In this special edition of NSFL insiders, we will be releasing a never before seen in-depth interview with the Philadelphia Liberty’s X-Factor: Wide Receiver Fox North his alter ego co-GM Silver Fox. But before we dive into who the self-proclaimed “Next Big Thing” is, we need to talk about who the Liberty are.
The Philadelphia Liberty
The Philadelphia Liberty are an S2 expansion team, created alongside the Las Vegas Legion. Just days after both team’s creations, there was some drama between the teams. The NSFL had announced an expansion draft, where each team in the league could only protect a certain number of players, and all of the unprotected players could be drafted by the two expansion teams in the expansion draft. The two expansion teams would also be entered in the regular NSFL rookie draft.
To say that the Liberty and Legion took two different approaches to building a roster as an expansion team would be a gross understatement.
The Legion began wheeling and dealing almost immediately, trading many their picks in the S2 NSFL rookie draft and future drafts for current players on NSFL teams, while the Liberty stockpiled their picks and traded down to acquire even more picks. The Legion acquired players via trades, and the Liberty acquired draft picks.
The drama stemmed from the fact that the Liberty claimed that the Legion’s strategy was hurting both teams. The Liberty claimed that the Legion were trading for players that other teams would not have protected from the draft anyways, and that the Legion were giving other teams picks in the draft for players they could have been getting for free in the expansion draft. Due to the sheer quantity of trades that the Legion made before the expansion draft, this strategy seemingly lowered the overall quality of players available in the expansion draft.
Legion’s strategy was to make sure they acquired the players they wanted, but it did seem to hurt the Liberty in the expansion draft. This situation led to some calling for the expansion team creation process rules to be changed in the future, preventing expansion teams from doing any trades before the expansion draft.
Since then, S2 has not gone well for the Liberty. After the draft they had by far the lowest overall TPE of any of the teams, and as of week 4 they are the only winless team in the league, scoring the second lowest amount of points (interestingly enough, the Las Vegas Legion have scored the lowest amount of points) and allowing by far the greatest number of points.
But there is still hope. The Liberty’s players are very active, and their overall TPE has been growing. They are trusting the process and building a team that should become very solid in the future.
Fox North: The Next Big Thing
Fox North is the Philadelphia Liberty’s best wideout, and easily their most dangerous offensive weapon. Fox North is second in the league in reception yards as of week 4 with 342 (just behind the Orange County Otter’s Robert Phelps who has 356). However, Fox North only has 1 touchdown on the year. But what sets Fox North apart from any other receiver in the entire league is how dangerous he is as a deep threat. His average yards gained per reception is 19 yards, highest in the league among anybody with more than one reception.
The brain behind Fox North is also behind his alter ego: The Liberty co-GM Silver Fox. Silver Fox was hired while still an undrafted rookie after he publicly made himself available to any GMs in the NSFL looking for a co-GM. Silver Fox has stated before that he has a dream of leading his own expansion team to glory, and he may be the man for the job as he already is gaining great experience in helping build up the Philadelphia Liberty.
EDITOR's EDIT: While Silver Fox previously stated he dreamed of creating his own extension team, he has since clarified that he is currently more than happy with his current co-GM role
The Interview
We sat down with Fox North / Silver Fox in the lobby of the Philadelphia Liberty’s practice facilities this Monday morning. He strolled into the room wearing his signature suit-and-tie while carrying his shoulder pads and equipment in a Liberty team bag with the team’s motto “Truth, Justice, Liberty” stitched on the side. He only had a few minutes before needing to head to a negotiations meeting, so we kept the pleasantries short before diving into the questions.
Q - “What's the secret to your success?”
Fox North - I've gotta say hands. While everyone else is fast, I can catch reliably - which is important when every catch might be the one you need for a 1st down. It also doesn't hurt to be the #1 receiver on an offense that's down often - I get a lot of looks when we need a big play to survive.
Q - “You are the obvious X-Factor on the Liberty's offense. Are there any of your teammates that you feel should be in consideration as well?”
Fox North - Omar Wright gets the job done when it counts - he's the guy we look to get that first down or pound it into the end zone. Paul DiMirio is also key as a possession guy - he may not get a lot of yards after the catch, but he can bring it in for the first down when we need it.
Omar Wright is the Liberty’s running back, and has 273 yards on the year, 7th in the league, but he has a relatively high average yards per carry at 3.8.
Paul DiMirio has 12 catches for 65 yards so far this year, 7th among active tight ends. However, many have noted his “clutch” factor – it seems like all of his catches result in first downs in clutch situations.
Q - “You also serve as a GM for the Liberty. Most are familiar with the Liberty's strategy of amassing raw talent through the draft and developing them over time. Now that we are 4 weeks into the season, how do you think that approach will pan out in the future?”
