Category: Alternative Football

St. Louis Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht admits he’s very “NFL-centric” when it comes to running a football team.

And why wouldn’t he be?

The former National Football League tight end spent 12 years competing on the gridiron’s biggest stage, playing for five different teams.

But when it comes to spicing up the game – and tweaking the rules – he’s all-in.

The United Football League will debut next weekend with a combination of innovations used by the XFL and USFL. As part of those leagues’ merger into the new entity, mixing and matching rules was to be expected. And Becht is excited to see how it all plays out.

“I’m totally for the way the NFL does it, and that’s where our guys want to be,” Becht told me on Thursday. “But I look at it a little differently … I think about the entertainment value. We’re in the entertainment business, too. I think about when it’s my guy who can make a one-handed catch in the back of the endzone and he taps one toe down, I mean – hell – let’s make that a touchdown, right? That’s college-esque, but it’s entertaining and something that can be tabled.”

“Receiver needs only one foot in bounds” isn’t in the UFL rulebook this spring, but there are plenty of other twists that will give fans a different experience from watching the NFL.

Becht was part of the XFL 3.0 in 2023, and one of the more dramatic alterations involved kickoffs.

The kicker lined up at his 10 while the rest of the team stood at the opponents’ 35-yard line – five yards away from the receiving team.

The kicker and returner were the only players who could move until the ball was fielded.

“I wasn’t in favor of the XFL kickoff originally when I came here, because I had never seen it or had seen what it did,” he said. “But then I did like that because, you know, less running, guys were a little closer, and you didn’t have the contact.”

The UFL opted to go with the USFL kickoff; it takes place from the 20-yard line and a kickoff out of bounds will give possession to the receiving team 30 yards from the spot of the kickoff, or at the spot where the ball went out of bounds.

A kickoff that’s untouched by the receiving team may only be recovered by the kicking team up to 20 yards from the spot of the kick.

“I do understand why the league went the traditional way, just because the NFL still does it and (the UFL) wants to keep it close. We do have some tweaks where there’s a zone where guys aren’t colliding as much, and I’m okay with it. It’s something that can be revisited next year and if it does (change), it does and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

“The NFL has talked about using the XFL rule, but they haven’t had the votes to really make that change yet.”

Becht is also a fan of the coach challenges, although he wouldn’t mind taking it a step further. In the UFL, a coach

can challenge any ruling, including “fouls or potential fouls,” once in a game if the team has a timeout remaining. A successful challenge will preserve the timeout, while the timeout is lost on an unsuccessful challenge.

“With the challenge flag, it’s so hard to figure out when to use it,” Becht said. “(Something to consider is) if you did use it early and you weren’t correct, you get another one after that. But I really do think it’s a quick process because (XFL head of officiating Dean Blandino) was pretty quick and (USFL head of officiating Mike Pereira) gets those things pretty quick. That’s something that can be tabled for next year.”

The UFL has eliminated the extra point and will have tiered conversions that can be scored via a run or pass; two forward passes are allowed on one play; overtime games will be decided via a conversion “shootout”; and a fourth quarter 4th-and-12 scrimmage option from the 28-yard line is an onside kick alternative.

And Becht says that like the NFL, any rule can be reevaluated at the end of the season.

“I’m all in for everything that the league has decided on because the majority of the stuff is the same as last year,” he said. “And things can always be revisited next year and we can have those conversations (with UFL executive vice president of football operations Daryl Johnston). We can do the data, we can run the analytics on it and see, you know, does it make sense to maybe change it, and I think that’s what’s good about leadership in our league.

“They’re willing to have those conversations each and every year.”

The Battlehawks, who finished the 2023 XFL season with a 7-3 record and led all spring leagues in attendance with an average of 35,104 fans per game, travel to face the Michigan Panthers on March 30. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. CDT on FOX.

The first time I met running back Darius Victor he was playing rock/paper/scissors with a group of kids outside a doughnut shop in Homewood, Alabama. It was the day before the New Jersey Generals and Birmingham Stallions were set to lift the lid on the new United States Football League in 2022, and he was there to hype the new spring gridiron product.

The last time I talked to him he was sitting in the postgame presser after the Generals had lost to the Stallions in the Year 2 USFL season opener, 27-10.

And next time?

Hopefully that’ll come on April 13 when the Stallions host Victor and his new team, the Memphis Showboats, at Protective Stadium. He’s one of those guys you instantly like – and cheer for even if he plays for a team you might normally cheer against.

After the Generals and seven other teams failed to make the cut in the USFL-XFL merger that created the new United Football League, Victor was one of the hottest commodities in the dispersal draft.

The man who made “Thick Thighs Save Lives” a rallying cry (and a T-Shirt slogan) during his USFL days now takes his wrecking ball running style to the land of the Delta Blues.

“It all feels pretty good,” Victor said during a training break at UFL Central in Arlington, Texas. “We’re coming together as a team and picking up the plays that are being installed. I think we’re doing pretty good. We’re meshing together. We all have the same type of common goal, and that’s always good when you’re trying to build a team and win ballgames.”

Victor – a 5-9, 209-pound dynamo – is a veteran of spring leagues. The 30-year-old has been on training camp rosters with two NFL franchises and one Canadian Football League club, but he first earned notice as a member of the New York Guardians in XFL 2.0 in 2020.

