Updates Diary

This is where I will post details of the updates posted on the site, so check here for all the latest news. I've worked hard to get the site up and running but it may be a few days until I start getting the main content posted. The forum is open now though, so please get yourself registered and start posting your topics in there right away, nothing like a busy forum to keep everyone interested. I am going to transfer some of the threads from the Yahoo group into there as an archived record.

2004 Archive

25th August - 2004

Well, well, well, it's been a long time since the last update, thanks in no small part to me being on an MSc training year at work. I've just handed in my final dissertation, so my time is a bit less under pressure at last, and I can get back on the Statis Pro trail and get some new content on this site.

Here's a quick recap of what I've just added to the site today...

Darren Jones sent me Part 2 of his 2003 NCAA College Teams set, formatted as a beautiful PDF and containing another batch of the top college teams to go with his earlier release. Thanks for your hard work on those Darren, the cards look great.

Allen Iott has also been busy, not only with the project (see below) but also completing his USFL card series, he sent me the 1985 USFL season data which I have finally run through my card-maker and posted as a set of zipped PDFs with nice helmet logos on the front covers too. This completes Allen's fantastic work on the USFL, giving us the 1983, 1984 and 1985 seasons to play with our favourite tabletop game

Federico Belloni sent me a corker of a utility in Excel which I have posted here too. Basically it has all the Play Sheets in Excel and the player cards as little images, just like real cards that you can drag about and drop into the spaces on the offense and defense display as though you were playing it "for real". Also includes game board and pieces, plus an FAC flipper that I've smartened up a bit to make it look nicer. I believe Federico is hard at work converting the rest of last seasons cards into these "images" that can be dragged around in Excel just like real cards. Anyway, it really looks great and is a fun way to play if you enjoy the cards/display aspect but don't have the space to spread out the real thing

You may know Michael Morgan from his great work on Statis Pro baseball cards, which he sells every season for a nominal cost. He's very kindly donated his 2003 football cards, and although it's a biggish download (4 MB), the cards look very nice, a bit "sexier" than our normal PDFs as they include extra details, some shading and things like defensive box labels for the defensive players etc. He's also given me the 1975 baseball cards to post, which I will do on the new baseball site. All Michael asks in return is that I give a link to his site and give him his dues for the cards - his site is well worth a visit, and I often buy his wonderful baseball cards for season replays. Thank you Mike! [Mike's Web Site]

The Statis-Pro project seems to have gotten into a rut because almost all of you just went AWOL on me! Thanks to Allen Iott who has been the mainstay of this effort, at times it's seemed like there's only been him and me on the ball at all. Anyway, I have just emailed the other members on the list, hopefully we can get everyone back interested again, we have done SIX out of the 12 seasons now, so in theory there should be more hands to do less cards, and less hassle for all, but please, if you're on the list, do get in touch. If you're not on the list, follow the link to the project page and sign up if you think you can help. Everyone stands to benefit when it's done, so come on, get in there and give us a hand! I'm just finishing the 1984 rosters, and Allen is finishing the 1991 defenses.

I've heard reports about two very big UK leagues in action, and will try to contact the league admin guys to get more details, like any custom rules they use, historical results, cards in use etc etc. Sounds like a lot of fun. Perhaps there is a chance I will be able to set up some kind of UK mini convention where we can have people meet up and play in some big face to face knockout tournaments. That would be a lot of fun, wouldn't it!

You may have noticed the link to "Baseball" on the front page, well, I haven't forgotten about that, and am going to get cracking on this elusive section of the site very soon. I just wanted to get the football side back up and running first, and then I have quite a bit of stuff ready for the baseball site, and lots more to do too.

Exciting things on the horizon include SP Evolution football which is my attempt at taking Statis Pro and incorporating a raft of new features and rules to make it the ultimate tabletop football game, and also I am in the process of collating the stats of every player who appeared for a team that made the Superbowl. I just have to chase up a few stragglers that are missing from the database I found from superbowl.com. I'm then going to "normalise" the stats for era, so that the cards can be more easily compared and then I will release an "Ultimate Superbowl" pack which includes all these players and teams, adjusted so that they are more evenly balanced with respect to their different era, and including a big load of new optional and advanced rules for you to use. Hopefully this will inspire you to play some "Best Team of all Time" tournaments, or mix and match with players from great Superbowl teams.

14th April - 2004

Another little treat for you today, thanks to Darren Jones, he's made a lovely PDF set that contains the top 16 college teams from this past season. I'm sure you will enjoy these great cards, and many thanks to Darren for sharing these with us.

The Statis-Pro project is still going along nicely even though it's only been a few of us cracking on with it. It would still be great to have more volunteers, and it would be a whole lot less work for everybody else too!

