The Rebel Yell finishes the 2006 with a win in the first round of the Toilet Bowl playoffs. The Rebels beat the Minute Men 50-37 in a battle that was never hotly contested. Maurice Jones-Drew took the team on his shoulders as he ran for 166 yards and 2 rushing TDs. He also helped out by scoring on a kickoff return to lead the team with 26 points. His outstanding performance won him his second Robert E. Lee gameball of the season.

"It was obvious that Maurice Jones-Drew wanted to make a statement for us to carry him over into next season," commented GM Mark Saylor. "We had every intention to take a long hard look at Maurice in the off-season, but I don't think that is necessary now. The only real question we have now will be the length of the contract that we offer him."

Another bright spot on the day was the performances of potential carryovers Mark Clayton (11) and Tony Scheffler (18). Scheffler's contribution with the new QB has been quite evident. "If these players can remain consist for the end of the season, we will have to take a look at them for next year."

The Rebel Yell playoff dreams were smashed early on Sunday when Rex Grossman threw for 33 yards and 3 INTs, Desmond Clark didn't catch a pass, and Larry Johnson couldn't find the endzone because Trent Green had 4 TD tosses on the Rebel Yell bench. After the early games, The Rebel Yell had 0 points from 3 of its starters and the Shipyard Sharks sat at 33 points with four starters done. In the later games, the rest of the Rebel Yell team fair a little better. Shaun Alexander found the endzone one, but only had 59 yards rushing. Maurice Jones-Drew once again scored a short yardage TD. Steve Smith found the end-zone for the first Delhomme TD pass, but Shipyard Shark WR Keyshawn Johnson was the target for the next TD throw. No Robert E. Lee game ball was given out in Week 13.

"You couldn't have written a worse scenario than the one that played out in Week 13 for us," stated a sober GM Mark Saylor. "Our guys played extremely well down the stretch and showed their heart in an attempt to get us back in the playoff race. It is a real shame that the team couldn't finish the streak off."

With the 34-34 tie to the Kodiak Bears in Week 13, the Rebel Yell will be the #1 seed in the Toilet Bowl bracket and will go up against the Minute Men. The last meeting between the two teams in Week 4 ended in 52-26 win for the Rebels.

For the second time this season, the 4th Down Bombs slaughtered the Rebel Yell, 50-80, in Week 12. This game puts the Rebel Yell into a spot that they were trying to eliminate over the past few weeks... on the outside of the playoffs looking in. The Rebel Yell players mostly had solid games, except for the horrible performance from Rex Grossman. Shaun Alexander looked like the player that won the 2005 NFL MVP, rushing for 201 yards without a TD. He was awarded his first Robert E. Lee gameball of the season.

"With this loss, the team knows that they need to step it up in Week 13," commented GM Saylor. "They don't have the luxury of coasting into the playoffs. It will be a rather disappointing season if the team doesn't make the playoffs."

To make the playoffs, the Rebel Yell team needs to beat the Kodiak Bears in Week 13. More importantly, they would need to outscore the Shipyard Sharks by more than 13 points.

In a largely anticipated rematch from Week 1, the Rebel Yell squeak past the SuperJets 62-61 to keep their playoff hopes alive. Solid performances from Larry Johnson (19), Steve Smith (10), and Joey Galloway (9) along with a late game touchdown by Maurice Jones-Drew (8) helped the rivals oust the SuperJets led by a 27 point performance by Chad Johnson.

"Chad's performance was just sick," said GM Mark Saylor. "We were really worried that his performance was going to be the end of our playoff chances. It was great to see Maurice Jones-Drew come through in the clutch, and that is why we awarded him with the Robert E. Lee gameball."

The Rebels are still masters of its own destiny. With two more wins, the Rebels should make it to the playoffs (without some major funky situation rearing its ugly head).

In a move that sent shockwaves throughout the SFFL, the Rebel Yell and Laces Out franchises completed a 5 player deal that sees one of the top WRs in the league heading South. The Rebels have acquired Steve Smith from Laces Out in return for Deion Branch, Terry Glenn, Chris Henry, and Mike Bell.

"The atmosphere around practice has been incredible since the other team members found out that Steve Smith was joining the team," said the gleeful GM Saylor. "We will definitely miss Deion, Terry, Chris, and Mike, but we know that in exchange for those great players is the missing link to get us into the playoffs and possible beyond. We have only one goal this year and that is a SuperBowl win."

In order to keep the roster under the salary cap, the Rebels also had to release...??

