The Bellcows stampede into the BDFL

FIELDSTOWN - For team names, the BDFL has always leaned to the traditional side with a city, or location, along with a nickname that ties back to the owner in both ways, if possible. Therefore, The BDFL's newest franchise will be known as the "Fieldstown Bellcows”. There are several reasons for this team's name beginning with the owner's hometown, a place where he spent his formidable years. The team name also fits in quite well with other BDFL team names and doesn’t infringe on another team’s identity. The Bellcows nickname relates back nicely to the new owner's last name and the original Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association (WHA), plus “the bellcow” is the leader of the cattle herd which is a positive thing. “Bellcow” is also a common fantasy football term used to describe a running back who carries a big load for his team, so that's relevant to the sport as well. The new team also has a built-in cheer with "More Bellcow!" which is a play on the classic 2000 Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit with Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon and Christopher Walken, plus the nickname comes with the added bonus to reference HDBS, cow manure and other farm terms on a more frequent basis. Other team names that received consideration for this particular franchise included the Fieldstown Fire, Cluster Springs Spirits, Shady Grove Ghosts, Baines Lake Largemouths and the Coalburg Diggers. The team colors are fire engine red, golden brown, barb wire gray and black for obvious reasons. Fields and cows have been linked in this world for over 10,000 years, thus the Fieldstown Bellcows have been in the works for quite a while. So now, we can welcome the Fieldstown Bellcows to the BDFL in 2019.

TheBDFL.com launches a new design

TITLETOWN - To move into the "mobile" world, TheBDFL.com now has a more "mobile" friendly layout. A responsive website as before, the new creative design should still look good on desktop computers and monitors, plus be easier to read and navigate on mobile phones, tablets and other personal devices. Driven by the league's new helmets designs, the new website will incorporate the new helmets on almost all pages for easy team identification. The new helmet designs have been a challenge since the helmet shell colors are limited by the number of colors available for production. Therefore, each team will have one primary color online with a distinctive two to three letter abbreviation and a corresponding new helmet design for quick team identity. All 16 new preliminary helmet designs have been approved by the league office for the upcoming 2019 season with some possible improvements in the works for the Freebirds and Cheetahs, but not their shell colors. The neutral shell colors of white, black and gray were the only colors approved to be used more than once for the team's new helmet shells. However, these three neutral colors were limited to just two colored helmets in the league. At the end of the day, league cohesiveness and clear simplicity carried this new design process to what you see today at TheBDFL.com.

The Blue Deacons road to Titletown

TITLETOWN - What we saw in the 2018 Big Daddy Championship Series (BDCS) has never happened before and may never happen again. The Mt. High Blue Deacons, in only their second full-season of league play, captured the 2018 BDFL Championship in the most peculiar fashion. First off, they finished the regular in fourth place out of four teams in the anemic Green Horn Division. In the BDFL's final patented Pucker Factor Poll, the Highlanders were ranked fifth after 13 weeks of play. At the end of the regular season, the GHD leader (Black Creek Freebirds) only had five wins, so they were ineligible for the BDCS and the Benton Bullets (8-6) only had 343 total points, thus the Blue Deacons squeaked into the BDFL's upper echelon post-season play as the 8th seed with a 7-7 record and 360 total points. From that point forward, the Pride of the Knights of Columbus (Local Council #10354) seized the moment and shocked the world with a BDFL title run for the ages. In round one of the BDFL, the Blue Deacons upset "the team to beat" in the #1 seeded Southside Cheetahs, 36-19. Mt. High followed one convincing win with another in the BDCS semi-finals with an impressive 34-10 win over the #2 seeded Fairfield PowerSleds. Then to cash in on the trifecta, the Blue Deacons completed their "Mission Impossible" post-season run by knocking off the #5 seeded Smoke Rise Woosiers in Big Daddy Bowl XVII to earn the 2018 BDFL Championship Title and the coveted Grand Daddy Trophy. Well done, my honorable and noble knight.

NOTE: The "lion rampant" mark now being used by the Blue Deacons is a common charge in heraldry dating back to the Highland tribes of Scotland and Ireland. The lion traditionally symbolizes courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valor, because historically it has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The lion rampant is still used today as Judeo-Christian symbolism by Knights, Bishops and Deacons alike.

The Progressive Priority Draft process

TITLETOWN - What started off as a way to speed up the BDFL's Genuine Draft has now become an integral part of the league's overall draft process. Along with the patented Pony Draft, the BDFL's Progressive Priority Draft (PPD) has added another layer of strategy to the acquisition of talent. Based on the success of the last five seasons, the BDFL will once again use the PPD platform for pre-placing and drafting players for the 2019 season. The PPD formula has had its skeptics over the years, but when the most vocal detractors are some of the most successful teams, there is no denying the effectiveness of the PPD process. All teams are required to submit their proposed 16 player "priority" roster by position prior to Genuine Draft Night 2019 (GDN19), knowing all other teams will be doing the same thing. All teams are guaranteed to land their 2019 Pony Draft pick and any other players they value more than any other team in this proven PPD process. For your information, the Blue Deacons, who won the BDFL Championship last season, cleared nine (9) players in the PPD process and picked from the #7 slot on GDN18 and the Woosiers, who finished second in the league last season, cleared five (5) players and picked from the #16 slot at last year's GDN18. Final 2019 BDFL rosters will be completed on GDN19.

Free agency and trades for GDN19

TITLETOWN - If you had told me eight years ago that Nick Foles would be the most sought after free agent in the NFL in 2019, I'd had you committed to Bryce's. Yet here we are today. With the BDFL's Genuine Draft Night 2019 (GDN19) coming up on Saturday, August 24, you'll need a rolodex to keep up with all the free agent moves and trades this off-season. Foles has taken his 6'6" frame and game to Jacksonville while Mark Ingram is now in Baltimore with the Ravens. Throw in the big trades of Odell Beckham to the Browns and Antonio Brown to the Raiders and you can see why "if you snooze, you'll lose" on GDN19. There are other players yet to signed or traded at press time (Rosen, Crabtree, Ajayi, Benjamin, Bradford, etc.), but for now here are the Top 40 free agency signings/trade relocations for the upcoming 2019 football season according to the BDFL's media experts.

Throwback Week goes back the 70s

TITLETOWN - The BDFL's Throwback Week 2019 will take us back to 1974 with eight classic NFL vs. WFL match-ups to play the "what if" games we were robbed from in our youth. Week 6 will feature the following inter-league gridiron grudge matches: Falcons vs. Americans, Grizzlies vs. Dolphins, Wheels vs. Lions, Saints vs. Steamer, Rams vs. Sun, Bears vs. Fire, Hawaiians vs. Raiders and Bell vs. Steelers. Plus this will give us a chance to open the vault on classic tales like Uncle Ronnie kicking against Larry Csonka and this nugget from Memphis...The Grizzlies 1974 home opener in the WFL was against the Detroit Wheels and drew 30,122 fans to the Liberty Bowl, including Elvis who was a self-professed football fanatic. Country superstar Charlie Rich sang the national anthem during which all the players stood up for back in the WFL. After the anthem Rich took his seat next to Elvis who commented, "That's a tough song to sing, ain't it?" to which Rich replied, "It ain't no Behind Closed Doors."