Category: Alternative Football

HOOVER – Heading into the third weekend of the United States Football League season, fans have seen everything from offensive fireworks to defensive standoffs – and quite a few last-minute victories.

Saturday night at Protective Stadium, they’ll see either Birmingham or New Orleans become the USFL’s lone unbeaten team.

The hometown Stallions (2-0) and Breakers (2-0) meet at 7 p.m., with the lead atop the South Division at stake as well as bragging rights as the only remaining squad sporting a perfect record. Birmingham coach Skip Holtz is quick to point out, however, that it’s hardly a make-or-break game for either side.

“Like I’ve told our players, we’ve got 20 percent of the season done,” Holtz said following today’s practice at the Hoover Met Complex. “After this game, it’ll be 30 percent, and the team that wins won’t win the division, and the team that loses won’t lose the division. The division continues, and we have to stay healthy and continue to get better as the year goes on. We go out and play our game on Saturday and we’ll see what we can do to get better the next week and then see where we are.

“I think when you get to about 70 percent of the season, you’ll get a whole lot better idea of where the teams stand because then, every game is going to be for keeps. But I would rather lose this game and win the rest than I would win this game and lose the rest.”

Birmingham followed up a 28-24 season-opening victory over New Jersey with a 33-28 win over Houston. Despite the fast start, Holtz knows his team has plenty of room for improvement.

“I’m more worried about us than any opponent right now,” he said. “Until we learn to get our defensive schemes right and do what we need to do on offense, we can’t be as good as we need to be.”

New Orleans’ conquests have come against Philadelphia (23-17) and Tampa Bay (34-3), and Holtz sees a team very much in the mold of their head coach, Larry Fedora.

“Larry is a fiery, passionate, energetic, competitive individual,” Holtz explains. “They’re well-coached and it does not surprise me that they’re in the boat they’re in, playing as well as they are. I think he’s great coach. I know when he was at Southern Miss and I was at Louisiana Tech, he and I used to have knockdown dragouts and some of the greatest games in the league.

“His teams there were physical, they were competitive, they were well-prepared. They’re well-coached. I’m hopeful we can match their intangibles, be as disciplined as his teams are and find a way to come out with a win on Saturday.”

The Stallions average 30.5 points per game – best in the USFL – and boast several players who are either tied or lead in various statistical categories.

CJ Marable has two rushing touchdowns; Osirus Mitchell has a pair of receiving touchdowns; Brandon Aubrey has the most kicking points (13); Victor Bolden Jr. is atop the kick return yardage (279 yards) and all-purpose yardage charts (368); and Lorenzo Burns has two interceptions.

“That was so great to see Lorenzo come in and get two picks last week,” said Stallions cornerback Brian Allen, who had a pick-six in the victory over Houston. “We have a lot of talented guys and great coaches, and everybody is stepping up.”

The Breakers have some impressive stats of their own, pacing the league in yards per game (347.5) and turnover margin (+4). And their 31-point beatdown of a talented Tampa Bay team last Sunday was the most dominating performance by any club to date.

Quarterback Kyle Sloter was 25-39-0 for two touchdowns and 266 yards, while Jonathan Adams caught five balls for 92 yards. Johnnie Dixon and Shawn Poindexter each reeled in scoring tosses.

The Bandits were limited to 194 yards of total offense and just one trip to the red zone.

“When you can keep a team out of the end zone for a full game, that’s pretty good,” Fedora said after the game.

Sloter was knocked around by the Tampa defense throughout the hot afternoon, but fought through every hit.

“Any time your quarterback shows a lot of grit and toughness. your team responds to it,” Fedora said. “He was banged up, but he kept going.”

As impressive as the all-around performance was, however, Fedora said his team hopes for even better against the Stallions.

“We were better this week than last week and hope to be even better (Saturday) in all three phases of the game,” he said.

Birmingham quarterback J’Mar Smith said he’s looking forward to the challenge the Breakers present, as well as the big game atmosphere. “They’re aggressive and really good, and have some great edge rushers, so we’ll have to play some really good football,” he said. “But man, this Saturday night showdown … it’s gonna be electric out there. We love the energy of our fans and we expect it to be packed out this time.”

As 2021 came to a close, I wrote a column accentuating the positive about the upcoming 2022 United States Football League season and the 2023 XFL relaunch.

Quoting myself:

I would absolutely love it if both leagues establish their own identities, challenging fans to pick a side. Do you watch the Birmingham Stallions play the Philadelphia Stars on Fox, or do you watch the St. Louis BattleHawks and Seattle Dragons on ABC?

Maybe that leads to a bidding war, and then interleague exhibitions featuring hybrid rules, and ultimately the Summer Bowl pitting the USFL and XFL champion in a game.

Whether or not that prediction is less Nostradamus and more Nostradumbass remains to be seen. But as far as the bidding war thing, that has always looked like a safe bet.

One advantage the USFL has in its “war” with the XFL is that it went to market first. It has a chance to win over fans who want to supplement traditional football with a spring version during a 10-week regular season and two-week postseason. The inaugural USFL campaign will be over seven months before the XFL plays its first game.

