Football across the stars

The modern incarnation of the United States Football League pulled off that rarest of feats; not only did the made-for-TV spring/summer circuit survive its inaugural season, it was renewed for a second.

In 2022 all eight teams were based in a Birmingham hub, so the Birmingham Stallions were the only squad that actually played in the city bearing its name.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

The New Jersey Generals, Tampa Bay Bandits, Houston Gamblers, Michigan Panthers, New Orleans Breakers, Philadelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Maulers never once suited up in New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Houston, Michigan, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

This coming season there will be four hubs; Birmingham will host the Stallions and Breakers at Protective Stadium; Detroit’s Ford Field will be base camp for the Panthers and Stars; the Memphis Showboats (replacing the Bandits) will share Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium with the Gamblers; and home for the Generals and Maulers will be Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio.

Yep, fans in Ohio will be asked to cheer for a New Jersey and/or Pittsburgh-branded team.

While league officials plan to eventually get all teams in the actual markets they represent, I think that’s secondary in the grand scheme of things. The USFL is a television series as much as it is a sports organization, so its owner – FOX – is more concerned about eyeballs watching the TV production than fans watching from the stands.

Good Triple A football presented in a major league way resulted in solid ratings from first week to last, meaning this USFL might’ve cracked the code when it comes to building a sustainable alternative football league.

Thus, they gave future football league founders a blueprint for success. And the way I see it, if it’s possible to identify teams with a city, state or region without actually having them play in that city, state, or region, why not go galactic?

Therefore, I respectfully request that the next person/group/business/corporation/network that decides to jump into the sports startup game forms the Interplanetary League of American Football (ILAF), which will compete in a single Earth-based hub for its first few thousand years of operation.

Each of the eight planets in our solar system will have a team to call their own, and to save you all time and effort I’ve taken the liberty to select nicknames for them. Please give a warm, alt-football welcome to the Earth Wind & Fire, Jupiter Auroras, Mars Rovers, Mercury Messengers, Neptune Voyagers, Saturn Rings, Uranus Probes, and Venus Flytraps. (Ideally, inhabitants of each planet would participate in a name-the-team contest, but that’s at least a millennium or two away).

Keeping with the interplanetary theme, the hub should be placed in an area known for space travel. To that end I suggest Brevard County, Florida, home of Cape Canaveral. A quick Google search shows that Rick Stottler Field is located on the Florida Tech campus in Melbourne, so that should do.

It’s primarily used for soccer and lacrosse and seats only 750, but that’s not a problem. The key is getting people from around the globe (and eventually, beyond) to watch on their TVs or mobile devices.

Who should be the ILAF’s broadcast partner?

The USFL has the FOX and NBC family of networks, and XFL 3.0 will be beamed via Disney’s ESPN, ABC and FX. If you’re looking at traditional, “major” networks, then CBS would be the logical choice.

But I’m not logical, and I choose to stick with a theme.

Therefore, Pluto TV should televise all the ILAF games.

I mean, it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Pluto is a dwarf planet and the ninth-largest known object to directly orbit the Sun (and of course I’m referring to the trans-Neptunian object and not the network … the network is located on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, which is roughly 91.525 million miles from the Sun. I’m not sure about its square footage).

It’ll be fun to see Drew Barrymore do commercials for the ILAF, although Pluto advertisements tend to haphazardly break into programming. That could prove to be irritating, especially in the middle of a play.

The more I think about it, though, the more I think it could work.

Put together some good logos, uniforms and color schemes, and I guarantee people would snatch up T-shirts, hoodies and hats repping ILAF teams.

In addition, a league of planets lends itself to catchy slogans.

“Mars Attacks!” could tie in to both the 1996 Tim Burton movie and the high-octane offense of the Rovers.

Saturn could go with, “Saturn: We run rings around the competition.” A secondary theme might be, “Saturn: We stopped building cars so we could build champions.”

And T-shirts that proclaim, “Jupiter … it’s a gas, gas, gas,” and “They’re not Uranus, they’re OURanus” would fly off the shelves.

Probably.

