With the failure of the 2018 Season, media speculation started discussing whether or not Rebels’ Head Coach Matthew Nevers would be on the hot seat entering 2019. The media explained that Coach Nevers, “has failed to live up to the bylaws of his contract agreement of bringing another championship to the Rebels Organization. And the debacle that was the 2018 Season is proof that Coach Nevers is losing his grip on the Rebels’ Locker Room.” This speculation, which was started by the Los Alamos Atomic Thunder’s Front Office was completely false. Head Coach Matthew Nevers was never on the hot seat entering the 2019 Season, however, something needed to change to avoid another season like the one the team just had.

In March 2019, Coach Nevers addressed the media as he entered the Rebels’ Practice Facility to signify the beginning of the Rebels 2019 Season. In this public address, Coach Nevers stated, “that in 2019, the Rebels need to get back to the basics. The team should no longer feel like they are the team to beat, but instead, the team should take on an underdog persona. If this underdog persona is fully adopted by everyone within our organization, we shall see a rebellion reborn throughout the city of Los Angeles.” This public address by the team’s long-lasting hero become the team’s motto in 2019. The rebellion was going to be reborn, and the 2019 California Rebels were going to end up hoisting the Yuma Bowl Trophy at seasons end.

With Coach Nevers giving the team a direction, goal, and rallying cry, the 2019 Season seemed destined for greatness, but it would also become a season of celebration. Beginning in Week 1 of the 2019 Season, the California Rebels planned to celebrate the team’s tenth anniversary of the team moving to Los Angeles in March 2010. Through this celebration, the team planned to wear a commemorative 10th Anniversary patch on the team’s jerseys, release the top ten moments throughout Rebels’ history, and lastly, release the team’s 2010 All-Decade Team. With all these celebrations planned, it was just another reason to go out and fight for the city of Los Angeles in 2019.

As the 2019 Season was beginning to get underway,the Yuma Scorpions Fantasy Football League was getting prepared to go under extreme changes so that the problems the 2018 Season caused would never occur again. The first major change the league saw was the completion of my resignation as league commissioner and the inauguration of Josh Peter (Los Alamos Atomic Thunder) as the league’s new commissioner. Under my guidance, I helped Josh get the 2019 Season started and we both agreed that the league should change its name to signify a new era. In March 2019, the Yuma Scorpions Fantasy Football League was renamed the North American Football Conference or NAFC for short.

As part of the new regime, Josh brought in the Montana Wombats who took over for the Detroit Titans, the Cincinnati Harambes came back to the league and took over the Miami Gamecocks, and two new expansion teams were added: The El Paso Red Devils, and the Bemidji Bowling Balls. With four new owners being added to the NAFC, Commissioner Peter realigned and renamed all the divisions. No longer would there be an East or a West Division, or a North and South Division, instead, the league would adopt three new divisions: The Pacific League Division, the Desert League Division, and the Heartland League Division. These new league divisions would ensure the importance of divisional records as the majority of every NAFC team’s games would be played in the division.

With the new league divisions set, the NAFC hosted the 2019 Draft Lottery on April 2. The Rebels entered the lottery with the fifth-best odds at receiving the top pick. However, unlike in recent years, the Rebels were hoping for a draft pick in the middle of the pack, rather than at the top of it. When the lottery finally played out, the Rebels’ wish came true as the team was selected to pick sixth overall. The Montana Wombats would win the 2019 Draft Lottery, sparking their first victory in a surprising inaugural campaign.

With the “Rebellion Reborn” adopted as the team’s 2019 slogan, the Rebels’ Front Office made sure to avoid the mistakes the team made the previous season by choosing not to scout in the offseason or the preseason. To ensure they would be prepared for the draft, the team began scouting earlier than in years past. In May 2019, the team began scouting who they wanted for their 2019 team and they did so, by listening to the daily podcasts of “The Fantasy Footballers Podcast Show.” On this show, Mike, Andy, and Jason talk through key positions, sleepers, and players to avoid. It is a very intriguing podcast, and it became vital to the success of the 2019 California Rebels.

The early scouting process of the Rebels saw the team eyeing Houston Texans’ WR DeAndre Hopkins with their first-round pick. The team wanted to pair Hopkins with his NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson and get what people in the fantasy industry call “a stack.” This Watson- Hopkins stack was projecting to be one of the NFL’s best in 2019 and General Manager Dan Thompson felt these two players were key to delivering a championship.

With the team eyeing in on WR DeAndre Hopkins, General Manager Dan Thompson was doing mock drafts to figure out which player each NAFC team was going to select in the first round. Thompson concluded that Hopkins was going to come off the broad at either second overall to Las Vegas or fifth overall to USMC. Now Thompson knew he couldn’t control the Razorbacks from selecting Hopkins with the second overall pick, but he thought he could prevent USMC from selecting him fifth overall if he was able to strike a trade deal that swapped USMC’s fifth overall pick with the Rebels’ sixth overall pick. Because the team wanted Hopkins so badly, Dan Thompson found a way to trade up for him in the draft.

