How to Play
Football Knower is a few games in one, and they all ask the same question: do you actually know ball? Every mode uses real players and real stats from 1999 to today. Pick a game:
GM Mode: the moneyball game
The main event. Build the best seven-player roster $100 can buy: a QB, an RB, two WRs, a TE, an O-Line, and a Defense. Every player carries a price tag set by his name-brand production. The big box-score numbers everyone remembers. What a player is actually worth (his era-adjusted rating) stays hidden until the season is over. The whole game is finding the players worth far more than their price.
- Each round deals a random franchise and era. Sign the best value on the board, then the next board spins up. You get one team reroll and one era reroll per game.
- The budget always leaves you enough to fill every remaining spot, and every board has an affordable option at each position, so you can never get stranded.
- One fixed season, fair for everyone. Your roster is the only variable. Schedule difficulty is never part of your score.
- At the end, the books open: every contract is graded STEAL, FAIR DEAL, or OVERPAID. Steals win coin-flip games. Sucker deals lose them.
Your GM Knower Score (0–100):
| Component | Points | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Season | 50 | How many of your 17 games you won. |
| Roster | 25 | Your team's effective strength: real talent plus same-team chemistry. |
| Value IQ | 25 | How many of your seven contracts were steals or fair deals instead of overpays. |
Verdicts & the Leaderboards
Both solo modes hand down the same verdict based on your record and score:
| Record | Verdict |
|---|---|
| 17-0 | PERFECT SEASON, the only road to an A+ grade |
| 15-16 wins | CERTIFIED FOOTBALL KNOWER. Also requires a 70+ score, so no lucky certifications |
| 12-14 wins | BALL ADJACENT |
| 8-11 wins | JUST A GUY |
| 4-7 wins | NOT A FOOTBALL KNOWER |
| 0-3 wins | YOU'RE FIRED |
The grade next to your score is a hard grader: an A+ requires perfection, full stop. All five boards live on one Leaderboards page: GM Mode, Legacy, Coach Mode, 1v1 Duels, and the Daily Gauntlet.
How games play out
Across every mode, the season sim rewards team-building, not name-collecting:
- Your ceiling is earned. No game against a real opponent is ever a lock, but how close you get to one rises with the quality of your roster. A coherent team wins the coin-flip games a real contender wins. A bag of famous names does not.
- Cupcakes get handled. Great teams put weak opponents away reliably, like real football. The pressure is in the hard games.
- Good teams respond. After a loss, your team gets a bounce-back boost the next week, but this can never help a perfect season, because 17-0 has no losses to bounce back from.
The Data
Player ratings come from real season stats (nflverse open data, 1999 to today), graded as percentiles within position and era, so a 1999 receiving season is measured against its own time, not the modern passing era. O-Lines and Defenses are drafted as whole season units, one for every year, so the vintage matters: the '15 Broncos defense and the '13 Broncos defense are very different cards.
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