Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

Failure to launch

I’ve always been jealous of sports fans who live in cities large enough to support multiple professional teams in the same sport.

In New York, for example, you can choose between the Jets and Giants, Yankees and Mets, Rangers and Islanders and Knicks and Nets among the “Big Four.”

**Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl and Instagram @scottscribe60**

Los Angeles has the Rams and Chargers, Dodgers and Angels (Anaheim is close enough), and Lakers and Clippers.

And of course Chicago (home base of my friend and “From the 55 Yard Line” podcast partner Greg Smith) features a Windy City split between the Cubs and White Sox.

Well, gentle reader, I can now join the club because I have a choice to cheer for either the Alabama Airborne of Major League Football or the Alabama Airmen of the Freedom Football League. I mean, both these leagues are coming soon, right?

Right?

With all the news about the new United States Football League and XFL 3.0 dominating alternative pro football talk, there’s a chance you’ve tabled your discussions about MLFB and the FFL (for the record I’ve written about both before). Major League Football was founded in 2014, while the Freedom Football League was announced in 2018. So what else do we know about them?

Well, MLFB has threatened to get up and running several times during its seven years of shelf-sitting. It was originally designed to be a bridge league between college football and the NFL, similar to the Alliance of American Football (BTW, MLF bought some of the AAF’s used equipment after that league went cleats up before completing its first season in 2019). Trademarks were filed for the Alabama Airborne, Arkansas Attack, Florida Fusion, Northwest Empire, Ohio Union, Oklahoma Nation, Oregon Crash, Texas Independence, Utah Stand and Virginia Armada, with a spring/summer season format.

Rule changes were to include four-point field goals (kicked from 50 yards or longer) and PATs attempted from the hash mark furthest from where the touchdown was scored, creating a more severe angle.

And as a publicly traded company, fans could own a piece of MLFB.

In May the league announced it was “continuing its plan for a late summer 2021 demonstration season” although summer has less than three months left and MLF has yet to demonstrate it still has a plan.

And what about the Freedom Football League? It unveiled team names right out of the gate: Austin Revolution, Birmingham Kings, Connecticut Underground, Florida Strong, Oakland Panthers, Ohio Players, Oklahoma City Power, Portland Progress, San Diego Warriors and St. Louis Independence.

That was in 2018. Since then there have already been name changes. The Birmingham Kings are now the Alabama Airmen, the Portland Progress is the Portland Power, the Austin Revolution is the Texas Revolution and the St. Louis no longer has a nick – that’ll be for the fans to decide.

The league, founded by Ricky Williams and a handful of other former NFL players, is built on the cornerstones of social justice and activism. And according to its website, “… the FFL will be owned by a unique consortium that includes former NFL players, active players from each FFL team, the local franchise operators, and most uniquely, the fans.”

In the past few months the FFL has conducted some interesting “Founders Roundtable” discussions and provided profiles of front office personnel. As for the kind of football the Freedom League will play, though, that’s one of the best kept secrets in sports. I’ve gone over its website with a flea comb and still can’t figure out if it’s indoor or outdoor, spring or fall, touch or tackle – no clue whatsoever. Those of us with an alt-football addiction go into a frenzy when we read about rule innovations, so related tidbits of information are vital if that frenzy is to continue.

I mean, I need more info if I’m going to pledge allegiance to the Airborne or the Airmen.

The new USFL is rushing to market next spring, but since it’s run by The Spring League founder Brian Woods and FOX Sports (which televises TSL), it at least has the makings of an infrastructure.

Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson and RedBird Capital bought the XFL, which was a solid product before the 2020 season – and second version of the league – was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. If it reboots as a third incarnation of itself or in alliance with the Canadian Football League, it’ll already have a boilerplate.

But new sports organizations that pop up out of nowhere have to show people they’re going somewhere to be taken seriously. In other words, when forming a league at some point that league actually has to take form.

And with MLFB spinning its wheels for seven years and the FFL still a mystery, they aren’t doing themselves any favors to that end. But maybe someday they’ll finally hit the field and I can have two pro football teams to choose from.

Then again, maybe not.

At this point I’d be happy if the two leagues merged and became the Major League of Freedom Football and my hometown clubs combined to create the Alabama Air.

It wouldn’t give me a multiple choice option like my friends in major markets enjoy, but it would have the perfect nickname. Because like air, this is a football team I’ll never be able to see.

The A-11 Football League

If the new United States Football League gets off the ground, fans of the old USFL might get to move their retro apparel back to the “active” pile.

I have several Birmingham Stallions tee shirts, so if they come galloping back to Legion Field (or the new Protective Stadium) next spring, I’ll be ready to suit up without having to buy new stuff.

But here’s a bit of trivia for you … back in 2015 the Denver Gold, Los Angeles Express, Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars and Tampa Bay Bandits – brands from the original USFL – were supposed to take the field again.

Instead of reviving America’s gridiron spring fling of 1983-85, though, they would be competing in something called the A-11 Football League.

Founded in 2013 and ultimately abandoned in 2014, the A11FL hoped to bring familiar USFL names to a wide-open league – one in which all 11 players on offense (hence the name) could be eligible receivers.

In its fan guide released on April 16, 2013, the primary game plan was unveiled:

The A11FL makes ONE rule change to the game of football, allowing for all eleven offensive players on the field to wear eligible jersey numbers. This rule change creates a game where every athlete can be interchangeable within any formation depending on the strategy of each play. The offense still needs to have 7 men on the line of scrimmage and 5 of those 7 players will be considered “restricted linemen” if they are not aligned on the end of the line of scrimmage – the same formation eligibility requirement mandated at every level of football.