DeAndre Hopkins was going to be our guy, or at least we thought he was. In the days leading up to 2019 NAFC Draft, Dan Thompson began contemplating on whether or not Hopkins would be the best choice for the Rebels in the first round. He looked at Hopkins and believed that he was a can’t miss prospect, but there was something that worried the Rebels’ GM. Dan Thompson recalls that a gut-feeling hit him that made him believe that DeAndre Hopkins was not going to produce the way the preseason projections projected him to be. With this gut- feeling, Dan Thompson began looking elsewhere for the Rebels’ First Round Pick.

A familiar face to the Rebels Organization caught the eye of General Manager Dan Thompson. Julio Jones, the Atlanta Falcons Wide Receiver was projected to go late in the first round but had similar projected numbers as DeAndre Hopkins. Furthermore, GM Dan Thompson believed that the Rebels could acquire QB Matt Ryan, Julio Jones’ NFL quarterback later in the draft, completing the highly sought after QB-WR stack the Rebels hoped to form; but at a much cheaper price. With this new vision, the Rebels started to work the phones to help form a trade down from the fifth overall pick, as well as, a trade up in the sixth round so that the Rebels could select Matt Ryan. It was late in the process, but the Rebels formed a deal with the Seattle Leathernecks that would swap first, second, and fifth-round picks to secure the rights to WR Julio Jones. The Rebels also traded their sixth and eighth round picks with the Los Alamos Atomic Thunder to help secure the first selection in the sixth round. WR Julio Jones and QB Matt Ryan were just days away from joining the California Rebels’ Family.

Sunday, August 25, 2019, I awoke with a big smile on my face. It was the 2019 NAFC Draft and it was the start of the California Rebels third title run. Like the 2018 Draft Day, I started the 2019 Draft Day by putting on a suit to help sell the California Rebels’ brand. By putting on my sharp navy suit, I looked professional, but most importantly, I felt confident. With a surge of confidence, I picked up the phone and called several NAFC Owners, looking to see if I could obtain some draft day intel. I wanted to know who everyone was going to select and how I could use this knowledge to my advantage. It was a simple trick, but it appeared to work.

When the draft began it was no surprise who the Los Alamos Atomic Thunder, who traded up, were going to select with the number one pick. New York Giants’ RB Saquon Barkley was the first player taken, followed by Carolina Panthers’ RB Christian McCaffery to the Las Vegas Razorbacks. The third and fourth picks of the 2019 NAFC Draft were also running backs, leaving the California Rebels to select WR DeAndre Hopkins, only to later trade him to Seattle for WR Julio Jones immediately after the draft.

Jones would rejoin the California Rebels for the first time since the team’s 2015 championship run. General Manager Dan Thompson hoped that Julio would signify another championship run in 2019. The team’s second- round selection was debated between the team’s front office. Head Coach Matthew Nevers, who loves running backs, wanted to select Cleveland Browns’ RB Nick Chubb. However, General Manager Dan Thompson argued that the team could not afford to pass on Kansas City Chiefs’ TE Travis Kelce, especially since the team could draft a running back with their third-round pick. The team went with Kelce, making it back-to-back pass catchers to start the draft for the Rebels for the first since the 2016 Draft.

When the third round began, the California Rebels found themselves on the clock with the round’s first selection because of a previous trade the team made with the upstart Montana Wombats. With the 25th overall pick, the Rebels selected Oakland Raiders’ Rookie Running Back Josh Jacobs. Jacobs received a lot of preseason hype, and as a Raiders fan, I could not allow the Rebels to pass on this player.

The team added another running back in the fourth round by the way of New England Patriots’ RB Sony Michel. While this was considered a great pick at the time, it was the team’s fifth-round selection that became the steal of the draft. In the fifth round, the team selected Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ WR Chris Godwin. The Rebels debated whether or not to select Godwin’s Tampa Bay teammate Mike Evans in the second round but ultimately decided against it, in hopes of grabbing Godwin later in the draft.

The Rebels rounded out their starting lineup in the sixth round by securing Quarterback Matt Ryan. The team now had a stack of Julio Jones and Matt Ryan, completing their preseason goal. In the remaining rounds, the Rebels added depth at both the running back and wide receiver positions. Following the conclusion of the draft, everyone within the Rebels Organization had high levels of optimism. It was championship or bust all over again.

The team began the 2019 Campaign across town on the road against USMC in the year’s first “Battle of the House” matchup. USMC had built their team similar to the Rebels by securing a playmaking wide receiver followed by the deep depth at the running positions. USMC even took the Rebels’ preseason quarterback of choice in Deshaun Watson. On paper, this appeared to be the best USMC team maybe in their entire history. This Week 1 showdown between the two Los Angeles area teams was sure to be a memorable one.