Silver Fox - I still think it's the right approach. Really, as an expansion team, I feel like it was the only approach. Legion may be hanging in there for now, but with no significant draft capital until S5, they're going to inevitably stagnate unless they can reel in some S1 free agents for S4. Meanwhile, we'll be growing, use S3's draft to plug any remaining holes, grab some free agents in S4 if we're lucky and be ready to compete at the beginning of S4 at the latest.
Q - “Is there a Liberty - Legion rivalry? To what extent?”
Silver Fox - Nothing much outwardly stated, but we definitely owe them some payback for screwing up the expansion draft by trading picks to S1 teams for active players. That hurt them AND us, but more us. So there's a little bitterness on the team because of that. They're also the only team who started on equal footing with us, so beating them would be a nod to our team-building strategy.
Q - “What advice would you give new prospect wide receivers wishing to find success in this league?”
Fox North - I'd have to say, at this point, pumping speed isn't going to mean as much as bringing in the catch when the team needs it most. Almost all the CBs and even safeties for every team have way more speed than a rookie can hope to beat, so pump up those hands to help keep the ball moving down the field - your team will thank you for it.
Q - “What advice would you give new GMs, co-GMs, or those with GM aspirations about how to succeed in a GM role?”
Silver Fox - Success as a GM comes in many forms. Is your team happy? Did you build a solid locker room for them to interact? Do you encourage a positive environment? To me, that's the most important thing. We drafted with that in mind, and it's paid dividends so far. Have we had a couple players tune out? Sure, but that happens to every team. Our core has a great time together and we'll only become better players because of it.
Another measure of success is how much work you put in - specifically in the draft. Running the team settings day by day isn't that difficult or time consuming once you get the initial learning over with, but the draft is a difficult beast. Adam and I must have put easily over 100 hours total into prepping for the draft, and I consider every minute of it worth it when I get to see the team we built interact.
Q - “Your name is Silver Fox but judging by your avatar you are not actually silver. What gives?”
Silver Fox - Yeah, that picture is from 11 years ago, when they just called me Fox. Nowadays it's all silver on both sides of my head, though the top of my head is still mostly the original color. No one escapes Father Time forever.
Conclusion
Silver Fox and the Liberty are trusting the process when it comes to team building. While many with the “I want results now” attitude have been criticizing them for their poor S2 performance, they do have a plan in place for building their team. They recognize their needs as a new team and they are taking steps to address it.
Fox North is this week’s Liberty X-Factor, helping spark an offense that would more than likely stagnate completely without him. We hope you enjoyed reading!
(1628 words, Request Article Bonus $600,000, Interview Bonus $250,000)
Requested Article Thread
@Silver Fox
Graded
The Philadelphia Liberty
The Philadelphia Liberty are an S2 expansion team, created alongside the Las Vegas Legion. Just days after both team’s creations, there was some drama between the teams. The NSFL had announced an expansion draft, where each team in the league could only protect a certain number of players, and all of the unprotected players could be drafted by the two expansion teams in the expansion draft. The two expansion teams would also be entered in the regular NSFL rookie draft.
To say that the Liberty and Legion took two different approaches to building a roster as an expansion team would be a gross understatement.
The Legion began wheeling and dealing almost immediately, trading many their picks in the S2 NSFL rookie draft and future drafts for current players on NSFL teams, while the Liberty stockpiled their picks and traded down to acquire even more picks. The Legion acquired players via trades, and the Liberty acquired draft picks.
The drama stemmed from the fact that the Liberty claimed that the Legion’s strategy was hurting both teams. The Liberty claimed that the Legion were trading for players that other teams would not have protected from the draft anyways, and that the Legion were giving other teams picks in the draft for players they could have been getting for free in the expansion draft. Due to the sheer quantity of trades that the Legion made before the expansion draft, this strategy seemingly lowered the overall quality of players available in the expansion draft.
Legion’s strategy was to make sure they acquired the players they wanted, but it did seem to hurt the Liberty in the expansion draft. This situation led to some calling for the expansion team creation process rules to be changed in the future, preventing expansion teams from doing any trades before the expansion draft.
Since then, S2 has not gone well for the Liberty. After the draft they had by far the lowest overall TPE of any of the teams, and as of week 4 they are the only winless team in the league, scoring the second lowest amount of points (interestingly enough, the Las Vegas Legion have scored the lowest amount of points) and allowing by far the greatest number of points.
But there is still hope. The Liberty’s players are very active, and their overall TPE has been growing. They are trusting the process and building a team that should become very solid in the future.
Fox North: The Next Big Thing
Fox North is the Philadelphia Liberty’s best wideout, and easily their most dangerous offensive weapon. Fox North is second in the league in reception yards as of week 4 with 342 (just behind the Orange County Otter’s Robert Phelps who has 356). However, Fox North only has 1 touchdown on the year. But what sets Fox North apart from any other receiver in the entire league is how dangerous he is as a deep threat. His average yards gained per reception is 19 yards, highest in the league among anybody with more than one reception.
