Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

The Freedom Football League

Talk of any new football league always gets my Spidey senses tingling, and six years ago they were set off by the birth of the Freedom Football League.

Ricky Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner out of Texas and a veteran of 12 NFL seasons, announced the creation of the FFL on an episode of ESPN’s Outside the Lines program.

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“The purpose of this league is about community and the development of players,” Williams said during the December 6, 2018 broadcast. “In thinking about creating this league, I wanted to create a league that I could have stayed in and been comfortable and really thrived. The NFL started a long time ago, and since then a lot of things have changed. And we want to create a league that’s ready for that change and invite some more of it.”

I’d long been a fan a Williams, a tremendous athlete who is also an intellectual. And he’s a guy who cheerfully marches to the beat of his own drummer. Having him out front of this new venture made me interested.

What interested me even more was that 10 teams – complete with nicknames – had already been identified.

Set to begin play in the spring of 2019 were the Birmingham Kings, Connecticut Underground, Florida Strong, Oakland Panthers, Ohio Players, Oklahoma City Power, Portland Progress, San Diego Warriors, St. Louis Independence, and Texas Revolution. No players, owners, staffs or stadiums had been lined up, but hey – those were just details, right?

Terrell Owens and Simeon Rice were also involved with the FFL’s formation, and Byron Chamberlain, Jeff Garcia and Dexter Jackson were among the 100 stakeholders.

The idea was that the league would not only be a showcase for players’ talent, but a platform for their viewpoints as well. It was formed two years after San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick – who protested police brutality and racial injustice by kneeling during the playing of the national anthem – was basically blackballed by NFL owners.

The first FFL press release stated that the circuit was founded on four philosophical and operational pillars:

1. Ensuring players receive permanent and reliable holistic health and wellness support on and off the field, seeking to avoid physical and financial exploitation that is commonplace in both collegiate and professional football today.

2. Amplifying the voices of athletes by relentlessly pursuing unity and encouraging athletes to address society’s challenges relating to social justice, wealth disparity, health and wellness and more hot-button issues they are passionate about.

3. Reimagining the game for fans by creating a new spectator experience that leverages technology and embraces innovation, while simultaneously eliminating price-gouging to make loyalty and game-attendance affordable again.

4. Establishing economic justice via financial incentives through joint ownership and further eliminating financial exploitation and profiteering to the benefit of the few at the expense of many.

“The Freedom Football League is the perfect integration of my passion for social justice, economic equality and health and wellness, with my life-long dedication and love for professional football,” Williams said. “As much as I’d like to throw on the pads and play, this league is designed to bring competitive football back to the masses, providing players and fans alike with the economic benefits of owning stake in a team, while also ensuring players are empowered to use their public platform for social good.”

Player/public ownership and the green light to speak out on social justice were noble ideas, but details on the football-side of the FFL were sketchy. Would it try to compete with the NFL for players or be a minor league? Would the games be nationally televised? What kind of innovative rules would be utilized?

I contacted the league at the time to get answers to these questions, but none came. Instead, there was a videotaped “Founders Roundtable” that revealed, well, very little that hadn’t already been stated in the initial press release.

Later, the FFL website posted thumbnail sketches on each of the clubs. The Kings’ home city was described as a place “where Martin Luther King preached, and where Rosa Parks sat. Birmingham epitomizes the style and substance of the league.”*

* I hated to be “that guy,” but I emailed the FFL to let them know Parks’ iconic refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man happened in Montgomery, not Birmingham, and to their credit they reworded the reference.

Anyway, as 2018 stretched into 2019, there were random name changes of the teams. The Kings became the Alabama Airmen, the Progress rebranded as the Portland Power, the Austin Revolution morphed into the Texas Revolution and St. Louis no longer has a nick – that would be for the fans to decide.

Thing is, none of these markets had actually made any kind of deal to host a team.

I continued to request info and made a point to frequently check the website, but it became obvious by the turn of the decade the FFL was dead in the water. The last update came in 2021 and if you to go to it now, all you get is a weird domain full of gibberish.

Thus, I think we can safely say that the Freedom Football League has officially joined a long line of alternative gridiron organizations that never made it past the concept stage.

And that’s a shame, because if nothing else it would’ve been cool to see the Ohio Players perform Fire and Love Rollercoaster at halftime of an Ohio Players game.

Original Earth revisited

The faded silver door to the exploration craft groaned and whistled as it slowly opened, hesitating slightly before finally – and violently – swinging upward and coming to a grinding stop.

