Toronto Grudlies
From FootballIdiot
The Toronto Grudlies are a professional football team in the Great Lakes division of the League. They have won seven divisional titles, ten conference championships and six Super Bowls.
The Grudlies joined the League in Year 5 as an expansion team.
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Venue
The Grudlies played their first four seasons at Exhibition Field, an outdoor arena. They then moved to Synergystic Stadium and have played there since.
Rivals
Divisional
The Grudlies' primary rival is the Chicago Bruisers. A secondary rivarly with the Detroit Stallions has also developed in recent seasons. The Grudlies maintained a perfect postseason record against these divisional rivals until the Year 20 divisional playoff round, when the eventual world champion Detroit Stallions defeated them 24-14.
Conference
The Grudlies' chief rival outside of the division is the Vermont Sugar Buzz. The teams met in the postseason in Year 16 and Year 17, with the teams splitting the contests. In each instance, the winner went on to win the East conference but lost the Super Bowl. In Year 19, a late-season loss to the Sugar Buzz was partially to blame for the team's failure to make the playoffs.
Coaches
Year 5-6
The first coach of the Grudlies was Steve Rodden. Under him, the team went 10-22.
Year 7-16
Dan Valentine left the 29 Palms Desert Rats after their first Super Bowl victory, and took over as head coach of the Grudlies. He immediately rocked the boat by benching quarterback Sean Brooks in favor of a journeyman named Chane Haffner. He led the team to a 1-1 showing in the playoffs. The following year, the team went to the Super Bowl, but Valentine lost to his former team, 29 Palms. In Year 9, the Grudlies dominated and breezed to their first Super Bowl title.
All in all, Valentine coached the team to seven Super Bowl appearances and five titles.
Controversy
In his first year, the coach benched Sean Brooks in favor of Chane Haffner. Considering Haffner's success, most experts and fans now applaud the decision. However, some naysayers point to the team's cadre of superstars in this era--as one critic put it, "Tahari Reed [HB], Freddie Heyward [WR], Frankie Rivers [MLB], Tony Edmunds [K], Marco Munoz [CB] and your grandmother behind center could have won five Super Bowls."
In his fifth year, after the team's second Super Bowl title, Valentine allowed Haffner to leave via free agency, and signed Eric Reynolds as the starting quarterback. Although a future Hall of Famer, Reynolds did not fit in well with the Grudlies, and the team failed to make the playoffs for the first and only time in Valentine's tenure.
In the seventh year, the Grudlies were leading the Florida Sharks 44-0 in the final minute of the Super Bowl. Valentine instructed Haffner to kneel and run out the clock. Haffner ignored the call, instead calling several plays with the intent of getting reserve running back Lyndon Jefferies a touchdown. Jefferies caught a TD pass from Haffner to make the score 51-0. When Haffner returned to the sideline, Valentine appeared visibly upset with him.
In his tenth and final year, Valentine allowed quarterback controversy to overrun the team, between incumbent Kirby Muldoon and second-year quarterback London Lofton. This, combined with the growing rift with local and national media, would contribute to his ultimate dismissal. During one media session, a reporter suggested that the Grudlies were no longer the powerhouse team they'd been in years past. Valentine responded "I have five Super Bowl rings, one for each finger on this hand. We're about to get number six, and it's going on this finger for you, buddy." He then made a profane gesture and left the media session. In the first round of the playoffs vs. the Vermont Sugar Buzz, the Grudlies were embarrassed in front of a national audience, largely by running back Darnell Jordan who ran all over the Gruds for 285 yards. The coach was dismissed shortly thereafter.
Year 17-20
Mooney Trent was named the third coach of the Toronto Grudlies. He was also given full general manager duties. As one of his first moves, he traded away QB Kirby Muldoon, ending several weeks of contract demands and a yearlong quarterback controversy. This, amongst other bold moves, immediately garnered Trent the nickname "Slash," which was also a partial reference to his billet of "head coach slash GM."
