Category: Alternative Football

I’ve made no secret of the fact that Luis Perez is my favorite non-NFL player. It’s not just his spring football pedigree – the Birmingham Iron (Alliance of American Football), Jousters (The Spring League), Los Angeles Wildcats and New York Guardians (XFL 2.0), New Jersey Generals (modern USFL), Vegas Vipers (XFL 3.0) and Arlington Renegades (XFL 3.0 and United Football League) – it’s his college journey.

The guy didn’t come to pro ball from a blue blood program, but rather community college (Southwestern) and Division II (East Texas A&M University).

He recently announced he was returning to Arlington for the UFL’s second season, which is a good reason for alt-football fans to keep an eye on Bob Stoops’ team. But now the Renegades have given me another guy to root for: Luke Lehnen of North Central College.

Maybe you haven’t heard of Lehnen or his school.

That’s understandable.

Lehnen didn’t spend his playing days shining under the national spotlight, because North Central College is Division III. That classification is about as far as you can get from big budget, major college football.

So, there was no scholarship to lure him to the Cardinals, or the promise of a multimillion dollar NIL deal. What there was, though, was an opportunity and man, did he ever take advantage of it.

The two-time Gagliardi Trophy winner (the top award for D3 players) played every game the last four seasons for North Central College. He completed 178 of 257 passes for 2,960 yards and 39 touchdowns and ran for 924 yards and a career-high 14 rushing touchdowns this year in leading his team to a 15-0 record and D3 championship.

In a 41-25 win over Mount Union in the tile tilt on January 5, he accounted for five touchdowns and finished his college career with a 57-2 record.

He owns the NCAA record (all-divisions) for touchdowns responsible for (208) and is the only player in collegiate history with at least 50 rushing touchdowns (50) to go with at least 100 passing touchdowns (158). 

The Renegades signed him on Thursday.

“We are excited to bring in a player like Luke and provide him an opportunity to showcase his skills,” Renegades general manager Rick Mueller said in a statement released by the club. “The talent he brings will capitalize on the experienced roster we have. We look forward to working with him this upcoming season.”

In 2023, he led the nation in completion percentage and touchdown passes, setting records for passing efficiency (263.2), yards per pass (14.7), yards per completion (20.0) and percentage of passes completed for touchdowns (20.7). 

A native of Chatham, Illinois, Lehnen has thrown at least one TD pass in a record 58 consecutive games, and owns the Division III mark for career total offensive yards (15,632).

His 162 touchdown tosses ties him with John Matocha (Division II Colorado School of Mines) for most in the annals of the college game.

While the UFL is designed to help players either get their first shot at the NFL or another chance at a roster spot, it’s also about opportunity. Most of these guys aren’t gonna stick in the biggest league of all, but they can still make a living playing professional football.

In the case of the 6-1 202-pound Lehnen, I doubt that was a realistic goal when he first suited up for the Cards. There is an old NCAA commercial featuring student-athletes who proclaim, “Almost all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.”

That’s especially true for those coming out of the D3 pool.

And considering Lehnen was a finalist for the William V. Campbell Award – college football’s highest academic award – he obviously has the brains to take him far in life.

Still, how cool is it for him to be able to pay for play?

It reminds me of what Birmingham Stallions coach Skip Holtz said before the USFL initiated the new era of spring football back in 2022.

“Every meeting, we have a player stand up and talk about his ‘Why,’” he said. “Why are they playing the game? What’s their passion? What’s their motivation? What drives them to do what they’re doing right now? And the whys are incredible. When you listen to why these young men are here and what they’ve had to overcome to be here and what they want to accomplish being in this league, it’s been really rewarding.

“Every player under that helmet has a story. Everybody’s overcome adversity to get here and everybody has dreams and visions of where they want to go. This is another opportunity to keep those hopes and dreams alive.”

Now, Lehnen is getting such an opportunity.

Obviously, this is hardly a done deal.

