The 2008

Hawaiian Rebels

Week One of the 2008 NFL season saw many highs and many lows. The Dallas Cowboys lived up to their Super Bowl hype by routing the Cleveland Browns 28-10. A low for the entire NFL was when reigning NFL MVP Tom Brady went down in the first half after a hit from Kansas City Chiefs’ Safety Bernard Pollard. Brady would end up tearing both his ACL and MCL, resulting in the G.OA.T. missing the entire 2008 NFL season.

As for my team, the Rebels, the aspect of the youth fantasy league quickly faded, but I did not let my vision of a football team called the Rebels die. Rather than play this youth fantasy football league, I opted to use the same players I received from the packs, and “play as them” in pickup games in my backyard. Led by Quarterback Chad Pennington, the Rebels got off to a 1-0 start, defeating the Lions 48-21. The quick start by the expansion Rebels got many experts believing that this team was legit, and that they could compete for a championship. But over the next month, the team’s championship hype was quickly put on the back burner as the Rebels suffered five straight losses.

It looked as if the Rebels inaugural season would be failure, netting only a handful of wins, but the favor of the Rebels quickly changes with a midseason trade with Dallas. On a Thursday in late October, Owner Hunter Schaal got “on the phone” with Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones. The two got to business right away, and by the end of the conversation, Cowboys TE Jason Witten and DE DaMarcus Ware were on their way to play for the Rebels. The Rebels on the other hand gave cash consideration to the Cowboys. The trade was easily won by the Rebels and I remember telling my friend Ben Tidgren, a Cowboys fan of the trade I just made, and he laughed at me telling how unrealistic this trade was. No matter what Ben thought, the Rebels had just acquired two Pro Bowl players in Jason Witten and DaMarcus Ware; both players would serve critical roles in the second half of the Rebels season.

Now the vision of a football team in Honolulu Hawaii called the Rebels was a great initial idea, but the financial cost of visiting teams flying into and out of Honolulu, as well as the Rebels traveling to any away opponent began taking a toll of the team and the league. Therefore, after only playing one game in Honolulu, team owner Hunter Schaal was forced to move his team to Salt Lake City, Utah for the remainder of the season, opting not to adopt Salt Lake or Utah as the team’s new name, but instead keeping the name Hawaiian Rebels. Choosing Salt Lake City as the location of the Rebels new home, is a decision I have no recognition of making. I have no idea why I chose Salt Lake City, over other markets like Missouri, or Los Angeles. But the choice to choose Salt Lake City as the location of the team’s new home, soon proved to be a vital homefield advantage for the young club, helping to start the Rebels unprecedented ten game win streak.

Yes, you read that right. From Week Seven on, the Rebels would sneak out ten consecutive wins, thanks in large part to the quarterbacking of Chad Pennington, the running of free agent pickup, Peyton Hillis, and the receiving of Jason Witten and Tim Brownie. The Rebels were on fire, and so was their merchandise. In 2008, the Rebels opted to wear a navy-blue jersey with blue pants, and a Hunter Green undershirt to keep the players warm. The color combination was a mess, to an extent, putrid. But this didn’t matter as fans loved and embraced the Rebels colors, as they helped cheer the Rebels all the way to the playoffs.

Ending the 2008 regular season, the Rebels finished the season with an 11-5 record, good for the third seed in the AFC playoffs. Remember, the 2008 season for the Rebels was more pickup games outside using NFL teams as the opponents, than it was fantasy, but either way, the Rebels were having an incredible inaugural season. Quarterback Chad Pennington passed for 3,653 yards with 19 touchdown passes, finishing second in the AP NFL MVP voting only behind Quarterback Peyton Manning. The Rebels Coach, Hall of Fame Running Back Marcus Allen also received recognition for Coach of the Year but lost the award to Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Mike Smith. Failure to win any regular season awards, besides the division championship did not upset the Rebels, rather it motivated them to do bigger and better things in the postseason.

The 2008 postseason began with the Rebels hosting the Indianapolis Colts in Salt Lake City. The Rebels easily handled the Colts to win their first ever playoff game. The following week the club traveled to snowy Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers. It was a back and forth game, but the Rebels halted a Steelers comeback in the final minutes to secure the team’s first trip to the conference championship. Now you can definitely see where fiction and reality differ. In real life, the Steelers defeated the Chargers in the divisional round to move on to play the Ravens and eventually win the Super Bowl over the Cardinals, but in this scenario, the Rebels defeated the Steelers to move on and host the AFC Championship game against Baltimore.

The 2008 AFC Championship game was a snowy day in Salt Lake City. The field was barely plowed as snow just kept falling throughout the game. The game was a back and forth contest, as neither team could do much because of the snow. The Rebels relied heavily on Peyton Hillis that day, seeing the rookie running back score two touchdowns on the day, but the game would be decided on the foot of Ravens kicker Matt Stover. With only seconds left in the game, the Ravens were down by three and needed a field goal to force overtime. Stover and the Ravens trotted out with 4 seconds remaining to attempt a 44-yard field goal. Stover kicked a successful field goal, but it was negated due to a timeout by Rebels Coach Marcus Allen. Stover would need to now attempt the kick again. As the ball was snapped, Stover kicked the field goal, but this time the ball didn’t go in, instead it hit the left cross bar of the post, falling straight to the ground. The fans in the stands rejoiced, the Rebels had won the game!

The Rebels were on their way to play the Cardinals in the Super Bowl, but it wasn’t without controversy. In the aftermath of the missed Stover kick, replays began showing that a member of the Rebels jumped offsides, mere seconds before Stover attempted the kick. Somehow, the referees in the game missed this, and therefore no flag was called, allowing the Rebels to advance to the championship, rather than allow the Ravens one last attempt at a game-tying field goal, this time from five yards ahead. It was a controversial end, in what was considered a pretty clean and fair game. In my opinion, the reason that the refs neglected to throw a flag in this situation is because they were tired of the cold weather, and the snow, but this is just my opinion, as twelve seasons later, no ref from that game has ever publicly said they made a mistake on the final play of the game.

The first ever championship game that the Rebels participated in is one that I like to forget, mostly because the Rebels lost. Like I mentioned above, the Rebels 2008 season was a season filled with pickup games, with majority of the pickup games occurring in my backyard or a nearby park. But for the championship game, I decided a pickup game during 5th grade recess would serve as the championship matchup. My team, which was built with my friends Peter Stevens, Josh Peter, and Ben Tidgren as the players, were the Rebels, while our opponent was the Cardinals. The game was a back and forth game, with me serving as the team’s quarterback for the game. I threw five touchdown passes, but in the end, it wasn’t enough, as when the bell rang to come inside, my team, the Rebels lost the game by one touchdown. Although it was an impressive inaugural season for the Rebels, we ultimately came up one game short.

For the next six years, the Rebels would search what it would take to be named champions, falling just short every year until 2014. But the 2008 season does not go unnoticed. This season, with all the joy and fun that it brought, showed me how entertaining this team, the Rebels could be. 2008 was just the beginning for the Rebels, and while this season was not technically a fantasy football season, the California Rebels Organization recognizes the 2008 Hawaiian Rebels as the team’s first season; paving the way for reckless, and sometimes ruthless approach the Rebels would take in the seasons to come.