Category: Alternative Football

A month after leading the Birmingham Stallions to their second consecutive United States Football League championship, Skip Holtz was hired as special assistant to the head coach at Northwestern University.

If I’m being honest, I thought that was likely the end of his reign in Birmingham. Sure, he said it wouldn’t affect his spring job, but how could it not?

I mean, he’d coached 273 college games to only 24 in the USFL, and I figured that ol’ Fall Saturday muscle memory might be too hard to ignore. He certainly had nothing left to prove in spring pro football.

Fortunately for Stallions fans, I was wrong.

“One of the things when we first started negotiations was if it was going to be a permanent position,” said Holtz, who has made a couple of recent stops at Protective Stadium where his old team will play in a new circuit – the United Football League – this spring. “Immediately, I said I have a job in February that I’m not gonna miss. I want to be back … this is where I want to be.”

In a football sense, Birmingham is now the only place where Holtz wants to hang his hat. And the way he sees it, there’s always something to prove.

“I’ve had opportunities to leave and go interview for other college head coaching jobs, but I’ve turned jobs down because I love the job that I have,” he said. “We’ve had the opportunity to win two championships and now we have the opportunity to roll our sleeves up and see if we can’t win another. Every year it’s a new team.”

As you know, the UFL is the result of a merger between the USFL and XFL. Birmingham was one of four USFL teams to survive the blend, and will now compete with the Arlington Renegades, D.C. Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers, San Antonio Brahmas and St. Louis Battlehawks.

I thought the quality of play in both organizations was very good in 2023, and will be much, much better in 2024 thanks to consolidation. As Holtz has already said, with two leagues of eight teams last year, there were 800 players on rosters. This time, that number will be culled to 400.

Just because the NFL is at the top of the pro football pyramid doesn’t mean the rest of the structure is hollow.

There’s plenty of room for Triple-A ball.

“It’s like (part owner of the UFL Dwayne Johnson) talks about in the Player 54 documentary, if you have a roster of 53 players the 54^th had nowhere to go and nowhere to play,” Holtz said. “You might be this close to making a roster, but you’re out. The UFL gives these young me the opportunity to continue to chase their dream and have an opportunity to make it into the NFL.

“That’s what these leagues are all about. It’s for entertainment, certainly, but it’s also for opportunity. You see these guys play here in our own backyard, guys like Brandon Aubrey and Alex McGough and Davion Davis … and then you see them make an NFL roster. That’s the reward.”

And that’s what brings Holtz back to the Magic City for another season. And the success he’s achieved and fun he’s having means the Stallions will have his undivided attention going forward.

“Northwestern was an incredible experience,” he explained. “To go to a place where they were 1-11 and to help a program that had just lost their head coach and help a bunch of coaches and players who were looking for answers win eight games and go to a bowl game and beat Utah was incredible.

“But that’s a lot of football in a year … I don’t think I’ll be doing anything this fall. And if my wife has anything to say about it, I know I won’t be doing anything this fall.”

Considering my relationship with alternative football – one that dates back to 1974 and the World Football League – I’ve become used to seeing leagues and teams come and go. Over time, I became more of an interested observer than a rabid fan.

But Holtz’s enthusiasm is contagious, making me want to go all-in on the UFL.

“I have had probably as much fun coaching in 35 years as I ever have coaching in Birmingham with the Stallions,” he said. “With the relationships with the players, the community, the fan base … it’s just been a very rewarding experience for me.”

Spring football’s history is defined by derailment, but you know what? Maybe – just maybe – it’s finally on the right track.

I’m just glad Skip Holtz is along for the ride.

United Football League executive vice president of football operations Daryl Johnston has worked with the Alliance of American Football, XFL 2.0, and the modern United States Football League. That means he’s seen the good, the bad and the ugly of alternative football leagues.

Those experiences and his wealth of gridiron knowledge position him well in helping the UFL embark on its maiden voyage. But now the hard work begins – attempting to make professional spring football sustainable for the long haul.

“The biggest thing is who is supporting us on the financial side,” explained the UFL executive, who – along with Birmingham Stallions head coach Skip Holtz – talked to the media earlier on Thursday before taking part in a meet-and-greet with fans at Protective Stadium. “We all know what Fox brought to the table with the USFL … football built Fox Sports. We knew they were committed to professional football and they were also able to help in areas where we could reduce our costs.