However, one big difference between the ILAF and USFL involves the timeline of franchise placement. I’m confident that if the USFL takes root, it’ll migrate to local markets. When it comes to moving ILAF clubs to their home planets, though, league officials will have no choice but to play the long game.

The desire to have the Rovers ply their trade in a domed stadium near scenic Olympus Mons must wait for colonization of the Red Planet as well as a combination of public and private funding for the venue. The holdup might be whether to use New Republic Credit (Star Wars) or Energy Credits (Star Trek) to pay for it.

And the temperature on Venus is anywhere between 820 and 900 degrees. Thus, just about all the Flytraps’ home games would have to be played at night.

Plus, Venus is more than 141 million miles from Earth, so that’ll make road trips exhausting for the Wind & Fire. It’ll be even worse if they try to cut costs and travel by bus.

Oh, and one hour on Mercury is equal to roughly 58 hours on Earth. You’ll want to stock up on plenty of beer and snacks for Messengers home games (and hope they never, ever go into overtime).

But we can worry about the minor details later.

For now, let’s concentrate on spreading alt-football hub love throughout our solar system.

And if the TV ratings are good enough, ILAF expansion in the Milky Way Galaxy might happen sooner than you think – possibly within the next 10,000 years.

Earth and Kepler-186f would be one heck of a gridiron rivalry.

A two-way street

Dereon Seabron was signed by the Pelicans organization last September.

Like other college basketball standouts, North Carolina State’s Dereon Seabron was hoping to hear his name called during the 2022 NBA Draft.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

Two teams were quite familiar with his name, though, and that prompted a call from his agent.

“On draft night, when it got to the later part of the second round, my agent called me and said there were two teams that would offer me a two-way contract if I didn’t get drafted – the (New Orleans) Pelicans and the (Philadelphia) 76ers,” remembers Seabron, who was voted the Atlantic Coast Conference Most Improved Player and second team All-ACC for the 2021-22 season. “But I never worked out with the 76ers. New Orleans liked me a lot and things went well when I got there, so I took the two-way from them. I flew in, we had training camp for summer league, and that’s how it all started.”

Seabron, a 6-6 guard, signed with the Pelicans last September, setting the stage for a season that has him spending some time with the parent club and the rest with New Orleans’ G League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron.

Playing overseas can be a lucrative alternative for undrafted players, but Seabron said he never considered that an option, especially after scoring 17.3 points and pulling down 8.2 rebounds per game in his final (redshirt sophomore) season with the Wolfpack.

“For me, personally, playing overseas wasn’t something I thought about,” he said. “The NBA was the only thing on my mind because I dreamt of it as a kid and felt like I was good enough to make a team.”

Two-way contracts date back to January 19, 2017, when the NBA reached a collective bargaining agreement which went into effect for the upcoming season. Part of the deal meant that teams could retain rights to two players who were part of what was then called the NBA Development League.

It would allow big league clubs to effectively expand their rosters from 15 to 17 players.

Then, it was an experiment, with 53 players signing two-way deals for 2017-18.

Today, such contracts are standard practice in the NBA/G League dynamic. And for Seabron, the benefits of being in the system are already paying dividends.

“It’s a good experience,” Seabron said. “When I went to work out with New Orleans, it just felt like a family atmosphere. I really like the organization.”

Players who have fewer than four years of NBA experience can sign a two-way contract, and are limited to two years with the same team. They’re eligible to play in 50 of the parent club’s regular season games (but are ineligible for the postseason) and can still practice with the team when not playing. Of course, NBA down time usually means active time with the G League team.

Two-way players are paid a flat rate equal to half of the league’s minimum salary, and there are no salary cap implications.

Seabron is the only active two-way player in the Pelicans’ organization; the other, E.J. Liddell out of Ohio State, is currently recovering from a torn right ACL.

And while a player can be cut at any time, his contract can also be converted to a regular NBA contract (point guard Mike James was the first to get the contract upgrade, that coming on December 7, 2017, when he was with the Phoenix Suns). Once this happens, another two-way contract spot opens.

