Category: Alternative Football

The Freedom Football League vows to kick off its inaugural season next May with a lineup that includes the Austin Revolution, Birmingham Kings, Connecticut Underground, Florida Strong, Oakland Panthers, Ohio Players, Oklahoma City Power, Portland Progress, San Diego Warriors and St. Louis Independence.

It still has no coaches, players or stadiums, so whether that target date will be hit is anyone’s guess at this point.

Should it actually get off the ground, however, I’m interested to see if it sticks to its planned business model.

If so, tackle football fans will truly have a league to call their own.

According to its website:

The Freedom Football League was formed in 2017 by a legion of former NFL football players, entrepreneurs, football operations experts, health and wellness thought-leaders, innovative legal minds and financial visionaries committed to reimagining, rethinking, reinventing, and reforming professional American Football.

The current NFL ownership, with a market capitalization of over $100 billion is closely held and controlled by 32 wealthy billionaire families and generates, on average, over $100 million of annual profits per team per year. This ownership schism creates an exploitative dynamic between ownership and the players and coaches, neglects the long-term health and well-being of the players, and gouges the fans with outrageous ticket prices.

The Freedom Football League is rethinking all aspects of the game of football and it starts with the ownership and money. The FFL’s teams will be owned by a unique consortium that includes former NFL players, active players from each FFL team, the local franchise operators, and most uniquely, you the fan.

 You can sign up as a potential owner right there on the website and even pledge an investment amount (which must be less than $25,000). Founding stakeholders include Ricky Williams, Simeon Rice, Terrell Owens and Jeff Garcia, and management teams are already in place at a couple of clubs.

It’s intriguing, and would certainly change the dynamic of a sport that – professionally, at least – is locked into franchise mode.

Like most ideas, however, it’s not new.

The late, great Dave Dixon – the man who pioneered the United States Football League – had a similar organization in mind just a couple of years after the USFL played its final game.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to reintroduce you to the Fan Ownership Football League (which also flirted with the name American Football Federation).

“I think there is always room for a new league,” Dixon told the Associated Press in October, 1987. “It would combine the best of the two concepts – private ownership and public ownership. I want my team owners to invest $2.5 million and then agree to sell off 75 percent ownership of their team in the second year to individual season-ticket holders.”

Dixon said the league was looking to start in cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit, as well as towns that didn’t have pro football.

“Places like Sacramento finds itself in a position where it wants an NFL franchise, but probably won’t get one,” Dixon said. “The NFL has never expanded unless it did so to choke off competition or by the threat of an antitrust suit.”

The talk of a new league quickly died down, but Dixon revived the idea again in 1995 – just days after the Cleveland Browns announced they were moving to Baltimore and the Houston Oilers were in the process of relocating to Nashville.

This gave the entrepreneur some new talking points.

“Do you think a Cleveland team majority owned by 70,000 Clevelanders would have voted to move to Baltimore?” Dixon told AP. “That 100,000 Houstonians would move to Nashville?”

In the 1995 version of the Fan Ownership Football League, Dixon said eight founding owners had put up a one-time fee of $5 million, plus $2 million to offset first-year operating expenses.

I hope they got their money back because sadly (or at least sad for those of us who crave alternative football leagues), nothing ever came of the fan-owned venture.

And while it might seem radical to those who are used to franchises, this community model is quite common in international soccer. In fact, single entity ownership is forbidden in Germany’s association football system.

In pro tackle football, though, only the Green Bay Packers of the NFL and Edmonton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg of the CFL follow any semblance of a supporter-based ownership plan.

I’d love to see the FFL make this happen; if you invested, you could honestly say it was “your” team.

But with its first game roughly eight months away and so many questions still unanswered, the latest idea for a “Fan Ownership Football League” doesn’t seem any closer to becoming a reality than the original.

 

One of the nice surprises of this summer’s sportscape has been the Premier Lacrosse League, which hit the field the first of June and will wrap up its inaugural season September 21.

If you like top-tier lacrosse the PLL has provided it, thanks to some of the best players in the world. I’ve enjoyed the handful of matches I’ve watched.

But, frankly, if you’re a legitimate fan of lacrosse you probably know more about the stats and stars than I do. Instead, I’m intrigued by the structural setup of the league and how its template might apply to football because – as you know – I’m almost always thinking about football-related gimmicks.

Founded by lacrosse superstar Paul Rabil and his brother, Mike, the PLL a touring, tournament-style circuit. However, the teams don’t represent cities and the players are free to market themselves however they choose.

This year the PLL features clubs named Archers, Atlas, Chaos, Chrome, Redwoods and Whipsnakes. There is no state or regional identity; basically, you either cheer for a team stocked with players you like or you root for a uniform.

I wound up getting behind Chrome because, well, I sent out a random tweet asking who I should follow, and Chrome was the only team to respond.

This touched me, so I now feel a sense of loyalty to them.

The schedule features 14 stops in major cities, and the events have been styled as weekend “festivals” with contests spread out over a couple of days.

There are clinics, activities and plenty of fan interaction to frame the actual games, making it about more than just the competition.

The crowds have been good and the games, which are telecast primarily on NBCSN, have given the league excellent exposure.

So here’s my idea; since people can’t seem to stop creating alternative pro football leagues, why not create one in the image of the PLL?

The obvious name would be the Premier Football League, but since there’s already the Premier League (which, cleverly enough, plays a brand of football in which feet play a significant role), we’ll go with another name.

Let’s call it the Premier Gridiron League.

My plan would feature eight teams, and for the purposes of this column we’ll call them the Chupacabras, Tasmanian Devils, Zombies, Sales Associates, Werewolves, Entrails, Telemarketers and Chiropractors.

(My favorite team would be the Werewolves because lycanthropy is of great interest to me.)

