Category: Alternative Football

When people ask me to share my origin story as a Canadian Football League fan, I’ve been telling them the same tale for decades.

In a nutshell, the local CBS affiliate showed truncated, tape-delayed games during the summer in the early 1970s, and as a football fanatic I quickly glommed onto the CFL.

But details?

I didn’t really have any.

So, in my continuing quest for knowledge – and in an effort to get the most value from my Newspapers.com subscription – I decided to do some digging. And what I learned is that memories of my early CFL fandom are hardly spot-on, but not all that far off the mark, either.

Although I can’t prove it conclusively, I’m assuming the first CFL game I ever saw came on July 2, 1972. That night WBMG-TV in Birmingham rebroadcast the CFL All-Star game, which featured the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders against standouts representing the league’s other franchises.

For the first time I was introduced to a style of football that featured three downs to make a first down, 12 players to a side, and an expansive playing field. I fell in love with the rule innovations immediately, and it set the stage for many good natured “arguments” with my dad, who was solidly in the four down, American-style camp.

Now, I had it in my head that these games were shown on Wednesday nights but that proved to be a false memory. The local station televised games on Sunday after they were played the Wednesday before. (Calgary’s 23-22 victory over the CFL All-Stars actually happened on Wednesday, June 28).

A news story in the Birmingham Post-Herald from July stated that WBMG would show the first 11 games of the CFL regular season on Sunday nights, but the rest of the tilts would be beamed at various times on Saturdays that didn’t conflict with college football.

As for the “truncated” part, for some reason I thought they were crammed into a two-hour window. But after looking over TV listings from that year I see that the Sunday games were aired from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. That was enough time to fit in a full game (it was an era before instant replay, and commercial breaks were less frequent back then), so I figure they just cut out the halftime break and went straight from the second quarter to the third.

OK, so this gives me a working knowledge of when the CFL entered my world, and I’m quite sure I watched every game I could that summer.

But if you know me at all, you know that I cheer for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. You also know that I chose them as “my” team for two important reasons – I liked the name “Tiger-Cats” and their black and gold color combination was appealing.

Now, here’s where things get interesting.

The first televised game in 1972 featuring Hamilton came on August 12 when the Ti-Cats faced off with the British Columbia Lions in Vancouver. As far as CFL games go it was a bit on the dull side with the Lions winning, 19-17. However, Johnny Musso was a star running back for BC, and he was fresh from an All-American season at the University of Alabama. As a kid who cheered for the Crimson Tide, it seems logical that I would’ve gravitated toward the Lions.

Obviously I didn’t, though, which is a bit odd for that moment in my history. I can only assume hyphenated nicknames and color combos eclipsed my NCAA football loyalties. (By the way … when I read an account of the game it was mentioned that that BC linebacker Carl Weathers suffered a severe ankle injury in the first half. This means I got to watch Apollo Creed play football four years before he won a split-decision over Rocky Balboa).

The Ti-Cats went on to win the Grey Cup that season, which I suppose might’ve had some long-term effect on why I cast my lot with them. However, it wasn’t like I got to watch them every week.

WBMG was supposedly going to carry games throughout the season, yet it abruptly took the CFL off its schedule in September. The 8:30 time slot on Sundays was filled by Mannix, and I guess the local network figured no time was a good time to show games on Saturday during college football season.

Still, the seed was planted and 50 years later, I remain a fan of this wonderful game played north of my border.

These days I can watch any CFL contest I want thanks to ESPN+, and I usually take advantage of that opportunity from Week One all the way through to the Grey Cup. But the summer of 1972 will always be special.

It didn’t matter that the Canadian Football League games I watched that year were shown four days after they were played. For this football-crazed kid, they were worth the wait.

I’ve enjoyed spending the morning learning more about XFL 3.0 now that the league is taking shape. Even though the names of the eight cities that will begin play next winter had already been leaked, it was still good to get the official word. With that done, I’m curious about things like nicknames and logos and all the stuff that has caused me to goob out over alternative football for decades.

So, will I be watching when the league kicks off on February 18, 2023?

It depends.

If UAB or Birmingham’s G League team don’t have basketball games that day, I might. If the Blazers or Squadron are playing, however, then I’ll probably settle for watching the highlights on SportsCenter.

See, I learned a hard new truth about myself during the recently completed United States Football League season; when it comes to alt-leagues, I’ve reached the point in my life where I’m more interested in hearing about the labor pains than actually seeing the baby.

I know … I’m as surprised by that plot twist as you are.