The Rebels dispatched with their legendary arch-rivals, B.A.D. (formerly Strawmakers) with a sound 58-30 butt kicking. Rex Grossman led the team with his 17 point performance (3 TDs, 246 yds) and was given the Robert E. Lee gameball for the second time this year. Average performances by Larry Johnson (9), Maurice Jones-Drew (8), Chris Henry (6), Desmond Clark (6), and Jason Hanson (7) rounded out the day.

"We played well enough to win, but not well enough to last in the playoffs for long," commented GM Saylor. "We need to get more consistent firepower and we hope that the return of star running back Shaun Alexander will help." Alexander returns to the Rebel Yell lineup next week after being out for over 6 weeks.

The race for the Cobblestone Division is heating up as all four teams are within 1 game of each other. At best, it looks like only two teams from the division will make it to the playoffs. The Rebels can solidify a spot by running the table over the next three weeks.

For the second week in a row, the Rebel Yell won a SFFL game. The 48-25 win against the Shipyard Sharks (6-2) was not necessarily a pretty win, but a win none-the-less. The Rebel Yell team was once again led by superstar RB Larry Johnson, who had 172 rushing yards and one touchdown. Johnson won his 4th Robert E. Lee gameball for his team leading performance.

Other key performances came from Deion Branch (61 yards and 1 TD) and newly acquired Jason Hanson (3 FGs and 3 XPs). Joey Galloway and Terry Glenn put in outstanding performances on the bench.

With the win, the Rebel Yell are tied with three other teams at 4-5 for the sixth playoff spot. Two of those teams belong to the same division (Kodiak Bears / SuperJets). The Rebel Yell will try to increase their season high win streak in week 10 as they take on the SFFL cellar dwellers BAD.

The Rebel Yell vanquished the Rogue 79-23, in what could have been the most important game of the season. The win assured the Rebel Yell team that they were still in contention for the playoffs, and almost solidified that the Rogue team would finish in the bottom half of the league for 2006. The win moves the Rebels to within one game of the final playoff spot, which looks to be hotly contested by division rivals Kodiak Bears (4-4) and the SuperJets (4-4).

"Finally the team performed like we knew it could during the pre-season auction," voiced an ecstatic GM Mark Saylor. "We finally clicked on all cylinders and the same time. But now that we have had a good game, we can't let our guards down. We need to win every game until the end of the season.

Larry Johnson led the Rebel Yell team with a 155 yards, 4 TD performance, for his season high 3rd Robert E. Lee gameball. Rex Grossman threw for 252 yards and 3 TDs in only a half a game. The good news was that two of those TDs by Grossman were thrown to TE Desmond Clark.

The Rebel Yell team looks to be getting healthy at the right time to make a strong push to the finish. Shaun Alexander will be available for action in Week 10, but during his absence Mike Bell has stormed onto the stage with a 136 yard, 2 TD performance. "We are deep at every position at the moment and have the talent to win a lot of games," said Saylor. "We hope to win all of the remaining games and run into the playoffs."

The Rebel Yell team was relying on key additions to the team in Week 8 to help replace players on their bye weeks and to also beat up on the Rambling Gophs. Unfortunately neither of those situations happened as the Gophs pounded the Yell 76-31 behind an impressive performance of Gophs star Peyton Manning. Larry Johnson tried to battle the Gophs single handedly with a 132 yards and 2 TD performance, but the rest of the team fell flat.

"We just have not been scoring TDs consistently across the entire lineup," commented GM Saylor. "We have players that step up one week and then disappear the next. And to make matters worse, we bring in players such as George Wrighster and J.P. Losman to help us through the hard times and they score a combined -3 points."

The Robert E. Lee gameball went to Larry Johnson, who is starting to show that this team is his team. Hope his great performances keep coming down the road.

Words can't describe the pathetic performance of Rex Grossman on Monday Night Football to end the week 6 massacre by the 5-1 Hurricanes. Grossman threw 4 interceptions and lost 2 fumbles on the way to a 32-86 loss to the Hurricanes led by owner Alan Rodick. "That horrid night from Grossman cost us roughly 20 points on the season, commented Owner Mark Saylor. "Those nights can not continue to happen to our team if we want to secure one of the playoff spots. Total points are almost as important as wins this year."

Grossman was not alone on the team when it came to negative point performances. Musa Smith got his first start of the season due to the injury of Shaun Alexander and the BYE of Maurice Jones-Drew. He rushed one time for 5 yards, but fumbled the ball for a -2 point day. "These two negative performances really overshadowed nice performances by other players," stated Saylor. "Look at the breakout performance of Deion Branch for instance. His 76 yards receiving and 2 TD day, which was honored by the Robert E. Lee gameball, was a long last need boost to our anemic receiving corps and the media didn't even take note."

