Guaranteeing a win in sports is like playing with fire. It usually does not go well for the person or team that made the guarantee. Sure, the guarantees of Joe Namath and Mark Messier worked out well for both their teams; bringing two championships to the city of New York. But the guarantee Interim Head Coach Paul Aarons made in his season exit interview was different. Aarons was just the interim head coach and therefore did not have a guaranteed job in 2012. Yes, he did deliver on two of his three promises he made since becoming head coach in late November 2011. But I wasn’t too impressed with the job Aarons did. His 2-2 record made me believe that Aarons was an average head coach and if I wanted the Rebels to become league champions, I was going to need an elite head coach.

As soon as the 2011 Yuma Scorpion Season ended, I began a search for the next head coach of the California Rebels. I announced to the press that I was searching for a head coach and that in my search, I would not consider myself a candidate and return to the field as head coach. In the third week of January 2012, I finalized a list of five candidates for the job.

First, we had Paul Aarons; despite me not being fully impressed with the work Aarons had done as interim head coach, I felt he deserved an interview and chance to sell me his vision of California Rebels football. The second candidate was Paul Samuels, a Division II head coach at the University of Idaho State. Samuels had been the head coach for the past eight seasons, helping ISU capture three conference championships. The third candidate I looked at was 59-year-old Lynn Baker. Baker was a high school coach from a small Wisconsin town. Baker had fifteen years of experience as a high school head coach. The only knock on Coach Baker was that he had never delivered a championship, made the playoffs only four times, and had an overall winning percentage of 34%. His longevity at his school was impressive, but the categories that matter the most (playoffs and championships), Lynn Baker was lacking in.

The fourth and the fifth candidates I interviewed were two brothers, Ryan and Matthew Nevers. Matthew was the youngest of all the candidates and had only two years of head coaching experience. The 30-year-old was a high school teacher from the state of Florida and in his two- years, as a head coach he helped lead his 5A high school team to two playoff appearances and helped win the 2011 state title. Despite his age and lack of coaching experience, Matthew Nevers was one of the most impressive candidates I had ever met. I strongly considered Matthew for the head coaching job and probably would have hired him if it wasn’t for his brother.

His brother, Ryan Nevers was a 33-year old high school head coach from the state of Oregon. Ryan was the most successful candidate, having coached his high school team to four playoff appearances and three state championships, winning two of them in 2009 and 2011. What made Ryan even more appealing to me, was that Ryan had only four years of coaching experience, but yet he came in and quickly turned around his high school team. If he could come in and turn around a high school team to make them champions, I just knew that if I hired Ryan, he would turn around the Rebels and finally make us champions.

The attitude and grit that Ryan Nevers possessed was something that I wanted in a head coach. I wanted an individual that had been on the championship mountaintop before. I needed someone with a vision and a plan that would make the Rebels champions; Ryan Nevers was the man for the job. On January 20, 2012, Ryan Nevers was officially introduced as the fourth head coach in franchise history. He would sign a four-year $30 million coaching deal that included a clause that required him to bring a championship to Los Angeles within his first two seasons. A clause was also added that Ryan could be fired by Week 8 of the 2012 season if the team was underperforming to the owner’s expectations.

In his introductory press conference, Ryan Nevers informed the media and the fans that a new era of California Rebels had just begun. He promised to bring a championship to Los Angeles and to help him do this, Ryan asked me if he could bring his brother Matthew onto the team to help serve as the team’s defensive coordinator. I gladly accepted Ryan’s request. Together, the Nevers brothers came up with the team’s 2012 season motto, “Our Time. Let’s Make It Happen.” A championship was on the horizon.

With a new coaching staff put in place, the California Rebels started their 2012 season off by focusing on how they could win a championship. Ryan Nevers suggested that the team start their offseason scouting program earlier than what Paul Warfield and I had done in years prior. His suggestion unanimously passed and on June 1, 2012, the California Rebels started their offseason scouting program. Every year since 2012, the Rebels have started their scouting program on June 1.

With the scouting program officially underway, Paul Warfield, the Nevers Brothers, and I got to work. With the team’s main focus of winning a championship in 2012, I decided to enhance the offseason scouting program by purchasing ESPN’s 2012 Fantasy Football Official Guide. This magazine had all the top players ranked by position and even gave us sleepers and players to avoid. Ryan Nevers and I spent hours looking over that magazine, as well as other articles for the upcoming season. We felt confident going into the draft that we would be one of the top teams this season and that we would steal the show come draft time.

