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This is the ninth installment in our ongoing oral history project. You can read previous chapters here. 2014 was a big year. Alpha and Bravo Battery deployed again, this time to Afghanistan. The OIL joined the Yardbarker Network. Two longtime rivals chronicled their rivalry in an oral history. The league, fresh off losing a SECFOR brother, added 14 new teams as the league moved to a conference model. Cliburn spearheaded an oral history project to document the year in Iraq the men shared, and the men lost another brother-in-arms. The OIL Heads to AfghanistanROGERS: This was my fifth season in the OIL, but it was my first deployment. I was in the 158 before their 2006 deployment and re-joined later. I wasn't sure how well I'd do competing from overseas, but I knew everyone else in the league had done it at some point. ZERGER: This was my first year in the league and my first and only time in Afghanistan (although I'd been to Iraq twice). It brought back a lot of memories seeing familiar names that I hadn't necessarily forgotten but hadn't talked to in a while. I do believe that systems such as our league keep veterans in touch and might help some of our brothers reach out if they need help or something.  Chronicling a Rivalry 2014 NFC and overall OIL champion Christopher Trovillo received his championship jersey this week. Here he is showing off the Harrington Trophy, the Tenequer Memorial Trophy, his Dirty Hippies jersey, his Dirty Hippies mini-helmet, and his son.
Coaching rankings for both the AFC managers and NFC managers have been updated. The rankings are by winning percentage and factor in regular season and playoff matchups (but not consolation playoff matchups).     Lineups
*Rob Gronkowski was inactive Welcome to the first Liberty Bowl. It pits the champions of the OklahomIraqis League's AFC (Jimmy Venable's War Pony) against the champions of the NFC (Christopher Trovillo's Dirty Hippies). The champion receives the Tenequer Memorial Trophy.   Because the Dirty Hippies scored more points in the regular season (and in their championship game), they will be the home team and wear their home, tie-dyed jerseys. War Pony will wear his white-on-white away uniforms for the first time during the 2014 playoffs (as he was the higher seed in every previous matchup). The managers of these two teams have until Saturday at 2000 CST to email their Liberty Bowl lineup to Cliburn. Each manager may tweak their lineup via email or text any time before 1200 CST Sunday. Here is how each team got here, beginning with the AFC champions: Thunder Bowl OIL Bowl Good luck to both teams. It's been an amazing season. Each team has already won their respective conference's traveling trophy (the Killman and the Harrington) and a championship jersey to keep forever.
The votes are in, and "Liberty Bowl" is the winner. Beginning this season, the champions of the AFC and NFC will face each other in week 17 in the Liberty Bowl. The winner will get the Tenequer Memorial Trophy and have his name engraved on it. He will keep it until a new champion is crowned.
Once all the dues are collected, I'll order the trophy. I'm in the process of getting a logo designed for the game as well. All season, two teams stood head and shoulders above the rest of the NFC: the Dirty Hippies and Hard Targets. They were rewarded with the top two seeds and a first-round bye in the playoffs. After beating the AMMODOGS and Arrogant Americans, respectively, the Hangovers and DARC NARCS took a swing at the Hippies and Targets . . . and missed.    Regular Season Result: Week FourBecause the OIL plays a balanced schedule, these teams played each other in the regular season. Finch won that matchup by 14.  The teams are largely unchanged since that week four matchup. Since then, Finch lost Stevan Ridley to IR and added Josh Gordon via trade with Duffy. Meanwhile, Trovillo traded away T.Y. Hilton and Devin Hester, promoted Jarvis Landry to WR2, and added Giovani Bernard and Odell Beckham, Jr. Here's how the current Dirty Hippies lineup fared in its week 15 semifinal matchup. Dirty Hippies Semifinal ResultIn one semifinal, the Hangovers' Cinderella season ended when they ran into a buzzsaw otherwise known as the Dirty Hippies. After falling to 2-5, Duffy pulled off some risky trades to shake things up (including trading for Packers QB Aaron Rodgers), and it worked. They won five of their last six regular season games (including a Rivalry Week rout of the Arrogant Americans) and then knocked out the AMMODOGS in the first round of the playoffs.  