Category: Alternative Football

Going unbeaten through the first five weeks of the Alliance of American Football season made the Orlando Apollos look like a probable playoff team.

Now their postseason plans are certain.

Orlando (6-1) laid a no-doubt-about-it beating on the Atlanta Legends (2-5) on Saturday, winning 36-6 and clinching a playoff spot. The victory gave Steve Spurrier’s team a season sweep of Atlanta and came a week after Orlando suffered its only loss.

“We’ll be in the playoffs somewhere, but we’ll try and get home field the rest of the way as we go through,” Spurrier said. “I was telling the guys, I don’t remember the last time one of our offenses scored touchdowns on four of the first five possessions.”

Garrett Gilbert hit 19 of 23 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown, nine different receivers caught balls, and the ground game racked up 152 yards.

“That was by far the best game by our offensive line, pass protection and run blocking, and, of course, our runners ran well,” Spurrier said. “When something wasn’t there, they found a way to make yards. It’s always good when you’re able to run the ball the way we were able to, especially in the second half when we got a lead.”

Defensively Deji Olatoye returned an interception 65 yards for an Apollos touchdown and Atlanta was limited to 255 yards of total offense.

Orlando holds a two game lead over Birmingham in the Eastern Conference.

OVERTIME DRAMA

The debut of Johnny Manziel got most of the pregame publicity before the Memphis Express (2-5) upset the Birmingham Iron (4-3) on Sunday night at the Liberty Bowl, but he proved to be just a small part of the story.

Quarterback Brandon Silvers, making his first professional start, connected on 24 of 35 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns and helped Memphis rally from an 11-point deficit in a 31-25 overtime victory.

A blocked punt returned for a 50-yard touchdown was a Memphis highlight during regulation, but the biggest play came when Silvers hit Dan Williams on a 10-yard TD pass in O.T., marking the first instance of “free football” in the Alliance’s brief history.

“I’ve led a lot of game-winning drives back in high school and at Troy,” Silvers said. “I’m just happy to get back in there, have some drives and get the opportunity to win the game.”

Although Silvers started the game many of the fans wanted to see Manziel, and they did. The newest addition to the team passed for 48 yards and rushed for 20 more.

Yet it was Silvers, subbing for injured starter Zach Mettenberger, who earned the right to play on.

“Right now, Brandon is our quarterback,” Express coach Mike Singletary said. “I’m very excited about what Johnny does and what he brings to the team, but Brandon is our starting quarterback.”

HERE COME THE HOTSHOTS

The Arizona Hotshots (4-3) have broken out of a three-game tailspin in a big way, winning two straight and taking over second place in the Western Conference thanks to a 32-15 win over the San Diego Fleet (3-4) on Sunday.

Even though San Diego won the yardage battle, 411-391, the Hotshots made big plays when they had to.

The soul-crusher came in the waning seconds of the second quarter when quarterback John Wolford stunned the Fleet “D” with a 35-yard touchdown run that turned a one possession game into a 29-15 Arizona lead.

“The focus of the week was don’t squander what was a terrific win against an undefeated Orlando Apollos team (last week),” Arizona coach Rick Neuheisel said. “Don’t squander that by not playing your best football the next week, especially in a game that was a decider as to who was in second place in the league. And now we get an opportunity to go to San Antonio and play for a chance to be tied for first. That’s all you can ask for when it was hot out there and guys could have easily tapped out and said let me rest a little bit. It was a gritty performance and if I could describe my team in one word it is gritty.

“They do give all kinds of great effort.”

FOOTBALL FEVER IN SAN ANTONIO

It’ll take a four-team playoff to determine the Alliance’s champion, but San Antonio has already shown it has the league’s No.  1 fan base.

On Saturday the San Antonio Commanders (5-2) rallied to beat the Salt Lake Stallions (2-5) 19-15 in front of 30,345 paying customers at the Alamodome.

“If everybody else in the league had fans like this, this could go forever,” Stallions coach Dennis Erickson said. “It’s San Antonio, it’s the state of Texas … it’s football country.”

The Commanders are far and away the league’s top draw, and have increased attendance with each home game.

They’ve now drawn 87,378 fans in three game at the Alamodome for a 29,126 average.

