History of a Fictional Football League (35th Victory Bowl)

For the past year or so, I've been developing a fictional football league, the American Football Association.  Before now, I have only focused simulating seasons using dice and developing a narrative to go along with it (if anyone is interested:  an explanation is under the "Running the AFA" spoiler).  However, I have recently decided to learn Photoshop and Illustrator, and have determined that the AFA is the perfect project to practice on.  So, starting in 1946, I am designing the logo and uniform for each team.  Once I have finished that year, I will continue progressing through seasons, and will introduce new designs whenever teams rebrand, change their uniforms, relocate, or expansion teams are added to the league.

I am looking for feedback and criticism for every aspect of the designs, from the template (which is based largely on the one used by the gridiron uniform database) to the specifics details of how I put together each team.

The year is:  1980

Current Divisions and Teams

If anyone finds a bad link anywhere below, please send me a PM to let me know so that I can fix it.  Thank you.

Running the AFA

Spoiler

 

Each team is assigned an overall rating from 1.00 to 10.00  I don't do specific week to week schedules, but there is always a detailed rotation for what opponents each team should have in a given year.  I generate a random number between 1.00 and 12.00 for the home team and between 1.00 and 10.00 for the visiting team, which accounts for home field advantage, and compare the results for each matchup.  I compare the two scores, with the higher result being declared the winner.  If the difference between the two scores is less than 1, the game went into overtime (or was a tie before the overtime rule was adopted in 1975).

 

I have no way to account for injuries, but I track the sum of each team's rolls, which gives me a good idea of how well they "played" in a given year.  If they have an especially good season, I assume that they had a breakout player or something similar; while if they have an especially bad year, I assume that it was the result of injury problems or similar difficult situations.
 
At the end of each season, I decide how each team has progressed, and modify their overall rating accordingly.  A team that has performed poorly will likely get worse, and teams that performed well will likely improve.  I also track the ages of star players and the average age of each team, which will also impact if and by how much they improve or get worse.  Finally, I track draft order, which allows me to know how well each team should be able to replenish its talent supply.

 

I even attempt to ensure that the names of a given time period are accurate.  The overwhelming majority of names that I give to players and coaches are assigned randomly.  First names are drawn randomly using dice from census records detailing the most common names of decade.  I take a bit more leeway when coming up with surnames, but pull from various sources from the time period in which an individual would have been born.
 
I also vaguely track the economic conditions that existed in the United States and in the cities with teams, as well as the population from census to census to determine how well a team is likely to be performing financially.  Based on this, I may also choose to relocate or fold teams, or add expansion teams.
 
After rolling the results of each season, I write a brief description of the events of that season.  Sometimes it is just a few sentences explaining why certain teams had the results that they did, or detailing close playoff races.  Other times the descriptions may be longer, and cover wider aspects of the game (racial integration, the introduction of new strategies, etc.).

 

I cannot imagine that anybody would want any of this, but I have all of the following documents and spreadsheets that are relevant to the AFA, and will provide them upon request:

• The final standings for each season and postseason results in a single spreadsheet
• The complete list of coaches by year and team, including their specialty and offensive and defensive strategies
• The complete list of all named players by year, team, and position
• The breakdown of names for any decade in which I have had the need to generate a name (so far the 1890s through the 1950s)

 

League History Blog Index (under construction):  http://afahistory.blogspot.com/p/archive.html

History of Each Team's Logos:  http://afahistory.blogspot.com/p/logos.html

History of Each Team's Uniforms:  http://afahistory.blogspot.com/p/afa-team-uniform-histories.html

List of Victory Bowls:  http://afahistory.blogspot.com/p/victory-bowls.html

All logos and uniform may also be found on my Deviant Art.

Championships by Team:

If you find the AFA interesting, you should also check out FFWally's History of Swedish Federation of American Football.  It exists in the same universe as the AFA, and follows the history of the SFAF, which began play in 1965 after a Swedish businessman, Anders Bergström, brought professional American football back to his home country.  Players and coaches often move back and forth between the two leagues, and we will advance our histories together.