It was not a memorable matchup in the eyes of the Rebels as the team got off to a sluggish start. Hit with terrible Week 1 matchups like WR Julio Jones and QB Matt Ryan at Minnesota, and TE Travis Kelce at Jacksonville, the team failed to live up to everyone’s expectations. As I checked the scores for the first time heading into the Sunday Night Steelers-Patriots matchup, I saw that the Rebels were going to get blown out in Week 1 for the second consecutive year. I grew frustrated the second I saw the Rebels-USMC score as I felt a “here we go again” moment; feeling that 2019 was going to be another unfortunate season for the California Rebels. Knowing that we were going to get blown out, Head Coach Matthew Nevers decided to bench RB Josh Jacobs on Monday Night, to secure the team picking first in the Waiver Wire on Tuesday. Some would say this is cheating and goes against the integrity of the game, but in the eyes of the Rebels, this was a strategy.

Sure enough, the benching of Josh Jacobs in a 164- 97 loss to USMC, helped secure the Rebels the top Waiver Wire selection heading into Week 2. Unlike in 2018, the Rebels put much more thought into who they would claim with the top waiver-wire selection. There were several choices like WR Terry McLaurin, WR D.J. Chark, the San Francisco 49ers Defense, and TE Mark Andrews. Being only able to claim one, the team opted to claim and sign Washington Redskins’ Rookie WR Terry McLaurin because he seemed to have the best chance at producing like a team’s number one WR. When Wednesday, September 11, rolled around Terry McLaurin became the newest member of the California Rebels. Following the process of the Waiver Wire claims, the Rebels noticed that TE Mark Andrews was not claimed and decided to add Andrews as well. Together, McLaurin and Andrews would help provide the team with great weekly flex options.

Hoping for a better result, the Rebels entered Week 2 at home against the 0-1 El Paso Red Devils. The matchup began on Thursday night when the Rebels played two players: WR Chris Godwin and K Joey Slye. I did not watch this game live, but I checked the stats every fifteen minutes. WR Chris Godwin had a breakout game, posting 8 catches for 121 yards and a touchdown (28 fantasy points). Kicker Joey Slye showed why I love kickers so much, by kicking four field goals including a 54-yarder. By the end of the Thursday Night game, the Rebels found themselves up 44-0.

The team’s Thursday Night success carried over into Sunday. TE Travis Kelce posted 25 fantasy points on 7 catches for 107 yards and a touchdown. But despite the team’s early-week success, the team found themselves down heading into the Eagles-Falcons Sunday Night Game. The Rebels only had WR Julio Jones left to play and they needed him to at least get his projection of 18 fantasy points for the team to win. Julio became JULIO and took over the game. The ninth-year pro posted five catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns. However, it was Jones’ 54- yard touchdown late in the game that helped lead the Rebels and Falcons to victory. The Rebels recorded their first win of the 2019 Season with a 155-138 win over the Red Devils. Coach Nevers had gotten his team back on track.

The Rebels hit the road in Week 3 as did I. The team traveled down Los Alamos to take on their growing rival the Atomic Thunder, while I traveled up to Minnesota to watch the Raiders-Vikings game with Leathernecks’ and Razorbacks’ Owners Nathan Simmons and Cole Kautzky. This was my first time seeing either owner since 2016; and what could be a better reunion than watching some football? We arrived at U.S. Bank Stadium as the gates were being opened and we all took time to admire the architecture of the Vikings’ new stadium. Cole and I were dressed in Raiders gear, while Nathan was dressed up in his Dalvin Cook jersey. It looked like the Raider fans were going to overtake the Viking fans that day, but all that changed once we entered the stadium.

Cole and I started to get crowded and yelled at by Viking fans, but neither of us panicked. We just delivered disses right back at them. We were obnoxious at the beginning of the game, but that quickly faded as it was obvious the Raiders would get outplayed that day. The 34- 14 final left me embarrassed to be a Raiders fan, but what frustrated me more was the fact that Josh Jacobs, who the Rebels were starting that week, only ended up with four fantasy points. Because of Jacobs’ disappointing effort, I felt that the Rebels would once again lose to the team from Los Alamos.

Despite myself not believing in my team, Head Coach Matthew Nevers continued to encourage the Rebels to keep fighting. Kicker Joey Slye continued what he started the previous week by connecting on five extra points and a field goal for 8 fantasy points. WR Julio Jones collected 28 fantasy points on 8 catches for 128 yards and a touchdown. All of the team’s efforts were good for a total of 118 fantasy points. The team’s matchup would once again come down to Sunday Night Football.

The Rebels had no players left to play while the Atomic Thunder had WR Jarvis Landry left to play. The team held a 10-point lead going into the Sunday Night Game, and they could not afford to tie with the Thunder, as the Thunder would defeat the Rebels in the tiebreaker. They had to limit Landry to nine points or less if the team wanted any chance at winning. What made this scenario even more freighting was the fact that I would not be able to watch or track any of the game’s progress because I was flying back from the Vikings game. It was out of my hands, and as a result of not being able to track the game, I fell asleep on the plane and did not wake up until the plane landed. As soon as the plane landed, I fired up my phone and checked the final score of both the Rams-Browns game, as well as the Rebels-Atomic Thunder game.

