I made the following case:

We play what we believe to be the greatest pickup touch football game in the world.  The GEFNFL (Good Enough Friday Night Football League) started in 1977, when the company intramural game got too rough and started requiring stretchers each week. The founders (Bill Ray and Cliff Pautz) started rounding up guys after work on Friday nights for a fun light one hand touch football game in the local park.  They would mark off a field, and divide who ever showed up into 2 teams.  The rules evolved to provide a fun, competitive game that would still let us get to work on Monday, unhurt.  For example; fumbles are dead balls that go to the offense.  There is a three second delay rush on pass plays to minimize but not eliminate blocking.  Rushing plays are defined as plays with more than a quarterback in the backfield.  The rules and the players worked together so well, that we seldom ever the need to call a penalty. Everyone gets a chance at playing every position.

Every year in fall, it became a weekly thing, running for about 6 weeks, ending when daylight savings time started.  The seasons were lengthened to about 10 weeks, once we moved to locations that had lights. We have regular season games, the last game of the year is our Super Bowl, if we arrange for another game it’s the Pro Bowl, and sometimes we even sneak in a late Snow Bowl game.  Eventually we rented a marked field, with goal posts as well as dedicated lights and even bleachers.  Instead of rounding up people by word of mouth and phone, we began to use that new technology called email.  In 1994, the Players email list was turned over to me, when Bill Ray left the company.  I didn’t realize I would need to recruit players to keep the game alive.  To encourage participation, I started writing little email reviews of the games, and keeping game statistics while playing, with a pencil and paper under my baseball or stocking hat.  By 1996, we were keeping records and built a GEFNFL home page by 1997 with .  The homepage contains Individual Stat Summaries and Records, Year in Review Game Summaries, League History and some random pictures. 

http://www.wschott.com/GEFNFL

Players typically joined as the news spread by word of mouth, first family members, and neighbors of our co-workers, and then we were found by a few friendly groups on the internet.  It’s currently about 50-50 co-workers and non-co-workers.  We have had 209 different players join the team since I started keep records.  I’m guessing there were between 300 to 400 different players over the entire 37 year history.  Currently there are about 95 players on the email list.  All we need is an average of 10 players a week, to cover the cost of the field at about $5 a head.  There is even a Fan email list for friends and former players to keep up with the game.

Our player’s ages have ranged from 14 to 59.  The young guys play with the old guys and we always learn something from each other.  Yes, we have had a few of the ladies join us over the years, but not in quite a while.  There are still two players from those original teams that play regularly.  I’m one of the new guys.  I started in 1980.  Most of the current players weren’t even born then.  Although you’d hardly call me athletic, I’m very proud of my 142 consecutive games record, and my 200 combined touchdowns game ball (only 4 awarded since we started keeping records).   At age 55, it is the most fun I have all year.  We are 8 weeks into the 2013 season, and still going strong.  I’m not officially old until I can’t play this game anymore.

 Wayne W. Schott