Other good performances came from Desmond Clark (61 yards) and John Kasay (3 FG, 2XP). Larry Johnson scored again this week, but only rushed for 26 yards.

On a side note, rumors are swirling again around the Rebel Yell complex that GM Saylor has been talking to other teams concerning a block buster trade that could send Shaun Alexander packing. Keep watching to see if those rumors come to fruition.

It looks like Rebel Yell management has finally addressed the team's obvious need at wide receiver when they pulled the strings on a six player trade with the Laces Out franchise. Fred Taylor, Isaac Bruce, and David Carr will be jumping a plane overnight to head out to the Laces Out training facility in exchange for top SFFL wideouts Terry Glenn and Joey Galloway. Charlie Frye was also thrown in the trade to add depth for Grossman until Trent Green is healthy.

Glenn is no stranger to the Rebel Yell team. Last year Glenn led the Rebel Yell on a late run for the playoffs. "We knew that we had to bring back Terry to help our team be more balanced," gleamed the excited GM Mark Saylor. "We can't bank on the running game and kicking game getting us through each week."

The trade even has a silver lining, because the trade cleared room under the cap for the team to add players for depth to finish off the bye weeks.

The Rebel Yell notched their second win of the season in Week 5 by beating the Water Boys 61-43. The Rebels came out firing on many fronts that included Rex Grossman, Fred Taylor, and Maurice Jones-Drew. Rex Grossman threw for 2 TDs and 182 yards. Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew combined for over 100 yards rushing and 3 TDs.

"Today we started both Fred and Maurice as the flex and it really paid off," commented GM Saylor. "And for their efforts, they both have been awarded the Robert E. Lee gameball for Week 5."

Week 6 will be an important match-up for the Rebel Yell as they take on the Hurricanes (4-1) team without 3 of their 4 starting running backs. Shaun Alexander will not be active for Week 6 due to his broken foot and Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor will be on bye. That means that Musa Smith could see some playing time in Week 6 unless the Rebels make a waiver wire move.

The Rebel Yell finally get a game in the win column with a 52-26 defeat of the Minute Men. The SFFL's newest franchise, the Minute Men didn't last long against the balanced attack of the Rebels. Larry Johnson led the fight with 101 yards rushing and 2 TDs. Rex Grossman got his first start for the Yell and didn't disappoint the fans with a 232 yards and 2 TD performance. Isaac Bruce finally found the end-zone along with his 100 yards receiving. Rookie Maurice Jones-Drew had another great performance from the bench with 53 receiving and a touchdown.

Even with the solid contributions from the afore mentioned players, the team could use some improvement from other players. Fred Taylor rushed for only 16 yards and was shutout. Newly acquired TE Chris Baker caught just 1 pass for 6 yards. He will probably be released this week with Desmond Clark regaining his health and starting job. Derrick Mason only had 37 yards receiving and has still not seen the pay dirt. John Kasay needs to be more consistent, only scoring on 3 extra points.

"Our team is finally starting to score," added an excited GM Mark Saylor. "We still have tons of improvement before we can be called an elite team in the SFFL, but we are going in the right direction. For our team to win like this without our starting RB Shaun Alexander is a great accomplishment."

The bad news just keeps coming for the Rebel Yell. Not only did the team lose to the Kodiak Bears, but the franchise will have to play without two of their top performers for a considerable amount of time. The first injury occurred in the second half of Sunday's games, when Desmond Clark pulled up lame during a route in the red zone. Clark could be out for a few weeks with a sprained ankle.

On Monday afternoon, the news got worse when preliminary x-ray results showed a slight break in the foot of running back Shaun Alexander. The injury to the foot could sideline Alexander for 4-6 weeks.

"The bad times are just snowballing around here," stated GM Mark Saylor. "I guess it is not bad enough for the fantasy gods to make us 0-3 to start the season. Now they have to take away two of our players." Rumors have been swirling around the Stonewall Jackson practice complex that Alexander could be traded this week. "I don't know how rumors get started, but Shaun is going no where anytime soon," confirmed Saylor. "With the upcoming schedule, we can afford a few weeks of rest for Shaun before we need him for the stretch run."

With a 13 point performance on Monday Night Football by John Carney, the Kodiak Bears hand the Rebel Yell their third consecutive loss (63-53) to start the 2006 season. The Rebel Yell once again underperformed in the red zone as they scored only 2 TDs. With Larry Johnson on bye, the rest of the team failed to step up.