At first, I saw Jarvis Landry’s stats from the game and noticed that he finished with 3 catches for 62 yards, a total of 9 fantasy points. I didn’t remember exactly the number Landry needed to be held at for the Rebels to win, so I loaded the Rebels’ score on my phone and saw that the Rebels had defeated the Atomic Thunder 118-117. A one- point victory, the sweetest of victories in fantasy football. Better yet, this one-point win came against one of the Rebels’ top rivals. I was so thrilled. I knew following this victory that 2019 was going to be special.

The following week the Rebels held another rivalry game, this time with the Seattle Leathernecks. The defending champion Leathernecks entered the game at 3-0 and many considered the Leathernecks to be the best team in the league, including myself. I was nervous the entire week leading up to this game, as I am every time the Rebels and Leathernecks get together. The team was planning to start WR Terry McLaurin over WR Chris Godwin because Godwin failed to produce the previous week. However, McLaurin was ruled out just hours before the Redskins were scheduled to take on the Giants. With McLaurin out, the Rebels had no other option but to start Godwin versus the Rams. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I hoped for the best as the games began.

RB Josh Jacobs was one of the first Rebels to play that week and against the Colts, Jacobs recorded eleven fantasy points, a decent performance, but nothing to write home about. TE Travis Kelce recorded a respectable 15 fantasy points against the Lions, but it was his Kansas City teammate RB Darrel Williams’ two touchdowns, that got Coach Nevers and me excited. The Rebels had a growing lead against the Leathernecks, and it was increased by Kicker Joey Slye. Slye continued his hot start to the year by hitting on three more field goals and an extra point. Despite the great production by the players in the early games, the Rebels-Leatherneck game would be decided by how WR Chris Godwin performed against the Rams.

Early in the second quarter of the Bucs-Rams game, Chris Godwin caught a three-yard touchdown from QB Jameis Winston. It wasn’t too long after that Chris Godwin caught another touchdown from Winston on what became a very productive day for Godwin. Godwin would finish with 43 fantasy points on 12 catches for 172 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Godwin’s big day helped lead the Rebels to a 155-136 over their heated rival Seattle. The team was now at a 3-1 record after the first quarter of the season and it appeared that the sky was the limit for the Rebels. What made this victory even better was the fact that the team nearly benched Godwin. It was safe to say that Godwin would not be benched again that season.

Two blowout wins occurred in Weeks 5 & 6 for the Rebels as they were able to defeat both the Cincinnati Harambes and the Austin Oilers by over forty points. Heading into Week 7, the California Rebels found themselves at a 5-1 record, looking strong with their eyes directed toward the postseason. A trip to Painesville looked promising, but Head Coach Matthew Nevers was not going to take any team for granted. The game began on Thursday Night when the Painesville Raiders’ WR Tyreek Hill scored 16 points to help give his team a respectable lead heading into the Sunday Games.

I was upset that Hill scored a touchdown late in the game as he was held in check for the majority of the contest. Nevertheless, the team turned their focus to Sunday in hopes of finding a victory without the help of WR Chris Godwin whose Buccaneers were on a bye that week. To replace Godwin’s production, the Rebels put TE Mark Andrews and RB Latavius Murray in the team’s starting lineup. Andrews would finish with a disappointing two catch for 39 yards stat line an equivalent of five fantasy points. The game wasn’t looking positive for the Rebels as it appeared the team would fall to the Raiders if someone didn’t step up. I thought Julio could have been the player to step up, but he was held in check against the visiting Rams. Instead, the player who did step up for the Rebels was an unlikely hero in the name of Latavius Murray.

Filling in for an injured Alvin Kamara, RB Latavius Murray got the start for the Saints in Week 7 against the Chicago Bears. In this game, Murray would rush for 119 rushing yards, two touchdowns, and add thirty-one yards receiving on five catches. Murray’s 33 fantasy points helped lead the Rebels to a comeback win over the Painesville Raiders 104-96. Now 6-1 on the season, it looked as if no one was getting in the way of the California Rebels that season.

With the Rebels suffering a major blow on Thursday Night Football, the days leading up to the Sunday Games felt extremely painful. These pains appeared to disappear when the games on Sunday began and WR Chris Godwin went off for 7 catches 184 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Godwin’s 39 fantasy points appeared to have made up for Hilton’s lousy performance, and it looked as if the Rebels would escape a scare and leave El Paso with a win. However, a quarterback change by the Red Devils left the Rebels looking for answers. The Red Devils replaced QB Jared Goff at the last second in favor of QB Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill would pass for two touchdowns as well as run for two touchdowns. His big performance was good enough to give the Red Devils a one-point victory, 114-113 over the Rebels.

Once again, had Coach Matthew Nevers not tinkered with the team’s starting lineup, the Rebels would have easily won as RB Mark Ingram went off for 26 fantasy points in a Monday Night win against the Rams. For the third time in four weeks, the California Rebels had managed to beat themselves by last-second lineup changes. The team’s three-win lead in the Desert League Division had been erased and the team was now in jeopardy of losing out on not only the division title but also the second seed in NAFC Playoffs. Everything came down to Week 13 and the team’s matchup against the Atomic Thunder.

