Australia's Phil Molloy a structural engineer, is an elite member of the APBA Football community who has shared numerous innovations to refine the game for at least the past 10 years. I first interviewed him in April 2013 for our APBA ICONS series and in late 2014 pitched my 2007 Patriots against his 1993 Niners in the global Skype tournament assembled by the National Card Football League. Phil talks at length here about his inventions for APBA Football, including:

When APBA takes hold, not even an ocean’s distance can keep the faithful from satisfying the addiction. Such is the case with structural engineer Phil Molloy, a native of Australia whose Hail Mary and QB sneak innovations are among the valuable refinements he’s contributed.

“I love the NFL and I love games, so it's easy to be obsessed,” says Molloy, an avid Forty-Niners fan who plays solitaire and face-to-face and goes by the handle “6649er” on some message boards. “I have a good friend — he was my best man when I got married — who plays it with me.”

Having tried cricket board games in his youth, his love of numbers fuels his APBA modifications. “I've used that solid basis in math and stats to develop my innovations,” he says.

The native of Adelaide began following the NFL after he watched his first Super Bowl in 1982. ...

On Sept. 10, 2001, I was on what turned out to be a very brief first visit to Montreal. Many of us certainly remember watching the Giants and Broncos Monday Night Football game, in which Ed McCaffrey suffered a season-ending broken leg in the third quarter after catching six passes for 94 yards and a touchdown. At the time, APBA was still in a period of financial uncertainty, reflected in numerous articles in the APBA Journal. We look back to that time and the season sets from that difficult 2000-2002 period — including the "mystery" of the 2001 season set.

UPDATE: The official APBA Football 2001 season set is now available, hitting the APBA shop only five days after I posted this:

John Storer runs one of those low-key sports gaming blogs that belies its wealth of valuable information. His broad range of gaming experience includes numerous Cincinnati Bengals relays with the "Big 3" of tabletop gridiron games (APBA, Strat-O-Matic and Statis Pro, although one might include Paydirt in a "Big 4" — and yes, John owns the Sports Illustrated game with the Steelers-Dolphins cover photo from the 1972 AFC championship game). Of course, John is also an avid baseball gamer (APBA master and Strato Super-Advanced), and he's even tackled APBA basketball and the Foreman-Lyle match with Title Bout (and he unveils a rare copy of Pro Boxing as issued by APBA in the 1990s).  

What his blogs don't tell you is that he is a commissioner of the  and has been a member of more than 30 leagues throughout his long gaming career.   

The Classic Sports Gamer on Wordpress: https://classicsportsgamer.wordpress.com/

The Classic Sports Gamer on Weebly: https://theclassicsportsgamer.weebly.com/

Independent Football League website (Action PC):  http://iflfb.weebly.com/index.html

The Ohio-based, nationwide National Card Football League — and its sister venture the American Card Football League — share details of their methods for drafting, playing,  stat-keeping and more in the inaugural episode of GamePlan with the APBA Football Club.   

Eric Simon's family has had a long relationship with horse racing, which makes his obsession with the out-of-print APBA Saddle Racing game mosrt understandable. So diligently does he assess the statistical and timing accuracy of horses and jockeys that he put his calculations to the test by rating 800 horses at a time. He has created horses, free of charge, for the 2018 racing season and 2020 Breeders Cup. Here, Eric shares insider's knowledge of the sport of horse racing and how best to depict those realities on the tabletop track.

Equibase horse racing database: https://www.equibase.com/

Winning Post 8 (2018) horse racing game for PS4: https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Post-8-2018-PlayStation-4/dp/B077YPHQHK

Veteran game designer Brien Martin rhapsodizes about his wealth of playing experience across all tabletop sports. Fans of recently released Fast Drive Football have no doubt noted Brien's World Football League replay with his homebrewed cards. He's also thinking creating a fictitious "living league" for the game.   

Chris Doelle and Michael Wright, friends and football teammates since junior high school in Texas, turned their love of the game into Friday Night Legends, a team-based representation of high school football across the country and the decades. Launched on Kickstarter in November 2017, FNL is an outgrowth of the pair's Lone Star Gridiron website, dedicated exclusively to curating Texas high school football news, history and stats. With more than 800 high school teams going back to 1907 carded, FNL has built a strong following, evidenced by repeated requests for new teams (they make a great high school reunion gift). FNL's sister game, Saturday Legends, takes the concept to college football, with some tweaks in game play. Chris details the game's origin and the pair's rigorous research method.

Minnesota grade school teacher Beau Lofgren is a relative newcomer to APBA at age 40 (he turns 41 on Sunday, Aug. 8). He's recovering after helping save a child from drowning on a recent field trip and was kind enough to share some thoughts on his progress in this Aug. 5 interview.  His wife’s uncle got Beau on the APBA track with the 1987 master baseball game. Lofgren, a teacher of third- and sixth-graders, uses board games to teach his students as well as his own children. He and his older brother, Ben, (a math teacher) play APBA as frequently as they can — with Ben eyeing good tournament teams while Beau hews more to playing out the "what if" scenarios. Beau is an Oakland A's fan nearing the end of his '76 Twins master game replay.  We also give a shout-out to the Aug. 5-7 APBA "high rollers" at Chris White's Las Vegas tournament.  

Ron Emch has built a Hall of Fame-level resume of APBA gaming. From recording dozens of golf tutorial videos to creating the Glass City baseball tournament in Toledo, Ron is building the kind of APBA legacy that puts him in the company of the pantheon of greats. Here, he guides you on how to optimize your experience with the game of APBA golf and details his favorite courses, players and rounds, Of course, we also talk about the spectrum of APBA games; Ron has participated in the official APBA soccer and hockey tournaments. And, he's a fan of sll manner of games — with a collection rivaling the number of videos he has created dedicated to documenting his corner of the APBA world.  

In the past week, Al Wilson's Fast Drive Football tabletop board game has electrified the gridiron gaming community. Playing in about 15 to 20 minutes per game, FDF is more word-based than numbers driven — with team cards using descriptive words like "prolific" (1969 Vikings offense), "inept," "meek" and "undisciplined" (1976 Buccaneers).