In the week 15 semifinal, Duffy got 24 points from Demariyus Thomas, 18 points from Eddie Lacy, 28 points from late-season pick-up Jeremy Hill, and 23 points from Devin Hester. It should have been enough to seriously challenge the Hippies. But Aaron Rodgers let Duffy down for the first time this season in a shocking loss to the Buffalo Bills (scoring 7.95 points). And Rodgers's and Davante Adams's (1.6 points) disappointing performances doomed the Hangovers in spite of the great outputs by the remainder of the roster. The Hippies, for their part, overcame a disappointing TNF performance from Tre Mason (1.3 points). They got 43 points from Odell Beckham, 20 points from fellow LSU rookie WR Jarvis Landry, 18 points from Roddy White, 28 points from Le'Veon Bell, and 18 points from Rob Gronkowski. The Hippies QB points are not included in their 164-point total, as Jay Cutler plays Monday night. But the Hangovers players are all done. In turn, although they put up a very respectable 147 points, the Hangovers were sent home by a dominant Dirty Hippies team heading to its first OIL Bowl. Hard Targets Semifinal ResultIn the other semifinal, Henderson's even more improbable run ended as his DARC NARCS lost to the number one seed one week after posting his highest score of the season. In the first round of the playoffs, the NARCS upset the Arrogant Americans behind 43 points from Cam Newton, 42 points from Julio Jones, and 30 points from Joique Bell.  But that kind of luck is hard to keep going. Two days after leading the NARCS to victory, Cam Newton got into a car accident and was ruled out for the semifinals. Then Julio Jones was ruled out for week 15 after suffering an injury late in the fourth quarter of his game in week 14. And Joique Bell put up a pedestrian 10 points. It wasn't enough.
Henderson also turned to Kendall Wright to pick up the slack for Julio Jones. But Wright, who missed week 14, was again ruled out and Henderson got zero points from a pivotal position. The zero from Wright was matched by Jermaine Gresham, who was an unexpected inactive himself. It wouldn't have mattered though. Not even Henderson's optimal lineup would have won this matchup as Jordan Matthews (who had been hot as of late) scored zero points himself on Sunday Night Football. On top of all that, Henderson replaced Cam Newton with Ryan Fitzpatrick . . . who broke his leg in the first half of Sunday's game. So, all in all, this week was a cavalcade of horrors for the NARCS. With all of their players done with for week 15, they trail the Targets by 40 points with Mark Ingram and Alshon Jeffery yet to play for Finch. A team like Finch's Hard Targets doesn't need any help to beat a team like Henderson's . . . but it got it anyway en route to an easy victory and their first OIL Bowl berth. So, it wasn't how we expected to come to it, but we now have the OIL Bowl we've expected all season. Enjoy. As the regular season ends and the hunt for the Killman Memorial Trophy begins, the franchises that make up the American Conference are catching up to the original OIL. Logos and uniforms are being developed at a rapid pace. Below are the brands for the franchises owned by: Joshua D Lynn; James Peacock; Nick Green; Thomas Hillier; Charles Neely; Walt Musselman; Adam Schuster; new OIL manager Don Roe; Lance Zerger; Commissioner Nick Reed; Mark Fitzgerald; Stephen Brosh; Bryan Nye; and Jimmy Venable.                             After one season of the OIL2, we've had one member decline to return. That was expected, as the manager had neglected his team all season. But another SECFOR brother stepped up and claimed that position. Don Roe's Rebel Alliance have taken Briscoe's place.    The jerseys for each OIL champion arrived yesterday. They were designed by the team manager and Andrew Krause and manufactured by Hopco Sports. Not pictured: 2009 Champion ThroatPunchers (left the OIL after 2010 season to commish the MGL). NOTE: Due to a miscommunication with the manufacturer, SoonerJack has two #11 jerseys rather than one #08 and one #11. We are working on getting that remedied. |
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