Author: Scott Adamson

What If …? is an animated series based on the Marvel Comics anthology that tells stories of superheroes through the lens of alternate timelines in the multiverse.

And because I’m a nerd, today I’m playing the What If …? game with the Canadian Football League. What if New York, Tampa, Detroit, Chicago, San Antonio and Mexico City had been granted CFL expansion franchises in the early 1970s?

“Gee, Scott,” you say, “That’s a specific list of non-Canadian cities wanting to join the CFL. What made you choose them?”

Good question, imaginary questioner. But I didn’t think of them – the Canadian Press reported the news in an October 8, 1971, story.

An interview with CFL commissioner Jake Gaudaur revealed that representatives from these locales had either made “formal or indirect bids” for inclusion in the nine-team league. He said all bids would be considered, with the caveat being the chances of admission were practically nonexistent.

“Two groups in New York have, in writing, said they intend to make formal applications for a CFL franchise,” Gaudaur told CP. “We also have a letter from a lawyer in Mexico City purporting to represent a group seriously interested in acquiring a franchise.”

One of the New York bidders was crooner Paul Anka, an Ottawa native. The Chicago query came via telephone conversation. As for the interest from San Antonio and Tampa, Gaudaur seemed to dismiss those as “less than serious.”

The most intriguing proposal (at least to me) came from a group representing both Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, although the team would have its home office in Windsor and play in Detroit. That bid had already been dismissed by the time the other cities came calling.

“It’s flattering to have all this interest and I think it’s academic proof we’re becoming better known outside,” Gaudaur said.

But he added that his opposition to expansion beyond Canada was based on his thought that it would hurt smaller Canadian cities and possibly lead to the NFL putting franchises north of the United States border.

“And as bigger U.S. centers came in, a smaller Canadian center would be forced to drop by the wayside,” he said. “But it’s my responsibility to bring any interested applications before the executive committee for consideration.”

Gaudaur met with Anka and another New York ownership group headed by Robert Schmertz (then co-owner of the NBA Portland Trail Blazers) in September, 1971. The pitch from the Detroit-Windsor group had been made earlier.

In both the New York and Detroit cases CFL franchises were seen as “replacements” for NFL teams; New Jersey was building the Meadowlands and luring the Giants to East Rutherford, while the Lions were heading to the Pontiac Silverdome.

A CFL team in New York would play in Yankee Stadium while Detroit-Windsor would share Tiger Stadium with the American League baseball team.

“I spent a day with a five-man delegation from Detroit,” Gaudaur told the Vancouver Sun in February, 1971. “What they want to do, really, is get a franchise for Windsor, put the offices there, and play the games in Detroit. I don’t think it’s a spite thing, that they’re just using us as a way of getting back at the NFL or (Lions owner Clay Ford). They’re serious. Naturally, they’re looking for a revenue producer for their stadium but there would be so many obstacles.”

In the early 1970s the CFL was often able to convince American college superstars (like Joe Theismann) to come north instead of jumping immediately to the NFL. But pro football’s biggest league was making inroads with Canadian fans, and Gaudaur realized the CFL was at a crossroads.

He explained the situation during an expansive interview with the National Post:

“Look, if we accept the application – if we put a team in New York – we open ourselves up to a possible National Football League invasion of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Or, we face the possibility of successfully expanding into New York, then getting applications from Miami, Detroit, Chicago, or wherever.

“Eventually, we could have more American cities in the CFL than Canadian. And eventually they would be calling the shots, just like the National Hockey League. Then how long would the Canadian rules stick, how long would the limits on American players last, and finally, how many Canadians would be playing in this league?”

On November 25, 1971, the CFL’s executive committee was supposed to consider the New York application, but instead referred it to “further discussion.”

That further discussion took place on December 1, 1972, when the group rejected Schmertz’s application for the franchise in New York as well as any immediate expansion into the United States.

“There was not sufficient evidence put forward that the league needed to expand to the United States,” Gaudaur said.

So how close did the CFL come to expanding way down south in North America in the early 1970s?

Obviously, not very. I mean, at every turn Gaudaur said there was no appetite for it, and he was right.

But American expansion talk never seemed to go away completely and was realized (however briefly) with the mid-1990s “CFL in America” experiment.

Using the What if …? approach, one can assume that somewhere in the multiverse a 15-team Canadian Football League was formed in 1972, possibly preventing the formation of the 1974 World Football League because it was, in fact, already a world football league. I hope it survives and thrives.

I’m just bummed that in our timeline we’ll never know if the shared Canadian-American franchise was called the Detroit-Windsor Navigators or Windsor-Detroit Wayfinders.

Two things popped into my head on Tuesday when I learned that Jerry Glanville had become the first coach to be hired by Major League Football.

