Saylorland Fantasy Football - News Martinelli Wins Coach of the Year for 1999 Bernie Martinelli was unanimously voted Coach of the Year for the 1999 SFFL season.  Considered by most of the coaches as a shoe-in for the honor halfway through the season, Bernie took his team to his second straight SFFL championship.    Bernie started his award winning year by signing Kurt Warner to a low pre-season salary.  He kept the momentum going by making some exceptional trades during the season.  In week 9, the trade that brought Eddie George to his team for Jeff George and Ricky Williams was a gamble that turned out just fine in the long run.  Some say that he intentionally traded Jeff George out of the division, so no rival could end up with him next year.  He followed that trade with another blockbuster in week 11, getting Antonio Freeman from the Cereal Kilurz for Tim Brown, Kevin Faulk, and Rod Smith.  His coaching philosophy of getting top notch players for average bench players paid off once again. Bernie also made some great free agent acquisitions throughout the year.  His constant shuffling of TE's (Chamberlain, Coates, Dudley) always seemed to give him a producer at that position.   And maybe the most important free agent pickup of the year was in Week 15, with the signing of Patrick Jeffers for the playoffs.  Jeffers scored 12 and 20 points respectively in weeks 15 and 16 to help the already talented Strawmakers' team. Bernie was not perfect as coach in 1999, (Dropping Todd Peterson and Tim Couch throughout the year), but as damn close as anybody might be in a long time.  Congratulations to the 1999 COTY, Bernie Martinelli. How can anyone repeat?  Is this a dynasty? Mark Saylor - SFFL Commissioner and Rebel Yell Coach