I love discussing the structure of the organization, stadium agreements, coaching hires, pay scale, draft pools, roster size, and cool rule innovations. Seeing a league go from an idea to a product is fascinating, and right now I’m having fun tracking all the USFL guys who are being signed by NFL teams (I was especially happy to see one of my favorites, QB Luis Perez, ink a pact with the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday). These are topics I never grow tired of.

Yet, while there was once a time when football was my top sports viewing choice any time of year, I realized this spring my most fervent interest starts with the first week of the Canadian Football League regular season and ends with the Super Bowl. The non-traditional leagues that occupy the other months have become entities I want to analyze more than watch. They often lose out to everything from hockey to rugby when I flip on my sports fan switch.

That’s a “me problem,” though, and not a knock against their quality at all. There are some truly outstanding players outside of the NFL and CFL, and it’s great they have multiple showcases to display their talent. I’m all for more athletes getting more opportunities.

It’s just that as I’ve gotten older, I don’t mind taking a break from the gridiron game.

Fortunately, these new ventures don’t need me. The 2022 USFL didn’t cater to the tired eyes of retired guys, but rather the demographic who likes their games with a truly modern touch. With its inaugural campaign in the books – capped off by a fantastic championship clash in a mostly packed Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton – the FOX-owned USFL showed there’s a place for spring pro football. And with plenty of close and exciting games augmented by everything from drones to helmet cams to post-play interviews, it gave fans a solid product. It was a success story during a time of year when football has failed and often failed spectacularly.

That said, I didn’t care for the hub format – even if it was in my hometown – and seeing games not involving the Birmingham Stallions played in front of just a handful of fans made for bad optics.

I wish the league had done some sort of local promotion along the lines of, “Hey, we know the Stallions are your favorite team, but who is your second favorite?” Have team reps and mascots from the other seven USFL clubs give away pennants and T-shirts, and that might’ve made a big impression on a little kid.

Dave the Wave could’ve quite possibly convinced a youngster (and his ticket-buying elders) to cheer for the New Orleans Breakers when Birmingham wasn’t playing at Protective Stadium or Legion Field.

Better yet, if you’re going to attach a city/region name to a team, let it play its home games in that city/region. I mean, the Philadelphia Stars never got closer than 900 miles to their “home” during the regular season.

But the idea was to keep costs down, and the circuit did that with its bubble. Job One was to figure out a way to be viable during its maiden voyage in order to keep sailing, and that mission was accomplished. According to an article in the Sports Business Journal, the USFL will expand from two to four hubs in 2023 (including Birmingham), which is better that this year’s format and shows forward progress. And considering the best business practice is to stay in business, it’s hard to argue with their approach.

Yet that circuit is as much a TV series as it is a sports league. The third version of the XFL, on the other hand, is apparently just as concerned about its in-house appeal. All you have to do is take a look at its 2023 teams.

In selecting the eight clubs for its latest reboot, it’s fairly obvious sites were chosen because they have a history of putting butts in the seats. Here’s per game attendance figures from the cities’ last spring football stints: Arlington/Dallas (17,163, XFL 2.0), DC (16,179, XFL 2.0), Houston (18,230, XFL 2.0), Las Vegas (22,618, original XFL), Orlando (19,648, Alliance of American Football), Seattle (25,616, XFL 2.0), San Antonio (27,721, Alliance of American Football) and St. Louis (28,541, XFL 2.0).

It’s Texas-heavy and has no presence in the top four Designated Market Areas (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia), and that seems risky. But people with far more money than me put the league together and they didn’t ask for my opinion, so I’m not going to worry about it.

I do find the league’s hybrid hub model interesting; the eight teams are kept together in one city (Arlington) for practice and on-site support, but will then travel to “home” locales for games.

Regardless, beer snakes should be magnificent when the XFL takes the field the weekend following Super Bowl LVII.

With its season starting in February and Disney (i.e., ABC and ESPN) handling TV coverage, it’ll get a head start on the USFL in 2023 since the FOX league once again plans to start up in April. Will folks in couch potato land who don’t have a team in either league be burned out by the time the XFL season is done, or get excited for season two of the USFL? We shall see.

And don’t forget the dark horse entry among spring leagues, Major League Football. Training camp is underway (a jamboree-style scrimmage was held on Sunday) and its inaugural mini-season is scheduled to start on August 9 with the championship game set for September 6. Despite the late summer/fall slate, the plan is to become a full-fledged spring league by 2023. And you can even invest in the league; details are available on its website.