“It was awesome,” San Antonio quarterback Logan Woodside said. “These fans never disappoint. I was trying to get them to calm down when they were doing the wave while we were on offense, but they were great and it was fun to get back out there.”

Running back Trey Williams says the team has learned to feed off the crowd.

“There’s nothing like San Antonio and nothing like the San Antonio crowd,” he said. “I love this place. Great fans and we love the energy because it helps us out.”

Salt Lake defensive back Jordan Sterns is a San Antonio native and says he isn’t surprised at the support the Commanders are receiving.

“It was just an amazing atmosphere to play in,” Sterns said. “You see all the things they do, all the support they give the Spurs and every other professional team around here. You know, when (The University of Texas at San Antonio) first started, the fans were coming out to support them.

“I just love this city.”

Local fans will have two more opportunities to see them play as they host Arizona next Sunday and Memphis on April 6.

San Antonio holds a one game lead over Arizona in the West.

ATTENDANCE WATCH

Aside from San Antonio, Memphis had the largest turnout of the weekend with 13,758 fans, followed by Atlanta (11,416) and Arizona (9,760).

The paid attendance at Georgia State Stadium and the Liberty Bowl were both season highs for the teams.

UP NEXT

Saturday: Orlando at Memphis, 2 p.m. EDT, B/R Live; San Diego at Salt Lake, 8 p.m. EDT, NFL Network.

Sunday: Atlanta at Birmingham, 4 p.m. EDT, CBSSN; Arizona at San Antonio, 8 p.m. EDT, NFL Network.

STANDINGS

Getting “ratioed” on Twitter is a bad thing, meaning the negative responses to your tweet far outweighed likes and retweets.

The Canadian Football League is dealing with a real world version of the phenomenon.

CFL rules mandate that each team has a 44-player roster with a minimum of 21 nationals (Canadians) and 20 internationals (primarily U.S. citizens). Currently, of the 24 starters on a team, seven must be nationals.

However, 3DownNation reported last weekend that the league and the Players Association are considering a deal that would drop the minimum number of national starters to five.

CFLPA Executive Director Brian Ramsay responded with a tweet that reads:

A recent report suggesting that any contract language between the CFL and CFLPA has been agreed to is completely and utterly false, and simply untrue. I can confirm we have not reached agreement on any discussions with the CFL.

Regardless, the idea of making a change is a divisive issue, one that has resulted in some Twitter sniping among players.

And if you canvassed fans north and south of the Canadian border, you’d likely get vastly different opinions.

Before we consider their viewpoints, though, here’s mine: It doesn’t matter to me.

If all 24 starters are Canadians, Americans or Klingons, they’re still playing a game I enjoy immensely. When a guy catches a pass or makes a tackle, I have no interest in what’s on his passport. There was a period in the 1990s in which the CFL required 10 Canadian starters among the 24 on the field, and that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the game in the least.

League commissioner Randy Ambrosie is championing his “CFL 2.0” plan, which is designed to bring in players from pro leagues in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway and Sweden. Those players would take up international spots, obviously, although the imports on CFL squads will continue to be overwhelmingly American.

And though I’m well aware the NFL features a far greater number of talented players and powerful teams, I’m a fan of the CFL’s style and have been since I started watching in the mid-1970s.

Three downs, pass-heavy, longer and wider field, 20-yard deep end zones – the whole package is what drew me to the game and still does. And when I became a fan, I wasn’t remotely concerned where the players hailed from.

However, I can see where there’s a conflict among those with much more skin in the game than me.

For starters the CFL is very, well, Canadian. It’s more than a league, it’s a significant part of the culture, and I completely understand why Canadian fans want to see a good number of Canadian players on the field.

On the other hand, those who are looking at it from a talent angle realize that an overwhelming number of elite players ply their trade in the NCAA.

Based strictly on Xs and Os, you can argue that a team made up entirely of American players will likely be stronger than one required to have five or seven starters who came through U Sports in Canada, which has only 27 teams.

There are 130 schools competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision and 124 Football Championship Subdivision programs, so just a quick look at the math shows there’s a much bigger pool to choose from.

But really, that’s why a ratio makes sense.

