History VideoGame / BlitzTheLeague

The result was ''Blitz: The League'', originally released in fall 2005 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}, with UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable ports the following year. Not content with merely returning ''Blitz'' to its arcade roots, ''The League'' reveled in RatedMForManly excess, with gameplay that encouraged dirty hits, steroid use, gambling, and every other seedy vice the NFL would never want to be part of its image. This all came packaged with an entire fictional league called, well, [[ShapedLikeItself The League]], complete with a promotion-relegation system like soccer leagues outside the U.S. use, its own detailed century-long backstory, and 17 teams, each with their own outlandish star players. This all paved the way for a single-player story mode written by the team behind ESPN's controversial football drama ''Playmakers'', where the 18th team of the league, after a humiliating season that ends with them getting sent down to the lowest division and their quarterback retired at the hands of the New York Nightmare's star linebacker Quentin Sands--played by his real-life inspiration, NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor-- go through a total overhaul in an attempt to finally win a championship and get their revenge.

** For Canada, a proposed law would've prevented the NFL or any other American league from establishing a team in Canada; said law was mostly a bluff to protect the UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague. Additionally, the Buffalo Bills had played several "home" games in Toronto between 2008 and 2013; while Southern Ontario has a good number of Bills fans, the games played in Toronto were sparsely attended.
** Mexico was initially thought to be a no-go for the NFL, with soccer being more popular than gridiron football; however, the NFL's Mexico Game, played off and on since 2016[[note]]The 2018 game was moved to the LA Memorial Coliseum, as the Los Angeles Rams were the designated "home" team that year, due to Estadio Azteca's poor field conditions, and the 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled due to UsefulNotes/COVID19[[/note]], has been well-attended with over 75,000 fans.

* RatedMForManly: Blitz is a more brutal form of football, with players kicking and punching each other on the field and delivering bonebreaking tackles. The off-field experience is just as manly, with [[BoozeBasedBuffs steroid based buffs]], benefits from hooking up with beautiful women and even a PrisonEpisode that ups the brutality to 11.
* {{Stripperific}}: Cheerleaders in this series usually wear little more than bikini tops, g-strings, mini-skirts, stockings and high-heels. They make the NFL's cheerleaders look wholesome in comparison.

** The Commissioner's plan to rig the championship in favor of the LA Riot in the second game comes to naught despite his constant rule bending. The Commissioner stacks the Riot's lineup with the best players in the league, starts them in a higher division than most of the other new teams and fakes a positive drug test on Franchise that almost ruins him. For all his efforts, the Comissioner is forced to swallow his pride and present Franchise the trophy at the championship game and on top of that, he's convicted of insider trading.

** There are no real world counterparts to ''Blitz II'''s Mexico City Aztecs and Vancouver Beavers. Currently, there are only US-based teams in the NFL; however, there are rumblings about international expansion. For Canada, a proposed law would've prevented the NFL or any other American league from establishing a team in Canada; said law was mostly a bluff to protect the UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague. Additionally, the Buffalo Bills had played several "home" games in Toronto between 2008 and 2013; while Southern Ontario has a good number of Bills fans, the games played in Toronto were sparsely attended. Mexico was initially thought to be a no-go for the NFL, with soccer being more popular than gridiron football; however, the NFL's Mexico Game, played off and on since 2016[[note]]The 2018 game was moved to the LA Memorial Coliseum, as the Los Angeles Rams were the designated "home" team that year, due to Estadio Azteca's poor field conditions, and the 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled due to UsefulNotes/COVID19[[/note]], has been well-attended with over 75,000 fans.

* BoringButPractical: Training your players and buying better equipment. Both actions provide permanent stat increases and make your team better.

** In the sequel, some teams change captains and end up with more antagonistic guys in that spot than they did before. For instance, the New England Regulars' original captain, Vonnie Treonday, was a trash-talker who could back it up, but by 2008, they've got a championship win with the dark clouds of cheating allegations over it, and their new captain, "Packrat" James, is implied to have been arrested on felony weapons charges--only to have them dropped because he has lawyers.