25th March - 2004

Posted DiceQ's 2003 NFL season cards, these are in Excel format, mine were posted in January in PDF format. DiceQ obviously spent more time fine tweaking the cards, so you will probably find his cards a bit more finely tuned than the ones I posted. Check them out anyway, if you have Excel, it's about a 250kb download. Just an update on the Typing pool project, here is a summary of where we are now, and work is continuning. We're still on the lookout for volunteers to help, especially as half the original volunteers never turned up ;-)

17th February - 2004

Well, Allen Iott completed his 1984 USFL set just in time to join the typing pool so I knocked them into PDF shape, so they're now here on site for you to download and enjoy. Thanks again to Allen for his hard work on these cards, and as I understand it, the 1985 season will be something he'll work on at some stage in the near future.

Oh, by the way, I have put together a basic skeleton site for Statis-Pro Baseball to be revealed shortly. Basically it's just like this site but relating to Statis-Pro baseball, natch! Anyway, I'll have the content finished soon and will then start adding stuff over there and looking for contributions from those of you also involved in SP baseball. I've also just added a quick link to the bottom of the cards page which I will repeat here, to visit Ebay for a Statis Pro worldwide search. Of course, once our typing pool is done with its work, you'll never need to spend another penny on Ebay to complete your collection!

14th February - 2004

OK, I've put up a website for the typing pool project, there are about 10 of us already. Come and join the club and commit a little of your time to make a big difference to the Statis-Pro football community. All we are doing is splitting the load of hand typing actual card data into spreadsheet format so that we can quickly and easily knock out the 1980-1991 sets for everyones enjoyment (so those of you who don't have every set will be able to complete your collections!). Also, every player will then be available in a database here on the site online. All the season sets will be posted *free of charge*, and everyone who contributes will get some special extra card sets that won't be posted on the site.

1st February- 2004

The Superbowl XXXVIII Pre-play has concluded and it was a thrilling game that was close all the way and was turned by just a couple of key big plays in the second half. Check out the link below for full details for how coaches White & Jones fared in this matchup. Of course, the real game is only hours away, and it would not be a surprise to see the game follow a similar pattern to the one we saw in this pre-play.

23rd January - 2004

The Superbowl XXXVIII Pre-play is underway and at half time, the Panthers lead the Patriots 14-10. Check out the link below for details of how the game is progressing. Darren Jones is coaching the Patriots, Kevin White the Panthers. It's a gripping contest thus far...

Oh, I also fixed the FAC decks which are posted on the site. There were lots of mistakes, like the Out of Bounds labels were the wrong way round (too many OB) and the blocking schemes and the penalty data was all messed up. Hopefully the ones on the site now should be OK..

I have also created an Excel workbook that allows you to bypass all this complicated procedure and let the computer do all the work for you. All you need to do is update the score, field position and time remaining and the worksheet will automatically call formations and plays on both offense and defense for you. You can even enter your team names and players so they appear in custom displays just like the real game. I will be adding variations of the file that include the various different offenses and defenses as mentioned in Section 10. There is also a random FAC generator in the workbook.

18th January - 2004

I finally got around to posting Alex Mittermeyer's Statis-Pro Football for Windows, a computer version of the game that allows solitaire play without the need for charts, or cards. It looks great too and allows you to take control of every aspect of the game. Databases available for the 1989,2001 and 2002 seasons at the moment, but more to follow, and hopefully an online play option too. Thanks also to Allen Iott who sent me the data for the 1983 USFL season which I knocked together into PDF card format, so the complete season set along with attractive colour cover cards is available for you to download. I also put a nice cover page for my 2003 cards which you can download here, includes a colour mini helmet along with team name and record for you to put with your packs of team cards

Tonight we'll find out which teams will contest the 2004 Superbowl, and we can begin plans for our Superbowl Pre-Play between Darren Jones & Kevin White. Should be an exciting pair of games, and it's hard to know which teams will win, but it will be fun to watch them as a neutral before the Redskins regain command of the NFL. muahahahahahahaha

update: Carolina Panthers will face the New England Patriots in Superbowl XXXVIII. Darren Jones will coach the Patriots, against Kevin White's Panthers. I have posted the single team PDF files for you to quickly print out the teams for your own pre-plays.

Solitaire Excel Charts & FAC flipper

I've finished the first draft and it works great (although I have to double check there are no errors). I will spruce it up a bit and add a few features and post it here. Basically it will allow you to do all the FAC flipping and get all the solitaire formation, lineup, and play calling from a single sheet. I expect I will extend this to include actually playing the game, but I am a long way off from that right now.

17th January - 2004

Something I was looking forward to doing after my exams - and I couldn't wait to run these cards off. It's the "Joe Gibbs era" Redskins team based on players from 1981-1992 seasons, which is a formidable squad spanning 4 trips to the Superbowl with 3 wins, each team with its own unique identity. As an appropriate opponent I have bundled them together with the 1992 Dallas Cowboys, which was the start of Jimmie Johnson's era, and the end of Gibbs time in Washington. Of course, the most fabulous news in the NFL ever is that Gibbs is back at the helm of the Redskins, and with Parcells in charge of the Cowboys, the rivalry should be renewed to its former glories, and of course the Redskins are certain to take an upward curve after more than a decade in the doldrums. Watch out for the NFC East..... Go Redskins!!!