The UFL keeps three quarterbacks and only two are on the game day active roster. With Perez returning – and a lot of NFL near-miss signal callers looking for work – Lehnen has a steep climb ahead.

However, a D3 product getting a chance to make that climb is quite an honor.

The Renegades are providing the harness and rope. The rest is up to him.

Nine days after the Birmingham Americans won the 1974 World Football League championship – and had all their equipment confiscated due to non-payment of debts – the struggling circuit completed two rounds of crucial meetings in New York.

The result was a decision to try again in 1975 with a potentially smaller, more financially responsible league.

“I had guarded optimism before,” WFL commissioner Chris Hemmeter told the Associated Press for a December 15, 1975, story. “But I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Before, I think all we saw were reflections on the wall.”

The WFL began play in July, 1974, with 12 franchises – the Americans, Chicago Fire, Detroit Wheels, Florida (Orlando) Blazers, The (Honolulu) Hawaiians, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Sharks, Memphis Southmen, New York Stars, Philadelphia Bell, Portland Storm and Southern California (Anaheim) Sun. Early games were marked by big crowds in most markets and the national buzz was largely positive. However, it was soon learned that the league had major money issues and attendance figures were being inflated. At least one city – Philadelphia – was “papering the house.”

By the time the league limped to the finish line, the Wheels and Sharks had folded before completing the season; the Texans and Stars relocated (Houston became the Shreveport Steamer and New York was reborn as the Charlotte Hornets); and only two teams (Memphis and Southern Cal) met payroll every week.

Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler, who had signed a futures contract with the Americans for 1976, successfully sued to void the deal after the club failed to pay $30,000 owed to him in 1974.

In terms of financial disasters, the WFL fiasco was one of the worst in pro sports history.

“The prime reason for the failures was unfounded optimism that we could launch a new league and survive on the proceeds,” Hemmeter said. “It was poor economic planning. The collective judgments made by this league should be questioned since they obviously didn’t work.”

Still, Hemmeter – the former primary owner of The Hawaiians who replaced original WFL commissioner Gary Davidson during the ’74 campaign – thought the NFL competitor was worth saving.

That meant rebooting with possibly as few as eight financially sound franchises and exploring new locales.

“I think there would be some new major markets in the league next year,” Hemmeter said. “These new investors represent new and substantial money from the top financial and social strata of the various communities.”

Yet while the WFL sought major league status – and did have NFL standouts such as Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka, Daryle Lamonica, Calvin Hill and John Gilliam on board for ’75 – the business plan was hardly big budget.

On December 19, Hemmeter revealed that the league was undergoing a reorganization that would put tight constraints on spending. Later dubbed the “Hemmeter Plan,” it was a system in which players received one percent of the gate. Any prospective owner would be required to clear up existing debts and put a minimum of $700,000 in escrow to guarantee payment of club salaries and bills.

“We know there is a market for a second league,” Hemmeter said in an interview with United Press International. “Our main problem is credibility. We must create stability and function in an environment of credibility.”

He added that if the reorganization was not complete by March, 1975, the WFL was over.

The good news – at the time, anyway – was that the league got the green light for another year. Well, it was actually New League Inc. doing business as the World Football League. So, technically, the original WFL was no more.

However, there was a glimmer of hope that the brand could be salvaged (and polished).

The biggest news moving into Year Two was that a major push by the league to sign Joe Namath away from the New York Jets was under way. He would be the face of the league as well as the star attraction of the new Chicago Winds franchise.

Perhaps if Broadway Joe became Magnificent Mile Joe, the WFL could attract more fans and a network contract. Without TV, the future was grim.

Returning from 1974 were the Bell, Southmen, Sun, Steamer, Hawaiians and Hornets, while joining the Winds as new additions were the Birmingham Vulcans, Jacksonville Express, Portland Thunder and San Antonio Wings.

Games moved to weekends (the 1974 WFL played primarily on Wednesday nights with syndicated TV games on Thursdays) and the regular season started in August.

Alas, Namath ultimately balked at jumping leagues, and network television shied away from partnering with the leaner WFL.