The bright spot of the week was the 20 point kicking performance by John Kasay, who kicked field goals of 51, 50, 49, and 46. The Robert E. Lee gameball was awarded to Kasay at the team meeting Monday morning.

For the second week in a row, the Rebel Yell team did not perform up to its potential and lost to the 4th Down Bombs 63 - 55. Franchise player Larry Johnson once again did not find the end-zone, but rushed for 126 yards. Shaun Alexander finally found the end-zone, but only rushed for 77 yards. Daunte Culpepper threw for 250 yards, but only found the end-zone once. The wideouts still have not found the end-zone.

The bright spot in week 2 was the play of the newly acquired players, Desmond Clark and Rex Grossman. Desmond Clark caught 5 passes for 85 yards and 1 TD. Rex Grossman threw for 289 yards and 4 TDs from the bench. The Robert E. Lee gameball was presented to Clark for his performance in Week 2.

“The teams efficiency in the red-zone is something that greatly concerns us,“ pined GM Saylor. “We will not win many games if our players don’t find a way to get into the end-zone on a more frequent basis.”

It didn't take long for the Rebel Yell to surrender it's first loss of the season. The SuperJets won a very low scoring uneventful game, 36-31, in which most of the stars of both teams decided not to show up. Newly acquired running back Shaun Alexander disappointed fans with his ZERO point performance. Daunte Culpepper didn't fair much better with a 1 point performance, which was 7 points better than his backup Jake Plummer. Even franchise star Larry Johnson only mustered 7 points, with no touchdowns.

"I am very disappointed in the performance of the players this week," stated a sullen GM Mark Saylor. "There is no reason for this poor performance to start the season. If there are players that don't want to work for this team, we will ship them out faster than you can say Bye-Bye."

Sources close to the team report that no Robert E. Lee gameball was awarded for Week 1. The 0-1 Rebel Yell team will take on the 1-0 4th Down Bombs in Week 2.

Larry Johnson will not have to carry the load of the Rebel Yell hopes alone in 2006 as the team has signed superstar running back Shaun Alexander to partner with Johnson. The team then signed running back Fred Taylor to be the flex back for the 2006. The talent didn't stop there as two successful quarterbacks in Daunte Culpepper and Jake Plummer were picked up for the 2006 season. The team filled out the remaining spots with Jay Cutler, Maurice Jones-Drew, Deion Branch, Isaac Bruce, Derrick Mason, Michael Clayton, Tony Scheffler, and John Kasay. "This is definitely the most talented team that the Rebel Yell has assembled in many years," stated the gleeful General Manager Mark Saylor. "With a one-two punch at running back of LJ and Shaun, who can stand in our way? The only thing that we worry about is injuries because our team is very thin this year. We took a page out of the BAD playbook and decided to try to accumulate the best starting roster and hope for no significant injuries." The questions for the Rebel Yell season deal with the WR and TE positions for the team. "We think that Mason will have another super year in 2006 and we expect owners to look in disbelief at our rookie TE Scheffler," quipped Saylor. Nothing less than a SuperBowl victory for the 2006 Rebel Yell will be acceptable.

In an unexpected move, the Rebel Yell fired head coach Ashley Judd today after three years with the team. The team didn't wait long to fill the vacant position with former SFFL team owner, Mike Shapiro. Shapiro has led the Badville Chaunceys to 29-41-1 record over a five year span in the league. Asked about bringing in a coach with a career losing record, Owner and GM Mark Saylor had much to say. "Anybody who knows anything about the SFFL knows that Coach Shapiro never had much to work with on the Badville Chaunceys. The ownership never wanted to spend the money to field a competitive team. If you ask me, Shapiro did the best that he could do with the situation."

Concerning the release of Ashley Judd as coach, Saylor spoke passionately. "The Rebel Yell is no longer looking for PR type of coach. We need a coach who can lead us to our next Lombardi Trophy, and that coach is Mike Shapiro."

Larry Johnson might have started the 2005 SFFL season on the bench behind highly touted Priest Holmes, but he didn't end the season there. Johnson had a break out season filling in for the injured Holmes. During his 10 week reign as starter, he accumulated 186 fantasy points, or 18.6 points a week. The Rebel Yell management didn't waste anytime with contract negotiations, as the team signed Johnson to a 3 year deal worth $19. "We wanted everyone to know that Larry will be the franchise player for the Rebel Yell for years to come," commented GM Saylor. "Our goal now is to add some other quality players to our roster for next year to help us win another SuperBowl.