Category: Alternative Football

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.

“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.

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.

Ready or not, here comes the International Football Alliance.

While the second-tier United Football League is set to begin year two next March (and extend spring pro football’s latest incarnation into a fourth season), fans will soon be asked to make room for a summer league that’s even lower on the play-for-pay pyramid.

The seven-team IFA is scheduled to open on May 31, 2025, with the Alabama (Huntsville) Beavers hosting the Tampa Tornadoes in what is billed as the “IFA Kickoff Classic.”

The other flagship teams in the league are the Baltimore Lightning, Chihuahua Rebellion, Dallas Pioneros, Ohio Valley (Wheeling, West Virginia) Ironmen and San Antonio Caballeros.

Hal Mumme, famous for the air raid offense, will guide San Antonio. Following a long career in college coaching he’s had stints in alternative football with the XFL Dallas Renegades (2020) and The Spring League Linemen (2021).

And Art Briles brings plenty of on-field success to his job with Dallas. Briles compiled a 99-65 record while coaching Houston Cougars (2003-2007) and Baylor Bears (2008-2015),and led Estra Guelfi Firenze to the championship of the Italian American Football Federation in 2022.

(In the interest of background checks, you might wanna fire up the ol’ search engine and type in “Briles Baylor controversy” and “Mumme New Mexico State controversy.”)

The IFA draft will be held March 21-22, 2025, and consist of eight rounds. The first three rounds will be confined to international and dual citizen athletes, while four through eight will focus on U.S. players.

Each team will play an eight game regular season schedule followed by semi-finals and a championship game on August 16.

The Kickoff Classic begins a week earlier than the full slate of IFA competition, which gets under way on June 7.

When the formation of the IFA was announced in January, 2023, the plan was to start with six teams – three in Mexico and three in the United States. The Mexican entrants were to come from the defunct Fútbol Americano de México (Guadalajara Tequileros, the Rebellion and Cancun Sharks) while the Pioneros de Queretaro were relocating to Dallas. At various points, Las Vegas, El Paso, San Diego and Lakeland, Florida, were touted as possible U.S.-based sites.

Last month it appeared there would, indeed, be six teams in the inaugural season, but Ohio Valley was added in late October.

And in a bold move, the IFA is already accepting expansion applications for 2026.

It’s easy to be skeptical about this latest gridiron venture, and I certainly am. Aside from St. Louis, UFL teams have trouble putting butts in the seats – meaning that circuit has hardly taken permanent root in the sports landscape. But it does have major network TV contracts, and decent TV ratings are why it hasn’t gone cleats up like the myriad minor leagues that have come before.

The IFA, on the other hand, signed a deal with Right Now TV in January and in October announced that Lights Out Sports would serve as its streaming partner.

Gotta be honest … I’d never heard of either of them, so I have no idea what they bring to the table in terms of exposure.

Despite repeated attempts to reach a representative with the league I’ve gotten no response, so all I have to go on is what’s on their website.

Here’s the IFA mission statement:

We are bridging the gap in international professional football by delivering the highest level of American Football within the strategic locations of Mexico and the United States. We are implementing NFL-based standard rules of play, and creating a true international alliance. Together with our team ownership, teams, players, and fans, we will work to build a unified and solid football ecosystem to grow American football in a league without borders.

In theory, I like the concept, although “NFL-based standard rules of play” sounds boring. (You’ve gotta have some cool rule tweaks). Mexico has the largest NFL viewership outside the United States, and the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional – which has a loose working agreement with the Canadian Football League – just completed its ninth season. Since the IFA intends to have a mixture of Mexican and American players, this gives athletes south of the border another avenue of tackle football.

But whereas UFL players can actually make a living on that league’s salaries (roughly $50,000 per player for three months’ work), most IFA signees will earn just $400 per game, with active quarterbacks bringing in $1,500 per outing.

Obviously, that’s better than nothing, but it means earning an IFA roster spot is more about getting film than getting paid.

As I’m sure you know, the track record of upstart football is poor. If a league doesn’t carry the initialism of “NFL,” it usually goes from the cradle to the grave quickly.

Still – despite long odds – the stakeholders in the International Football Alliance think there’s a market for lower level summer pro football.

I guess we’ll find out.