** Cookie Wallace, a diva receiver on the downswing of his career and carrying a rep as "Locker room cancer" is based on Terrell Owens. Who carried a similar reputation as his career went on.
** Shane Spain is basically Brett Favre. The veteran gunslinger QB who just refuses to retire, and even came out of one retirement to keep playing.
** Tito Maas is based off Washington wide receiver Santana Moss. Both famous for being not the biggest guy on the field, but being very hard to catch and bring down.

** The Los Angeles Riot, on the other hand, go full-tilt into this, checking many of the Nightmare's boxes while making the franchise as a whole incredibly easy to hate. The Commissioner created the Riot with the express purpose of having a star-studded franchise in a big market and constantly bends the League's rules to get them to a League Championship as fast as possible.

* RatedMForManly: Blitz is a more brutal form of football, with the offense and defense alike getting in on the violence in front of seemingly apathetic referees. Players are also very resilient, and can shrug off broken bones and nerve damage with only a shot of anesthetic and a SkywardScream.

* UnnecessaryRoughness: Actions that would result in fouls in the NFL go completely uncalled in The League, with the player encouraged to pull illegal moves like horsecollars (a grab by the shoulder pads) and facemasks (grabbing the front of the helmet) and try to deliberately injure opposing players.

* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Many of the tackles and tackle breaks look more like moves from the WWE than the NFL, with suplexes and flying elbows aplenty and many opportunities to [[KickThemWhileTheyreDown continue the carnage after the whistle]]. It's not uncommon to see a running back perform a flying knee on the way to a down, then get double teamed by a pair of linebackers on the next play.

* UnnecessaryRoughness: Actions that would result in fouls in the NFL go completely uncalled in The League, with the player earning points for illegal moves like Horsecollars (a grab by the shoulder pads) and facemasks (grabbing the front of the helmet).

** None of the violence players in The League commit would fly in the NFL or any other organized league in ''any'' sport. One such example of this contrast is defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who was fined over $200,000 during the first four years of his career for unnecessary roughness, late hits and attacking other players, all things that are encouraged in ''Blitz''.

** The sequel also sees multiple teams trade their more obnoxious captains from the first game for relative nice guys. The Las Vegas Aces, for instance, replace the egotistical Kelvin Diggs, who didn't gel with the rest of the roster's team-first mentality, with respected veteran Amos Newell, while the New York Nightmare's new captain, Kyle Carlson, proves much more of an introvert and quiet professional than Quentin Sands.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: Whatever success the Player-Created Team had in the first game ended up being undone by the events of the sequel, as Lyman Strang was indicted for gross misuse of public funds and forced to sell the team to The League due to his newfound bankruptcy, who would move them to Philadelphia and rebrand them as the Brawlers. The team dropped back to Division III and developed a reputation as sloppy hacks who can't win without cheating.]]

** There are no real world counterparts to ''Blitz II'''s Mexico City Aztecs and Vancouver Beavers. Currently, there are only US-based teams in the NFL; however, there are rumblings about international expansion. For Canada, a proposed law would've prevented the NFL or any other American league from establishing a team in Canada; said law was mostly a bluff to protect the UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague. Additionally, the Buffalo Bills had played several "home" games in Toronto between 2008 and 2013; while Southern Ontario has a good number of Bills fans, the games played in Toronto were sparsely attended. Mexico was thought to be a no-go for the NFL, with soccer being more popular than gridiron football; however, the NFL's Mexico Game, played off and on since 2016[[note]]The 2018 game was moved to the LA Memorial Coliseum, as the Los Angeles Rams were the designated "home" team that year, due to Estadio Azteca's poor field conditions, and the 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled due to UsefulNotes/COVID19[[/note]], has been well-attended with over 75,000 fanes