Like in previous years, the Rebels found themselves in a vital playoff scenario in the final week of the regular season. This year, the second seed and the divisional title was up for grabs, and what made this so important was the fact that being the second seed in the NAFC Playoffs gave either the Atomic Thunder or the Rebels a much easier path to the Yuma Bowl. The loser of this Week 13 matchup would be locked in as the fifth seed in the NAFC Playoffs, as well as have a much harder path to the Yuma Bowl by being forced to play the Razorbacks and the Leathernecks in the first two rounds.

A lot was at stake and I was so mad at Coach Nevers for putting the team in this situation. I was panicking as it felt that the whole season rode on the outcome of this game. I felt we could win, but the Atomic Thunder is a scrappy bunch and so the game could go either way. This Thanksgiving Matchup took a big hit when news broke that WR Julio Jones would not play in Week 13 because of a shoulder injury. The news about Julio broke an hour before the Falcons-Saints game and while the team was prepared for him not to play, his absence took a major hit against the team.

To replace Julio the team took a major gamble and decided to start Falcons’ WR Russell Gage in the team’s flex. Gage was expected to get the majority of Julio’s targets and while I would have liked him to have had more catches, his five-catch for fifty-two yards and a touchdown gave the Rebels a much needed 16 points. The Rebels added more to their lead on Thursday Night off the foot of new Rebels’ Kicker Will Lutz. Lutz connected on four field goals to add another 16 fantasy points to the Rebels lead. With a 32-point lead heading into a crucial Week 13 divisional showdown, I believed the Rebels were on their way to a 2019 Desert League Division Title and more importantly, a much easier path to the Yuma Bowl.

However, despite the great play of Gage and Lutz on Thursday Night, the other seven Rebel players decided to wet the bed in this critical matchup. Josh Jacobs was held to 12 fantasy points, and WR Chris Godwin was held to just 9 points. The Rebels would end up losing at home to the Los Alamos Atomic Thunder 104-82. The team would finish the 2019 Regular Season with an 8-5 record and be forced to travel on the road in the first round of the playoffs. Following the loss to Los Alamos, the reaction of nearly everyone within the Rebels’ Organization was the thought that we blew our opportunity at another championship. None of us believed that we could go on the road multiple times and bring home a title.

Coach Nevers and I were not exactly thrilled with how the team finished the regular season. A 1-4 record over the last month didn’t exactly give off a strong feeling of confidence heading into the post-season. Even more so, the team was scheduled to play at Las Vegas, a team the Rebels lost to just five weeks earlier. I felt we were going to lose and because of this, I didn’t display a great deal of hope in the days leading up to the quarterfinal matchup. Luckily for me, Coach Nevers had my back.

The 2019 NAFC Playoffs began on Thursday night when the Dallas Cowboys squared off against the Chicago Bears. Cowboys’ WR Amari Cooper got the start at wide receiver for the Razorbacks and he was projected to do decent against a crumbling Chicago Bears’ Secondary. While many of my friends were off watching this game live, I was attending a Thursday Night class as I was preparing to finish up my bachelor’s degree. Because I was in class, I only had the opportunity to occasionally check the scores online. Initially, I was overjoyed with what I was seeing. The Chicago Bears were beating up on the Cowboys, not allowing Dallas’ Offense to do anything. More importantly, Amari Cooper was being held in check.

This beatdown by Chicago continued well into the second half and as I continued to check the stats from the game inside my classroom, I continued to get excited as Cooper’s production was still not up to par. However, my smile began to fade as the fourth quarter began and the Chicago Bears started to let up against the Cowboys. Dallas began its comeback with a 100-yard drive that saw QB Dak Prescott end the drive with a 19-yard touchdown to WR Amari Cooper. Cooper had gone from five fantasy points all game to sixteen fantasy points all in one drive. I started to sweat as I felt Cooper was about to capitalize on a big fourth quarter.

My worries relatively went away as the final seconds ticked off the Thursday Night clock. What looked like a great early win for the Rebels, quickly turned in the favor of Las Vegas as Amari Cooper ended the night with 20 fantasy points. The 180 degrees turn the Rebels- Razorbacks Matchup took left me clueless as to how to predict how the rest of the playoff matchup would go. It could go either way, but it sure looked like it was going to go in the favor of Las Vegas.

Early Sunday Morning, about four hours before the majority of the Week 14 Games were set to begin, Coach Matthew Nevers was found in his hotel room adjusting the final pieces of the team’s game plan. Everything looked as good as can be, but to Matthew Nevers, something wasn’t right. The team had a dilemma at the quarterback position. Quarterback Matt Ryan was slated to start for the Rebels, but Coach Nevers became intrigued in QB Jameis Winston’s Week 14 Matchup late in the week. Knowing that his tinkering was the root cause of three of the team’s five losses that season, Coach Nevers once again tinkered with the team’s lineup. However, this time, Coach Nevers tinkered with confidence as he replaced Ryan with Winston.

