Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

Team handball, anyone?

While I’ve spent most of my life following “traditional” American sports, I’ve allowed myself to broaden my horizons over the years.

I became passionate about soccer in the early 1970s when it was still given the side-eye by many of my peers; stuck with Australian Rules Football even after ESPN expanded its programming lineup; and will always think World Team Tennis is fantastic.

**Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl**

Major League Rugby and the Premier Lacrosse League are now two of my favorite spring and summer pastimes, and slowly but surely I’m learning to appreciate cricket.

But few things have captured my fancy in recent months like team handball, so now I find myself swinging through the interwebs in search of every piece of information I can find. And as someone who is also (spoiler alert!) big into alternative leagues, I’m pleased to report that there was, indeed, once a pro team handball circuit in the United States.

Sort of.

In 1978 the National Teamball League debuted with six franchises – the Boston Comets, Chicago Chiefs, Detroit Hawks, New York Stags, Philadelphia Warriors and Pittsburgh Points.

“There are a lot of sports that don’t score enough,” Chicago manager Jim Teckenbrock told the Journal Herald of Dayton, Ohio, for a a December 28, 1978, story. “People want to see a lot of action, and they see it in teamball.”

Added Detroit skipper Paul Roberts, “It’s basically an American game based on team handball. We’re just starting. It’s a new baby and we have to work things out.”

Billed as a combination of hockey, lacrosse and basketball, teamball was a more frenetic version of team handball. There were five players to a side – including a goalie – with the object to throw a ball into a goal past the keeper. It also featured body checks, rough play and high-scoring matches.

Traditional handball is 7-on-7 and players can use their torsos to obstruct an opponent, but can’t use their arms or legs to do so (teamhandballnews.com is a great resource to learn more about the sport, including the official rules).

The NTL didn’t exactly capture the imagination of fans, exiting almost as quickly as it entered. But I wondered if perhaps such a league had been attempted again. I guess it depends on how you define “attempted.”

During a meeting of the Pan American Team Handball Federation in 2007, an official proposed the formation of an American pro league with franchises in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Salt Lake City and San Juan, but nothing came of it. More recently, there was again talk of professionalizing team handball in the United States, beginning in 2023.

In January, 2020, Sports Business Journal reported that IOA Sports in Orlando was doing research and development on an American-based pro handball league. Tentative plans called for 10 franchises at the outset, possibly partnering with NBA and/or NHL teams.

I recently reached out to Paul Garofolo, who was working on the project, and asked if it was still going forward. Unfortunately, Garofolo said the move to form a domestic pro league has been abandoned “for now.”

Needless to say, getting my team handball fix is not easy. I tried to find a club or league in Birmingham and got excited when I came across both Birmingham Handball Club and Birmingham Bisons Handball Club.

But they’re in Birmingham, England, roughly 4,220-miles away.

While pro team handball might not be a thing where I live, it’s a big thing in other parts of the world. There’s Handball-Bundesliga in Germany, Spanish Liga Asobal in Spain and Ligue Nationale de Handball in France, just to name a few. And the world’s best clubs compete in the European Handball Federation Champions League.

Sadly, none of those leagues or teams are located in convenient driving distance for me.

However, the World Games are coming to the Birmingham where I live this summer, and one of the events is men’s and women’s beach handball. Once I found out I immediately started watching videos to learn more about it, and now I’m excited.

Ultimately I’d love to watch a standard indoor game, but I have little doubt the sandy, 4 on 4 version will be highly entertaining. Plus, it might be my only chance to ever see team handball live.

I’m truly glad I discovered it and think it’s one of the most entertaining sports on the planet. And I’m pretty sure my interest in it will last much longer than the National Teamball League did.

USFL does good job on rules

After the United States Football League’s “Welcome to Birmingham” news conference back in January, I asked the league’s president of operations, Brian Woods, what kind of rules fans could expect. He told me it would be “90 percent” of the NFL playbook, with a few tweaks here and there to speed up the game.

I’m not gonna lie – that kind of bummed me out. One of the things that draws me to alternative football leagues is innovative (and sometimes off the wall) rules, and that comment made me think things this spring and summer wouldn’t be much different than what we see on Sundays in the fall and winter.

This morning, however, I was pleasantly surprised when the fledgling league announced its “10 percent” modifications. Truthfully, there’s not a single one I dislike.

“Fans are the USFL’s top priority, so our rules are designed to give fans the traditional physical play they know and love while adding some modern fast-paced elements,” Mike Pereira, USFL head of officiating, said in a statement. “The overwhelming majority of rules that govern game play in the USFL are standard at the professional or collegiate level. But we are incorporating a few unconventional ideas that we’re convinced will add offense, alter some coaching decisions and strategy for the better, and make it easier to get major penalty calls correct. Collectively, these changes will be good for the game of football and keep fans more engaged and entertained.”

For starters, post-touchdown conversions can be old school or new school. In recent years in alt-football there has been a move away from the kick entirely, but the USFL will offer the option of a single point kicked from the 15-yard line; 2-point conversion attempt ran or passed from the two-yard line, or a 3-point conversion for a successful run or pass from the 10-yard line.

Solid multiple choices, there.

The kicking game is also getting an upgrade as the league improvises an innovation from the 2020 XFL.

