Month: October 2020

If you’re a fan of alternative football leagues, you don’t have to wait until the XFL returns in 2022 to get your off-brand gridiron jollies.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

Next Tuesday in San Antonio The Spring League hosts a tripleheader at the Alamodome. The Alphas meet the Blues at noon, EDT; the Aviators take on the Jousters at 4 p.m.; and at 8 p.m. the Conquerors square off with the Generals. The nightcap will be televised live on Fox Sports 1. In all, the network will broadcast seven Tuesday or Wednesday night games through November 18, with a championship game set for Thanksgiving week.

“As we’ve said time and time again, FOX is football,” Mark Silverman, President of National Networks for FOX Sports, said in a press release. “We’re excited to add TSL to our already robust football programming lineup complementing our NFL and college football coverage. We believe in TSL’s mission as a developmental league and we are excited to grow with them in partnership over the coming years.”

The multi-year TV deal includes an option for the network to make a minority equity investment in TSL.

I really want to cheer for the Aviators. Their logo is stylish, and it gets extra points for featuring Howard Hughes wearing a bomber hat and goggles. And this is the young, dashing Howard Hughes, not the old, reclusive Howard Hughes who watched “Ice Station Zebra” over and over again.

However, I’ll call the Generals “my” team. They’re the only squad that has a former UAB player (wideout Andre Wilson) on the roster, and as an alum that carries a lot of weight. Plus they have two players hailing from South Carolina (the state I live in) two more players from Alabama (my home state) and two players each from North Carolina and Georgia, which are my neighbor states.

I kinda feel like I owe them my allegiance. TSL is in its fourth year but casual football fans might not be familiar with it. Although it has ‘league” in its name it mostly serves as an extended-stay scouting combine, allowing players to get game reps in hopes of moving on to the National Football League, Canadian Football League and, more recently, the XFL. According to its website, 141 TSL veterans have signed with NFL or CFL teams. It’s also been the home to high-profile second, third and final chance projects like Johnny Manziel and Greg Hardy.

Last year it partnered with the XFL to test rule innovations, so it serves as a proving ground for more than just players. Three TSL squads played a combined five games this spring before being halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But while the coronavirus has led to “bubble” formats for other leagues and other sports, TSL was already ahead of the curve. It’s a one-stop shop, so playing games at a single site is the way to go. Since its debut in 2017 Austin, Texas, and White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, have served as hubs.

This fall it’s the Alamodome, and with the CFL forced to cancel its 2020 season and the rebooted XFL having to shut down at the halfway mark, TSL finds itself with enough quality talent to field six teams.

“Given the reduction in roster sizes heading into NFL training camps this year and the cancellation of the CFL season, it was critical to accelerate our league expansion and provide additional development opportunities for players this fall,” The Spring League CEO Brian Woods said. “We also wanted to seize the opportunity to play TSL games when America traditionally watches football. Our plan will be to return to the spring season in 2021.”

I’m curious about how this one-off fall season impacts TSL in the future. I doubt FOX has any real ratings expectations for early week, short-season football in late October/early November, but it could give the network an idea of how to present the product next spring.

And keep in mind that TSL players aren’t earning salaries; they pay a registration fee of $2,100 and compensation comes only in the form of food and housing.

So instead of a play-for-pay league it’s actually pay-to-play (with three hots and a cot). If they stick to that model then continuing to have no ties to cities and competing at a central location makes perfect sense.

But if it decides to try to be something more – whether that’s an affiliated feeder system to the NFL or possibly an equal partner with the third iteration of the XFL – then you’re looking at cities and stadiums and player payrolls and all the pitfalls that come with them. Woods is already familiar with such a scenario; he was commissioner of the Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL), which was a minor league hoping to hitch its wagon to the NFL as a farm system. That circuit played two limited seasons in 2014-15 but suspended operations in 2016, leading Woods to segue to TSL.

So, is there any kind of appetite for glorified practice games wrapped in a bubble? I have no clue. With NFL and college football in full swing and grid competition available Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, people might prefer to Netflix and chill on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

But it’s there if you want it. And regardless of its future, I’ll give The Spring League credit for providing off-brand football fans an unexpected present.