In reality, those gut-punches meant there was no legitimate path forward.

The Winds folded after five games, and the entire league followed suit after 12 weeks, averaging just 13,370 fans per game. On October 22, 1975, the World Football League officially went out of business.

Hemmeter had a solid plan in place, but the credibility crisis from 1974 simply could not be overcome.

Whenever a new alternative football league comes along, I like to offer the founders unsolicited advice on rule innovations. We all know what to expect in NFL and NCAA games, and as a Canadian Football League fan I’m familiar with its unique style of play as well.

But in order to stand out – especially as an upstart – I think you have to go bold and be very, very different.

The United Football League has some nice tweaks with its tiered conversions and overtime procedure, but I want to color even further outside the lines.

So, I wondered … if I formed a football league (and for the purposes of this column I’ll call it the Global Gridiron Federation because I couldn’t think of anything cool), how would I shake things up?

Well, I’d borrow rules from other circuits and make up a few of my own so crazy they’d be subject to ridicule. But that’s OK, because sometimes I like being ridiculous.

To set the tone for my extreme football makeover, I’d eliminate the punt option once a team reaches its own 40 yard line. In other words, if an offense has fourth-and-11 at its own 41, it has to go for it on fourth down and hope it makes at least 12 yards on the next play or turn the ball over.

Speaking of punts, there would be no fair catches. The CFL rule would be used, meaning returners would be given a five-yard cushion to field the kick.

Sticking with the CFL rulebook again, all backs would be allowed in motion toward the line of scrimmage. This would unleash offenses and create major headaches for defensive coordinators, but it’s my league and I like scoring, so they’d just have to deal with it.

Moving on to kickoffs, I’d duplicate what the UFL did in 2024. The ball is kicked off from the 20 and the return team must have a minimum of eight players (maximum of nine) line up in a box within 10 yards of the ball placement at kickoff until the kick is away. This results in players on the receiving team running in the same direction as those on the coverage team and, thus, increases player safety.

Not extreme enough for you?

Hang on to your chinstraps.

Quarters would be 12 minutes long – the standard length used in high school football. I decided on this rule because as I get older my attention span gets shorter. Throw in a 10-minute halftime, and games should be done in a little over two hours.

Another dramatic change involves the end zones and goalposts. NFL and American college football end zones are 10 yards deep while they’re double that length in the CFL. My league would split the difference, making them 15 yards deep BUT with goalposts located at the back.

Not only that, the goalposts would have a circular target in the middle of the uprights, 17.5 feet above the crossbar. If the target (six feet in diameter) is hit on a field goal, it’s worth four points. If the kicker nails it on the PAT, it’s good for two points.

By the way, the scrimmage line for extra points would be the 10-yard line, which would also be the spot for a three-point conversion (via run or pass). The two-point conversion is taken care of thanks to the goalpost target.

For point value of touchdowns, I travel back to the 1974-75 World Football League in which paydirt strikes were worth seven points. So, if a team has a dead-eye kicker, a touchdown plus a PAT could be worth nine points.

If a game is tied at the end of regulation, overtime would be modeled after the National High School Federation. Teams alternate possessions 10 yards from the goal line until one has more points. (The target between the uprights could play a big role in determining a winner).

But here is my favorite innovation of all, one that gives me a tingly feeling in my nether regions just thinking about it: If a defense recovers a fumble or snags an interception, it’s awarded a single point. Better yet, this rule means a defensive player has a chance to score an eight-point TD on a pick six or scoop and score.

You always hear about turnovers being costly. In the GGF, they’d cost the team that turns the ball over at least a point.

Weird stuff, huh?

Obviously, a couple of these rules aren’t practical. Increasing the length of the field would be a problem (remember the wonky end zones during the CFL in America experiment?) and bringing in a welder to solder a target onto uprights is a big ask.

Still, if I formed an alt-football league, I’d be all-in on the gimmicks. I mean, if you’re gonna go to the trouble of coming up with this nonsense, you might as well let your imagination run wild.