That league was cut short largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Victor returned to the new USFL in 2022.

He did not disappoint, earning Offensive Player of the Year honors with 1,131 rushing yards (1,433 rushing and receiving) and 18 total touchdowns.

Last year the Towson State product rushed for 554 yards, had 189 receiving and scored seven TDs – even managing to throw for one.

“I’ve been very grateful for these leagues,” he said. “Without these leagues I wouldn’t still be playing,  so I’m just grateful for the opportunity for these leagues to pop up and for me to be able to show the world that I can still play football.

“I appreciate the opportunity, and it’s extended my football life for sure.”

Memphis offensive coordinator Doug Martin has high praise for the ‘Boats’ new ballcarrier.

“Victor’s exactly what we saw when we played against him last year,” Martin said. “He’s hard to bring down. He’s really bright, he’s really intelligent … he understands the game really well and understands past protections really well. He’s probably a little bit ahead right now because of that.”

Victor likes being in Martin’s system and he’s also a big fan of new head coach John DeFilippo, who coached the New Orleans Breakers last season and replaces Todd Haley in Memphis.

“He’s a great guy,” Victor said. “He’s a player’s coach, for sure. He always has a player’s best interests at heart no matter what’s going on and what we’re doing. And it’s crazy … he’s like a database of random plays and information. He’s very knowledgeable. He’s been around the game for a while and it’s great just to pick his brain and learn from him.”

Memphis opens the season on Sunday, March 31, when the Showboats travel to Houston to take on the Roughnecks.

It’ll be another opportunity for Victor to live up to his “Thick Thighs Save Lives” motto.

“It’s a way for me to pay homage to my lineman,” Victor said. “They have thick thighs, and I hide behind them. And I also plan to break a lot of tackles with my thighs.

“So, watch for it.”

Say the words, “alternative football,” and you have my attention.

Say the words, “alternative football rule innovations,” and I get weirdly excited.

So, when it was first announced that the modern United States Football League was going to merge with XFL 3.0, I was curious which rules from which circuit would carry over to the United Football League.

While there were already some commonalities, kickoffs and conversions were where the USFL and XFL differed most.

The USFL allowed a traditional PAT along with scrimmage plays for two and three-point conversions.

In the XFL, there were no extra point kicks; one, two and three-point conversions had to be scored via the run or pass.

As for XFL kickoffs, they were unique. The kicker lined up at his 30 while the rest of the team stood at the opponents’ 35-yard line – five yards away from the receiving team.

The kicker and returner were the only players who could move until the ball was fielded.

In the USFL, kickoffs took place from the 20-yard line of the kicking team, making touchbacks quite a feat.

When the UFL begins play on March 30, games will utilize XFL conversions and USFL kickoffs.

Personally, I wish the UFL had flip-flopped what they decided to cull from the old leagues.

I like a PAT option, especially now that extra points are more than automatic chip shots.

And since the NFL is considering adopting the XFL kickoff, it seems like it would’ve been a natural fit for a league that hopes to send players to – or back to – the NFL.

But the rules in play for 2024 are still nice tweaks.

“Early on when we were looking at rule changes, the first thing I noticed was that in the XFL, they didn’t kick extra points,” Birmingham Stallions coach Skip Holtz said. “When they went for one, two or three, they were all offensive scrimmage plays, it was just whether they went from the two or the five or the 10.

“But with us losing (kicker) Brandon Aubrey (who parlayed an All-USFL season into an All-Pro year with the Dallas Cowboys) that rule change did not break my heart. And now, is a touchdown gonna be worth six points? Seven? Eight? Nine? It depends on the conversions, and I think that’s gonna be exciting.”

Stallions receiver Deon Cain returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and racked up 606 return yards last season so, as you might expect, he’s fine with retaining the USFL kickoff rules.

“It was something that obviously was in question with the XFL kickoffs, but I was definitely glad that they made the decision to have the normal USFL kickoff rules,” Cain said. “It brings another element of excitement to the game.” 

I also like the scrimmage option to the onside kick.

While traditional onside kicks are allowed at any time during the game, teams will have an alternate way to retain possession in the fourth quarter. If a squad is tied or behind during the final frame, it can try to retain possession after a score with a 4th-and-12 play from its own 28-yard line.

“I think the kickoff rules are safer and still create excitement,” Holtz said. “They bring the return game back into it, which is something that’s been lost right now in the game of football because kickers have become so strong with their legs. We’re really trying to introduce some new policies into the game.”

One kicking rule I wish league officials would rethink, however, involves punts. Any punt that goes out of bounds inside the receiving team’s 25-yard line will be considered a touchback and placed at the 25.

That punishes a good punter who has the ability to pin a team deep with a coffin-corner kick. I love offense, but I also like to see punters who can flip the field.

The UFL will feature the now-familiar “shootout” overtime procedure as well as two forward passes on one play, so there is plenty for us alternative football geeks to love. And yet, the UFL will still showcase a largely familiar brand of pro football.

Going forward, it’ll be interesting to see just how experimental the UFL chooses to be.

On the one hand, you want to give spring football its own identity. On the other, you need to make sure players are prepared if and when they get the call-up to the NFL.

Regardless, it should be a whole lot of fun when they tee it up later this month.

For a complete list of rules, go to www.theufl.com.