“On the (XFL) side, they had great support from RedBird Capital, and when you talk about the ability to market and promote, I don’t think you can have anyone better than Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia. They’re the face and the voice of your league.”

After seeing the USFL through two seasons, Johnston explained how the merger with that league and the XFL came about.

“I was alerted to it in late summer, about six weeks into the process,” Johnston said. “Everybody up top had to figure out this was something that could happen before bringing everybody else in. The hardest part for us was staying on two parallel tracks in case it didn’t go through.

“So, while we were making arrangements for the potential merger, we were also focused on season three (of the USFL) in case this falls apart in the 24^th hour. And the leagues did things differently, so we had to try to find common ground and blend best practices.”

Holtz said he started hearing rumors not long after his Stallions wrapped up their second consecutive USFL championship.

“After we won the championship everybody kind of dispersed, and I got a phone call and was told (a merger was a possibility),” Holtz said. “And of course, I had a chance to work for Northwestern starting in August, but even then, I was still trying to follow the calendar and see what was going on.”

The two leagues conducted business quite differently. The USFL was TV first, and its hub model (all eight teams in Birmingham in 2022 and teams housed in Birmingham, Memphis, Detroit and Canton in 2023) often resulted in extremely low attendance when fans didn’t have a “home team” rooting interest.

The XFL’s hybrid hub had players on all eight of its teams live and train in Arlington, Texas, during the week, and travel to host cities for games.

The hybrid hub will be used in year one of the UFL.

“It was hard,” Johnston said about the change. “You get close to people, and we had to let a lot of good people go. But the good news is there’s a merger, we retained some very good people, and it gives us the best opportunity for success long-term. The bad news is we found out there’d be attrition across the board, going from what was two leagues of eight teams each to one league with eight teams, and those were difficult decisions to make.”

The original USFL didn’t reach the level of the National Football League, but it was close enough during its three-year run from 1983-85. It featured multiple Heisman Trophy winners and several future Hall of Famers – and wasn’t afraid of raiding the NFL for talent. In fact, by the time it played its final season, a handful of its teams could’ve likely been competitive in the senior circuit.

But since then, springs have been devoted to developmental circuits, from the World League of American Football to three incarnations of the XFL, the AAF, and the 2022-23 USFL that was designed to send players to the big league, not take them away.

Birmingham, the Houston Roughnecks, Memphis Showboats and Michigan Panthers make up the USFL Conference of the UFL, with the Arlington Renegades, D.C. Defenders, San Antonio Brahmas and St. Louis Battlehawks representing the XFL Conference.

The Stallions and Renegades – defending champions of their “old” leagues, will lift the lid on the UFL on March 30 at Choctaw Stadium (noon CDT, Fox).

St. Louis and Michigan wrap up the Saturday doubleheader at Ford Field at 3 p.m. on Fox.

On Sunday, March 31, D.C. and San Antonio square off at the Alamodome (11 a.m., ESPN) and Memphis meets Houston at Rice Stadium (2 p.m., ESPN).

“I really like how we kind of get to preserve the history of both leagues because we have the USFL and XFL conferences,” Holtz said. “We’ll play everybody in our division twice and we’ll play everybody from the XFL Conference once. So that’s gonna be exciting.”

Johnston said the USFL and XFL competition will live on in the joint venture.

“We’re proud of what we did in the USFL, and they should be proud of what they did in season one of the XFL,” Johnston said. “But these coaches and players are competitive, and at the end of the season whichever team from the old league wins the championship, they’re gonna brag about it.”

Each club plays a 10-game schedule, meaning there’ll be 40 regular season contests, two conference title games and the UFL Championship, which will be played Sunday, June 16.

All games will be televised on either Fox, ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2 or FS1.

“The competition is going to be much better,” Holtz said. “We’re going from 800 players playing spring football to 400 playing spring football, so every team is going to be better. For so long when it came to spring football, people had one foot in and one foot out, not knowing if it would survive.

“I think when you look at everybody involved in the UFL, this has a chance to grow and get really strong.”

OK, so let’s talk about the Alabama Beavers, shall we?

I realize those of us who are spring pro football enthusiasts are focused on the debut of the United Football League March 30, and there’ll be plenty of time to write more about the USFL/XFL blended family in weeks to come.

Rest assured, I will.

But, as someone whose ears always perk up when I hear “professional football” and “Alabama” share the same sentence, I have to weigh in on the franchise in the fledgling International Football Alliance.