The brain behind Fox North is also behind his alter ego: The Liberty co-GM Silver Fox. Silver Fox was hired while still an undrafted rookie after he publicly made himself available to any GMs in the NSFL looking for a co-GM. Silver Fox has stated before that he has a dream of leading his own expansion team to glory, and he may be the man for the job as he already is gaining great experience in helping build up the Philadelphia Liberty.
EDITOR's EDIT: While Silver Fox previously stated he dreamed of creating his own extension team, he has since clarified that he is currently more than happy with his current co-GM role
The Interview
We sat down with Fox North / Silver Fox in the lobby of the Philadelphia Liberty’s practice facilities this Monday morning. He strolled into the room wearing his signature suit-and-tie while carrying his shoulder pads and equipment in a Liberty team bag with the team’s motto “Truth, Justice, Liberty” stitched on the side. He only had a few minutes before needing to head to a negotiations meeting, so we kept the pleasantries short before diving into the questions.
Q - “What's the secret to your success?”
Fox North - I've gotta say hands. While everyone else is fast, I can catch reliably - which is important when every catch might be the one you need for a 1st down. It also doesn't hurt to be the #1 receiver on an offense that's down often - I get a lot of looks when we need a big play to survive.
Q - “You are the obvious X-Factor on the Liberty's offense. Are there any of your teammates that you feel should be in consideration as well?”
Fox North - Omar Wright gets the job done when it counts - he's the guy we look to get that first down or pound it into the end zone. Paul DiMirio is also key as a possession guy - he may not get a lot of yards after the catch, but he can bring it in for the first down when we need it.
Omar Wright is the Liberty’s running back, and has 273 yards on the year, 7th in the league, but he has a relatively high average yards per carry at 3.8.
Paul DiMirio has 12 catches for 65 yards so far this year, 7th among active tight ends. However, many have noted his “clutch” factor – it seems like all of his catches result in first downs in clutch situations.
Q - “You also serve as a GM for the Liberty. Most are familiar with the Liberty's strategy of amassing raw talent through the draft and developing them over time. Now that we are 4 weeks into the season, how do you think that approach will pan out in the future?”
Silver Fox - I still think it's the right approach. Really, as an expansion team, I feel like it was the only approach. Legion may be hanging in there for now, but with no significant draft capital until S5, they're going to inevitably stagnate unless they can reel in some S1 free agents for S4. Meanwhile, we'll be growing, use S3's draft to plug any remaining holes, grab some free agents in S4 if we're lucky and be ready to compete at the beginning of S4 at the latest.
Q - “Is there a Liberty - Legion rivalry? To what extent?”
Silver Fox - Nothing much outwardly stated, but we definitely owe them some payback for screwing up the expansion draft by trading picks to S1 teams for active players. That hurt them AND us, but more us. So there's a little bitterness on the team because of that. They're also the only team who started on equal footing with us, so beating them would be a nod to our team-building strategy.
Q - “What advice would you give new prospect wide receivers wishing to find success in this league?”
Fox North - I'd have to say, at this point, pumping speed isn't going to mean as much as bringing in the catch when the team needs it most. Almost all the CBs and even safeties for every team have way more speed than a rookie can hope to beat, so pump up those hands to help keep the ball moving down the field - your team will thank you for it.
Q - “What advice would you give new GMs, co-GMs, or those with GM aspirations about how to succeed in a GM role?”
Silver Fox - Success as a GM comes in many forms. Is your team happy? Did you build a solid locker room for them to interact? Do you encourage a positive environment? To me, that's the most important thing. We drafted with that in mind, and it's paid dividends so far. Have we had a couple players tune out? Sure, but that happens to every team. Our core has a great time together and we'll only become better players because of it.
Another measure of success is how much work you put in - specifically in the draft. Running the team settings day by day isn't that difficult or time consuming once you get the initial learning over with, but the draft is a difficult beast. Adam and I must have put easily over 100 hours total into prepping for the draft, and I consider every minute of it worth it when I get to see the team we built interact.
Q - “Your name is Silver Fox but judging by your avatar you are not actually silver. What gives?”
Silver Fox - Yeah, that picture is from 11 years ago, when they just called me Fox. Nowadays it's all silver on both sides of my head, though the top of my head is still mostly the original color. No one escapes Father Time forever.
Conclusion
Silver Fox and the Liberty are trusting the process when it comes to team building. While many with the “I want results now” attitude have been criticizing them for their poor S2 performance, they do have a plan in place for building their team. They recognize their needs as a new team and they are taking steps to address it.
Fox North is this week’s Liberty X-Factor, helping spark an offense that would more than likely stagnate completely without him. We hope you enjoyed reading!
(1628 words, Request Article Bonus $600,000, Interview Bonus $250,000)
Requested Article Thread
@Silver Fox
Graded
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