Month: February 2022

When news broke on Monday that XFL 3.0 and the National Football League were officially collaborating on “select innovation programs to further expand the game of football and create increased opportunities for player development both on and off the field,” the first thing that popped into my head was a Troy Vincent interview from 2014.

At that time, the NFL executive vice president of football operations told NFL.com he eyed a future NFL developmental league.

“We need to keep the pipeline of talent flowing, and that means for all areas of our game: players, coaches, scouts, game officials,” he said. “I am responsible to look at whatever the competition committee looks at, and that includes a developmental league. For all this football talent around, we have to create another platform for developing it. Maybe it’s an academy – and what would it look like? Maybe it’s a spring league; we’ll look to see if there is an appetite for it.”

As you probably know, the new United States Football League is positioned to informally serve as such a pipeline – at least for now. It holds the first round of its inaugural draft tonight in preparation for an April 16 season launch.

But yesterday Vincent was the primary NFL official to comment on news coming from the USFL’s future spring rival.

“The XFL has shown us that innovation is one of its core principles,” Vincent said. “We are hopeful that this relationship will support further development and improvements in the game of football at all levels.”

According to the joint release sent by the XFL and NFL, the nonexclusive working relationship will stress player health and safety and working on “forward thinking physical and mental fitness programs for players, the study of playing surfaces and equipment, and the sharing of game trends and data.”

The XFL, which was attempted twice (2001 and 2020) by professional wrestling mogul Vince McMahon, is now owned by Dany Garcia, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Redbird Capital Partners.

“We are extremely pleased to collaborate with the NFL in these important areas,” Garcia said. “We are bringing forward an XFL that is progressive and forward-thinking when it comes to innovation, leveraging the newest technology to enhance gameday experience.  We have an open field for innovative rules to enhance in-game access. Sharing insights and practices between the XFL and NFL will do a tremendous amount of good for the game of football and support the player ecosystem overall.”

Other avenues of cooperation include international football development and scouting, officiating, and rule tests designed with player protection in mind.

Garcia stressed that the newest XFL isn’t being rebuilt as the second coming of the World League of American Football (later NFL Europe and NFL Europa). She told ESPN it would not be a developmental league.

“That’s a no,” she said. “We are a spring league. We will play at the highest level in the spring. There is not the anticipation of any player sharing that changes the dynamic. That’s not how we’re executing our vision.”

Call it what you will, but in this era of domestic professional football any league whose acronym isn’t NFL is a de facto developmental league, isn’t it? What the USFL and, I presume, the XFL will pay its players is good money to you and I, but nothing like the millions possible in the game’s ultimate league.

Semantics aside, it’s safe to assume that virtually all players in the USFL and XFL hope to develop their talents enough to earn an NFL roster spot.

And as for this particular working relationship, I like the possibilities.

I thought the XFL of 2020 was a quality product with a terrific rules package. Its kickoff and punt rules (kickers lined up at their own 30 while the kicking team set up at the opponents’ 35-yard line – five yards across from the receiving team; on punts, players on the line of scrimmage could not be released until the ball was kicked) were designed with player safety at the forefront, and perhaps it was that kind of forward thinking that caught the NFL’s attention.

The NBA G League serves as a great proving ground for NBA rule tweaks, and the XFL could serve the same role for the NFL even without sharing players. I’m hopeful it will adopt many of the unique innovations it used a couple of years ago.

It might not be able to afford the best players, but it can make up for it by being the most fun to watch.

Obviously this is all in the very early stages and it’s doubtful that any of the parties involved fully know what this partnership will look like until its in place.

But there’s a chance Garcia can get her standalone league and Vincent can still see it serve as a developmental circuit. If they can create a better, safer game, they both win – and that would be the best development of all.

Back in 1979 – after Birmingham had been granted a franchise in the American Football Association – I read a story in the local paper about the California Football League. Seems the West Coast circuit was looking to tangle with the AFA champion once again after winning the inaugural King Kong Bowl in 1978.

That ridiculously-named event pitted the AFA champion Shreveport Steamer against the CFL champ San Jose Tigers, and the Californians crushed the Cajuns, 32-6, in front of 15,000-plus fans at State Fair Stadium in Shreveport. (Fun fact: due to a printing error, the game program billed the contest as the “Hong Kong Bowl,” which I guess made it international in scope).

The article went on to list all the teams in the California circuit, and it got me interested because I was already an alternative football goob thanks to the World Football League and Birmingham Americans and Vulcans.

Anyway, those were the days long before the internet, so CFL news was not readily available and I had not yet reached the level of goobdom that involved research. Now, though, I feel a moral obligation to share the story of a pretty darn good minor football organization.

Some version of the California League had been around for years, but in 1977 the semi-pro alliance attempted to put more emphasis on the “pro” than the “semi” and establish itself as a legitimate minor league. Playing a July through September schedule, the 1977 season featured the San Jose Tigers, Twin Cities (Marysville-Yuba City) Cougars, Fairfield Flyers and River City (Sacramento) Buffaloes in the North Division and Southern California (Santa Ana) Rhinos, San Gabriel Valley Saints, Long Beach Mustangs and Los Angeles Norsemen in the South.

Still, there was a strong “We just play for the love of the game” vibe. While some teams paid their players (the Fairfield Flyers reportedly earned $75 per game), the San Jose Tigers did not. San Jose general manager Larry Glissman did provide his athletes with free beer, though.

Quarterback Craig Kimball, who played collegiately at San Jose State, told the Ukiah Daily Journal, “It’s just an opportunity to go out there and get dirty. But it’s a lot more fun than college.”

Despite the low pay (or no pay), Glissman said the players were all-in.

