Being a waiver claim for the Dallas Birddogs I'm not too sure about the teams history as a whole and who their rival or rivals are so I'll just pick Kansas City.
Losing a game is never an easy thing, it can affect the standings and hurt your team in the playoff hunt and if the team is already having a rocky season it can make it even harder. Losing to a rival like Kansas City however can sometimes derail an entire season depending on how big the loss is. This time after a close overtime loss, Arnie Rufus quickly understands how much this hurts his fellow teammates. Its a different feel in the locker room when you lose to a rival team, heads hang a little bit lower, speeches are more meaningful but harder to hear. These type of losses sting but Dallas looks like they will recover sooner rather than later. All around him Arnie sees people comforting each other and the team making sure that this loss doesn't ruin the season. They know they just got punched in the mouth but its clear that Dallas will stand tall and after the initial hurt from the loss they'll be ready for the next game.
To be completely honest, I'm not sure who exactly are the Hawks main rival. I'm assuming at this point it has to be either Chicago or Philadelphia, just based off where everyone is in the standings and how poor Baltimore has been for the past few seasons as well as Chicago and Philadelphia, but less for the example here, assume it is a game against Chicago in which we lost, and most likely there were three to five interceptions thrown by Jimmy Garoppolo, who is arguably the worst quarterback in the league, and does not do anything with the great offensive line he is going to have in front of him.
At this point, Jimmy is probably sitting there with his hand in his head, his head in his hands, as he is working through exactly what he did wrong to make the team lose yet another game this season, as this has become more of a habit for him than he is used to. And with that some teammates will be in there trying to cheer him up. But in the meantime, Pepe legs will be doing whatever he can to start around the locker room making Jimmy feel as bad as possible, knowing that it is entirely his fault that the team lost, and doing whatever he can to make sure that Jimmy knows that he needs to do much, much, much, much better.
Over the years of Quaid’s career with the Wraiths I would say our main rival is the Colorado Yeti. Both teams are original teams in the league and have had many important battles over the years. Both teams have recent Ultimus wins as well that further fuel the rivalry. It seems like every year the teams are close in the standings. With several other teams in the conference undergoing rebuilds the Wraiths, Yeti, and Sailfish have fought hard for playoff positioning every year. The week the Wraiths play the Yeti is considered “Yeti Week” in Yellowknife. The intensity is amped up to another level. Losing such a close game to them might be the worst thing in the world. The locker room looks like they witnessed an atrocity. The sometimes nonsensical Quaid chugs a bottle of bleach to “purge himself of the infectants”. Cho smashes his head repeatedly into a locker, Skyline chews on a football, Jeeta cries in a corner in the fetal position, and Warthol pulls hairs out of his head. Quarterback Jack is usually the first one to emerge from the mourning. It usually consists of a pep talk where he puts the tough loss behind and refocuses us for the future, and then says “let’s get Quaid to the hospital to get his stomach pumped.” (219 words)
I find the question about who are our biggest rival quite a tough one, we no tram which to me jumps out as an obvious rival. Now there are many choices here, the first would be Chicago, as we created and joined the league at the same time but there has never been much of a rivalry to be honest. Then you look at teams in our division, there has been bad blood in the past between us and the Otters, we have a tendency to knock Arizona out of the playoffs so I am sure they don't like that, you could also say San Jose just because one of our top podcasts loves to mock them. At the end of the day I would say our biggest rival are the Secondline, we have had many a good battle with them and especially early on were good at a similar time and have had many back and forth games with neither team always coming out on top. Now after a loss the locker room is a mixed place, you get the players who get angry with themselves, and the players who get angry with their teammates but you also get the players who try to keep things positive. And it is one of the players that would step up and help the team. The person that comes to mind is our Guard Felix Archstone, who just brings so much positive energy everything he does it is impossible not to get everyone back on track and ready to bounce back for the next game.
I consider my biggest rival to be the Norfolk Seawolves. While they aren't as close in miles as Dallas or Minnesota, or even in the same conference like Portland and London, they still have a ton of trash talkers and twitter smack talkers. From my main man Sconnie to Negs and probably my favorite out of all, Spike Daniels. But it's all been a fun little rivalry set up for what is to become the best draft class in ISFL History. But, the loss will definitely suck, the environment will be quiet and no one is really gonna talk, I gotta get them up though, as a captain is my job. I know losses are tough, but that doesn't mean we suck. Everyone is gonna lose at least once in their life, and today might just be that day for us. So get back up, and let's get to practice, that's the only way we can get better. And after that we all get hyped and ready for next week! Also, in this situation, the season ain't over! So we gotta remember that their are plenty more games for us to win and compete well in, even the overtime games. So yeah, that's my PT! I hope you enjoyed and were able to get something out of it!
The locker room was devastated after they watched the opposing team’s kick fly square through the uprights. As they meandered back into the locker room, their thoughts were filled with dread and regrets. Who would break this somber silence? Who would try to justify the loss, the mistakes made…
From the quiet, emerges a strong, confident voice. A voice as loud as it’s owner’s head was big. It was none other than Doy. Who else would be so brave, courageous and bold as to speak when all others faltered and floundered. Doy’s words were the sun. Bright. The simmering symphony of sentences shattered the secluded shadows. The disparities of the team were wiped away.
“Everyone, I can feel the pain deep within us all. The frustrations boiling up. But we can’t let it overcome us. We are a strong team, built on a foundation of youthful, growing players. Our time on top will come. This loss does not define us. We will watch the tape, practice to fix our errors, and come back better than we were today. Mark my word, Philly will rise up soon. Say it with me everyone. Ring the bell.”
The spirits of the team were lifted instantaneously. In unison, Ring the Bell was spoken by each member of the roster. And with that, those simple three words which were packed with so much truth, the team could see the path they were on in truer clarity then before, and their minds were delicately eased.