With the quarterback position finally straightened out, another problem arose when the Rebels’ Team Doctor notified Coach Nevers that RB Josh Jacobs more than likely would not play this week due to a shoulder injury. With Jacobs ruled out, Coach Nevers went to his bench and decided who would replace Jacobs in the team’s starting lineup. He ultimately chose to start WR D.J. Chark over RB DeAndre Washington. He wasn’t confident in this move, but he stood by his decision as the games began.

The decision to start QB Jameis Winston appeared to backfire almost immediately. From the second play from scrimmage, Winston threw his first of three interceptions of the game. While these are terrible football plays, interceptions are just part of the way Winston plays. He would rebound from these interceptions to go on to throw for 456 passing yards, four touchdowns, and one rushing touchdown. His 49 fantasy points gave tremendous help to the Rebels, as would WR Chris Godwin. Godwin recorded 7 catches for 91 receiving yards an equivalent of sixteen fantasy points. However, the fantasy points from the Buccaneers-Colts game did not stop at this Tampa Bay duo. The Rebels collected another 18 fantasy points from Colts’ WR Zach Pascal as the Rebels would go on to defeat the Las Vegas Razorbacks in a blowout 161-94. ‘

Following this victory, Coach Nevers gave his traditional post-game sign of respect to the losing team. Owner Cole Kautzky congratulated us on the win and told us to not only beat the corrupted Seattle Leathernecks next week but to also bring home another title. The team appeared to have found its mojo again and now, they were only one win away from another trip to the Yuma Bowl.

While the Rebels and Leathernecks were scheduled to meet up in a highly anticipated semi-finals matchup, the other semi-finals matchup had two unlikely underdogs; the Los Angeles USMC and the Montana Wombats. Both USMC and the Wombats went on the road in the quarterfinals and defeated heavily favored opponents. The Wombats defeated the #2 Seeded Los Alamos Atomic Thunder 113-104, while the Los Angeles USMC won in a close 127-122 matchup against the #3 Seeded Austin Oilers. With the Thunder and Oilers now out of contention, it was highly implied that whoever won the Rebels- Leathernecks matchup was going to be the champion in 2019. A lot of pressure was on both the Rebels and the Leathernecks.

All season both Nathan and I felt that our two teams were destined to meet up in the Yuma Bowl. Unfortunately, a late-season collapse by the Rebels derailed this championship destiny, and instead replaced it with a semifinal’s matchup. The Rebels and Leathernecks were set to square off in the playoffs for the first time since the Rebels’ 251-141 beatdown of Seattle in the 2015 Semifinals. While our friendship has grown since the 2015 Semifinals, our Leatherneck-Rebels rivalry has grown more heated.

What many viewed as the actual Yuma Bowl began on Thursday night when the New York Jets traveled to Baltimore to take on the Ravens. The Rebels had to players playing in this game; RB Mark Ingram and the Baltimore Ravens Defense. Seattle had one player in this game (RB Le’Veon Bell) but opted to bench him in favor of RB Kareem Hunt who had a better Week 15 Matchup. Both Nathan and I were weary of a Thursday Night Football matchup in the fantasy playoffs, but unlike Seattle, the Rebels had no other options.

RB Mark Ingram, who was a part of the 2011 California Rebels as a rookie, reflected in the days leading up to his Thursday night game, that his 0 fantasy points in the 2011 GMEN-Rebels Quarterfinals has haunted him his entire career. He believed that he owed the city of Los Angeles a championship, therefore, he was poised to go out and deliver one. In his game against the Jets, Ingram would rush for 76 rushing yards and a touchdown. He also added another touchdown through the air to give the Rebels 21 points heading into Sunday. The Ravens Defense gave an additional eight points to put the Rebels up 29-0.

The entire Rebels’ Organization felt confident heading into Sunday. The team believed that they had the better matchups and that the game was theirs to lose. However, Leathernecks’ Owner Nathan Simmons almost got into the head of myself and Coach Nevers, telling us who to start and who to bench. Simmons advised us not to play WR Adam Thielen of the Vikings, and while his advice may have been genuine, we felt he was just trying to get us to overthink our lineup decisions. We kept Thielen in our starting lineup as the early Sunday games got underway.

Unlike most weeks where I am glued to my television the second the Sunday games begin, this Sunday, December 15, I was on my way to the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum for the final home game in Oakland Raiders history as the team was preparing to move to Las Vegas the following season. Because I was attending an NFL game, I was unable to keep track of both the Rebels and Leathernecks stats. I attempted multiple times to check my team’s stats, but my iPhone did not find service inside the stadium.

However, midway through the second quarter of the early games, I received a text from Nathan conceding his team’s inevitable loss. With the little service I had, I wrote

Nathan back telling him that there was too much of the game left to concede. He told me that I was blowing him out and that Jameis Winston had already thrown three touchdown passes in the first half. When I read that news, I was overjoyed as I felt that Winston had thrown multiple touchdowns to WR Chris Godwin, who was the team’s new number one receiver thanks to an injury sustained by WR Mike Evans. While Godwin did not catch a TD from Winston, he did surpass one-hundred receiving yards to help add 19 points to the Rebels lead over Seattle.

