Category: Alternative Football

I love doing research, so one of the most rewarding things about writing my first book (the working title is Cheers Through The Years: My Hot (And Sometimes Cold) Bromance With Birmingham Pro Football) is digging into history.

As someone who is obsessed with the Magic City’s frequent brushes with the play-for-pay gridiron game, I pride myself on having a good bit of walking around knowledge when it comes to the World Football League, United States Football League, World League of American Football, etc.

But sometimes you forget a detail here and there, and that’s when it’s time to take a deep-dive into newspaper archives.

And while doing a second draft of Cheers Through The Years and cross-referencing the section devoted to the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions recently, I came across some pretty cool stuff.

And I was reminded that when it comes to alternative football leagues, there’s really nothing new under the sun.

I knew, for example, that the United States Football League (1983-85) was the brainchild of Louisiana sports executive Dave Dixon, who had the idea for it nearly two decades earlier.

What I didn’t realize, however, was that he not only planned the league back in the mid-1960s, but was on the verge of actually getting it up and running.

On April 11, 1965, the Dallas Times-Herald ran a story announcing the formation of the United States Football League, which would begin play in 1966 with franchises in Anaheim, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans and either San Francisco or Seattle.

But instead of going head to head with the National Football League and the American Football League, the USFL would – you guessed it – play in the spring.

The season would begin in January and end in May, with the championship game staged on Memorial Day.

Aside from the gimmick of offseason football, the league was to feature a central scouting system that would draft players and assign them to teams, and encourage “non-standardized professional offenses” by including the I-formation, double-wing and single-wing.

And the players would need to be in top physical shape; there would be no halftime intermission. The idea was to fit a contest into a two-hour window and make the USFL a made-for-TV football production.

Dixon was also courting both the NFL and AFL in hopes of landing an expansion team in New Orleans, so a cynic might wonder whether or not his formation of the USFL was more about leverage than creating a legitimate third major league.

“I do think pro football is just in its infancy,” Dixon told the Associated Press. “There are a number of other deserving cities – at least a dozen besides New Orleans – who want and can support pro football.”

But wait – as the obnoxious TV announcer might say – there’s more!

Remember the World League of American Football, which had North American-based teams in 1991 and 1992 before being reformed as NFL Europe?

It had roots in 1965, too.

Almost immediately after Dixon announced the formation of the USFL, Dallas Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm said the NFL was also considering its own January to May league.

The difference between the NFL’s circuit and the USFL was that it would be something of a farm system, which would feature some NFL players but mostly hopefuls working to earn a place on a big league roster.

Teams would be placed in cities that didn’t have NFL or AFL franchises.

“We have thought of going into this as an adjunct to our own league,” Schramm told the Los Angeles Times. “Television is very anxious to have us get involved in it.”

Obviously, the earliest iterations of Dixon’s and Schramm’s leagues never made it from the drawing board to the field. Yet the seeds were planted.

The USFL we know and love started 18 years after Dixon proposed it, and played three glorious spring seasons.

It featured some of the best football players in the game (eight USFL alumni are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame). In fact, four Hall of Famers began their careers in the modern USFL – Jim Kelly, Reggie White, Steve Young and Gary Zimmerman.

Aside from introducing concepts such as the coach’s challenges and two-point conversion, it also forced the NFL to dramatically increase player salaries.

As for an NFL spring farm system, Schramm finally got his World League up and running 26 years after he thought it up – with the NFL underwriting it. Ironically, the closer the league came to fruition the more Schramm wanted to make it less a feeder league and more of an “aggressive, broad world league.”

That difference in philosophy ended up getting him fired before the WLAF ever played a down.

So, what’s the moral of this story?

Well, as much as goobs like me love the idea of “new” football leagues, the ideas behind them aren’t really new at all.

Creating one built to last, though … now that would be a first.

 

As a longtime fan of the Canadian Football League, I’m already a satisfied customer. There’s nothing the circuit needs to do to ensure my continued interest because as long as they play, I’ll follow.

But I have to give the movers and shakers of the league credit – they aren’t shy about testing unchartered waters.

Last weekend it was announced that the CFL was entering into a partnership with the British American Football Association, bringing the number of its international alliances to 10.

Aside from Great Britain, the CFL is now officially working with football organizations and/or leagues in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway and Sweden.

“This new relationship will help introduce Canadian football to a wider audience in the U.K. and allow us to develop all aspects of the British game – not just on the field, but from a business perspective, too,” BAFA Director Bruce Leatherman said. “There is so much we can learn through sharing knowledge and ideas, and we’re also hugely excited to have new opportunities for our coaches to develop and our players to grow and achieve their full potential.

“BAFA is delighted to be working in partnership with the CFL to grow the sport we all love.”

The BAFA oversees all levels of the gridiron game in Great Britain, from tackle to flag, and includes men, women and youth. Currently there are 78 adult teams which are community-based. That “from the ground up” philosophy is based on the business model of traditional association football clubs.

“BAFA brings a lot of energy, passion and knowledge to the movement, with its more than 10,000 male and female members playing for more than 250 university and club teams,” CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said. “We’re thrilled to work with our friends there to improve the game in Canada, Great Britain and around the world.”

Since all these international alliances are still in their infancy, there’s no way to predict what kind of impact they’ll ultimately have.