“It’s a remarkable thing,” he said. “I had been in baseball all my life and I was used to dealing with kids signing bonus contracts for $100,000. I usually found them crappy. Now, I find myself in something I’ve never experienced before. These guys really want to play football — not for the money, which they don’t get anyway, but just for the sake of playing football.

“When he had our first tryout, we had 175 players come out. We made two cuts — to 125 and 75 — and the next thing we knew, we were up to 175 again. Guys who had been released were coming out again … I had never seen anything like it before. These guys play because they want to.”

And they played well, usually before 6,000-plus fans at their home stadium. San Jose won the California League championship in 1977 and 1978. In 1979, however, the Tigers were knocked off their throne. The Twin Cities Cougars won the league that season, and went on to pull a four-peat by also claiming titles in 1980, 1981 and 1982.

Al Darby coached the Cougars to three of those crowns, as well as a pair of minor league football national championships while compiling a 54-10 record.

“We were tremendously successful with the Cougars on a competitive level,” Darby told the Chico Enterprise-Record in 1983. “The local people really supported the team. I think the Marysville-Yuba City franchise was one of the most successful in the country but we still lost money. It costs money to get players and maintain a program.”

Indeed.

Many of the clubs couldn’t afford the shoestrings for their shoestring budgets, although by 1980 the plan was to give players a percentage of the gate. One – the Los Angeles Thunderbolts – was sued by the Sacramento Buffaloes for paying players’ salaries (as much as $400 per week) and gaining a competitive advantage. But that team, coached by 23-year old Bruce Allen (son of George Allen), was kicked out of the CFL before ever playing a game after the league ruled it had committed several rules violations.

And there was plenty of franchise turnover, with the organization burning through 16 different teams. Once the United States Football League started up in 1983 and began signing away dozens of minor league players and coaches, the late 70s/early 80s iteration of the California Football League died a quiet death.

But it served its purpose in offering second chances, last chances and just the chance for players who wanted to play to keep doing it.

Darby went on to become an assistant coach with the USFL’s Oakland Invaders and Twin Cities QB Fred Besana – an NFL castoff – became the starting signal caller for the Invaders at the ripe old age of 29. In 1984 he set a USFL record by completing 19 consecutive passes in Oakland’s 17-12 victory over the Jacksonville Bulls.

“It was a lot of fun,” Besana said in a phone interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1983. “In the NFL, it’s a job. In the minors, you work all day and practice a couple of hours at night. It’s a lot of young guys looking for a shot. Most teams don’t even get paid. I got $50 a game.”

After leading Oakland to a Western Division title he made a bit more than that, signing a $1.2 million contract extension in 1984.

Turns out playing in the minor California Football League had the potential to pay major financial dividends.

The United States Football League will open its inaugural draft Tuesday, February 22, and the first eight players off the board will be quarterbacks.

Today the league announced the format for its 35-round draft, which will be held February 22-23 in Birmingham. The eight teams will make signal callers the circuit’s first players due to the structure of the draft.

“We’re looking forward to conducting our inaugural USFL Draft and selecting the league’s first 280 players over two days,” Brian Woods, USFL president of football operations, said in a statement. “For the 2022 season, we’re using an analytic modified snake system that’s equitable for all our teams during our first-ever draft. Our teams have needs at every position, so we also chose a unique format that made our teams focus on evaluating and drafting key positions first.”

Known officially as the Player Selection Meeting, the first day of the draft will be held between 6 and 9 p.m. Central Time and consist of 12 rounds. The draft will proceed by position, beginning with quarterback (Round 1 overall), followed by edge rusher/defensive end (Rounds 2-4), offensive tackle (Rounds 5-7), cornerback (Rounds 8-11), and back to quarterback (Round 12). Teams will have two minutes per selection on Day 1.  The modified snake system between positional rounds allows each team to have two number-one picks at two positions.

The USFL Draft lottery draw was conducted on Thursday with each team assigned a selection number (one through eight) for each round. The Michigan Panthers will make the first-ever draft pick of the 2022 USFL, followed by the Tampa Bay Bandits, Philadelphia Stars, New Jersey Generals, Houston Gamblers, Birmingham Stallions, Pittsburgh Maulers and New Orleans Breakers.

Day two of the draft starts at 9 a.m. Wednesday and lasts until all 35 rounds are completed. During rounds 13-23, teams will have 90 seconds to make a pick, and the position order will be: wide receiver (Rounds 13-17); safety (Rounds 18-19); center (Round 20); inside linebacker (Round 21); and guard (Rounds 22-23). The selection time will be one minute for rounds 23 through 35, and the position order will be: defensive tackle/nose tackle (Rounds 24-26); running back/fullback (Rounds 27-28); outside linebacker (Rounds 29-31); kicker (Round 32); punter (Round 33); tight end/h-back (Round 34), and long-snapper (Round 35). Teams are required to draft at least one player from each position group.

If a team’s time expires in any round without a selection, it can still choose a player but risks letting the team on the clock take the player it was considering.

Trades between teams to achieve a different selection order or acquire a player or players will not be permitted. However, a team may elect to pass during any round in exchange for a compensatory pick that may be used at the conclusion of a different position round. If more than one team uses a compensatory pick in a given round, the draft order within that position round will determine the order for compensatory selections.

The draft pool includes up to 500 players who have already signed contracts with the league and are the only ones eligible to be drafted.

A 10-round supplemental draft will be held on March 10 to select 80 more players. This gives potential players more time to opt in with a signed contract. Teams will have two minutes between selections during the supplemental draft, and may select from any position group.

At the conclusion of that draft, each team will have 45 players, for a league total of 360 players. Once the season begins on April 16, with Birmingham meeting New Jersey at 6:30 p.m. at Protective Stadium, each team’s active roster will have 38 players plus a seven-man practice squad.