Kickoffs will be from the 25-yard line and no kicking team member may line up any further back than one yard. The receiving team must have a minimum of eight players in the set-up zone between their 35 and 45-yard lines. After a kickoff travels 20 yards, the first touch must be by the receiving team. If an untouched kick becomes dead, the ball belongs to the receiving team at that spot.

(The XFL rule had 10 players from the receiving team lining up on their own 30-yard line while the kick coverage team lined up five yards away on the 35-yard line).

I think this trend of eliminating high speed collisions on kickoffs is the wave of the future, and I like this rule very much.

Punts will be safer as well, since the USFL rule forbids gunners from lining up outside the numbers and being double-team blocked until the ball is kicked.

The onside kick vs. scrimmage play will make for some tough decisions by coaches. After scoring, a team can either attempt an onside kick from the 25-yard line or run a fourth-and-12 play from its own 33-yard line. If the team makes a first down, it retains possession.

(The Alliance of American Football had a similar rule in 2019, although the fourth-and-12 play was made from the 28).

Overtime looks fun, too, thanks to a “best-of three-play shootout” also inspired by the XFL. Each team’s offense will alternate plays against the opposing defense from the two-yard line. Each successful scoring attempt will receive two points. The team with the most points after three plays wins. The subsequent attempts become sudden death if the score is tied after each team runs three plays. The overtime period will extend until there’s a winner.

Other rule changes include the legality of two forward passes from behind the line of scrimmage; the clock stopping on first downs inside the final two minutes of the second and fourth quarters; all replay decisions made at the Fox Sports Control in Center in Los Angeles; defensive pass interference 15 yards from the line of scrimmage unless a defender intentionally tackles a receiver beyond 15 yards, which is a spot foul; and if a pass doesn’t cross the line of scrimmage, there can be no pass interference or ineligible player downfield penalties.

Pereira and the rules committee deserve a lot of credit. There are people like me who have no trouble with changes that go way outside the box, while others don’t want to see anything too abrupt.

The USFL rules package for 2022 does a nice job, I think, of making all of us relatively happy.

Squadron brings the fun

**Jared Harper and the rest of the Birmingham Squadron are a great addition to the city sports scene. (Scott Adamson photo)**

One of the best things about moving back home to Birmingham has been the chance to become an active hometown sports fan once again.

In years past (15 years to be exact), following UAB sports was done from a distance as I lived in Greenville, South Carolina. Oh, I managed to sneak home once to catch a basketball game during the Jerod Hasse era, and I made a day trip to Legion Field in 2017 to watch the Blazers football team make its return from the grave.

One weekend visit to the Magic City a few years ago allowed me to duck into Regions Field and see the Barons play, and I even showed up for the debut of the Alliance of American Football’s Birmingham Iron in 2019.

But ever since June, 2021, games involving Birmingham-branded teams have been played right down the road from me and I’ve been fortunate to make up for lost time.

I have to tell you, though, some of the most enjoyable new sports memories I’ve made since reestablishing my residence has been following a team that played its first game just four months ago.

The Birmingham Squadron – NBA G League affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans – made their debut last November and since then I’ve become completely enamored. From the first time I showed up to witness head coach Ryan Pannone conduct an early practice at Bill Burch Gymnasium on the Birmingham Southern College campus to the times I’ve fanned up at Legacy Arena for regular season games, it’s been a blast.

As a Birmingham guy I’m always hopeful any pro team that comes to town will succeed, and I got invested in this one immediately. Being a close follower of the G League long before this town was ever considered for a franchise made it easier, but now I feel like I actually have some skin in the game. I love men’s and women’s basketball at pretty much any level, but to have such a high level of the sport right in my figurative backyard has given my passion for roundball an added boost.

As is the case of any G League team, players go up and down, come and go, play and sit. Even so – with all the turnover – the Squadron has been consistently exciting.

Guard Joe Young, who has suited up for Birmingham 25 times during the regular season, averages 19.6 points per game and is the only player on the club to have a 40-point game in 2021-22.

Auburn product Jared Harper has been called up to the Pelicans five times and took a little time away when he joined Squadron teammate Justin-Wright Foreman on Team USA in the FIBA World Cup. During 18 regular season G League games Harper has lit it up for a 20.9 points per game average.

Center Zach Hankins is currently averaging 12.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per outing while forwards Zylan Cheatham and guard Ra’Shad James are pumping in 14.1 and 10.2 ppg on average. I could spit out a bunch of other names and stats (the team’s 37 percent 3-point shooting leads the league, for example) but the point is, this is quality basketball and quality entertainment.

It’s a team that’s easy to root for, which is why I cheered a little and cussed a lot during last night’s wild 143-129 loss to the Sioux Falls Skyhawks. Birmingham entered the game at 13-13 and right above the playoff cutline in the Western Conference.

This morning they’re right below it, and with only five games remaining in the regular season and three at home (including tonight’s rematch with Sioux Falls), it’s as though the playoffs have already begun.

Obviously I hope the Squadron gets hot down the stretch, lands one of the six conference postseason slots, and is still playing in April. When you enjoy something, you don’t want to see it end. And I’ve enjoyed Birmingham Squadron professional basketball very, very much.

I love my hometown, and having a new hometown team to love makes being back even more special.