Detroit Lions campaign in Football Mogul, part 2

After the season, I scouted the free agent market. The Falcons let Matt Ryan go. Wow. All he did was throw for 3000+ and 20+ TDs. I can see why they didn’t renew his contract. How dare he not throw for 4000+ and 30+ TDs. In Baseball Mogul, there is a global modifier to set for player movement. You can set it so that teams are less likely to trade or release talented, young players. Why is this feature not in Football Mogul? I don’t know.

Derek Jeter's awards (shown under the 'vitals' tab in Baseball Mogul).

Also not in Football Mogul: awards tracking for players. In Baseball Mogul, I can look up Derek Jeter and I will see how many World Series rings he has, how many All-Star appearances, Gold Gloves, MVPs, and if he was named Rookie of the Year. I need this info in Football Mogul. Why do I need fake accomplishments for fake players in a fake football simulation clogging the ones and zeros of my computer? I don’t know, but I need it. I also need a team-specific Hall of Fame (in addition to the league Hall of Fame) that I can use to personally induct former great players of my franchise when they retire. I’m sick that way.

Derek Jeter in Baseball Mogul.

Peyton Manning in Football Mogul. In this alternate history, the Colts booted his Hall of Fame ass as if he were Edgerrin James. My inner sports geek would like tabbed options on football profiles similar to the way they are in Baseball Mogul (as you can see in the Derek Jeter profile).

(Baseball Mogul also allows team owners to build new stadiums, which, come on, is pretty cool. You can try to coerce your home city’s taxpayers to pony up a chunk of the bill too. Neat. This feature is also strangely absent in Football Mogul. I guess what I’m saying is, give me more of Baseball Mogul in Football Mogul…except for the baseball part.)

For the 2010 off-season, I added a CB, DT and G. I’ve got too many holes to fill in the draft. I pick up a LB, S, CB and WR in the first four rounds of the draft. The draft is incredibly fun. You scour the positions and try to guess if you can snag a wanted prospect in a later round. You get completely sucked in, even with seventh round picks that you know will likely collect dust at the bottom of your depth chart. You can trade draft picks with computer teams, but if you’re playing on an easy level, you can abuse the soft trade AI. On harder levels, the AI is much too tough on trade fairness (but I guess that’s the point). Overall, I find the AI in the latest version of FM much harder to fool than in previous versions. If the draft is missing anything, it could use a scouting form prior to the draft to outline every team’s needs and a post-draft report card to rank each team’s draft.

My focus on defense in the off-season paid off as the Lions finished 9-7, their first winning season since 2000. We still finished last in the division, but I finally had things turning for the better. Fans are still filling the stadium and giving me a war chest for the next free agency period. I credit our “Ban Matt Millen from the entire state of Michigan” initiative.

The Chargers beat the Panthers in the Super Bowl, with Jake Delhomme coughing up 4 INTs in typical fashion. Hard to believe the Chargers have won two in a row. That tells you what a bad job Norv Turner is doing in real life. Interesting note: the JaMarcus Russell experiment is over in Oakland. Charlie Frye took over mid-season. Also: Brett Favre retired. For real this time. Maybe.

Next, Stafford is my future and my future is Stafford. Part 3.