The travelers on board, Dr. Glandick 871 and Dr. Torlock 6096, gingerly stepped to the edge of the Class G vessel and jumped to the ground.

There was a time a few centuries earlier when journeys to Original Earth were considered prime missions. Not only were the top Voyagers from Replica Earth dispatched, but the inhabitants of RE anxiously awaited their return. Clues to what happened to the dead planet might help to determine the ultimate fate of its namesake.

But over time, it became apparent the missions were yielding nothing of intrinsic value. Scientists were unable to determine the nature of the extinction level event, and the fact that it was little more than a burned-out shell meant most evidence of civilization was wiped out.

Oh, there had been bits and pieces of structures salvaged, along with skeletal remains of ancient humans and animals to make for an interesting display at the Replica Earth Interactive Museum. And some literature was found, enough to speculate about the forms of religion and government that had been practiced. But Genus Homo Prime had limited knowledge of who they once were and what their purpose was, and with each decade that passed, there was less curiosity about it.

Thus, those who chose to continue to make the star flight back and forth from RE to OE had to do so on decommissioned shuttles using discretionary funds – funds that would soon be gone. Ambassadors of the Replica Earth Collective saw such anthropological work as little more than vanity projects for researchers.

Glandick 871 remained curious, though. There were once philosophers and faith leaders – who were they and what did they teach? And millions of people on RE called “Cinder Heads” had ushered in a retro phase in which they spent time celebrating OE for what it was, or at least what they thought it was.

It might not matter to the majority of Genus Homo Prime anymore, but any information gleaned could still prove to be worth studying. And after this latest mission, perhaps a glimpse into its long-extinct inhabitants might be at hand.

Torlock 6096 had unearthed what appeared to be the full text from an ancient printed work on a dig, and – to date – it was the only one of its kind ever recovered. There were examples of artwork that had been found on OE, but never more than a few pages of written words. This discovery was unprecedented and truly remarkable.

Glandick 871 had placed the find in a transparent, element-proof cube and clutched it tightly as he made the dusty walk from the craft to the laboratory with Torlock 6096.

“So,” Torlock 6096 asked, “from a philosophical standpoint, this could be the greatest find in Genus Homo Prime history, could it not?”

Glandick 871 sighed.

“Could be … could very well be – to those who think like us. The problem is, I don’t think it much matters to the Collective. Every time we make a trip to OE, they keep telling us how many trillions of Currency Units have already been wasted and they’re weary of wasting it on us because we learn nothing new. But who knows? If we can figure out what this means, we can pass it on to those who participate in Knowledge Symposiums. If they find it useful in some historical or kitschy sense then maybe – maybe – they’ll at least give us a stipend for more missions.”

Once inside the lab, Glandick 871 placed the cube on a luminosity table and carefully lowered a translation scope over the text. The scope was able to reconstruct parts of what had been written and drawn, and the cleaning process helped remove the centuries of debris that had collected.

Translation protocols were initiated, and the pair of scientists were excited to learn they had uncovered – in chronological order – 388 pages. What they read, however, could best be described as fictitious prose.

“Considering what is written, I posit that this must have been a popular story among ancient Earth dwellers,” Glandick 871 said. “And while that has great meaning to you and I and likely the Cinder Heads, I doubt seriously that the Collective would see it as worthy of additional subdizizing. But – and just hear me out – what if we can convince them that this is the holy text to one of Earth One’s religions? There are trials, tribulations, good, evil … this is a cautionary tale, and one that ends in a measure of redemption. Let’s prepare a brief and present it to the Collective.”

Torlock 6096 was stunned.

“But we don’t really believe this, do we?” she said with brows raised. “I mean, this is a monumental discovery in its own right, and we should celebrate it. But presenting it as anything else is being deceptive. It’s not a holy book, it’s just … a book.”

Glandick 871 shrugged.

“Deceptive? I believe deception for the greater good is merely guilelessness in disguise. We know there is more to be learned about OE, but we also know we won’t have the opportunity again if we don’t take some liberties.”

The next morning the pair appeared before a small assembly of ambassadors via hologram.

“Eminences, we deeply appreciate your time today and we think it’ll be well worth it,” Glandick 871 said. “As you know from the advance material you received, our latest trip to Original Earth resulted in the discovery of 388 pages of what we believe to be an authoritative book of scripture. After this find, we would request that we be able to return in hopes of uncovering even more books representing more faiths. There is obviously much more to the lost civilization and we feel there might also be invaluable artifacts to be uncovered.”

