Category: Alternative Football

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.”

Barring an unexpected development, the United Football League is set to return next year, marking four consecutive seasons of “offseason” professional gridiron action.

That’ll break the original United States Football League’s record of three competitive seasons (1983-85) which – truthfully – I thought would probably stand forever. With the World League of American Football leaving North America after two years and most other circuits going one-and-done, 11-on-11 spring/summer ball seemed like a fool’s errand for almost 40 years.

Yet, while it’s easy to look back on the late, great USFL as “the” groundbreaker when it comes to playing football during baseball season, that honor belongs to the Trans-American Football League.

Dave Dixon came up with the idea for a January through May circuit in 1965, but it was six years later before a league actually abandoned the fall. The TAFL, a rebranded version of the Texas Football League, decided to tee it up in 1971.

The news was announced in March of that year via a press release:

The greatest innovation in professional football for 1971 will have its beginning in the city of San Antonio. San Antonio, the home of the “winningest team in professional football,” will be the site of pro football’s first spring season football game. The opening day for the Trans-American Football League was first conceived in Chicago, Illinois, in 1970. The league as it was then proposed would consist of four divisions which would span the continental United States. In 1971, this idea will become a reality as four Texas cities join together to host pro football’s first spring schedule. These four teams will be known as the Southwest Division of the Trans-American League and they will make up the only operative division for the 1971 season. Because of the response by season ticket holders and advertisers alike, it is an excellent possibility that the other three divisions will be ready to operate in 1972.

The original concept was for the TAFL to play a fall schedule and be second only to the newly-merged National Football League and American Football League in quality. Aside from San Antonio – winners of four consecutive Texas Football League titles – there were to be franchises in Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Chicago and Hershey, Pennsylvania, with possible locales including Memphis, Birmingham, Tampa, and Columbus, Ohio.

A stock offering as well as a network TV deal were also in the works and by 1972, the league would feature as many as 16 teams.

In early 1971, however, plans were changing – dramatically.

Henry Hight, owner of the San Antonio Toros, said he planned to apply for a Canadian Football League franchise for 1972. Before then, however, his club would participate in a bold experiment.

“We’ve got a lot going on for us down in San Antonio,” Hight said in the January 13, 1971, edition of the North Bay Nugget. “We plan to play spring ball. We’ll go into camp March 1. With that one move, we’ll do away with all competition. Think of the stadiums we’ll have available. And the players – think of the players we’ll be able to use.

“Our season will end in June … NFL camps will open in July.”

The 1971 TAFL was a completely Texas-based circuit with only four teams, built on the hope that those clubs (the Dallas Rockets, Fort Worth Braves, Toros and Texarkana Titans) would somehow be so successful other owners from across the country would be clamoring for a spring pro football franchise.

For that to happen, the TAFL would need to be a huge box office success and garner national publicity despite being a minor league with no national TV contract.

Duncan McCauley, director of development for the TAFL, was excited about the prospects.

“I’m very enthusiastic about the possibilities and about the reception I think it will receive,” he said in an April 20, 1971 story in the San Antonio Express. “I’ve talked to hundreds of people and practically all of them are anticipating football at this time of year, and most of them have indicated they plan to attend as many games as possible.

“We’re offering the football fan his favorite sport at a time when he can enjoy getting out to see a live game without facing a conflict with his son or daughter who might be involved in a high school or college game or some of the activities that accompany them.”

Texarkana coach Durwood Merrill agreed.

“Although it’s strictly on a trial basis, it has already won the enthusiasm of fans and coaches,” Merrill told the Tyler Telegraph.

Alas, fans weren’t enthused.

At all.

Despite what was, by all accounts, quality play, fans didn’t exactly show up in droves. The largest crowd of the season came when 4,500 ticket buyers converged on North East Stadium to see San Antonio top Texarkana, 20-19, in the TAFL championship game on July 19.

Before the contest was played, team owners had already decided the spring schedule simply wasn’t working out.

“When the league went to a spring and summer schedule, it did so to get away from competition with dozens of high school, college and pro teams in the area, as well as get recognition for the teams and the league, plus allowing the better players in the league to move directly on to major league training camps in July,” San Antonio coach George Pasterchick told Austin American Statesman columnist George Breazeale a week before the title matchup. “But we knew then the key to it all was attendance – how many people would pay money to get in. And the attendance hasn’t been what we expected.”