* FaceHeelTurn: In the sequel, some teams change captains and end up with more antagonistic guys in that spot than they did before. For instance, the New England Regulars' original captain, Vonnie Treonday, was a trash-talker who could back it up, but by 2008, they've got a championship win with the dark clouds of cheating allegations over it, and their new captain, "Packrat" James, is implied to have been arrested on felony weapons charges--only to have them dropped because he has lawyers.
** [[spoiler:Many of your potential options for the rookie and veteran protagonists from the first game's campaign also go bad by the time the second game comes around. Clayton Wescott becomes a full-blown egotist as the Washington Redhawks' QB[=/=]captain, Ted Lawless and Kurt Shock both end up on the cheating New England Regulars, Justin Jonas and Darryl Kinsman both end up on the LA Riot's overpowered roster when you hit Division I, and even Tyrone Kilgore signs with the New York Nightmare--though, considering the Nightmare aren't the enemy anymore, it's more of a betrayal to the old player-created team's fanbase than anything.]]
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: At the start of ''II'', Kid Franchise refuses to play for the Los Angeles Riot, insisting on going to his hometown team. But when it's time for the player to create the team's identity, they can just put the team in LA anyway.

* HeelFaceTurn: The sequel also sees multiple teams trade their more obnoxious captains from the first game for relative nice guys. The Las Vegas Aces, for instance, replace the egotistical Kelvin Diggs, who didn't gel with the rest of the roster's team-first mentality, with respected veteran Amos Newell, while the New York Nightmare's new captain, Kyle Carlson, proves much more of an introvert and quiet professional than Quentin Sands.

* PrisonEpisode: At one point in Franchise's career, he gets sent to the Milltown Correctional Facility for testing positive for Ultranol, an illegal performance enhancing drug. It just so happens that the prison holds an annual football game against the Supermax Prison Facility, and the unnamed warden promises Franchise an early release if he wins.
** Unsurprisingly, the "stadium" has a distinct prison flavor, from the poorly-kept field and jumpsuits, to the ambiance and the cheerleaders wearing stripper cop outfits.
* RatedMForManly: Blitz is a more brutal form of football, with the offense and defense alike getting in on the violence in front of seemingly apathetic referees.
** Players are also very resilient, and can shrug off broken bones and nerve damage with only a shot of anesthetic and a SkywardScream.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: Naturally. None of the violence players in The League commit would fly in the NFL. One such example of this contrast is defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who was fined over $200,000 during the first four years of his career for unnecessary roughness, late hits and attacking other players, all things that are encouraged in ''Blitz''.
** There are no real world counterparts to ''Blitz II'''s Mexico City Aztecs and Vancouver Beavers. Currently, there are only US-based teams in the NFL. For Canada, a proposed law would've prevented the NFL or any other American league from establishing a team in Canada; said law was mostly a bluff to protect the UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague. Additionally, the Buffalo Bills had played several "home" games in Toronto between 2008 and 2013; while Southern Ontario has a good number of Bills fans, the games played in Toronto were sparsely attended. As for Mexico, many think a Mexican franchise is not feasible due to soccer's popularity in the country.

** There are no real world counterparts to ''Blitz II'''s Mexico City Aztecs and Vancouver Beavers. Currently, there are only US-based teams in the NFL, and there legally cannot be a Canadian NFL team due to a law prohibiting NFL franchises while the CFL (Canadian Football League) still exists. As for Mexico, many think a Mexican franchise is not feasible due to soccer's popularity in the country.

** The Commissioner's relentless promotion of the LA Riot means nothing in the end despite his continuous efforts to sabotage Franchise's career. The Commissioner starts the Riot in a higher division than Franchise's new team, bends the rules to ensure the Riot make the qualifiers and fakes a positive drug test on Franchise that almost ruins him. For all his efforts, Franchise's team manage to beat the Riot in the finals [[spoiler: and Sands convicts him of insider trading]].

* RatedMForManly: Blitz is a more brutal form of football, with the offense and defense alike getting in on the violence in front of seemingly apathetic referees. During extremely brutal tackles, X-ray cutaways show ''how'' exactly the unfortunate player is going to be injured, ranging from showing the nerves in his shoulder tweaking, to his vertebrae shattering.
** Players are also very resilient, and can shrug off broken bones, concussions and nerve damage with only a shot of anesthetic and a SkywardScream.