Alternative Football Archives - Page 54 of 89

I’ve gone full Hamilton

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats last played in the Grey Cup in 2019, and I watched every frustrating second of their 33-12 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Canadian Football League championship game is a big deal to me – arguably my favorite single day event on the sports calendar – and I’ll watch regardless of the matchup.

Still, having “my” team in it made it more special, although the outcome was disappointing.

**Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl**

But the last time the Tiger-Cats won the Grey Cup – well, I just had to hear about it, which was also disappointing.

The year was 1999, and while the world was planning for the imminent disaster of Y2K – food shortages, poisoned water supply, rabid dinosaurs running unimpeded through the streets – United States television networks were not planning for my CFL enjoyment.

The “U.S. experiment” of CFL franchises located south of the Canadian border ended in 1995, and ESPN2’s contract with the league expired two years later.

So Americans like me who still loved the three-down game and wanted to follow the eight-team circuit were mostly out of luck. Sure, the “World Wide Web” existed back then, but it wasn’t nearly as user-friendly as it is today.

Now you can ask Siri (or Alexa … who you’re in a relationship with is none of my business) to tell you results of the full contact Yahtzee competition from the Netherlands, and she’ll share the information immediately. Or you can watch it live on your phone. Back in 1999, about the best I could hope for was a funny cat video that took 10 minutes to download.

There was no Twitter to get instant updates, and no Facebook to provide misinformation about the game.

So I guess I probably just waited until the evening SportsCenter to learn that Hamilton had vanquished Calgary, 32-21, at BC Place in Vancouver. I’m sure I was happy, but not being able to experience it made me sad.

This Sunday, however, that won’t be a problem.

Hamilton gets its rematch with Winnipeg – this time in the friendly confines of Tim Hortons Field – at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.

Unlike last week when the Eastern and Western finals were shown on the network’s version of the The Ocho (ESPN News, which I do not have a subscription), I can experience the event from my futon. Said futon is located roughly 922.8 miles from the game site, but I’ll feel like I’m there.

I’ll be wearing my game-used No. 68 Ti-Cats jersey (Angelo Mosca made it famous, of course, but this one was actually worn by offensive tackle Greg Randall in 2006), along with one of my four Ti-Cats ballcaps. I thought about wearing a different one each quarter, and I still might. With me, I never know.

And of course I’ll enjoy my Grey Cup game day tradition, the “Super Snack.” The simple yet scrumptious dish is made up of sour cream-flavored potato chips, dry roasted peanuts and Chex Mix piled on a plate, covered in Easy Cheese, and microwaved for 12 to 15 seconds. It’s my take on the Canadian delicacy poutine, although poutine doesn’t normally consist of sour cream-flavored potato chips, dry roasted peanuts and Chex Mix piled on a plate, covered in Easy Cheese, and microwaved for 12 to 15 seconds.

For the main course I’ll probably have a black bean patty on an onion roll, which I call a Hamilton Burger (so named as a tribute to the CFL team, not the district attorney on Perry Mason).

But really, the fan festivities started earlier in the week when I renamed our ginger shelter cat “Hamilton.” It’s only temporary, but since he’s a cat who kinda looks like a tiger, he can be a Tiger-Cat for a few days.

In keeping with the all about Hamilton theme, I also staged an in-house production of the musical Hamilton in which I changed the title of the song Alexander Hamilton to East Champion Hamilton and altered the lyrics to better reflect the Grey Cup:

There is no beat, no melody
Blue Bombers, my first friend, my enemy
Maybe the last facemask I ever see
If I throw away my third down shot,
Is this how fans will remember me?
What if this 108^th game is my legacy?

On Friday I’ll listen to the soft rock song Don’t Pull Your Love by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds on a continuous loop, even though I don’t care as much for the contributions of Joe Frank or Reynolds.

And finally, on Saturday I’ll pay tribute to George Hamilton, who not only founded Hamilton, Ontario, in 1816, but went on to star in Love At First Bite and co-host a popular mid-90s daytime talk show with his ex-wife.

My greatest joy, though, would come from the Ti-Cats helping me experience what I couldn’t experience in 1999 by winning the whole dang thing right before my eyes. It won’t be easy – Winnipeg is the defending champ and has the league’s best record. Plus, I can’t expect the Bombers to turn the ball over five times (six if you count the turnover on downs) like they did last Sunday against Saskatchewan.

And if Mike O’Shea’s club comes out on top, I’ll congratulate a great organization and their wonderful fans, because us CFL folk – even the ones living in the Lower 48 – have to support each other.

But there’s always the chance for an upset.

And if the home dogs prevail, the only thing that’ll be upset around 8 p.m. on Sunday night will be my stomach. Those Super Snacks can lay kinda heavy.