By 1972 the TAFL was no more, with the San Antonio and Dallas franchises moving to the Southwest Professional Football League and a fall schedule. Hight did continue his CFL push, though, saying that potential owners in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Seattle and Las Vegas were ready to join San Antonio in an American Division.

Of course, it would be a couple of decades before the Canadian circuit ventured south of its border.

As for spring pro football, well, that experiment wasn’t attempted again until the birth of the USFL in 1983.

You know, if I had only been able to stay in Norfolk, Virginia, just a few days longer, the Atlantic Coast Football League – and the Norfolk Neptunes – could’ve been my introduction to alternative pro football.

Yep … the team that began life as the Springfield (Massachusetts) Acorns in 1963 in the original Atlantic Coast Football League, moved to Norfolk when the franchise joined the Continental Football League in 1966, and played its final two seasons in the new ACFL, was my first offbrand crush.

In the summer of 1971, my parents took me to Virginia to visit my brother, who was serving at Naval Station Norfolk. It was the first time I’d ever traveled through the sky, which was cool except for the fact that I suffered from airplane ear.

And, it was my first time to snarfle dry roasted peanuts, which I’d never had before until the flight attendant passed some out as a snack. I gave them rave reviews, so much so that when we landed at Norfolk International Airport, she gifted me with a whole bag of them.

I like to think she was charmed by my black horn-rimmed glasses and Lucky Tiger hair tonic.

Except for spending a few days with my brother and sister-in-law, those would’ve likely been the two main highlights of the trip.

However, we arrived on a Saturday night and on Sunday morning, I found myself thumbing through the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. I was already a sports nut at age 10, and loved poring over those industrial-sized Sunday sports sections.

Two things jumped out at me as I perused the paper. One, Joe Namath suffered torn ligaments in his left knee during an exhibition game against the Detroit Lions the night before, which broke my heart. I was a huge New York Jets fan, and had some major hero worship when it came to Joe Willie.

And two – and this is where I finally circle back to the plot of this story – I learned the Neptunes defeated the Augusta Eagles, 89-0, at Foreman Field the night before.

They led 28-0 at the end of the first quarter, 42-0 at halftime, and 63-0 at the end of three. The winners never punted and rolled up 554 yards of total offense, with 395 coming on the ground.

Nine players scored touchdowns, with Ron Holliday, Herb Nauss and Bob Fultz tallying two TDs apiece.

Now, until I read that article, I had no clue that there was a professional football team in Norfolk, or that there was a league called the ACFL. (I certainly knew nothing of the Eagles, who were members of the Dixie Football League).

But 89-0 … that blew my mind.

So, I started asking Don, my brother, about the team, and he told me they had been around for quite a few years. In 1971 they had a new coach named Ron Waller, and played in the best American gridiron league outside the NFL.

Another factoid that stayed with me is that their roster featured a defensive player named Otis Sistrunk, a former Marine who never played college football.
I was fascinated, and Don ran out of answers before I ran out of questions. While I literally did not know the club existed the day before, they were now my third favorite pro football team behind the Jets and Los Angeles Rams.

The Neptunes played another exhibition the following week against the Columbia All-Stars (winning 61-0), but that contest was on a Sunday and we had headed back home to Birmingham the Friday before.

However, Don told me, maybe if I came back in 1972, he’d take me to Foreman Field to see a game.

When we returned home, I maintained Neptune Fever even after the NFL and college season shifted into high gear. Every time I talked to Don on the phone, the first thing I asked was how the team was doing.

Turns out, they did quite well; the Neptunes finished with a 10-3 record and defeated the Hartford Knights, 24-13, to win the ACFL championship.

A guy named Jim “King” Corcoran – who joined the team after being cut by the Philadelphia Eagles – led the way, throwing two touchdown passes to Holliday to help Norfolk lay claim to minor league football’s top prize.

I couldn’t wait to return to the Commonwealth the next summer and watch them from the bleachers.

Sadly, I’d never get the chance; the team and league folded at the end of the 1971 season.

Thanks to the World Football League in 1974, though, I finally got my chance to witness alt-football live and in person. And both Waller and Corcoran were a part of the WFL as head coach and QB, respectively, of the Philadelphia Bell. In fact, 12 former Norfolk players found roster spots on the WFL’s Philadelphia entry.

Sistrunk went on to have a solid career with the Oakland Raiders, and several other guys off the 1971 squad spent some time in the NFL.

More than a half century later – whenever I go down a sports research rabbit hole and come across the Norfolk Neptunes – I always smile.

Maybe I never saw them play, but I still consider myself one of their biggest fans.