New Coffin Corner Issue

[ChrisBabcock]

All of the above makes sense. I DO like having a nice "pristine" copy of the newsletter without mailing info on the back or having it be scuffed, torn or mangled by the USPS.

[Reaser]

It is a balancing act that people do not see.

This is what I was getting at, maybe being able to 'see' it would help.

In case it wasn't clear, I wasn't talking about my experiences - Mark D. and Mark F. have kept me updated all along, hence I posted roughly when my article would be. Not a negative, it's a positive to know what's going on - which is why I was speaking on a wider scale for members as a whole. All members could be in the loop. Seeing how the 'sausage is made' could be a motivator of sorts. Knowing that there needs to be a 1-page article for an upcoming issue could get someone to write a 1-page article?

Seems to work as is though. Like I said, just spitballing.

edit: Also, the latest issue arrived for me yesterday. WA may no longer be last! Unless OCC already got his? Say it isn't so!

[mwald]

Seeing how the 'sausage is made' could be a motivator of sorts.

I attended a presentation on Personal Trust Administration once. Always remember how the speaker opened the presentation by saying, "There's two things that never should have been invented: sausage, and new tax code."

Nothing like a good sausage joke.

[ChrisBabcock]

I realize this is a few issues old at this point but I just noticed that starting with the July/August issue we switched from Laurel Quick Print to now CCA Solutions as our Coffin Corner printer. This was immediately after the font replacement problem in the May/June issue. Was the switch because of that?

[Bryan]

I would be in favor of just receiving an electronic copy of the Coffin Corner. Email me a scanned copy or a link to the articles on the website. Maybe have that as an option for members...it would cut down on printing cost, envelope licking, etc.

[Dusty Sloan]

Mark, I still think about this. I could do it, along with other research projects stewing in my head (1987 NFL replacements, World League/NFL Europe, the UFL [for which I worked for two seasons], etc.). My time is so limited now due to being a sports information director, and I've never been the best with sticking with projects - I'll start one, think of another and switch. My wife thinks it's cute, luckily.

The 1986 USFL season would have been so great. Not only would we have had two leagues going on simultaneously in the fall (although I was age 9 at the time), it would have been fascinating to see how NFL vets possibility would have moved to the USFL during 1986 - kind of like they did in the second half of the 1974 WFL season.

As is the case with any of my potential projects, it's just a matter of picking one and making good use of what little free time I have.

The "alternate history" article on the WFL is entertaining. It would be cool to see a "what if" like this written about if the USFL if it had survived.

Years ago, Dusty Sloan was a PFRA member, and he had compiled the USFL's 1986 rosters, and was in the process of weighing the merits of the eight remaining teams, then using a computer program to figure how the scheduled autumn season would have played out. As with all of us at one time or another, the real world "trumped" the fun of writing a Coffin Corner article, but I would have loved to have seen that. If the USFL's lawyers had done better than that "Kafka, Kafka, Kafka!" thing, and had gotten more than three bucks from the jury, who knows? I would have loved to have seen Sloan's work. The premise was intriguing.

[Mark L. Ford]

All of those would make excellent topics, and the editors at CC are always willing to provide assistance-- in some cases, even to write up some background context to use for a framework (based on whatever approach someone wants to take in presenting the story). As you can see, there's a lot of interest in the USFL's 1986 plans -- and, for other readers who might not be aware of the details, they had published a 1986 schedule and they had hundreds of players still under contract when the jury verdict came down, so there's a real world aspect to the story. Dusty, you're the only researcher I know who had compiled the complete list of players under contract, so we'll help in any way that we can, especially with the anniversary coming up in July 2016.

[Dusty Sloan]

I still do have all that 1986 USFL info. Between an old NFL memo and other research, I am 99.9 percent certain of what they rosters were when the league suspended. Of course, I could put my own spin on what would have happened in 1986, adding NFL vets cut and such. I think my juices might be flowing again for it. We do have an NCAA "dead period" coming up where I could restart everything.