season? Are you spending time focusing on training at home, with hopes of making one of the eight FCFL teams?  Or perhaps you’re working on your dance moves, just in case you get selected as a cheerleader for one of our teams. Whatever it is you’re doing, let us know! Who knows, you might inspire us to find a new way to spend some of our free time!

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Thinking Outside of the Box

Posted on April 6, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

There’s a lot of negativity, worry and anxiety floating around right now, for obvious reasons. So we’re here to share something that may bring a smile to your face. Over the weekend, a trending post on the NFL Subreddit shared every NFL team logo redesigned as an international soccer logo. Not only are the designs themselves fantastic, but as usual, the fans straight up delivered in the comments. So who came up with the concept? Football As Football is made up of six people in Minneapolis who love both kinds of football and “created a simple experiment that explores how American football team logos would look through the lens of four European styles: German, English, Spanish and Italian.”

While this was done around 2014 (you can tell from the number of stars the Patriots have, and the cities for the Raiders, Rams and Chargers), we DO think it’s an interesting exercise to look at logos in a different way, especially as our FCFL fans begin brainstorming names and logos for their teams. Do we think the fans will find themselves doing a deep dive on some of these designs as they work on their team’s branding? Absolutely! Do we think this will inspire fans to think outside the box with their logos? Without question. We think the fans will be turning to their favorite teams across all leagues and their favorite brands for ideas on how to make their logo better than the rest!

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FAN Take: Joe Calls ‘Em

Posted on April 1, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

FAN Take is a series that highlights trending events, issues, and decisions in the world of sports and analyzes how they may or may not factor into the Fan Controlled Football League. We would love to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think about each FAN Take!

We’re all going a little nuts right now and doing things we probably shouldn’t – repainting rooms in our homes, giving ourselves haircuts, and forcing family members to do TikTok dances with us. Luckily for all of us, Joe Buck has not fallen victim to any of the above. Instead, he’s using his free time to keep his commentating skills fresh by doing play-by-play on everything from marble racing to beer pong to grilling.

Since Buck has now appealed for people to stop sending him NSFW videos for his added commentary, what do you want to see him take on next? Maybe a heated family game of UNO? Or would you prefer some extreme grocery shopping – which we think would look like Supermarket Sweep but with social distancing? What about some of our old Salt Lake Screaming Eagles games (currently on our Twitch)? We had a lot of fun with those and would love to see him give them new life! Let us know which moments from the team’s inaugural season you’d like us to submit to Joe!

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Call Him ‘Shaq Exotic’

Posted on March 30, 2020

By Annalece Anhalt-Slaughter

Okay, so we’ve all been in quarantine for awhile now, depending on where you are while reading this, but the one thing that seems to have kept everyone sane during this time is the release of Tiger King. We could talk for hours about how insane this show is, but we want to focus on one particular moment: the appearance by Shaq.

In the video, Shaq refers to Joe Exotic as his ‘main man’ and jokes about being gifted one of the tiger cubs. Understandably, some fans got pretty upset to see the NBA Hall of Famer paying to play with these animals. So it should come as no surprise that he was quick to clear things up on his podcast. He explained that not only is he not friends with Joe, but he provided donations for the “tiger’s foods and all that.” We’ll leave it to the fans to decide if his comments were good enough.

The good news about everyone having time to binge watch shows like Tiger King, is that we think there are going to be a LOT of interesting team name suggestions that come out of this quarantine period. Sure, ‘Tiger King’ will probably be an option submitted for every team (we’re expecting quite a few for Mike Tyson’s team), but we want to see something a little more creative from the fans – we know you have it in you! We think ‘Baghavan Bones’ and ‘Raging Mullets’ for Bobby Bones’ team and ‘Tiger Prince’ for Prince Royce are some decent options, but we know you can do better! Let’s see what you’ve got!