As is the case with the PLL, players in the PGL will be drafted and divvied up among the teams in an effort to create parity.

Of course asking fans to watch a doubleheader on Saturday and another on Sunday is a bit much, so we’ll break from the PLL in that we’ll have two separate sites during a tour weekend.

For example, Birmingham might host the Chupacabras vs. Tasmanian Devils on Saturday, March 7 and Zombies vs. Sales Associates on March 8, while Orlando would feature the Werewolves vs. Entrails on March 7 and follow with the Telemarketers vs. the Chiropractors on the following day.

The PGL regular season would run 14 weekends at a total of 28 different sites, with each team playing the other twice. The postseason would consist of two semi-finals and a championship game with the matchups taking place in the cities that drew the biggest crowds during the tour. It’s a way to reward the fans who showed the most interest in the product.

It all sounds cool, doesn’t it? (Why yes, Scott, it does).

I wonder, though, if perhaps it’s just a bit too innovative.

I think the touring model was a great idea for the first season of PLL, and having a team you can call your own no matter where you live is unique. But it seems like at some point fans in lacrosse hotbeds are going to want a club to put down roots – one they can see several times at home during the course of a season instead of just once a year.

Then again, maybe that’s what this season has been all about.

Identify which cities want the PLL the most, and then gradually migrate franchises there.

Pro lacrosse is largely working with a blank canvas. Yes, there are other leagues, but the PLL is the first to offer living wages, health insurance and ownership options for its players. Done right, it could be the gold standard for the sport going forward.

And while I like the thought of applying this model to my league, there are some major issues to work through.

First, football is already pretty well established. It needs no grand introduction.

And with the best professional players already making millions of dollars in the NFL, it would take many more millions to convince them to jump ship.

Anyway, it was just something I thought I’d throw out because I like throwing things. And if you’re an eccentric billionaire interested in funding my venture and luring away the NFL’s top stars with your endless fountain of cash, I’ll be happy to talk with you at your earliest convenience.

Thanks, and “Go Werewolves!”

Remember when you were young and would go to the beach (or the mountains or the desert or maybe just a cheap hotel with an ice machine and swimming pool) on summer vacation? If you were lucky, you might meet someone while you were there, and you’d think they’re cute and they’d think you’re cute, and the next you know, you’re holding hands.

It turns into a fling, you have a great time, and then when vacation comes to an end you seal things with a kiss and promise to call.

But you don’t call.

A new school year begins, you fall into your regular routine, and with each passing day that sweet summer romance fades from memory.

That’s how I imagine many of my American sisters and brothers feel about the Canadian Football League right now.

School (college football) and work (the NFL) is back in session, so you forget all about that fun in the sun.

Look, I’m not judging you … some of my best friends pretend to love the CFL before leaving it.

For me, though, the summer romance doesn’t end with the end of summer. It just sets up a ménage à trois.

Now before you think I’m getting all pervy please note that the literal translation of ménage à trois is “household of three.” That being the case, for the next several months my gridiron household of three will include the CFL, NFL and college football. It’s not all that hard to manage as long as you learn to prioritize.

Friday night, for example, Montreal played BC in a CFL game. It started at 7:30 p.m. EDT, while Marshall at Boise State began at 9 p.m.

I watched the Alouettes edge the Lions, 21-16, but didn’t see any of the NCAA contest because I was ready for nite-nite by then.

Today if you want to watch college football, you can start at noon and keep going until around 2 a.m. on Sunday. The CFL, on the other hand, has a tripleheader, with games at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. I’m just not that committed, especially since I got up early to catch an English Football League One match.

My Saturday tackle football plan includes two college clashes and a CFL showdown.

I’m a UAB fan and the Blazers take on Akron at noon, EDT. That means I’ll be tuning in to the CBS Sports Network for that one.

Having been in the Upstate of South Carolina for almost 12 years (and covering Clemson athletics for much of that time), one would think I’d watch the Tigers host Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m.

The scheduling, however, doesn’t work out. Not for me, anyway.

The UAB game will likely run until at least 3:45, and then the Banjo Bowl takes place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, starting at 4 p.m. Featuring the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (8-3) and Saskatchewan Roughriders (7-3), this is a battle for supremacy in the CFL West Division, and I’m gonna lock in to ESPN+ for that one.

(And if you don’t know what the “Banjo Bowl” is, it’s a pretty cool modern tradition. You should look it up … that’s what Wikipedia is for).

As for my night football screening, Texas and LSU will most likely win out over Calgary at Edmonton, although I might end up switching back and forth. If nothing else, I hope to hear Tiger boss Ed Orgeron spit out words in his gravel-infused Cajun accent during the pregame interviews.

There are no CFL conflicts with the NFL this Sunday, so my viewing schedule is set. I don’t have a comprehensive NFL package like the cool kids, so I’ll have to settle for my “in-market” games.

I’ll go with the Los Angeles Rams vs. the Carolina Panthers at 1 p.m. (the Rams are my second favorite NFL team), and then maybe check out the New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys at 4 p.m.

I’ll skip the nightcap featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots because, frankly, I dislike both teams.

Obviously, what I watch and why I watch will change from week to week, and sometimes it gets convoluted.

The New York Jets are my favorite pro football team, but the CFL is my favorite pro football league.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are my favorite CFL team, but will almost always lose a head-to-head TV matchup with the Jets as long as the Fly Boys are in playoff contention. Sadly, that dream usually dies in October.

Early October.

Point being, I enjoy all three styles of tackle football and it’s fun trying to figure out what to pick and choose on any given Saturday and Sunday.

So instead of sacrificing a summer romance for fall and winter relationships, I just continue to play the field.

I guess when it comes to football, I’m just not ready to settle down.