Category: Alternative Football

The NFL and United Football League seem to be getting awfully chummy these days. And why not?

Now that Triple-A spring football seems to have found its footing with the merger of the USFL and XFL, the big league has a new – and steady – source of ready-to-play talent.

“The UFL has demonstrated to be a proven and effective product,” NFL executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, said in a statement on Wednesday. “It provides an opportunity to develop, showcase and evolve the talent and quality of players, coaches, administrators, trainers and officials at the highest level of professional football.”

Whether the NFL and UFL develop an official working relationship remains to be seen, but it would make sense if they did.

The UFL announced this week that 21 players from its 2024 season are currently active in the NFL. Michigan Panthers kicker Jake Bates (Detroit Lions) and Arlington Renegades defensive tackle Jalen Redmond (Minnesota Vikings) earned 53-man roster spots leading up to the NFL’s 2024 season launch, and former DC Defenders wide receiver Chris Blair (Atlanta Falcons) was recently promoted to the active roster from the practice squad.

Entering the season’s second Sunday, 14 other spring veterans are signed to practice squads, while three have been placed on injured reserve. 

“We knew that merging the two leagues would create more talented rosters, which in turn would create a more entertaining product on the field,” UFL executive vice president Daryl Johnston said. “This would provide our players the competitive platform needed to be seen by NFL teams. The number of workouts and signings we saw during NFL training camps speaks to the product we put on the field and the opportunity we created for our players as a league. This is what spring football represents, providing a non-traditional path to help players make it to football’s grandest stage.”   

Johnston, of course, has been pushing for a pro pathway since before the UFL existed. He worked for the ill-fated Alliance of American Football in 2019, and before the USFL and XFL merged to form the current circuit earlier this year, he was president of football operations with the USFL. In July, 2023, he was talking up the benefits of a spring pipeline.

“When I was in the Alliance of American Football (as general manager of the San Antonio Commanders), Philadelphia was one of my teams,” Johnston, who was also director of player personnel for the XFL Dallas Renegades in 2020, said then. “Jeff Stoutland is the offensive line coach for the Eagles. I asked him, ‘Wouldn’t it be great for (tackle) Jordan Mailata to come to our league and actually play the game? He said, ‘Absolutely … but as soon as I let him go do that, I have to get into a bidding war with the other 31 teams to get him to come back, because everybody’s gonna see how talented he is. And we’ve got time and money invested in him right now and I don’t want to get into a competition for services by letting him go to that league.’ So, there are some things that we are hoping to start conversations with the NFL and allowing some free flow, and some different things that gives access but returns that player back to that team.”

Considering Johnston’s strong NFL ties (he was a three-time Super Bowl champion and two-time Pro Bowler with the Dallas Cowboys, and has served as an analyst on NFL telecasts for 24 seasons), one would have to assume those conversations continue as the eight-team UFL prepares for another season playing out of its Arlington, Texas, hub in 2025.

According to a UFL release, more than 250 of the 400 players (60 percent) who appeared in games for the UFL were called to the NFL for workouts, with 78 signing contracts to attend 30 NFL team training camps. Overall, 87 deals were struck with UFL players, including eight signing twice with the same team and one signing three times with different teams. 

Among “legacy” USFL (2022-23) and XFL (2023) classes, 41 players were called up by the UFL for the 2024. Cowboys standout and former Birmingham Stallions kicker Brandon Aubrey – one of the NFL’s top players at that position – and teammate Kevontae Turpin (wide receiver for the USFL New Jersey Generals in 2022) are two of the 11 on 53-man rosters. Twenty-seven others have practice squad spots and three are on injured reserve. 

Yet, while many are getting opportunities, only a handful are getting actual playing time in the fall. The UFL rectifies that problem, and it would be even better if the NFL could call players up and send others down (to get work) thanks to a streamlined partnership.

“The UFL has been an excellent tool for us as we build the roster,” Cowboys vice president of player personnel, Will McClay, said. “In the age of salary cap, player acquisition has become a year-round job. The UFL gives us an opportunity to evaluate players in a professional setting at crucial times when teams need to fill roster holes that may not have been addressed in the draft and free agency. The access that the UFL gives us to the players and process makes it a league that we will continue to scout and look for players to add to our roster. The bottom line is that football is a “rep” game and we feel like the more quality reps a player can get, the more they can improve their skill set and Football intelligence enough to compete for an NFL roster spot.” 

Not trying to read too much into it, but the fact that the league sent out a press release with three NFL officials commenting on the UFL (Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah also weighed in by saying, “Growth opportunities afforded players by the UFL can absolutely lead to better competition on NFL rosters”) suggests a more formal connection between the two would be a logical step.