The World Football League went out of business on October 22, 1975. As for actual competition, though, that business concluded in the wee hours of October 20, 1975.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

The final Sunday (October 19) of WFL action featured four games. Birmingham blanked Memphis, 21-0, and Shreveport outscored San Antonio, 41-31, in the two afternoon contests; Portland thumped Jacksonville, 30-13, in an 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time showdown; and Southern California whipped The Hawaiians, 26-7, in a game played in Honolulu that kicked off at 11:30 p.m. EDT.

(Philadelphia defeated Charlotte, 18-10, on October 18 in what we can now call “The Beginning of the End.”)

No one could’ve been sure that this – the second weekend of the WFL’s split-season schedule – would be its last, but I can’t imagine anyone being the least bit surprised that it was.

League meetings were held in New York on October 13-14 with the option of shutting down very much on the table. When they were over, WFL Commissioner Chris Hemmeter announced that such touchy subjects as staying in business or going out of business would no longer be discussed publicly.

“We are not going to indulge in any more speculation about the viability of the WFL because its viability to us has never been questionable,” Hemmeter told the Associated Press. “We will not entertain questions about the future of the league because such questions always end up implying that the WFL is weak and its future is questionable. Nor will we entertain questions about our financial condition as these questions are internal matters.”

Any time the CEO of a business uses words like “speculation” and “viability,” it usually means those who are speculating about its viability are on to something. And they were.

The 1975 WFL tried to pick up the pieces of the 1974 version by being an entirely new and separate entity in a corporate sense. It was “New League Inc.” doing business as the WFL, so technically it was a remake instead of a sequel.

The business model was based on the “Hemmeter Plan,” which meant most players were paid one percent of a team’s income after expenses. According to the 1975 media guide 42 percent of a team’s revenue was allocated for salaries, 3 percent to the injured reserve pool, 10 percent to stadiums and 6 percent to the league. The remaining 39 percent covered everything from front office salaries to utilities.

Such constraints were designed to keep spending in check and help the 11 franchises remain solvent. Unlike 1974, you wouldn’t have to worry about franchises folding or relocating.

But …

In early September the Chicago Winds did, in fact, fold when two financial backers pulled out.

And the Hemmeter Plan – while sound in theory – meant many players were making minor league money because attendance was extremely low in most cities. In fact, even the bare-bones pay scale was being scaled back as the season progressed.

Throw in the fact that the WFL had no national TV contract and even the most optimistic fan realized it’d take a miracle for the league to survive.

Which brings us back to the last game in WFL history, played before 15,905 fans at Aloha Stadium (many who paid $3 for end zone seats). Leading up to the game six Hawaiian players, including two quarterbacks and a top receiver, decided to leave the team instead of taking further cuts. Those who stuck around had already decided to meet the day after the contest and figure out if they wanted to play out the season.

For the record, Southern California’s Benny Ricardo accounted for the final points in WFL history when he kicked a 38-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to make it 26-7.

That happened around 9:30 p.m. in the Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone and 2:30 a.m. Monday on the East Coast of the United States. By Monday afternoon, the fate of the league became pretty clear.

While Birmingham drew a nice crowd of 35,000 for the game against its archrival, fans around the rest of the league stayed away in droves. Only 1,293 showed up in Philadelphia, Portland drew 8,713, and Shreveport had 8,500 paying customers.

Associated Press headlines the day after the Sunday games read, “WFL Is Close To Folding Up” and on Tuesday it was reported that an emergency call among owners was set.

The afternoon newspapers of Wednesday, October 22, printed the obituary:

NEW YORK – The World Football League, professional sports’ most unsuccessful league, decided to fold in mid-season, it was learned today.

The WFL, reorganized this year by Chris Hemmeter following last year’s series of disasters in which $20 million was lost, simply could not attract the crowds necessary to keep the 10-team league afloat.

“It’s over,” said an official of the Birmingham franchise. “The league has had it.”

As you might’ve surmised by now, alternative football is my kink. If a new league comes along, whether it’s big-time, small-time – or as is usually the case, short time – it has my interest.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

But here’s an interesting twist; 100 years ago pro football was, in fact, alternative football. Not only that, it was viewed by many as an abomination to the sport made popular by college athletes.