The 2012 Yuma Scorpion Draft was scheduled for Wednesday, August 29. This was the latest the draft had ever been scheduled. I remember being worried in late August that Sean Metz and the rest of the Yuma Scorpions had forgotten about my dad and me, but a few days before the draft, my dad got the email saying we were back in the league. As in years prior, I was ecstatic for the draft. 2012 felt different, the team felt more prepared, I felt more prepared.

Throughout the entire offseason scouting program, the California Rebels were preparing as if the Yuma Scorpions was going to be a 12-team league. We looked at values from every position and knew where people would land based on their average draft position (ADP) for a 12- team league. All this preparation went out the window come draft night when the California Rebels and I realized that the Yuma Scorpions was going to be a 14-team league in 2012.

If you know anything about fantasy football than you know that most leagues consist of 10-12 teams and anything more or less than that makes the league not as enjoyable. Realizing that the league was going to be 14- teams, the Rebels entire draft strategy changed and personally, the entire scouting department and the team had no idea where they wanted to draft and we wouldn’t know where we would draft until an hour before the draft started, barely giving the team a chance to recoup and find a new strategy.

When 8 P.M. Central Time hit, the Yuma Scorpions draft lobby opened. I quickly logged on and found that the California Rebels were going to be drafting #3 overall, the highest spot the Rebels had ever gotten since joining the Yuma Scorpions. Having found out I had the #3 pick, I quickly looked at what my options were going to be when I got on the clock. I had three options, all of whom were running backs. We had the Houston Texans’ Arian Foster who was coming off his second consecutive Pro-Bowl season, Baltimore Ravens’ running back Ray Rice, a solid 1,000-yard 10 touchdown running back, and lastly, we had Philadelphia Eagles’ running back LeSean McCoy.

I was torn between which player to take and so was my coaching staff. They were all divided. To help solve this issue, I turned to Twitter and tweeted at NFL.com’s Michael Fabiano and asked him who I should take #3 overall. He replied, “Foster.” It was decided, I was going to take Arian Foster if he was available at #3. I felt confident that he would be there and then the draft started.

Green Bay Packers’ Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was a surprise at the number one overall selection in 2012. Rodgers was coming off his 2011 MVP season, but in my mind, selecting the California Golden Bear product was a reach. With the Rebel’s mindset on Arian Foster, our chances looked good that we were going to get him after Rodgers went #1. Our dreams of drafting Arian Foster were dashed when Foster was selected second overall. With Foster gone, the Rebels were now torn between LeSean McCoy and Ray Rice.

I didn’t participate much in the pre-draft selection of the Rebels’ #1 pick, instead, I let Head Coach Ryan Nevers and General Manager Paul Warfield battle it out. Warfield was set on Ray Rice, as he viewed the Raven’s running back as a league winning selection. Nevers on the other hand, like McCoy better as he liked how McCoy was built, explaining that in December, the Rebels wanted to run the ball, and he felt Rice wouldn’t be able to carry the load come playoff time. With a power struggle at the top of the organization, I stepped in and told the team that we would be picking LeSean McCoy, siding with Ryan Nevers’ argument.

With LeSean McCoy as the Rebels top pick, the team watched until it was time for them to pick again. The Rebels’ next two picks were New Orleans Saints’ Tight End Jimmy Graham, New York Giants’ Wide Receiver Victor Cruz, both breakout candidates the year prior. The team then selected Benjarvis Green-Ellis, forgetting his miscues to the team the previous December. In the fifth round, the Rebels selected Quarterback Matt Schaub, bringing him back to the team for the first time since his 2009 Season MVP year.

In the rounds that followed, the Rebels selected lesser-known players, who in hindsight would end up being labeled draft busts. Some of these players were Denver Broncos’ Tight End Joel Dreesen, New York Jets’ Quarterback Tim Tebow and Denver Broncos’ Wide Receiver Andre Caldwell. I am not sure what carries more blame, the fact that the Rebels were playing in a fourteen- team league, or the fact that the Rebels Scouting Department was not as good as we originally had thought. Either way, the 2012 California Rebels’ Draft Class remains one of the worst draft classes in franchise history.

The disappointing draft class, however, did have a bright spot and that bright spot came in the fifteenth round of the draft. With most known players and player values off the bored, the last two rounds in a fantasy football draft are usually left for a defense and a kicker. The Rebels did not need a defense or a kicker as they were drafted in the sixth and eighth rounds. So, with these positions out of the way, Ryan Nevers and I started looking for the best value. I was thinking of drafting a wide receiver as I felt we lacked depth there, but Ryan Nevers reminded me that he was a run-first head coach and that we were going to draft a running back. Looking at the running backs available, I didn’t see much value, but Ryan Nevers did.