In theory, Canadian amateur players will have more options if they choose to play on beyond college, and the CFL will have a larger pool of prospects to choose from.

“We are expanding our international footprint, expanding our talent pool, and looking to create new broadcast and streaming markets for our games,” Ambrosie said. “At the same time, we want to contribute to and learn from leagues around the world and provide greater opportunities for Canadian players in other countries. Working together, we can make football even bigger and better everywhere.”

Of course a unique aspect of the CFL is its “Ratio Rule.” An active roster of 46 players has to include 21 Canadians (Nationals) and seven of them must be allotted starting positions.

This season the CFL added a “Global Player” pool which excludes Canadians and Americans. When the 2019 campaign began in June there were 24 global players plucked from a combine held in Mexico and international draft.

Perhaps in the future the global player allotment will be expanded to include more international athletes. And who knows? There could come a time when a skill position player hailing from one of the 10 countries the CFL is working with finds his way into the starting lineup.

What would be cool (although very expensive and, therefore, highly unlikely) would be some sort of international tournament featuring teams from each of the 10 organizations that have hooked up with the CFL.

All-Star squads or club champions from each association/federation could compete in a pool play (five teams per pool, four games guaranteed) format using Canadian rules, giving players a chance to show what they can do in front of CFL scouts and coaches.

Hey, I’d watch it.

I even know what to call it – the World League of Canadian Football.

Hmmm … maybe I’ll give the trademarks branch of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office a call, just in case.

If you’ve perused this website at all, you realize my devotion to Brand X football is both longstanding, continuous and borderline ridiculous.

Tell me you’re starting a professional tackle football league, and I’m gonna listen.

Tell me it’ll last, and I’ll pretend to believe you.

But while most tales of upstart gridiron circuits are relatively short and simple (they debut, they lose millions of dollars, they can’t pay their bills, they fold), I have to tip my hat to The Spring League (TSL), the brainchild of Brian Woods.

Its financial plan is brilliant.

How brilliant?

Well, players pay to participate, so the league doesn’t have to worry about making payroll. In fact, those who spent April as TSL players had to pony up a $2,000 registration fee.

What do they get for their investment?

Per the league’s website:

Each player accepted into The Spring League receives housing and meals. Additionally, players benefit from elite instruction and coaching, as well as the opportunity to be scouted by professional football clubs. 

And after just three seasons, TSL is already (basically) the farm system for the new XFL. It just completed a scouting event in California and has another planned July 28-31.

“We’re in an important phase of our development and The Spring League gives us the perfect platform to continue our effort to reimagine the game,” Oliver Luck, XFL commissioner and CEO, said. “We had a great experience and learned so much at The Spring League in April, and feel confident that after these next two sessions we’ll have identified a few XFL-caliber players and  be closer to finalizing our rules and gameplay.”

Completely lost? Never heard of The Spring League before?

Don’t worry … you’re not alone. Its origins are not unlike the origins of those blink and you’ll miss ‘em leagues that came before it.

Woods, a walk-on safety at Ole Miss who has lawyer, agent, and former coach on his resume, founded the Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL) in 2014, which was designed to serve as an in-season (and short season) feeder system to the NFL.

I followed the league because former Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd played for the Brooklyn Bolts. Since the publication I worked for at the time was Tiger-centric, it gave me the perfect excuse to goob out over another league destined to pop up and blow up.

And that it did; it lasted just two mini-seasons before officially suspending operations in September of 2016. But Woods took what he learned from the experience and came up with the idea for The Spring League.

However, unlike the Alliance of American Football – the most recent spring league to try and fail – it isn’t really designed to draw fans.

It’s designed to draw scouts, because in reality it’s a glorified, extended combine:

The Spring League is an elite development league & scouting event for professional football talent. The Spring League takes place each year during the months of March and April. Additionally, The Spring League holds one-week showcases in the summer and fall.

In 2017, the four-team “league” set up shop in West Virginia and spent three weeks serving as a showcase for guys hoping to get another shot at pay-for-play football.

When camp broke, a handful had signed with NFL and Canadian Football League teams.

Last year The Spring League moved to Austin, Texas, and featured Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, who parlayed his experience with the camp into a contract with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

As was the case in 2017, some of its campers went on to the NFL and CFL, but dozens more landed (and stuck) with the Alliance.

This spring it stayed in Austin and teamed up with the XFL as more than just a place where pro football hopefuls can attract eyeballs. Vince McMahon’s second go round with his version of Brand X football is using TSL as a lab for rule experimentation.

When XFL 2.0 takes the field next February its rulebook will have mostly been determined in Austin, and I’m guessing quite a few TSL players will be holding down XFL roster spots.

“We are excited to be working with the XFL again and further demonstrate our value as both a platform for player development and incubator for rules testing,” Woods said. “Our summer events will provide additional opportunities for players to be scouted by XFL coaches and scouts in advance of their 2020 launch.”

Certainly, The Spring League doesn’t fit the mold of what we’ve come to expect from “alternative” pro football and I’m not sure what the end game is. Does it want to be an actual league at some point? Is its ultimate purpose the one it’s already serving?

Who knows?

If the XFL beats the odds and lasts, maybe TSL can tag along as a long-term partner. Or, perhaps it can morph into something else entirely.

Regardless of how things play out, I’ll be keeping track of it.

After all, that’s what I do.

For more information, go to www.thespringleague.com.