Have you ever wondered how NFL Smackdown got started? Ever wondered about how we envisioned the theme of this site? Here is the history behind NFLSD and how it originated.

Two fans; one a Browns' fan and the other a Steelers' fan, met on public Cleveland Browns site and they both had view points that were controversial.

The Browns fan was pessimistic, wore his heart on his sleeve. He was outspoken and very passionate about his team. He would make comments that many of the Browns faithful didn’t agree with and he found himself not fitting in with the fans and therefore, he quickly became an outcast and one of the most hated. He was different, which was a unique quality about him; he got fellow fans to hate him for loving his team. He called them Clowns and said, “They are Clowns until they play like the Browns," as a result, many of his fellow fans lashed out at him. He eventually was banned for not being a "good Browns fan."

The Steelers fan was one of the most controversial members ever on their site. He was 100% pro Steelers, and if you know a little bit about the rivalry that exists between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, then you understand the hatred between the rivals. Nonetheless, the Steelers fan quickly developed a reputation as someone that should be confined to the “Smack Shack” and closely monitored because of his antics. The staff there would edit his material, suspend him up to one month, one year, and then finally a lifetime ban, which had a strange and unusual twist because they never developed any reasoning for it. Our guess is that they simply couldn’t handle his no-holds-barred style of smack anymore.

After dealing with all of the politics from the Browns site and many of the other sites, they developed a site that would be censorship free where you could say, for the most part, anything you wanted to about the teams. Fans could say how they felt without feeling the repercussions from the site owners and controllers. No rules, no holds barred.

The idea was to even let fans bash each other and rekindle the rivals that many of us love such as Bears against Packers, Dallas against the Eagles, Steelers against the Browns, Raiders against the Chiefs, Buffalo against Miami, and many others. Fans could “put the smack down” sort of speak without being edited or getting banned.

That site quickly gained a lot of popularity, which eventually became it's downfall. With it growing so quickly it was next to impossible to select the best group of moderators to assist the management. Anarchy soon broke out and the site was dissolved. It was to the point where it had to be reconfigured and rebuilt into what the original idea of NFL Smackdown was suppose to be.

Several of the surviving members decided to get together and build a new and improved NFL Smackdown from the ground up. They knew the first NFL Smackdown was onto something special, but this time they realized that more discretion needed to be used when selecting site leaders. New rules were also made to keep the site user friendly. They knew that having the best smack on the internet and the freedom to post almost anything that members wanted wasn't satisfying enough. Instead, they would have to also report on NFL and NCAA Football and make it more football oriented.

The new management selected vBulletin and developed more aspects of the site such as the Home Page, Blogger, NFL Draft, NFL Player and Member Affiliates, Smack Shots, Smack Offs, Arcade, Message Board, and other new features. They even decided to select a logo that would exemplify the theme of the site.

At last their vision of NFLSD was becoming a reality. In 2004, with this new structure in place and the new ideas implemented, our fan base grew quickly in only our first year under the new regime and it didn't stop there.

In 2005, only 1 year later, the site had over 118 NFL Player and Fan Affiliates, over 300 members, and the proper leadership in place to continue the growing success of our theme; NFL Smackdown.

Our top priority is to not only bring you the best football smack site, but to keep our site fun and exciting. Whether you enjoy in depth NFL Draft analysis, reading news and commentary regarding your favorite team(s), or you just want to come to a place and talk smack with rival fans, you've come to the right place.