“The NFL scouts agree that the UFL is a great proving ground for players to get more film and playing time to improve their game,” San Antonio Brahmas general manager Marc Lillibridge said. “When they’re not playing, it’s hard to see their development. When they’re in the UFL, they can see them developing under high level coaching and the results and growth in games.”

Short of an in-season farm system, an NFL/UFL alliance is the next best thing. And if the UFL can survive – and steady television ratings are encouraging – such a team-up would benefit both parties.

It’s certainly something to keep an eye on.

A few years ago – following the death of the Alliance of American Football and before the birth of the 2020 XFL and 2022 USFL – I pondered the possibility of a traditional minor league football system for the National Football League.

And when I say “traditional,” I mean something along the lines of Major League Baseball farm clubs and NBA G League teams, franchises that play at the same time of year as the parent clubs.

As a fan of spring pro football, I’m glad the United Football League exists and look forward to its return in 2025. However, it’s an offseason venture, not in-season. And to get the most bang for its buck, an NFL-sponsored circuit would require affiliates that share a similar competition schedule.

I started thinking about this again after my favorite NFL team, the New York Jets, signed Adrian Martinez of the UFL champion Birmingham Stallions.

Martinez earned MVP honors while leading the Stallions to their third consecutive spring football crown, and it’s great that he landed an NFL job. But the job of a practice squad player is just that – to practice. Barring an injury to a QB on the 53-man active roster, he won’t be playing in any actual games.

But an NFL farm team could encompass all of the main club’s practice squad members (up to 17) and put them in actual competitive situations.

As I wrote before, these squads would not only be a good proving ground for rookies, but give playing time to backups and paying jobs to a lot of guys who otherwise would be out of football work after training camp. I’d think it would be relatively easy to put together a 40-man per club developmental league roster.

Each NFL team would have one minor league team, and from a marketing standpoint, those “junior varsity” teams could benefit from big league branding. In other words, the Brooklyn Jets could share colors and similar logos to their big league affiliates who play at MetLife Stadium. Same would be true for the Albany Giants, New Haven Patriots, Des Moines Bears, Raleigh Panthers, etc.

And of course, it would be necessary for the offensive and defensive schemes to replicate those of their NFL counterparts – made easier by the fact that they’d hold joint practices.

In my original NFL “G League” plan, I had it divided into four, eight-team quadrants (North, South, East and West) that played regional slates to keep expenses down.

Teams in each quadrant would meet each other twice over the course of a 14-game regular season, and then the four quadrant champions could advance to a four-team playoff.

And to be a functioning farm system, the season would need to run (mostly) concurrent with the NFL schedule. Start it maybe two weeks after the NFL season begins in order to put rosters together.

If games were played during the week, farmhands would be ready for a “call-up” at any time, so if the New York Jets found themselves in need of a lineman for Sunday’s game they could pluck one from the Brooklyn Jets.

This would be perfect for quarterbacks – and not just guys like Martinez.

In most cases, a second-string NFL QB will see very little action during the season and the third-string signal caller won’t see any at all.

Build a developmental team, and the understudies could receive meaningful minutes in actual games, while players coming back from injury could get reconditioned.

Additionally, it would make for a great laboratory in terms of testing safety features, new rules, in-game technology, etc.

I think it’s a great idea, if I do say so myself.

But …

It would most likely be a money-losing proposition. And even though the average value of an NFL team is $5.7 billion, owners would still want to see a positive return on their “D-League” investment.

The reason the USFL and XFL were able to morph into the UFL – and why this brand of football is expected to return for its fourth consecutive season in 2025 – is because it attracts eyeballs. Other than St. Louis in-game fan support is pretty weak, but If you’re passionate about watching football from the comfort of your couch (yet the calendar says April), this Triple-A organization gives you a fix.

But where would the minors fit in during the fall season? That’s when fans already have an embarrassment of riches with the NFL, college and high school football. And thanks to ESPN, you can catch a game virtually any night of the week.

Would fans tune in to see the Spokane Seahawks play the San Jose 49ers on a Wednesday night? I would, but I’m not confident there’d be a huge appetite for it.

And with Power Five college football now NFL Lite, the sport’s biggest league already has a feeder system it doesn’t have to pay for.

While many sports have longstanding minor league pipelines, football has gotten along rather well with just the college-to-pro model.

I don’t really expect that to change. However, if it does, I promise to watch – especially when those Brooklyn Jets hit the gridiron.

One of the benefits of no longer covering live local sports is I’ve been able to devote more attention to the Canadian Football League, which I’ve been passionate about since the early 1970s.

Although I cast my lot with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats long ago, I’m one of those guys who finds something to like about every club. I want my team to win, of course, but I want the whole league to be successful. You know … a rising tide lifts all boats.