This year all games (except for one) will be played on Tuesdays, with the idea to make it the only tackle football game available to watch on that day of the week.

This format is not unprecedented in alt-football history; the 1974 World Football League played most of its games on Wednesday nights with the TV game of the week staged on Thursdays. I’m looking forward to learning more about how Major League Football plans to conduct its business following next month’s soft launch.

So, if you happen to be one of those year-round football fanatics as I once was, I’m thrilled that you’ll (theoretically) never go wanting again. The XFL will lead into the USFL and MLFB, which will lead into the CFL, which will lead into the NFL, and then the cycle of professional football starts anew.

And who knows? Perhaps all these options will spark a rebirth in my desire to again make “offseason” pro football priority viewing. Until then, well, please tell me more about those labor pains …

The Canadian Football League brought its brand of the gridiron game to the United States for a regular season contest in 1958. But did you know that 16 years later the World Football League returned the favor?

Yet just as Americans were cool to the historic Hamilton-Ottawa clash in Philadelphia, Canadians in London, Ontario, didn’t have much interest in what the WFL had to offer, either.

The September 2, 1974, contest between the Detroit Wheels and Portland Storm was hardly a memorable one, especially considering it featured two struggling franchises playing in a struggling first-year league. But it is notable in that it was moved from Rynearson Stadium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, to J.W. Wilson Stadium in London on less than a week’s notice – and gave the upstart circuit its only international appearance.

WFL historians will note that Toronto was granted an inaugural franchise (the Toronto Northmen), but faced so much pushback from both the CFL and the Canadian government that team owner John Bassett opted to move the club to Memphis.

With the Toronto team out, the 12-team WFL consisted entirely of U.S.-based franchises (although The Hawaiians, based in Honolulu, did provide the circuit with an exotic locale).

However, there was still a desire to plant a seed north of the American border.

“The league is anxious to play there for two reasons,” Tim Grandi, executive assistant to WFL commissioner Gary Davidson, told the Detroit Free Press. “We want to establish the precedent of having played in Canada since their Parliament never passed the legislation that would’ve banned American football leagues. And we want the people in that area to see what the World Football League is all about.”

The Wheels (0-8) played 35 miles away from Detroit in Eastern Michigan University’s 22,000-seat stadium, and drew just over 12,000 fans per game. They were already on their last legs in the Motor City, having been denied the chance to play at Tiger Stadium since the NFL Lions had exclusive football rights there. There was a strong rumor ahead of the game that the team was headed to Charlotte in a relocation move, so at this point it probably didn’t matter where the game took place.

“We approved Charlotte as a location for a World Football League team a couple of weeks ago,” Grandi said. “It is an acceptable location for us, but we have not approved the transfer of any team, anywhere. And there is no transfer setup at this time.

“Everyone knows the problems of the Detroit team, but they are still attempting to keep the team there and that is the way the situation stands now.”

A potential move wasn’t the reason for the venue change, though. Detroit and London might be separated by only 120 miles, but it was actually a Portland official who requested the game be played in Canada.

Bob Harris, a London businessman who was a major stockholder with the Storm, wanted to show off the league in his hometown. He had planned to put a CFL team in London for the 1974 season but couldn’t come up with the $2 million price tag. So, landing a WFL franchise in Ontario might be the next best thing, and a 2 p.m. game on Labor Day would be a chance to test the waters.

“We have a 180-acre site off Highway 401 where we hope to build a stadium one day,” Harris told the Associated Press.

Unfortunately for Harris – and anyone else who thought the WFL might find a home in Canada – there was little interest in the game.

Whether two winless teams and a sinking league were to blame no one knows, but only 5,101 tickets were sold (most for the equivalent of $2.50 in American money) and many news accounts suggest less than 3,000 fans were in the stands.

For the record, Portland won, 18-7. The Storm improved to 1-7-1 with their first victory and went on to finish the campaign 7-12-1.

The Wheels, on the other hand, didn’t move to Charlotte and didn’t finish the season at all.

They played one more game in Ypsilanti on September 6 and picked up their only victory on September 11 against the Florida Blazers in Orlando. Detroit contested its final four games on the road and folded following a week 14 loss to Shreveport. (Charlotte did get a team via relocation, but it was the New York Stars).

The 1974 WFL was buried in debt, and a reboot in 1975 only made it 12 weeks until the league went out of business.

In the end, the league that wanted to represent the world left American soil only once, playing a largely meaningless game in a small stadium in Ontario. Still, a few thousand Canadians got to see football history – even though it’s history that most fans have long since forgotten.