He told me that we were going to draft Washington Redskins’ Rookie Running Back Alfred Morris. I had never heard of Morris as he went to the small Florida Atlantic University as well as he was drafted by Washington in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft. Ryan assured me that Morris was going to be this year’s steal of the draft and that he would have a role in helping us win a championship. I took Nevers’ advice and the Rebels drafted Alfred Morris.

With the 2012 Yuma Scorpion Draft now behind us, Ryan Nevers and I felt confident that this would finally be our year. The strategy of a fourteen-team was different than years pasts, but ultimately, I felt the team did an excellent job at adapting to this sudden league change. With LeSean McCoy in charge of our running game and Matt Schaub in charge of our passing, the 2012 California Rebels were about to take the league by storm.

The California Rebels’ 2012 season began at home versus the team’s #1 rival, USMC. In the only “Battle of the House” game in 2012, the Rebels felt confident that victory was in sight. The matchup began on Wednesday, September 5, when the New York Giants took on the Dallas Cowboys. The Rebels had one player in this game, New York Giants’ Wide Receiver Victor Cruz. Ryan Nevers believed that Cruz was in for a big game as he was going up against a rookie corner in Morris Clayborn.

Nevers and the Rebels thought wrong as Cruz netted only 50 receiving yards on the day and ended the night with five fantasy points. I wasn’t too disappointed with Cruz’s performance as back in the day the Yuma Scorpions ran a standard league and so five points were considered an average day for a wide receiver projected ten points when the game started. While I would have liked more points, I gladly took the five-point lead over USMC as the matchup headed towards Sunday.

Prior to the games on Sunday, I checked Twitter for the latest news on my players. I remember reading a tweet from Adam Schefter that said the Washington Redskins were going to start rookie Alfred Morris at running back versus the Saints that day. As I read this tweet, I quickly thought to myself and said I think I have Alfred Morris. I then logged onto my team and sure enough, I had Morris. I placed him into the Rebels starting lineup, replacing Denver Broncos’ Andre Caldwell.

When the games began, Alfred Morris was showing to be the difference-maker. He was running all over the field and ended his rookie debut with 21 fantasy points. Thanks to Morris, the Rebels would not only win the Battle of the House matchup, but they would also receive the high score payout, defeating USMC 113-91.

Fresh off their Week 1 victory over USMC, the Rebels traveled to Kutzler where they looked poise to start the season 2-0. Ryan Nevers was rallying his players around a solid game plan. The plan was simple, get Victor Cruz the ball. The team did, and Victor Cruz ended the day with 25 fantasy points; the most points on the team. Despite Cruz’s efforts, the Rebels could not stop Kutzler and the team fell on the road 117-98. Having lost his first game, Head Coach Ryan Nevers addressed the media, telling them that the team needed to get back to the basics and just focus on winning.

In the week leading up to the team’s home matchup versus Metz, Rebel’s insider Dale Walters wrote an article titled, “It is Now or Nevers!” This article disused the team’s recent struggles and suggested that I fire Ryan in order to save the Rebel’s championship season. This saying, “It is Now or Nevers!” became so popular that fans started buying billboard advertisements and placing this saying throughout the city of Los Angeles and around the stadium. They wanted Ryan gone, but more importantly, they just wanted their Rebels to start winning again.

Feeling the pressure, Ryan Nevers entered Week 9 on the hot seat. I, just like the fans was growing very irritated with the team’s recent struggle and strongly considered firing Ryan. While it is embarrassing to see a first-year head coach fired midway through the season, Ryan’s contract stated that he could be fired after the team’s Week 8 matchup of the 2012 season. Knowing the clause in his contract, I made my decision prior to the Week 8 games starting. I would fire Ryan Nevers if the team once again found themselves on the losing end of a matchup.

With all the pressure on him, Ryan Nevers entered Week 8 without both of the team’s quarterbacks. Known as a draft-day mistake, the California Rebels selected two quarterbacks, Matt Schaub and Joe Flacco with the same bye. Having to play Week 8 without both Flacco and Schaub, a loss was all but assured. The Rebels were forced to play Mark Sanchez as the team’s starting quarterback, which was a decision Ryan should have never made.