On the other hand, the XFL can watch and learn. And once RedBird Capital, Dany Garcia and Dwayne Johnson learned what USFL players were making, you had to know they were going to up the ante.

Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com reported recently that agents met virtually with top XFL officials and were told their league would offer higher pay and better benefits than the USFL.

Beyond that, active rosters would be set at 45, creating seven more jobs than are available on a USFL team (38 active and seven practice squad).

USFL players earn $4,500 per week (plus $850 per victory and a whopping $10,000 windfall for winning the league championship) but also play $75 per day for hotel rooms.

With the $45,000 regular season salary minus roughly $6,000 for lodging, that’s $39,000 on average.

The XFL will not only increase salaries, but also cover “full housing and meal costs.” How much of an increase is still unknown since the XFL has not officially commented on the report.

So, this means once the 2022 USFL season is done there’ll be a mass exodus to the XFL, right?

Nope.

Players under contract with the USFL this year are also under contract for the 2023 season – unless they’re signed by an NFL team. When that happens (and it will for several players), the USFL releases them from their obligations.

As of now, if the USFL returns for a second season and the third iteration of the XFL successfully launches, 664 professional football players will be on active spring league rosters. That’s great news for the players, who’ll have 16 more working opportunities outside the NFL and CFL.

And with the XFL already boasting an exclusive partnership with the NFL Alumni Academy, offering better pay, and starting their season in February – two months before the USFL – then perhaps it’ll be the league that moves to the head of the line among spring circuits.

But the USFL is owned by Fox, and if 2022 ratings are good enough to greenlight a 2023 season, maybe its stakeholders will decide they can match or better XFL salaries.

And if that happens, then the leagues will become part of the grand American tradition of sports spending battles.

It led to the NFL absorbing the entire AFL, the NBA taking in four ABA teams, and the NHL killing the WHA by grabbing its top four franchises.

In those cases, though, it was the older, richer leagues that won the wars.

With the USFL and XFL still in their infancy, there’s no real point of reference as to how that salary escalation might play out. Fans who have pledged their allegiance to one or the other shout you down when you dare say the word “merger,” and some suggest there’s a place on the spring sports landscape for both.

Maybe, maybe not.

Thing is, the last domestic outdoor pro spring league to make it through an entire season was the 2001 XFL (The Spring League was pay-to-play, so it doesn’t count). Assuming the USFL and XFL will ever reach a point where they can have a financial fight is assuming a lot.

But speculation doesn’t cost a thing, and if both leagues are still around in 2024, non-NFL players might see quite a boost to their bank accounts.

BIRMINGHAM – Midway through the first quarter of Birmingham’s 33-28 win over Houston tonight, the teams had already combined for 16 points.

Only four of them came from an offensive player.

The Stallions started things off when cornerback Brian Allen stepped in front of a Clayton Thorson pass and returned it 48 yards for a touchdown.

Brandon Aubrey toed the PAT.

The Gamblers responded with a 50-yard field goal courtesy of UAB product Nick Vogel, but then Houston corner Will Likely intercepted J’Mar Smith and took it all the way back for a 63-yard score.

At halftime the Gamblers led 18-13, with all of Birmingham’s offensive points courtesy of Aubrey’s two field goals and extra point.

Then things got fun for Skip Holtz’s squad.

The Stallions’ first major points on offense came in the third quarter when Smith connected with Osirus Mitchell on a 34-yard TD pass at the 13:26 mark.

Birmingham’s offense continued their hot streak the next time they got the ball, with CJ Marable getting 30 yards on seven touches and capping off an 11-play march with a three-yard scamper and helping push the hometown team’s lead to 26-18.

Vogel’s 24-yard field goal with 1:09 to go in the third made it a 26-21 game, suggesting this one might come down to the wire.

Instead, Smith hooked up with a wide-open Marlon Williams on a 65-yard touchdown play and the kick gave the Stallions a 33-21 edge with 12:55 remaining in the game.

But this one was not over.

After an out-of-bounds kickoff gave Houston the ball at midfield, they responded with a TD courtesy of a 44-yard pitch-and-catch between Thorson and Tyler Simmons with 12:13 showing on the clock.

At 33-28, nothing had been decided.

But facing a fourth-and-10 at their 19 with 4:29 to go, the Gamblers punted the ball away in hopes their “D” would give the offense one more shot.

A three-and-out did just that, the after a punt, Houston had 2:32 and 74 yards to travel to improve to 2-0.

Following three incompletions, a fourth-and-10 scamper by Thorson kept the drive alive at the two-minute warning and Kevin Sumlin’s team continued to move the markers.

But after reaching the 27, a Thorson pass bounced off the fingertips of Simmons and was intercepted by Lorenzo Burns, sealing the deal.

“I’ve had the opportunity to watch and come to a lot of these games, and I’ve come away every week thinking, ‘Man, that was a great game, it came all the way down to the last play,’” said Holtz, whose charges improve to 2-0 while Houston drops to 1-1. “I hate these last play games if I’m involved in them. There a lot better when somebody else is playing them rather than us.

