The 2016 fall season of the Pittsburgh Flag Football League began this past Sunday for all players both youth and adult.  For the youth players, they hit the field for some combine drills to get them loose and have their skill levels assessed.  The youth regular season will begin a week from this Sunday on September 25th.  

On the other hand, the adult league regular season kicked off Sunday with teams already engaging in some fierce competition.  The adult league looks a little different than last year with several new teams, newcomers, new names, new alliances, and new attitudes.

The returning teams to the PFFL include ANOTHER ONE, WRENIS PINKLES, GREEN MACHINE, VENOM, STEELTOWN, BILLY GOATZ, PUCK U, PATRIOTS, VOODOO, and BLACK KNIGHTS.

PRIMETIME is also a returning team, but with a different name.  Last season, they went by the name of ZIP EM UP and won the PFFL championship.

Now for the PFFL newcomers and let me tell you there’s a long list.  New teams vying for the title include WRECKING CREW, TRIBE, HONEY BADGERS, FIGHT CLUB, MARS, HURRICANES and the  YOUNG BLOODZ,

One key note to make is that 4-time PFFL champion, VAPOR, is no longer a team.  Team members have found homes elsewhere with new PFFL teams.  Most of VAPOR created SUICIDE SQUAD and Bryan Maldonado became part of the newly-formed HIGH OCTANE.  The DECEPTICONS also split up and joined these teams with Lance Brunsell going to HIGH OCTANE and Brandon Seachrist to SUICIDE SQUAD.

So after a brief introduction of the adult teams, here’s a quick recap of Week 1’s highlights:

• Newly-formed SUICIDE SQUAD went 2-0 in their first two games, scoring 19 points in each of their games.  They defeated STEELTOWN by 7 and PUCK U by 6.

• ZIP EM UP’s name may have changed, but their play hasn’t.  PRIMETIME went 2-0 in their first games, defeating HIGH OCTANE 32-13 and YOUNG BLOODZ 40-0.

• After finishing last season with a 2-8 record, VENOM came out this season ready to play.  They went 2-0, beating HONEY BADGERS 12-0 and BLACK KNIGHTS 14-7.

• MARS is a new PFFL team and they showed their power this week with two large-marginal victories.  They defeated HURRICANES 34-6 and YOUNG BLOODZ 35-0.

• Two newcomers failed to impress this week.  Both HONEY BADGERS and YOUNG BLOODZ went 0-2 on Sunday.  HONEY BADGERS were only able to score one combined touchdown in both of their games and YOUNG BLOODZ failed to score a single point.  Both these teams need to get their offenses rolling if they want to be successful.

• PFFL veteran PUCK U failed to impress on Sunday.  PUCK U went 0-2, losing to STEELTOWN 27-21 and to SUICIDE SQUAD 19-13.