When the Week 8 games got underway it was obvious that starting Mark Sanchez was a mistake. Sanchez didn’t have a terrible game, but he didn’t have a great game either. He passed for 283 yards and one touchdown, good for about 14 fantasy points. Despite Mark Sanchez’s disappointing fantasy numbers, his numbers were the second highest on the team, as yet again the entire Rebels team struggled to live up to their weekly projections. As Week 8 came to a close the Rebels lost their fourth straight, losing to Metz 104-59. This blowout loss was the last straw, a change had to be made and Ryan Nevers needed to go. As the team entered Week 9 with a 3-5 record, I requested a press conference at 2 PM Pacific Time on Tuesday, October 30. It was during this press conference that Ryan Nevers addressed the media and notified them that he had been relieved of his coaching duties. Ryan was very emotional during this press conference, showing his true colors and love for this team. Ryan cried during the press conference and said that he wished whoever was taking over the coaching duties the best of luck. He had no idea that it would be his brother Matthew taking over his sinking ship.

In this same press conference, California Rebels’ Defensive Coordinator Matthew Nevers was officially introduced as the team’s interim head coach. I had wanted Matthew to be the coach of the Rebels from the time I interviewed him, and now he was the coach in charge of saving the Rebels’ season. Matthew told the media and the fans that the team was going to make the playoffs. It was our time, and this little losing streak was not going to derail us from our ultimate goal. The promise Matthew made was very similar to what Paul Aarons said just one year ago, but this time seemed different. Matthew gave the team and the fans hope. He was going to lead the team to the promised land.

Matthew got to work right away, renaming Matt Schaub as the team’s starting quarterback and replacing the 49ers defense with defenses that had favorable matchups every other week. Streaming the Rebels defense was just one of the changes Matthew made that was different than his brother. He was trying to save the Rebels season, as well as make this team his and not his brothers. A culture change was occurring in Los Angeles and the team began buying into Matthew’s system and vision.

Matthew’s first test was traveling to New York to take on the GMEN. Matthew felt confident that his game plan would lead the team to victory. His game plan was solid, and the team did play better, but it was a last-second field goal by the GMEN that would send the Rebels back to Los Angeles with another loss and a 3-6 record. Despite the loss, the team felt confident that Matthew Nevers’ new coaching style was going to help the Rebels end their losing ways and qualify for the playoffs.

If the Rebels were going to qualify for the playoffs for the third consecutive year they would need to win-out with victories against Netsch, Kelly, Travis, and Cermak. These were not push-over teams; three of the four remaining games for the Rebels were against teams fighting for a playoff spot. Matthew and the team knew the task ahead of them and everyone was poised for the challenge.

To help jumpstart the team, Matthew Nevers brought back the 2011 “Believe & Be Ready” motto that helped kick start the Rebels 2011 playoff push. Matthew believed that if this motto worked for the 2011 team, it would surely work for the 2012 team. Fighting behind the Believe and Be Ready motto, the California Rebels took care of business in Week 10 and defeated Netsch at home 109-72. The team was slowly morphing into the team Matthew envisioned.

Week 11 saw the Rebels traveling on the road with a date with the expansion Kellys. The Rebels controlled this game from the get-go, defeating Kelly 127-53. This blowout victory by the Rebels was just what the team needed to help them continue their push for the playoffs. With a record of 5-6, the Rebels were now in prime position for a playoff spot. Even with this winning streak, the team did not lose focus on their ultimate goal of making the playoffs.

Heading into Week 12, the team was confident and focused, but deep down the team was worried about their Week 12 matchup against Travis. Travis was one of the hottest teams in the league thanks to the legs of Minnesota Vikings’ Running Back Adrian Peterson. Peterson was in the midst of his 2,000-yard MVP Season and Travis was benefiting from his historic season. Despite the worries the team had, Matthew Nevers railed the team together to defeat Travis 96-76. The team was now 6-6 with a Week 13 win and a get-in matchup versus Cermak.

With the team’s season hanging in the balance I decided to award Matthew Nevers the Monday after the team’s Week 12 victory over Travis. I offered Matthew Nevers the head coaching position of the Rebels for the next four seasons. No matter what occurred on Sunday, win or lose, I wanted Matthew Nevers to be the Head Coach of the Rebels. Matthew gladly accepted the offer, agreeing to officially become Head Coach of the Rebels on January 1, 2013. While it was exciting that Matthew was going to be our head coach, work still needed to be done and the team still had to play their regular-season finale.