Jameis Winston finished the semifinals matchup with 38 fantasy points. Upon seeing his final stats, I started to finally believe that the Rebels were going back to the Yuma Bowl. While it seemed inevitable, I started to panic when news broke that WR Chris Godwin had left his game early with a hamstring injury. On top of this horrible news, I completely lost signal in my phone, leaving me blind from knowing how the team’s matchup was going. My Dad was trying to reassure me that I was going to win, but I started to get a terrible feeling in my stomach when I started seeing highlights and touchdown plays from Seattle’s team. I felt that the Rebels had celebrated too early and that a Seattle comeback was in the making.

My panicking went on the backburner when the Raiders-Jaguars game began. I could not check the Rebels’ scores, so I had no choice but to enjoy my Raiders in their final game in Oakland. The coliseum erupted early in the first quarter when QB Derek Carr found WR Tyrell Williams for a forty-yard touchdown. The remainder of the first half was a slow back and forth defensive contest that saw little action. Raiders’ and Rebels’ RB Josh Jacobs returned to the starting lineup in Week 15, finishing with 12 fantasy points on 109 scrimmage yards. Jacobs’ return would be the lone highlight for much of the game.

The game’s slow pace continued until the fourth quarter when Jaguars’ Rookie QB Gardner Minshew started to lead a comeback against the Raiders. Minshew managed to throw two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including the game-winner with only 31 seconds left on the clock. The Jaguars would spoil the Raiders’ final home game in Oakland 20-16 as the entire Raider Nation walked away in anger and disgust.

While I was upset that the Raiders blew their final game in Oakland, my attention once again went back to the score of the Rebels-Leathernecks game. As I was walking out of the stadium, my phone received a signal once again. My phone blew up with texts from Nathan telling me that he made it close, but ultimately his team would fall. I checked the score on the ESPN App and saw that the Rebels had only a ten-point lead with each team having one player still in play. As I rode the BART back to my San Francisco hotel, I was worried that my team was going to choke at the last second. WR Julio Jones had other ideas.

In a tough matchup on paper against the San Francisco 49ers, WR Julio Jones went off for 13 catches, 134 receiving yards, and two touchdowns. Julio’s forty fantasy points sealed the deal as the California Rebels would return to the Yuma Bowl for the first time since 2015 with a 191-162 Semifinals victory over their rival the Seattle Leathernecks. Words could not describe how I was feeling following the final buzzer of the Rebels’ Semifinals matchup. The goal the team had made for themselves nine months earlier was now on the cusp of happening. The rebellion was about to be reborn.

Controversy erupted throughout the NAFC in the days leading up to Yuma Bowl XI. As with most of the league’s controversy, the California Rebels found themselves at the center of it. However, it wasn’t something that the Rebels did that caused the issue. Instead, the controversial issue that shook the league and nearly caused Josh Peter to resign as commissioner was the debate on who the California Rebels would play in the Yuma Bowl.

The Semifinals Matchup between the Montana Wombats and the Los Angeles USMC had a historic ending as this game became the league’s first post-season tie. With this matchup ending as a tie, the majority of the league believed that Montana would win the tiebreaker as they held the league’s tiebreaker (most quarterback points) over USMC. Yet, a postseason rule unknown to everyone defaulted to ESPN’s postseason rule and give the higher seed (USMC) the win. The league erupted in outcry, claiming that this rule was not known to anyone and therefore, it should be reversed, and Montana should advance to the title game.

Commissioner Peter became aware of this situation early on the morning of December 17, and he was leaning towards allowing ESPN’s default rule to overrule the NAFC’s own rule. When news broke out that Commissioner Peter was not going to overturn the rule, I conspired against the league’s commissioner and got everyone but USMC to vote in favor of Montana. The personal attacks Josh got during this debacle had the first-year commissioner contemplating resigning the post after just one season. He felt so bad that he had no other choice but to give the league what the league wanted, and that was a Montana Wombats versus California Rebels Yuma Bowl.

With the matchup now set, the California Rebels prepared for the team’s first championship appearance since December 2015. As Coach Nevers was preparing the game plan, he had to do so knowing that WR Chris Godwin, the team’s season MVP, would not be able to suit up for the team’s title game because of the hamstring injury he suffered in Week 15 at Detroit. With WR’s Chris Godwin and Mike Evans now out for Tampa Bay, WR Breshad Perriman was the team’s new number one wide receiver, and he just happened to be on the Rebels’ roster. Perriman replaced Godwin in the team’s starting lineup and both Coach Nevers and I had high expectations for the fifth-year pro.