The A-11 offense is the brainchild of Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries, who popularized the attack at Piedmont High School in California. The scheme basically turned the kicking formation into a scrimmage play, but the National Federation of State High School Associations closed the loophole after two seasons.

Bryan was the executive vice president of league development for the A11FL and wanted to show that the free-for-all style could not only go national, but go pro.

“As a football coach for 25 years, I’ve seen a lot of things come and go, which I refer to as fads,” Bryan told the San Francisco Examiner for a February, 2014 story. “We started having success in the A-11 offense, and the phones never stopped ringing. Coaches from all over wanted to know about this offense.”

In the same article, A11FL commissioner Scott McKibben said the new league was the right product at the right time. He expected attendance to average more than 30,000 per game with fans paying $30 per ticket.

“This country thirsts for more football and the live action sports content value has never, ever been higher,” McKibben said. “We believe football played in the spring, at the highest level, in the greatest markets, with the greatest players, will be successful.”

ESPN signed on to televise a pair of “showcase games” for the spring of 2014, and by 2015 eight inaugural franchises would play a 14-week regular season followed by three weeks of playoffs. Players were to be selected via a late winter territorial draft.

Alas, the wheels came off quickly.

A couple of months after the Examiner piece ran, the scheduled showcase games were canceled and it was revealed that the L.A. Express (and any other California-based teams) would not be part of the league at the outset due to workers’ compensation issues in that state.

By July, 2014, A11FL officials announced that the league was sticking with the A11 offense but dropping its original name. And when February, 2015, rolled around, organizers had abandoned the idea altogether in favor of forming a different league based on more traditional rules.

That league – whatever it was supposed to be – never materialized.

With or without the USFL nostalgia trip, I would’ve been intrigued by an A-11 pro league. It would be the ultimate representation of a spread offense, and every play would be tricky, if not a trick play.

As I’ve said before, if you can’t be as good as the NFL talent-wise, try to be better than the NFL gimmick-wise. And the A-11 Football League would’ve been about as gimmicky as it gets.

Homecoming

When I left Birmingham on Christmas Day, 2006, I thought I might never again call the Magic City home.

I was set to start a new job the following day in Anderson, South Carolina, marking the first time I’d ever worked outside of Alabama. It was exciting to try something new, and I was ready to embrace my unfamiliar surroundings.

And I did.

After six months living in Anderson I moved to Greenville, and fell in love with the city. Downtown is glorious, most things that interest me are conveniently located (Bon Secours Wellness Arena, home of the ECHL Greenville Swamp Rabbits, was exactly one mile from my driveway), and we were 60 miles from Asheville, North Carolina – one of this planet’s most beautiful places.

After spending a quarter of my life (so far) living in the Upstate, there was no compelling reason to leave.

Until there was.

The first five years or so that I lived there, trips back to my hometown were bittersweet. It seemed I remembered the bad times more than the good, and it was like visiting an old friend you’d had a falling out with and didn’t really know anymore.

Every time I left, I couldn’t wait to get home to Greenville.

Then there was a slight shift over the next five years. Going to Birmingham was more enjoyable, marked by memories of good times and the warmth of gatherings with old friends. My farewells were much fonder when I headed east, even though returning to G-Vegas was always welcome.

These last five years, though, have been like a nostalgia trip played on a continuous loop. Every restaurant, park or monument I pass in Birmingham has a story, and the plot has thickened as time goes by – with me as a character.

I think about my first football game with my dad and brother at Legion Field.

I recall my first concert at what was then known as the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum (Boston, with Sammy Hagar opening).

And I smile when I recount those times when – in an attempt to be suave – I’d take a date to the observation tower atop the Vulcan statue.

And of course no trip down memory lane would be complete unless I mentioned my college days when I’d walk in the Upside Down Plaza at midnight and then stumble out in daylight.

I found myself wanting to stay a little longer, and feeling a real sense of sadness when I left.

Over the last few months Mary and I talked about eventually moving back, but there was no timetable and no sense of urgency; it would happen when it happened. In a span of just a few days, however, a couple decided they wanted to buy our house, and we discovered a condo for sale in Vestavia Hills, which is a suburb of Birmingham that sits atop Shades Mountain.

Next thing you knew, my hometown became the town I call home once again.

Don’t get me wrong … these last 15 years have been wonderful. I learned that after three decades in the newspaper business – covering everything from the NFL to Olympic soccer to the Masters – my favorite thing was telling stories from Division II athletics (thank you, Anderson Trojans).

Later I discovered that writing for fun instead of profit is the most rewarding kind of writing, even if there’s no money in it.

And I realized that home is where your heart is, and Greenville, South Carolina, certainly had mine.

I’ll always treasure those years in one of my very favorite towns.

But on Friday I began a new chapter in my old city – excited about reconnecting with friends and family and reestablishing my roots. And since sports has always been an important part of my ongoing journey around the sun, I found a sweet landing spot.

The distance from Bartow Arena, home of the UAB basketball Blazers, is 6.8 miles from my front door. Protective Stadium, where UAB will play football, is also less than seven miles away. The Birmingham Barons AA baseball team at Regions Field (6.8 miles), UAB and Birmingham Legion soccer at BBVA Field (6.6 miles), G League basketball at Legacy Arena (7.4 miles), Birmingham Bulls hockey at the Pelham Civic Complex (10.2 miles) – I couldn’t ask for a more perfect pinpoint on the map.

It’s a homecoming that feels real and joyous, and one long overdue after being gone for a decade and a half. The fit is snug and comfortable.

Turns out that even though I left Birmingham, Birmingham never really left me.