Lofton was named the starter. For Muldoon, Trent obtained all-pro defensive lineman Deon Potter, and also re-signed LB Coleman Graham, a former great from the Grudlies' Super Bowl years. Trent instilled a mindset of powerful defense, installing his longtime assistant and friend Mojo Burrell as the team's defensive coordinator. Lyndon Jefferies was named the offensive coordinator, and Jhompovitch Ssens was the special teams coach.
Trent lost his first three games and the team appeared to be destined for a growing/rebuilding phase. Midway through the season, however, in a game at Rhode Island, Lofton and WR Jeremiah Brown teamed up for their best collective games of the season. With the Blizzard leading by six with two seconds left, Brown hauled in a winning touchdown pass, and the victory turned the season around. The team made it to the Super Bowl but Lofton's inexperience was no match for the Dakota Badlanders, who prevailed and capped an undefeated season. The following year Trent led the team to the Super Bowl again against the Badlanders, but again with the same result.
At the Year 19 draft, Trent made several moves which are widely considered to be the most risky and daring in history. He traded away second-string QB Percy Baker, CB Marco Hill and several key players to acquire the first, third and 32nd overall draft picks. With these picks, along with the 31st pick which already belonged to them, the Gruds selected DE Justin Matthews, WR Greg Payton, FS Steve Clayton and CB Jake Crosby. In the second round, Trent chose CB Jerry Perz. All five players have fared very well; Payton made the most immediate impact, racking up a league-record 373 receiving yards in the final game of the season. Nevertheless, due largely to injuries, the team missed the playoffs for only the fourth time in its history after having started 9-3.
After Year 19, Trent fired Mojo Burrell and brought in Todd Cross, a former Grudlies cornerback. Cross immediately instituted a dominating defense, the likes of which the team had never seen. The Gruds tallied up the best record in the conference in Year 20, but lost the divisional playoff to the eventual champion Detroit Stallions, 24-14.
In his self-critique at the conclusion of Year 20, Trent admitted that he "didn't get the job [of winning the Super Bowl] done." At this point, he said, "I'm firing myself" as the head coach. Trent would assume fulltime general manager duties, promoting offensive coordinator Jefferies as his successor.
Year 21-Present
The Grudlies are presently coached by Lyndon Jefferies. In Year 21 he was promoted to head coach, and after a search which lasted most of the offseason, he named Jarrett Bray as his offensive coordinator. The team clicked almost immediately, and Jefferies was named Coach of the Year as he led the team to a perfect 19-0 record and a Super Bowl title.
Philosophies
Offensive
Jarrett Bray is the offensive coordinator of the Toronto Grudlies. He is well-known for his "old school" coaching style.
His offensive philosophy is loosely based upon the West Coast offense. Several popular plays in his playbook are "multiple option" and are rather unique in execution: rather than progressing through multiple receivers, the target receiver is specified at the beginning of the play. All receivers (and the quarterback) read the defensive coverage after the snap, and adjust routes accordingly. A designated wideout will usually run a post or fade route, depending upon safety coverage, and all other receivers will run routes with the sole purpose of drawing defensive backs away from the target receiver. If the receiver is covered, the running back (who usually blocks at the beginning of the play) will be in the flat.
Because Bray joined the coaching staff just a few days before the start of Year 21 training camp, the offense largely continued to use the playbook it had used in years past, a hybrid combination of the Wildfire12 and West Coast. Hours after the team's Super Bowl victory over the 29 Palms Desert Rats however, Bray told reporters he had now "celebrated enough" and was going to now "get to work on a full playbook."
Defensive
Defensive coordinator Todd Cross implements a basic Cover 2 strategy. The stated philosophies of the defense are: to always provide the cornerbacks with safety help on deep routes and to generate pressure mainly with a strong front four. A 4-3 base is normally used, with Nickel in long passing situations.