There wasn’t much tinkering needed for the Rebels’ Yuma Bowl lineup. RB DeAndre Washington replaced RB Josh Jacobs (ruled out) and a late Waiver Wire add saw the team place Minnesota Vikings’ RB Mike Boone in the second flex spot over WR Adam Thielen. The lineup was set, as the California, Rebels became thirty-point favorites over the Cinderella Wombats.

While the Rebels’ starting lineup was set the Wednesday before the games began, the Montana Wombats found a new starting lineup combination every day leading up to the Yuma Bowl. Tim and Tony Longwood tinkered at their starting lineup every day, trying to find the right combination of studs and sleepers that would potentially bring a title to Montana in year one of the franchise. Quarterback Drew Lock got the start over Gardner Minshew, and RB Joe Mixon returned to the team’s starting lineup after a Week 15 benching. I’ll admit, I didn’t like the moves Montana was making in the days leading up to the championship. I felt they would once again get lucky and find a way to win.

Yuma Bowl XI kicked off on Saturday, December 21, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Houston Texans. The Rebels had two players playing in this game, QB Jameis Winston and WR Breshad Perriman. Everyone expected this game to be high scoring and more importantly, everyone believed that Winston would go off for the third straight game. Neither of these beliefs became a reality.

On the second play from scrimmage, Quarterback Jameis Winston threw a pick-six to Texans’ Cornerback Bradley Roby. When the Buccaneers’ Offense returned to the field shortly after, another Jameis Winston interception occurred three plays into the Bucs’ second possession. The Rebels’ third Yuma Bowl was not off to the start anyone had expected nor wanted. Winston would throw two more interceptions during this game, ending his Yuma Bowl with a disappointing 19 fantasy points. A silver-lining of Winston’s bad day was that WR Breshad Perriman recorded a respectable 19 fantasy points. While I was happy that Perriman put up similar numbers in comparison to Chris Godwin, I still felt the Rebels’ title hopes were over because of the play of Jameis Winston.

I was not the only one who felt the Rebels blew their championship opportunity. Media from across the league commented that the Rebels had open the door for yet another, scrappy Montana Wombat victory. The team was up 38-0 but this lead felt more like a deficit.

I put my phone away as the Sunday games got underway. I would track my team’s scores like I usually did, by following the stat ticker at the bottom of my television screen. The Rebels got significant help when Wombats’ RB Joe Mixon struggled against a weak Miami Dolphins’ Run Defense. Mixon, who was the Wombats’ best player, finished Yuma Bowl XI with only 9 points on 50 yards rushing and 23 yards receiving (2 receptions).

Help continued to come for the Rebels in the way of RB Mark Ingram. Ingram scored a big touchdown in the second quarter in what would become a 16-fantasy point day for the former Heisman Winning Running Back. With Ingram’s touchdown, I started to believe that the team was going to overcome Winston’s interceptions and became world champions once again. This belief grew even larger when I saw the stat line of WR Julio Jones. Jones lit up the Jaguars’ Secondary for 10 receptions and 166 receiving yards. His 28 fantasy points were the most points scored by a player of either team that day. The Rebels’ dreams were turning into reality.

With the Wombats having one player left to play and the Rebels with two, Yuma Bowl XI would officially be decided by the end of the Afternoon Sunday games. Wombats’ WR Greg Ward squared off against the Cowboys, while Rebels’ RB DeAndre Washington took on the Chargers. Washington, who was starting for the injured Josh Jacobs, rushed for 85 yards and a touchdown and added two catches for twenty-one yards. His 18 fantasy points were vital for the Rebels as the final minutes ticked off.

The Raiders vs Chargers game ended before the Cowboys-Eagles game, leaving the Wombats’ with the only active player still playing in this matchup. Doing the math in my head, I had a pretty good feeling that the Rebels were in the clear, but I still watched anxiously every time WR Greg Ward got a target or a reception. With the final seconds of the Eagles 17-9 victory over Dallas ticking away, I opened my ESPN Fantasy App for the first time that day and saw that the California Rebels were going to win Yuma Bowl XI 125-91. Immediately after seeing my team’s score, I picked up my wife Victory and threw her in the air with a celebratory hug. The Rebels were once again world champions.

Knowing that the team was championed once again, the Rebels began their Yuma Bowl celebration by shooting confetti and showing good sportsmanship to Wombats’ Owner Tyler Harmening. In a concession phone call, Tyler congratulated me on the title and told me how much he respects and admires the Rebel Franchise. I showed the same gratitude in return and told him that this title would not have been possible without the trades he made with us earlier in the year. I ended the call by telling him that the Wombats had a bright future ahead of them and to keep his head held high.

The 2019 California Rebels Season began as a season of redemption for the failures and humility the franchise and brand took throughout the 2018 Season. Our goal in March 2019 was to restart our rebellion and to once again dominate the league from start to finish. While there were bumps along the way, the 2019 California Rebels accomplished their goal to capture the club’s third title in six seasons. The 2019 California Rebels will be remembered not just for winning the Yuma Bowl, but also because they were the glue that brought the NAFC back together. This team defined what it meant to be a part of the North American Football Conference, and their championship mentality will endure the test of time.