History shows that 1920 was a pivotal year in the evolution of the game, so let’s dip into the primordial soup …

As the 1900s entered its teen years, professional football had no central governing body and was split into regional loops scattered across the country. Ohio and Minnesota were states that seemed to take it most seriously, with Ohio home to the American Professional Football Conference (made up of the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Tigers and Dayton Triangles). Still, there were teams and leagues from coast to coast, often barnstorming and utilizing informal schedules.

And the fact that they stocked their rosters by luring both former and current college players with money did not sit well with the “establishment.”

In December, 1919, officials of the Western Intercollegiate Conference Athletic Association voted to revoke letters and “disqualify for all employment in connection with conference athletics” any player who made the jump. In January, 1920, other college officials joined in the move to thwart any professional leagues.

Upon returning from the National Intercollegiate Association Convention, L.W. St. John – Ohio State director of athletics – expressed solidarity with the WICAA. “Professional football is a posthumous child of the game,” he told the Buffalo Courier for a February 1, 1920, story. “There is not a thing that can be said in its defense by any sensible man who loves sport. Professional managers are unscrupulous in their dealings with players. They tamper with college men still in school. Young players in need of money are often unable to withstand the temptations held out to them. Their morals are corrupted.”

Some newspaper columnists of the day sided with traditionalists. A national syndicated column known as “The Insider Says” had this to say …

This autumn sees a bigger boost than ever in professional football. Elevens have been formed all over the country. They are especially thick in the Midwest. The game has progressed so that regular sectional schedules are followed, leading to a championship. These pro teams are made up mostly of former college stars. A wide range of colleges are represented on the line-ups.

“One thing you’ll notice – there are mighty few Yale, Harvard and Princeton grads playing professional football. One can’t help feeling this fact is a credit to those institutions. No great glory attaches to the institution that supplies a large number of professional football athletes. Football is fundamentally a strictly amateur college game.

On the other hand Jack Veiock – the noted sports editor of the International News Service – saw professional football as inevitable. He wrote:

Each succeeding season sees the pro grid game increasing in popularity and many followers now believe that it will only be a matter of time until a professional football league will be in operation.

The professional game has been played for many years by scattered teams. With a few exceptions these elevens, or “clubs,” have made a big success of the game financially. And as football grows in popularity, the chance for the professional game to flourish will grow in proportion.

Ohio is the stronghold of the pro game, Jim Thorpe’s brilliant aggregation, the Canton Bulldogs, who laid claim to the national title in their class after defeating the Massillon Tigers 3 to 0, furnish a vivid example of what the game may develop if it is taken up by competent promoters.

… Suppose Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit or Cincinnati should suddenly be stung by the professional football bug and a league formed. Do you think it would lose money?

Those words were written in January, 1920.

Eight months later, wire services picked up this story:

CANTON, OHIO – Jim Thorpe, famous Indian football player and coach of the Canton Bulldogs, a local professional team, has been chosen head of the American Professional Football Association, the only professional football organization in the country, according to an announcement here today.

Representatives of eleven cities unanimously voted Thorpe to the presidency with Stanley Cofall of Cleveland as vice president and Art Ranney of Akron for secretary and treasurer.

A decision was reached to refrain from luring players out of college for the professional game.

The new league featured members of the Ohio-based APFC along with the Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Cardinals, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, Decatur Staleys, Detroit Heralds, Hammond Pros, Muncie Flyers, Rochester Jeffersons and Rock Island Independents. It had actually been formed on August 20, 1920, but this was the first time a “ceasefire” had been announced between the amateurs and the pros. There were still some shady dealings early on, but after a couple of years the hands-off approach was in full effect. Thus, college ADs no longer had to worry about their athletes being “corrupted,” and could continue to look down their noses at men who played for pay.

As for the pros, well, the game might’ve been intended as a spectacle for amateur athletes, but they ended up providing a pretty good brand of alternative football. After the American Professional Football Association opened its inaugural season on September 26, 1920, it played one more year under the APFA banner.

On January 28, 1922, it changed its name to the National Football League.