So, when things go bad for the Ti-Cats (with Saturday’s 47-22 beatdown by Edmonton, Hamilton is 2-8 and its season is circling the drain) there’s always something – or someone – to celebrate.

The BC Lions host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers tonight, and I’m celebrating the return of Nathan Rourke to the CFL.

Rourke, of course, is the Victoria, British Columbia, native who threw for 28 touchdowns and 4,035 yards during his first stint with the Lions in 2021-22; he won the CFL Most Outstanding Canadian Award in 2022.

Since then, the two-time Jon Cornish Trophy winner (while quarterbacking the Ohio Bobcats) spent time with the Jacksonville Jaguars (2023), New England Patriots (2023), New York Giants (2024) and Atlanta Falcons (2024). He tried to parlay his CFL success into a career in the National Football League, and I genuinely hoped he’d stick the landing on football’s biggest stage. Unfortunately, the 26-year-old never saw action in a regular season game and was cut by Atlanta on August 11.

TSN’s Farhan Lalji reports that Rourke has signed a three-year deal with BC that will make him the league’s highest paid player in 2025 and 2026. He’ll earn $250,000 for playing the rest of this season, $749,200 next year, and $815,000 in the final year of his contract.

If another NFL opportunity comes along, it’ll have to wait.

“I wanted to be in a situation where I felt like I could move up,” Rourke said following Wednesday’s practice. “And there’s so few opportunities in the league. I think in ‘23 we can look back on that and see it as a success. I moved up, I was able to go to a team where I was the second guy, and that was an improvement from the beginning of the year. But (in 2024) there were tough situations with coaching changes and kind of moving around … I never really got settled.

“I was missing some reps and missing some opportunities.”

With starting quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. nursing an injury, his former team north of the U.S. border offered a new opportunity after a job with the Falcons lasted just 10 days.

“I felt like going to another (NFL) team would be a hard ask, and maybe not the best use of my time,” Adams said. “After that point, the suddenness of it felt like it was maybe best to start exploring other options if the NFL thing didn’t work out.”

America’s loss is Canada’s gain – again.

“The biggest thing is trying to get readjusted to the offense,” he said. “Obviously, I know this one. I learned it at some point, I was here for two years. But then this is also my fifth offense this year, so I’m going to have to forget a bunch of stuff to make room for this stuff. I love the Canadian game … I tell all my American teammates who have never seen the motions and stuff like that, it’s such a fun game, and there’s so much action to it.”

While I’m an American fan who admires the game from afar, it’s exciting to see a Canadian native excel at the QB position. The CFL has been in search of a national superstar signal caller ever since Hamilton native Russ Jackson retired in 1969.

But while Rourke is certainly a favorite son, Adams is hardly a throwaway. The 31-year-old (who played collegiately at Eastern Washington and Oregon) is second in the league in passing yards with 2,469 and tied for second in most passing TDs with 14. Back in February he signed a contract extension through 2026 after a 2023 season that saw him lead the league with 4,769 yards and connect on 31 touchdown tosses.

He was traded to the Lions from Montreal after Rourke suffered a foot sprain in 2022, and two years later Rourke has come in as Adams tries to work through an injury to his right knee.

“I’ve got the most amount of respect for V.A.,” Rourke said. “He’s such a pro. Ever since I’ve known him, when he came in for me in 2022, he was a pro. Everything he’s done up until this point, he’s been a pro about it. He’s that type of leader and type of person that I aspire to be in the locker room. He’s been great. I think the timing is good in terms of him not being 100 percent.

“We need him for this playoff run that we’re hopefully about to go on. We’re gonna need everyone healthy so I think let him rest and see what happens. I think he’s done a fantastic job, and I respect the hell out of him for it.”

BC coach Rick Campbell – who on Friday named Rourke the starter for tonight’s contest – dismisses any kind of quarterback controversy. With his team 5-4 – one point behind West leader Saskatchewan but losers of three consecutive games – the more quality QBs, the better.

“We’re looking out for the BC Lions, and we want to do what’s best for the BC Lions football team,” Campbell said. “And to have those two guys, both of them, on the same team, is an amazing thing.”

Once Adams returns to 100 percent, it’ll be interesting to see how things ultimately play out in Vancouver. I mean, having two elite quarterbacks vying for playing time is untenable long-term.

If Rourke decides to pursue another NFL job in 2025, Adams should return. If Rourke stays, Adams would go elsewhere (I’d love to see him in Hamilton – and not as a wideout like the Ti-Cats tried to make him in 2018).

But for now, I’m looking forward to watching Rourke play the three down game. And he’s looking forward to it as well, with no regrets about his NFL experience.

“I felt like I made the best decision for myself at the time,” Rourke said. “Obviously looking back, it was not what I thought it was going to be in terms of an opportunity or a competition. But that’s the nature of this profession and you know, it’s come full circle now.”