Seabron led the Squadron in scoring in two of the first three regular season games, then was transferred to New Orleans prior to Birmingham’s West Coast trip. On January 9, during the Pelicans’ 132-112 road victory against the Washington Wizards, he scored his first NBA points and was presented the game ball by New Orleans coach Willie Green.

Last Sunday in the Squadron’s 122-104 loss to the Stockton Kings, Seabron shared high-scoring honors with Javonte Smart by hitting for 22.

Entering the two-game road swing at Raptors 905, Seabron had suited up for Birmingham 17 times (averaging 14.3 points per game), and has four appearances with New Orleans. In his 18th and 19th games with the Squadron, he totaled 40 points, leading the team with 25 points in a 115-95 victory on Thursday.

“I really like the concept of two-way players, and I really like our guy,” Birmingham coach T.J. Saint said. “I told him after (Saturday’s win over Stockton) that it was one of the best games I’ve seen from him as far as controlling the game at the end. Not forcing it, getting organized … I was very proud of him.”

Seabron hopes to make his way to a full-time roster spot with the Pelicans sooner than later, of course, but his time in Birmingham has been time well spent.

“I definitely think playing in Birmingham has helped me a lot, especially on the defensive end,” he said. “I can go out and get the reps and make reads, and we do the same things here they’re doing in New Orleans, so it makes it easier when you make the move.”

Saint agrees.

“We have some non-negotiables and defense is one, so if he didn’t (play defense), I’d pull him right away,” Saint said. “But again, he’s getting it done, and I’m very proud of how he’s playing.”

Squadron nips Kings

On paper, it looked like a major mismatch.

In one corner, you had the Stockton Kings, owners of the best record in the league (9-1) and riding a four-game winning streak.

In the other was the Birmingham Squadron, sitting at 1-10 and reeling from 10 consecutive losses.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

The Kings topped the Squadron in almost every statistical category coming into Saturday’s clash at Legacy Arena, so it was a solid bet they’d add to the home team’s misery.

If you made that bet, however, you lost.

Birmingham took the fight to Stockton from the outset, and even though they trailed at the end of the first, second and third quarters, a steady push over the final 12 minutes led to an exciting 112-111 victory.

The teams swapped leads nine times in the fourth stanza, but it was Zylan Cheatham’s bucket with 33 seconds remaining that accounted for the winning score.

“These guys work behind the scenes so hard,” Squadron coach T.J. Saint said. “We had an off day after the RGV game (a 132-105 loss to Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday) – didn’t even show the film, just threw it away – and then had two really good days of practice. Then they came back and beat the No. 1 team in the league.

“They deserve it.”

Entering the game, the New Orleans Pelicans affiliate was 0-8 when down after the first quarter, 0-10 when behind at the half, and 0-8 when on the short side of the scoreboard after three.

But despite trailing 30-28, 61-56 and 88-86, Birmingham had the most points at the final buzzer, snapping the franchise’s longest losing streak.

Cheatham led a balanced Squadron attack with 21 points and seven rebounds, while James Kelly Sr. had a double-double with 17 points and 11 boards.

Other double-digit scorers for the winners were Javonte Smart (16), Feron Hunt (15) and two-way player Dereon Seabron (12). The Birmingham bench accounted for 50 points.

“It feels good,” Seabron said. “We needed this.”

Wes Iwundu and Deonte Burton provided a potent 1-2 punch for the Kings, scoring 24 and 23 points, respectively.

Iwundu added 12 rebounds to the cause.

Still, none of it was enough to take down the Squadron, who kept their composure while playing with controlled aggression.

“That starts with our front office originally identifying guys with super high character,” Saint said. “They’ve always had it and we’ve been through hard times and that’s what I told them. Hard times make strong men.”

Birmingham and Stockton play again Sunday at 6 p.m. at Legacy Arena.

“We went through a lot, we have a lot of season left, and hopefully this propels us, but we’ve got to do it again in 22 hours, this same team,” Saint said. “This could really be a boost to us, but we have to have the maturity to do it again tomorrow.”