History was seeming to repeat itself as once again major playoff implications were on the line as the Rebels got ready to take on Cermak. For Cermak, they needed to win against the Rebels and have two other teams lose for them to make the playoffs. As for the Rebels, all they needed to do was win against Cermak to get into the playoffs. The team controlled its own destiny, the only problem was that the team was going to need to beat Cermak without its first-round draft pick LeSean McCoy who was out with a concussion. The loss of McCoy was big, but the team didn’t sweat as the week prior the team picked up McCoy’s backup Bryce Brown. Brown was slated for a big game and Matthew quickly named him the starting running back for the week. With Brown in the lineup, the team was ready to go, but echoes from the past lingered over the franchise. The team had never beat Cermak in their history and playoff implications were on the line yet again. If the team failed to defeat Cermak the season would be deemed a failure and all the team’s efforts of the last month would have been for not. We needed to defeat Cermak.

Week 13 and the Rebels season came down to the Sunday Night Football matchup of the Eagles and the Cowboys. The Rebels were down 82-89 to Cermak with one player left: Bryce Brown. I couldn’t even watch this game; I was too nervous and scared. I had no idea how to feel as all season long the Eagles were an up and down team, struggling to put points on the board. My situation didn’t improve with Bryce Brown in the lineup. Brown was in his rookie season, thrust into the spotlight. The game came down to him.

Fortunately for the Rebels and fans of Sunday Night Football, the Eagles and the Cowboys game on December 2, 2012, was a shootout. Bryce Brown found the endzone on the Eagles’ first drive and didn’t look back. He compiled 169 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground that night, good for 27 fantasy points. Bryce Brown may not have led his Eagles to victory on that night, but he did help lead the Rebels to victory over Cermak, as well as, clinch a playoff spot for the Rebels for the third consecutive season. The Rebels plan of running the table had worked. They were in the playoffs as the fifth seed, something that seemed impossible just a month prior. On top of the team’s advancement into the playoffs, Bryce Brown also helped the Rebels finally get over the hump and defeat Cermak 109-89.

The 2012 California Rebels season was one for the ages. It started with championship guarantees by an interim head coach who had no idea if he was going to have a job for the next season. The team then proceeded to hire Ryan Nevers, a high school coach instructed to do one thing, win this team a championship. The pressure seemed too much to bear as Ryan proceeded to drive the team into the ground with a midseason 3-5 record. His brother, Matthew was then instructed to save the team’s season and make the playoffs. Under the culture change of Matthew Nevers, the California Rebels were able to win four of five and make the playoffs with a 7-6 record. It may not have been the year the team was hoping for, but a new season, the postseason had just begun.

A month prior when the team was standing at 3-5, I along with many of the players and fans were just hoping to enter the playoffs as the 8th seed. This seemed like a sad goal to shoot for, but I just wanted to make the playoffs. I did not want the team’s efforts to go to waste and sit through a playoff-less December. Luckily the team did make the playoffs, and with the efforts of Coach Nevers, the team improved on their own goal and became the fifth seed in the Yuma Scorpion playoffs. They were scheduled to travel to Chicago and take on Holmes.

Riding a four-game win streak into the playoffs the entire California Rebels’ organization felt confident that they could get the job done versus Holmes and advance to the semi-finals. We felt as if we were the better team and that little to no preparation was needed for our matchup. This mindset would put an end to the 2012 California Rebels season.

The games began on Thursday night, the Oakland Raiders were playing host to the 9-3 Denver Broncos. The Rebels didn’t have anyone playing in this game, but Holmes did. Holmes was starting Broncos’ Running Back Knowshon Moreno. Moreno was having an impressive under-the-radar season and the Raiders had one of the worst run defenses in the league. This is where the Rebels’ confidence in their matchup against Holmes began to fade. Moreno finished the game with 119 rushing yards, 48 receiving yards, and one touchdown, good for twenty-one fantasy points. Moreno was only supposed to score ten points, having him go over his projection put the momentum in Holmes’ favor.

As the rest of the games got underway on the following Sunday, it was all but decided the Rebels were on their way to yet another first-round playoff exit. The team was sluggish on offense, failing to reach their scoring outputs from the last four weeks; mustering only 78 total fantasy points. Holmes’ players were also living up to their scoring projections, hurting the Rebels’ chances even more. When it was all said and done, the California Rebels lost to Holmes 106-78.

Even though the California Rebels lost in the opening round of the playoffs in 2012, I was still happy with how this team railed together to rebound from its sluggish midseason performance. Winning four-straight in this league is never easy. It is definitely not easy when you have to play without your first-round star running back and play against playoff-caliber opponents’ week in and week out. While the team did come up short of its ultimate goal of winning a championship, this team did show me something. It showed me that this team was getting close to winning a championship. Improvements and successful sustainability needed to be implemented for the future, and the Rebels had the right coach and staff to do just that.