Bonus Blog Who are They?

    Ask any devout football fan to name the members of the National Football League, most fans can get a vast majority of the team names correctly and very quickly. You ask those same football fans to name even one semi-pro football league, most will give you a blank stare. Yet there are well over one thousand semi pro teams in the country in dozens of leagues. These leagues operate hidden away in small stadiums used by high school, JC and college teams. Some of the records set in these leagues are nothing short of amazing: Sixtynine yard field goals, a five overtime period game, 121 points in a game, teams that scored 0 points in an eight game season, a player playing in his 41st season, a 68 year old placekicker, a punter with 13 punts in a game, etc.
   It would take me months to tell you about all of these leagues and records. As for today, I am going to focus on one of the smaller leagues in semi-pro football, the Professional Development Football League. The league started out in 2009 with only two teams the Bellingham (WA) Blitz and the Tacoma (WA) Cobras. The two teams played two inseason games and one playoff game, which the Cobras won all 3 games. The league expanded by 2 clubs for 2010 by adding the Boise (ID) Buccaneers and the Portland (OR)Thunderbolts. In 2010 each league member played 6 league games, two playoff games were played for a grand total of 14 games. The Cobras repeated as league champs but did lose one game in overtime to the Buccaneers.
    I would like to write more about the Cobras and the other league members but, how much can you write about a league where they have only played 20 games. I wish the members of the league and all the other semipro football leagues a great 2011 season, may your highlights be many.