Thanks also to Darren Jones, for sending me the info some of you might need for the 1957 set. It refers to running back's yardages for Short and Long Gains. You might notice that Defensive Backs and Linebackers have their own custom return yardage table for interceptions. I included a page in the zip file giving endurance ratings out, since some of the cards are far too powerful just to use on a '0' basis (no endurance ratings were put on these cards for some reason). Also, I take it that where a value is missing (for example in the receiving columns, some run numbers have Q/S and L values, other ones just Q or Q/S), that means an intended pass is incomplete.

OK, here are those rushing tables. For long gains, reference the "Long Gain" rating of the player with the table below. For short gains, simply draw a new Run Number and add 5 for the yardage.

Long Gain Rushing Yardages (3rd Edition Rules)

Code
Gain
Code
Gain
Code
Gain
A
100
G
70
M
40
B
95
H
65
N
35
C
90
I
60
O
30
D
85
J
55
P
25
E
80
K
50
Q
20
F
75
L
45
R
15

note that according to Graybags (thanks mate), the actual rules are you take the yardage above depending on the RB code, then get a new FAC and run number, mutiply by 5 and subtract this, eg RB with long gain code: K, starts out at 50 base yards for a Long Gain, but would flip FAC, times RN by 5 and take this off 50. The minimum gain is 10 yards though

Superbowl 2004 Pre-Play

Darren Jones & Kevin White will contest the Superbowl Pre-play, with me being the referee, card turner and scorer. Once the conference championships are played on Sunday, Kevin and Darren will decide who represents which team in the Superbowl, and hopefully we can get the game done before the real one happens a fortnight later. I'll post a full play by play, stats and analysis here of course. Let me know if any of you are going to do any Superbowl pre-plays, either with an opponent or solitaire

Late News:

I am almost done with my Excel sheet which incorporates Jim Gordon's advanced Solitaire Charts. With this you will be able to click a single button to get more advanced formations, substitutions and play calling when playing solitaire games, as well as automatic FAC flipping. This may eventually evolve into an excel driven complete game. You will be able to modify the sheet to include your own offenses, and I shall include variations so you can play against different personalities of solitaire opponent, such as the West Coast Offense etc...

16th January - 2004

Well, my exams are over (for now) so I finished off the 1957 set for you to download. Cleveland Browns dominated that year, routing the Detroit Lions 59-14 in the championship game. These cards are the official cards which were released as a special expansion pack of cards, I think with the 3rd edition rules. I will post the 3rd edition rules as soon as possible as they include tables for the rushing "Long Gain" columns which were assigned as letter codes on the cards, and the short gains also used a formula, rather than having these direct on the cards. Anyway, I am sure you will like the cards.

I'm hoping to do a Superbowl pre-play next weekend also, using my 2003 season cards. Darren Jones has agreed to play, but hopefully we can find one more (Kevin White?) so that we can hook up and I can do the card flipping and play results, leaving those two to call the plays. I would like to see the Colts in the big game after such a long time, and with a stellar offense, but the Patriots look like a team in the truest sense of the word. The Eagles are banged up but really deserve a Superbowl shot after 3 straight years in the title game. A remarkable feat in itself when you consider the effect of parity in the league.

2nd January - 2004 !

A double update today to herald the start of a New Year. Gene Marconi continues his Great Teams series, and brings us the third installment of his collection. This one includes two great rushers, Jim Brown and O.J.Simpson who are among the very best of all time (in fact, Jim Brown surely is the greatest of all time). Gene has now given us 18 great teams from the past, so be sure to thank him via the forum and hope you enjoy replaying some classic games, which I know some of you are (Brent Ehlers is having some great games with the Cowboys and Steelers from the 1970's).

As if that wasn't enough for you, I also put together the 2003 season cards as a 'first draft' so that you can go ahead and simulate the playoffs if you wish. You can download the entire NFL season, or just the Pro Bowl teams, or just the playoff teams. All cards are in PDF format as per the real cards. I didn't include any of the advanced rules which will will form part of my "Statis-Pro Evolution" as that is not quite finished yet, and I didn't have time. There may well be some mistakes in the cards, I knocked them out in about 6 hours last night and didn't go into too great detail modifying the finer points, so they are all based on official stats and formulas and I tweaked the Pro Bowl selections only. Anyway, the playoffs kick off on Saturday (3rd Jan), with some intriguing games, so it will be fun to see how your games turn out. If someone wants to let me know how your playoff sims are evolving I'd be happy to share the details here.

 

 

Last update: 16th January, 2004 © Lee Harris