Diamonds aren’t forever

With the holiday season upon us I was hoping to find a feel-good sports story that also incorporates alternative football, thereby checking the boxes of two of my favorite things – feeling good and off-brand gridiron competition. And though the feeling was fleeting, the story of the 1969 Arkansas Diamonds is downright inspirational.

The Diamonds were members of the Continental Football League and played their inaugural season in 1968.

It was not a success.

Coached by former University of Arkansas star and four-time NFL Pro Bowler Fred Williams, the expansion team stumbled to a 2-10 record and averaged roughly 2,500 fans per game while playing at a high school stadium in Little Rock. It was a rough first year for a franchise that was already overshadowed by college football and the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Yet while things were a slightly better record-wise in 1969, the Diamonds were buried in debt and finishing the season appeared to be a longshot – even after offering 300,000 shares of stock at $2 a pop to build support. On October 1 IRS officials notified the team that almost $12,000 in back taxes were owed for the last quarter of 1968. And Associated Press reported that unless the team raised $20,000 by October 11, the league would revoke the franchise.

Williams and general manager Jim Landers resigned, with Landers telling AP it was “an impossible task to perform the duties I was hired to do due to lack of money.”

Throw in the fact that the Razorbacks were a top five team and commanding most of the state’s attention, and it was difficult to imagine enough people cared one way or another about the fate of this struggling COFL franchise.

But they did.

The team averaged only 1,500 paying customers per game, yet new GM Tommy Overton said more than $10,000 had been donated by October 9, with contributions ranging from 50 cents to $1,000.

“We had a man from Carlisle, a disabled veteran paralyzed from the neck down, send us his government allotment check of $105.90,” Overton told the Associated Press. “We don’t want to see it fold. I can’t believe some of the people who have rallied behind us. It’s becoming more like a community thing.”

With the league covering its expenses, Arkansas players agreed to forget about the three weeks back pay they were owed and play out the rest of the season – with no guarantee they’d receive any money for their efforts.

“The first time we missed a payroll they were free agents, but only one of the 36 left,” Overton said. “Several of them got offers from other teams, but they turned them down.”

Heading into their road game against the Norfolk Neptunes on November 8, the Diamonds had posted a 5-5 record with two games remaining and their refusal to give up had resulted in opposing fans taking up their cause. When the Diamonds arrived in Norfolk, their pregame meal, transportation to the stadium and motel rooms had been donated by Neptunes supporters.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got the best team in the league,” interim coach John Hoffman told the Daily Press of Newport News. “They’ve rallied around the team and are giving it everything they can.”

Bobby Tiner led the team running and passing, throwing for 1,256 yards and 10 touchdowns while rushing for 513 yards and four more scores. Tommy Burnett was his favorite receiver, catching 34 aerials for 620 yards and eight touchdowns.

Defensively, Tommy Trantham paced the resistance with seven interceptions.

More than half the roster had ties to Arkansas colleges; Trantham and Burnett were former Razorbacks while Tiner was a Little All-American Honorable Mention selection out of Central Arkansas (then Arkansas State Teachers College).

If this was a sports movie, the Diamonds would’ve defeated Norfolk, closed out the campaign with a win over the Texarkana Titans in front of a raucous crowd at War Memorial Stadium, and found enough money to set the stage for a bright future.

Real life, however, sometimes simply fades to black.

Norfolk thumped Arkansas, 55-14, and only 1,489 fans showed up to watch the Diamonds come up short against Texarkana, 42-38, on November 15.

The team never played another game.

Despite the selflessness of the players and financial kindness of both friends and strangers, it wasn’t enough to save the Diamonds. The club had a three-year financial plan that required 20 people to invest $15,000 each, but only 11 stepped up and the franchise folded on March 27, 1970.

“It came that close for being here three years,” Burnett said. “We had promised the commissioner (James Dunn) that if he’d let us finish the year, we’d either get a three-year program or none at all.”

Ironically, the entire league went under five months later, with many of the stronger franchises moving to the established Atlantic Coast Football League and its three Texas-based teams joining the new Trans-Atlantic Football League.

Overall, the history of the Arkansas Diamonds is hardly heartwarming. But for a few months in 1969, the heart shown by their players – and Continental Football League fans – made for a life-affirming story.

Here we go again

Alternative football in Birmingham has been my kink since 1974, which is why I wrote The Home Team: My Bromance With Off-Brand Football.

But that book was about professional football teams in the Magic City. I never expected I might have to add a chapter about an entire league that set up shop in my hometown.

Sparkling new 47,100-seat Protective Stadium officially opened for business on October 2, 2021, and a new business calling itself the United States Football League has reportedly decided to rent it out for the spring of 2022 (official news is coming – maybe today, this week, next week … at some point). The USFL will go with a bubble model next April, with all 43 games taking place in the ‘Ham – kinda like a startup business fair. Theoretically, this could be terrific for the local hospitality industry, with players, coaches, league personnel and broadcast partners (FOX Sports owns the league under the umbrella of the National Spring Football League) filling hotels and restaurants and shining a national spotlight on Birmingham.