U Sports players are trained in the Canadian-style game, and just as American college players harbor NFL dreams, many Canadian kids dream of growing up and playing in the CFL.

When I step back and look at it that way, I can see how ultimately decreasing the current ratio is a bad thing.

The bottom line is I’m counting down the days until the first preseason game in May and I’ll continue to watch the CFL regardless of how the rosters are put together. I can afford to be dispassionate about the process.

However, the people who run the league can’t.

And shouldn’t.

They have to care about the ratio, and whatever decision they make will reverberate long after the Twitter wars die down.

 

Remember when I said the NFL and Alliance of American Football might be ready to take things to the next level?

Now I’m starting to wonder if they’re actually engaged.

On Wednesday the league announced that it was moving its inaugural championship game – set for Saturday, April 27 – from Las Vegas to Frisco, Texas. Now, you might think the banner headline is abandoning 40,000 Sam Boyd Stadium for the indoor, 12,000-seat Ford Center.

It doesn’t take much digging to learn that’s just a subplot to the much bigger story, however.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also owns the Ford Center, and his statement about hosting the game on April 27 – the final day of the 2019 NFL Draft – was rather telling.

“The Alliance has built a foundation of high-quality football, revolutionary technology and world-class partnerships with the NFL, CBS and Turner Sports,” Jones said. “It was only natural that we at the Cowboys organization would want to join that great group of partners. I have always believed that our great game of football could use a league to give players the shot they needed to make it to the NFL, and (AAF co-founder and head of football) Bill Polian, (AAF chairman) Tom Dundon and (AAF co-founder) Charlie Ebersol have done just that.

“We are proud to be able to host their inaugural championship game.”

But Dundon, the guy who owns the NHL Carolina Hurricanes and who invested $250 million in the Alliance last month, made the arrangement even more clear.

“Since joining The Alliance, I’ve ignited a mission to accelerate the growth of our league in its next phase as a complementary developmental league for the NFL and its players,” Dundon said. “Our commitment to the three Alliance stars, the fans, players, and the game, were at the forefront of our decision to move the game to this magnificent facility.”

From a television standpoint, this means the game will “look” better to viewers at home because surely 12,000 people will show up to watch.

Alliance officials can then say their first championship game was a hard sellout.

On the other hand it’s bad for fans of the San Antonio Commanders – who average nearly 30,000 fans per game – as well as Orlando and San Diego, who draw around 20,000 paying customers per game.

If you have, say, a San Antonio vs. Orlando title match – which is a very real possibility – there won’t be room in the stands for several thousand of their supporters.

And for a league that has been first-class in almost every move it’s made, the announcement about leaving Las Vegas was rather clunky.

“We are eternally grateful to the people and city of Las Vegas as well as Las Vegas Events and the LVCVA for their early support and confidence in what we have created,” Ebersol said. “Not only is Las Vegas the home of our investor and world-class partner, MGM Resorts International, Vegas is the undisputed mecca for live events. While we won’t play our championship game in Vegas this year, we will still be offering a one-of-a-kind experience for Alliance fans in Las Vegas during our Championship weekend.”

So, they can watch the game on TV or the AAF app while they gamble? Is that the one-of-a-kind experience for Alliance fans in Las Vegas?

The move with only four regular season games left has inconvenienced a lot of people who had already made plans to mix football with craps on the last weekend of April.

Again, though, the bigger picture is one of the new league and the big league getting cozier and cozier. Polian said a couple of weeks ago “… there’s enough discussion about it that those discussions are going to continue,” when asked about the possibility of a partnership between the leagues.

On Wednesday, he sounded even more optimistic.

“Jerry Jones isn’t just a close friend of Tom, Charlie and mine, but he is also a great supporter of our league,” Polian said. “To be able to showcase our brand of top-flight football on NFL Draft weekend in the state-of-the-art football facility built by Jerry is a Texas-sized win for our league.”

I really hope this announcement is a major step toward making the Alliance an honest-to-goodness farm system of the NFL. Despite a few sloppy games (and way too many dropped passes), I’ve learned to love the new league and want it to succeed.

Aligning with the NFL – officially – will increase those chances of success dramatically.