In case you didn’t know, the IFA is a circuit that aims to feature both Mexican and American clubs, and plans to start play in 2025.

The proposed 10-team lineup for the inaugural season consists of the Beavers, Cancun Sharks, Dallas Pioneros, Gulf Coast Tarpons, Las Vegas Kings, Portland (nickname pending), Rebelión Tarahumara, Tampa Bay Tornadoes, Tequileros de Jalisco, and another locale that has yet to be announced.

As is the case with flying cars, calorie-free cheesecake and a real-world Batman, I like the concept. They’ve even taken a page from the Canadian Football League in that there are roster ratios. For example, each IFA team can have no more than 20 American players, while the balance (53 players in all, 40 activated on game day) must be international (Mexican, European, etc.).

Money-wise, the IFA website states that salaries would be determined by each team but the league standard is $400 per game, per player, and $1,500 per game for quarterbacks.

Based on a 10-game season, that’s $4,000 for a non-QB while a signal caller would pull down $15,000 at the minimum.

Apologies for getting off-topic … just wanted to provide some background.

Anyway, the first mystery yet to be solved is where the team will play its home games.

I would assume Huntsville and Montgomery are the top candidates.

Why?

Because they are, in order, the first and second largest cities in the state. The Beavers are holding tryouts in Mobile on March 3, but the last line of the news release says the team will not be based out of the Port City.

I’ll take the Beavers at their word, while also reserving the right to view it as a misdirection play. We’ll have to see, I guess.

Of course, before I found out there would be tryouts in south Alabama, I looked to the source of all knowledge – Wikipedia – in an effort to find out which city, town or region in the state has the most beavers.

Actually, beavers can be found in all 67 counties, proving the animals are, indeed, busy.

That means any city could be in the running. Hang around somewhere in Alabama long enough, and you’re bound to run into a beaver.

As for Birmingham, it’s a highly unlikely locale. With the modern Stallions entering their third year, the Magic City appears set for spring football.

That club isn’t exactly shattering attendance records, so I can’t imagine The Ham supporting two clubs playing in the same offseason.

Still … the Stallions lease Protective Stadium, so Legion Field would be open. Something to think about if you like thinking about such things.

At any rate, let’s get back to the main point.

Why would you make “Beavers” your team’s sobriquet?

When I hear the nick, I think of the Oregon State Beavers and the Montreal Beavers (a franchise in the original United Football League which, incidently, was coached by Birmingham Vulcans boss Marvin Bass).

No place in Alabama prompts me to say to myself, “You know what … if a sports franchise is ever located here, they should be called the Beavers.”

In my mind, there are many better names for the team. When I think of Huntsville, I think of rockets. When I think of Montgomery, I think of a woman named Rhonda I met while visiting there several years ago.

She was nice and smelled of patchouli.

I doubt the name “Alabama Rhondas” would resonate with any fan other than me. “Alabama Rockets,” or “Alabama Capitals” might, though.

But look – just because the team is called the Beavers doesn’t mean I won’t support them.

I will.

As you might know, the 1995 Birmingham Barracudas were near and dear to my heart and I still miss having a CFL team in my backyard. I bought hats, T-shirts and all manner of memorabilia even though I thought (and still think) Barracudas was a terrible nickname to give a team located in central Alabama.

However, since there’s already a Beavers logo (a vicious brown critter with orange teeth and black trim) and team officials have settled on the name, I’m going to make the best of it.

“Dam them, Beavers … DAM THEM!” as well as “Pelt them, Beavers, PELT THEM!” would be cool cheers. Stallions fans yell, “Giddy Up!” whenever Birmingham makes a first down, and Beaver faithful could do something similar, like, “Slap that tail!” or “Dig it!”

Several professional sports teams have some sort of fan-involved gimmick to open each game, so I’d suggest selecting a ticket holder to fling a hatchet – known as the Beaver Cleaver – at a target featuring the opposing team’s logo.

Sadly, only the ancient among us would get that reference, so maybe that’s not a great marketing tool in the mid-2020s.

All kidding aside, I wish the IFA and Beavers luck because they’ll certainly need every bit they can conjure. With the UFL now the center of the spring football universe, there is little room for challengers. The graveyard of failed sports startups is a large one.

But dark horses do win races, so I’ll give them a chance.

And if they do actually make it to the playing field in 2025, I promise to buy a hat and T-shirt – and fully embrace “Beaver Fever.”