Even venerable Legion Field would get a piece of the pie, since it would also host some of the overflow USFL games. With eight teams playing each week of a 10-week regular season – plus playoffs – “The Old Gray Lady” would be called into service to supplement the new kid on the Uptown block.

All that’s great, but getting my hopes up about viable professional football here has always led to heartbreak. It’s like having a field mouse as a pet – you love it, but it’s best not to get too attached because it’ll probably only be around for a year or so. Plus, Birmingham and Jefferson County have each agreed to pony up $500,000 toward the reported three and a half million bucks it’ll cost to host in 2022, and that’s a lot of money to commit to something with such a poor track record. Noted sports fan Bill Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s past is prologue,” and Birmingham’s pro gridiron past has resulted in a lot of tombstones.

“But Scott,” you say, “FOX is putting millions of dollars behind the effort so it’s a no-lose situation,” to which I answer, “FOX also put millions of dollars behind the excellent science fiction series Almost Human but canceled it after one season because it cost too much money to make.”

All that aside, what do we really know about the 2022 USFL?

Will the pay scale be similar to that of the Alliance of American Football or the most recent XFL ($50,000-$75,000 annually)? Will athletes earn much more? Much less?

What will be the format of the draft?

Will USFL coaches be older “big names” looking for a last hurrah, up-and-comers, or a mixed bag?

Are franchises ultimately to be purchased by ownership groups, or will the league work as a single entity corporation?

And how about rules? Will the league go for outside the box innovations or copy the NFL?

I have many, many questions.

Also, the league coming to my city is calling itself the USFL, but I know deep down that it’s not the USFL. Silly? Yeah, I suppose. Whoever buys the trademarks, logos and naming rights can call it whatever they like. And I’m sure a lot of people will initially pay attention to the league because of the throwback angle, and that’s smart marketing.

However – and speaking only for myself – I’m extremely protective of the original USFL. It gave me and millions of other fans major professional football from 1983-85. It signed top National Football League and college players, started a good, old-fashioned bidding war, and ultimately produced a handful of franchises (the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars chief among them) that could’ve been competitive in the NFL.

The new USFL will do none of those things. That’s not a criticism, it’s just a fact.

Since it’s owned by FOX and FOX is a major broadcast partner of the NFL, the network would never do anything to anger the big league. In fact, I imagine many broadcasts will feature commentators saying things like, “He really wants back in the NFL and a good showing against the Stallions could put him on the league’s radar,” and “He was just a step away from earning an NFL roster spot last September and a strong performance with the Stars might get him another shot.”

All that is absolutely fine. I have no expectation that this league will or should be in competition with the NFL, and if it can ultimately work out some sort of working agreement with it, that would be fantastic.

However, saying the USFL is “back” implies this new venture is a continuation of the old one, and it’s nothing of the sort – it’s just not. That’s why teams called the Stallions or Stars or Breakers are off-putting to me. I mean, there were bands I loved in the 1980s, but if I saw them tour now – with none of their original members – it just wouldn’t be the same (I’m looking at you, Quiet Riot).

Now before I go any further, I have a confession to make; I’m a hypocrite when it comes to sports reboots and restarts.

It didn’t bother me in the least that the second iteration of Birmingham’s baseball Barons had nothing to do with the original Barons.

And I followed the New York Cosmos of the original North American Soccer League, then followed the New York Cosmos in the Division II North American Soccer League, and continued to follow the New York Cosmos in the National Premier Soccer League and National Independent Soccer Association. I still follow them now, even though they may or may not even exist. None of that rebranding, remaking or retreading concerned me at all so if you want to call out my sanctimony, I offer no defense.

The USFL is different to me, though. Its particular place in my sports fandom is unique and I want to remember it as it was, not for what someone else is pretending it is.

But, my opinion carries no weight and FOX owns the league, so that pretty much ends my desire that this USFL be an acronym for Unrelated Spring Football League.

I’m acutely aware I sound like Dougie Downer or Negative Ned or Antagonistic Andy or Gloomy Gus or Pessimistic Pete or Despondent Dudley, and that’s not my intent. If it can provide jobs and opportunities, I want it to be a rousing success. Any time an alternative football league comes along, I have a moral obligation to give it a chance. And anything that’s good for Birmingham has my full support.

So support it I will; the first weekend of games, you can count me in. And if the quality of football is good, Birmingham officially gets a franchise, and it keeps me entertained, I’ll keep coming back for more and cheerfully admit I misjudged it.

Just don’t expect me to buy Stallions T-shirts and caps.

I stocked up on those back in 1983.