Members of the collective read the first passage:

The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. The mouth was open just enough to permit a rush of water over the gills. There was little other motion: an occasional correction of the apparently aimless course by the slight raising or lowering of a pectoral fin—as a bird changes direction by dipping one wing and lifting the other.

“It appears that the deity of OE worshippers are what scientists once called Carcharodon Carcharias,” Glandick 871 said. “But more importantly, we have learned the title of the book is JAWS, which we believe is an acronym for Journal Attesting Worship Sects. It is written by Peter Benchley, who we assume was most likely a highly placed spiritual leader. With your support – and your funding – we are confident we can excavate even more of his teachings and, thus, uncover the secrets of Original Earth.”

An even 10 for the CFL

For someone who lives in the deep south of the United States, I spend an inordinate amount of time in deep thought about the Canadian Football League.

I’ve loved the CFL since I was first exposed to it more than 50 years ago, and over time the game played on a field that’s 150 yards long and 65 yards wide has become my favorite style of tackle football. When the Toronto Argonauts meet the Winnipeg Blue Bombers tonight at BC Place in the 111^th Grey Cup, I’ll be watching with great interest. Truth be told, I probably look forward to the Grey Cup more than the Super Bowl.

And even though the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are my favorite team in the circuit, I’m gonna find something to like about every club; I support the CFL as a whole, so I want all of its members to thrive.

And what I’d really like to see sooner than later is the CFL make the jump from nine franchises to 10.

Expansion to another Canadian market was something outgoing CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie hoped to accomplish during his seven-year tenure, but the stars (i.e. ownership groups) never aligned.

“I think the one thing I’ve learned is it’s hard, maybe impossible, to push your way into a market, a market has to pull you in,” Ambrosie said on Tuesday during his final “State of the League” news conference. “We’ve put down some breadcrumbs in markets like Halifax and Moncton and we had fantastic success this past season in Victoria (the “Touchdown Pacific” game). I wish it (expansion) would’ve happened these past few years but I think eventually it will and I think some of these breadcrumbs that I referred to might ultimately help to make that possible.”

A 10-team CFL would make things so much cleaner.

The East and West divisions would have five teams each (or maybe divisions would be scrapped entirely).

Better yet, its traditional 18-game regular season schedule would mean each club could play the others twice, which is perfect for people like me who have just a touch of OCD and crave a balanced slate.

Beyond that, it’d give fans a new team to cheer (or jeer).

The “Atlantic Schooners” were a conditional Nova Scotia-based franchise back in the 1980s, but basically never made it past the logo stage. The Schooners brand was revived in 2017 but – again – nothing came of it.

The area is still coveted by the CFL, but other cities have entered the chat as well.

“I’m very bullish on Quebec City, I’m bullish on Atlantic Canada,” Ambrosie said. “I also think that, as the country grows, markets like Windsor, for example, could potentially be open to our saleable branches. We’ve had conversations in that market about the possibility of hosting a game there.”

As a CFL fan in America I was thrilled with the U.S. expansion experiment in the 1990s, but I wouldn’t advocate for such a move now. It provided a much-needed influx of cash, but was ultimately a plan better in concept than reality.

You never say never, of course, but Ambrosie isn’t sold on another south of the Canadian border move, either.

“Personally, I’m not convinced that U.S. expansion is the way to go,” Ambrosie said. “I think we have something very special here with our Canadian content.”

For those unfamiliar with how CFL rosters are put together, teams have a “Game Rule Ratio.” On a 45-man roster, 21 players must be designated as Nationals (Canadians). That number can include one nationalized American. Such a rule would make little sense with a U.S.-based franchise.

“The Canadian ratio is going to be part of our league for many, many years to come and if you open yourself up to U.S. expansion, you’re going to have to make that change,” Ambrosie said. “You’re going to have to operate under different rules and I don’t think a great league operates under different rules — one set of rules that applies to everybody.

“Somewhere in all this great country of ours, there’s going to be a market that wants the CFL and is prepared to make the investment in a facility. I think our next best step to get to 10 is to do it in Canada.”

This is one Yank who agrees wholeheartedly. I have no idea what region of the country is the best fit and makes the most sense, but maybe we’ll get a chance to find out some day.

Regardless, I’ll still be cheering for the Canadian Football League – even though the closest franchise to me is more than 900 miles away.