“I’ve said this from the beginning … I think the league did a great job of creating a draft that created real quality in this league. Everybody’s got talent and everybody’s got something you’ve got to stop.”

THAT WAS FUN

Fans of wide-open football got all they could want on Saturday. And if you’re into quarterback duels, you had to love Philadelphia’s 30-23 victory over Pittsburgh earlier in the day.

Stars signal caller Bryan Scott made a strong case for Offensive Player of the Week honors, going 26-36-1 for 272 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for a score and completed the league’s first 3-point conversion pass to Paul Terry, which accounted for the final points of the game.

His counterpart for the Maulers, Josh Love, had a 22-39-2 stat line for 236 yards and two TDs.

The teams combined for 651 yards of total offense.

“I thought that was a really good football game on both sidelines,” Stars coach Bart Andrus said. “It was hard fought and a collision of two philosophies on offense. We were pleased with what we did offensively. We made adjustments from the first week. We still have some issues in the run game. We have to fix those.”

Philadelphia’s Maurice Alexander had eight catches for 87 yards and two touchdowns while Pittsburgh’s Bailey Gaither reeled in seven catches for 117 yards and one touchdown.

“Our offense … we started to click this week at practice,” Scott said. “The more time we spend as a unit, the better. Maurice had a hell of a game. He seized the moment.”

Andrus said the decision to go for three after taking a 27-23 lead made sense.

“It just unfolded that it was the correct decision for us at that moment,” Andrus said. “If we get it, we move ahead by a touchdown, and that’s how it worked out.”

UPON FURTHER REVIEW

If you didn’t know better, you’d think coaches had forgotten to vet kickers after watching sidewinder specialists spend Week One misfiring on field goal tries. Turns out it was the “sensor technology” used inside the footballs that made each kick an adventure.

Instead of just trying to wish the problem away, though, USFL officials made a change.

“Our specialists came to us with concerns about the sensor technology impacting the kicking balls we’re using during the course of the game,” USFL executive vice president of football operations Daryl Johnston said, via Twitter. “Starting this week, we will be going back to a more traditional ‘K ball’ structure in the USFL. All of our specialists will be kicking their own balls when it comes to kickoffs, punts, field goals, and PATS. This will not have any impact on the production value for the fans’ experience as they watch on television.”

Not that many fans want to watch field goal duels, but at least now if it comes down to one the kickers won’t have modern technology to blame if their efforts go wide left or wide right.

SPEAKING OF FANS

A crowd estimated at 17,500 was on hand for last week’s opener between Birmingham and New Jersey, and perfect weather on Saturday brought a similar number of Magic City fans to Protective Stadium to cheer on their Stallions. But with the USFL hub in Birmingham, there was always the danger of folks staying home when the home team isn’t playing.

That has certainly been the case through seven games.

Those who show up to watch clubs not carrying the Birmingham brand can be measured by the hundreds, and televised games – while great from a production standpoint – show largely empty stadiums.

On the one hand Fox has made no bones about the fact that this is a TV-driven league, and gate receipts are basically gravy. Its survival will depend on people tuning in, not turning out. Still, perception can alter reality, and you have to wonder what casual fans watching at home think when they see nothing but aluminum where people are supposed to be.

THE GENERALS’ PLATOON

With only two quarterbacks on the roster, coaches were expected to give both some playing time in the early stages of the season. New Jersey, however, might just stay with their QB1-A and QB1-B attack.

Both Luis Perez and De’Andre Johnson looked good in a close loss to Birmingham, and both split time Friday night as the Generals were able to grind out a 10-6 victory over Michigan.

Perez handled most of the passing – going 13-19-1 for 97 yards – while Johnson called his own number 10 times for 27 rushing yards.

“I really didn’t plan for it … I’ve never done it in all my years of coaching,” New Jersey coach Mike Riley said. “When Luis got here and De’Andre was already here, we’ve alternated them almost play by play. If you look at practice, you’ll find their snaps have been pretty even. I was lying in bed the night before we first played and thought, ‘Why not?’ They’re pretty special guys. A lot of guys wouldn’t let their egos handle it, but they can. You should see them talk to each other on the sidelines. They care a lot about playing the game and being better quarterbacks.

“I think we’re a better team playing both of them.”

It was defense and a strong running game that saved the day against Michigan, however.

“We’re seconds away from being undefeated and seconds away from having no wins,” Riley said. “We came through a lot of tough situations (Friday). Proud of the guys for the fight.”

TODAY IN HISTORY

On this day in 1985 the Birmingham City Council agreed to give the United States Football League’s Birmingham Stallions a $1 million “bailout” to keep the franchise from folding. The stipulation was that they could not spend any of the money until after the league owners met later in the month to discuss going ahead with plans to play in the fall of 1986 or continue a spring schedule. In addition, $100,000 of the money was to be considered an investment in the team, making the State Fair Authority – the agency through which the money would be channeled – a limited partner in the franchise.