One, he’s not really the first coach to join the league.

In 2016 – two years after MLFB was formed – Dave Campo, Charlie Collins, Ted Cottrell, Robert Ford, Buddy Geis, Galen Hall, Larry Kirksey and Chris Miller were set to handle the whistle and clipboard duties for the circuit’s eight teams.

However, those coaches never got around to coaching those teams because those teams never got around to playing games.

Two, and the most important, was a bit of wisdom Glanville shared with me and a handful of reporters way back in 1994:

“I don’t like to kick back,” he said. “I’d rather kick ass.”

That interaction didn’t come anywhere near a football field, although Glanville has been on quite a few in a coaching career that covers more than half a century. Instead it was in the garage area of Talladega Superspeedway where he was preparing to take his Ford Thunderbird for a spin in an upcoming Auto Racing Club of America (ARCA) race.

Like many followers of sports, I was most familiar with Glanville from his coaching days with the Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons. By the time he came to Talladega he was temporarily out of football – but hardly out of competitive juices.

“It’s time to get back to work,” he told those of us who were leaning in to hear him over the roar of engines. “I miss work. In fact, I only missed four days of work in 30 years but now I’ve missed 150 (since being fired by the Falcons).”

He gave a great interview … and of course, he talked a lot about football. He hinted that he was preparing to interview with the expansion Carolina Panthers in the coming weeks.

But motorsports was more than a novelty for him.

He mentioned that he began drag racing at Toledo Speedway when he was 15, and had stayed involved in the sport ever since. He was under no illusion that he would ever become a racing sensation in the stock car world – it was strictly part-time and he was trading paint with full-time stars. Still, it was fun – and a challenge.

So what does this have to do with yesterday’s MLFB news?

Maybe nothing.

Or maybe everything.

Because at 80 years young, Glanville’s got one monumental challenge ahead of him.

“The excitement of competing is easily surpassed by the excitement of making a kid better,” Glanville said in a statement released by MLFB. “Game day is great, but how great is it to get one into the NFL? That is the real excitement for me.”

But getting a kid into the NFL means first he has to get one into Major League Football, and that’s something that – to date – just never has worked out.

I mean, this league has had more false starts than an all-rookie offensive line.

When MLFB, a publicly traded company, was originally announced nearly eight years ago, it was to start with eight to teams located in non-NFL and non-Major League Baseball locales. Players would average $2,500 per game except for a franchise player, who would make much more and be a year-round employee of the league.

The idea seemed fine, but as months and years went by, it never really moved past being anything more than an idea.

MLFB President and CEO Frank Murtha has been involved from the start, but Major League Football has also seen former NFL standout Wes Chandler named president and former Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Vainisi tapped as CEO.

Employees have come and gone, but the one constant has been Major League Football delaying its start year after year.

Previously its biggest news came in the spring of 2020 when officials announced they had acquired roughly 90 percent of the defunct Alliance of American Football’s equipment. That buy included 1,000 sets of helmets and pads plus uniforms, medical equipment and electronics.

That was an important business acquisition, but landing a coach makes a bigger splash.

The addition of Glanville gives MLFB both a colorful character and someone who has experience in the NFL, CFL, XFL, college football, the United Football League (as a consultant) and even The Spring League.

“We know our runway gets shorter every day,” Murtha said in a statement. “We needed to find a coach that has the experience not only in football, but in league development. Jerry Glanville fills that criteria perfectly. Not only does he know football and coaching as well as anyone on the planet, but he has also been involved in the early life of start-up leagues. Having coached at all levels of football including the NFL, Coach Glanville brings a wealth of knowledge to MLFB.”

Tuesday’s announcement is part of a rollout of information from Murtha. On Friday, he says, the league will have a new website, with the expectation that team locales, names, training camp dates and schedules will be revealed soon.

Training camp is supposed to open in mid-April in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, with six teams beginning the inaugural MLFB season in May.

Cities under consideration for flagship franchises are Mobile and Montgomery in Alabama; Little Rock in Arkansas; Daytona and Orlando in Florida; Canton-Massillon in Ohio; Oklahoma City in Oklahoma; Austin, Denton and San Antonio in Texas; and Norfolk-Virginia Beach in Virginia.

Do I hope MLFB can finally make a go of it?

Yes I do.

Do I think it will?

No, I do not.

With the new USFL coming this April and XFL 3.0 set to begin play in February, 2023, I just don’t see it finding a space to squeeze into. I’d love to be wrong but let’s be realistic – it’s going to be hard enough for just one of these alternative leagues to stick.

Still, the fact that Glanville is involved makes me more interested in Major League Football than I was before. And since – after all these years – this old coach/racecar driver refuses to kick back, I hope he gets a chance to kick ass one more time.