Category: History and More

One of the things I vowed to do when I retired from the newspaper business was write books.

Or at least a book.

Right now, I’m about halfway through a work of fiction, three chapters into a non-fiction sports book, and have a decent start on a fiction novel geared toward young adults.

Problem is, I’m so accustomed to short form pieces that I’ve concentrated more on this website than I have the books. And, in all honesty, I’ve used adamsonmedia.com as an excuse to put them on the backburner.

Truth is, for the first time in my writing career, I’m out of my comfort zone.

Put me in a stadium or gym, and I was always confident I could recreate what happened there in a way that informed readers in an entertaining way.

When I wrote columns, I was sure that even if you disagreed with the opinion, you’d have no quarrel with the craft.

But I’ve never been much of a swimmer, and right now I’m in the deep end of the pool – fully clothed and lacking a water noodle.

While the non-fiction sports book feels more natural, I still have a whole lot of work to do. And I’m straight-up struggling with the other two.

It’s frustrating.

I know where I want them to go but I can’t figure out how to get there; I want to take shortcuts but I know that only winds up in dead ends.

So ….

I’m taking a break from this website in order to spend all my writing time on my long form projects.

If I had more talent I could juggle all of it, but I don’t and, therefore, I can’t.

Newspapers have deadlines, and deadlines always gave me a mark to hit.

Without them, I’ve discovered that I have all the time in the world to write and all of the time in the world to waste – and I’ve opted for the latter.

I mean, those cat videos on YouTube aren’t gonna watch themselves.

That being the case, I’m going to impose my own deadlines and set an actual work schedule. Once I do that, hopefully the words will come more easily and find their way onto pages that will eventually (hopefully) become books.

If and when that happens – when I see some real progress – I’ll return to this site.

It could be a week, a couple of weeks or a couple of months … I really don’t know.

But one way or another, I’m going to find out something important about myself.

Namely, am I a writer capable of writing books?

I’m about to find out.

A new National Football League season begins tonight with Atlanta visiting defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia, and by Sunday the 2018 campaign will be in full swing.

Starting in February, fans who subscribe to the notion that there’s no such thing as too much gridiron action will get to watch the Alliance of American Football, which is set to start up as soon as this NFL season is finished.

Then in 2020, wrestling mogul Vince McMahon is investing $500 million to relaunch the XFL, which will also have a late winter/spring schedule.

We’ve covered both the AAF and XFL in detail on this site, so I’m not going into “greatest hits mode” other than to say they have a chance to be kinda/sorta feeder organizations for the NFL.

(Since I’m a Birmingham boy and the Magic City has an AAF team, I certainly hope that league makes it. As for the XFL revival, I couldn’t care less).

And while there will be no formal agreements between the big league and the new leagues – at least none that I know of – AAF and XFL officials will be more than happy to see someone use their circuits as steppingstones to the highest level of professional football because it provides an air of legitimacy.

But …

While you can claim any minor league is a de facto farm system for the NFL, an official one has never truly existed.

College football fills the void relatively well, especially now that so many more elite players are physically and mentally ready to make a quick transition to the pro ranks.

Still, it’s not like the Atlanta Falcons can call up a lineman from the Georgia Bulldogs during the season.

That’s why I’m a little surprised that the NFL doesn’t have a legitimate minor league system.

As close as it came was the World League of American Football, which morphed into NFL Europe and finally NFL Europa.

Again, though, it was played in the spring, so it didn’t follow the model of a traditional minor league.

If I was tasked with putting together an NFL developmental league (and I’m available, by the way), all 32 franchises would have a “B Team” that would also incorporate the scout teams.

These squads would not only be a good proving ground for rookies, but give playing time to backups and paying jobs to a lot of guys who otherwise would be out of football work after training camp. I’d think it would be relatively easy to put together, say, a 40-man per club developmental league roster.

Every year there are roughly 3,000 draft-eligible players from the college ranks, and NFL teams each have 90 players when training camp starts. There are currently five pro indoor leagues and myriad semi-pro circuits, so there would be no shortage of men wanting another – and better – opportunity.*

*I deliberately left out the Canadian Football League because I love the CFL and don’t want it screwed with. But, obviously, an NFL developmental league would raid it for players.

In order to control expenses, my NFLDL would be divided into four, eight-team quadrants (North, South, East and West) that played regional slates.

For example, the South Quadrant might feature franchises in Birmingham, Charleston, Jackson (Miss.), Louisville, Memphis, Orlando, Raleigh and Shreveport. Teams would play each other twice over the course of a 14-game regular season, and then the four quadrant champions could meet in a four-team playoff.

And to be a real, working farm system, the season would need to run (mostly) concurrent with the NFL schedule, not in the spring or summer. It could start, say, two weeks after the NFL season begins.

If games were played on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, any given player would be ready to compete on any given Sunday after getting a “call-up.”

On the other hand, if a skill player is trying to work his way back from an injury (or a rookie QB needs some real game reps), the NFLDL would be the place to get them.

The farm system would also be a laboratory for rule changes and innovations.

Each year the NFL competition committee considers several tweaks, but only a handful make it to the field.

Why not give them a test drive in the NFLDL?

I think such a league would certainly be a benefit to the NFL in terms of player development. A key question, though, is how to fund it.

Would the farm teams be owned by the same person or groups who own the parent clubs?

Would the NFL teams pay the salaries of all of the NFLDL players, or just the ones on loan?

Would fans even support what amounts to a Triple A football league when they’re already being overloaded with NFL and college games?

There’s a good chance we’ll never know.

Still, it’s something to think about – even if I’m just thinking out loud.

With a new college football season having a soft launch this weekend and the NFL just around the corner, there are some people who will abandon the second half of the Canadian Football league season.

I will not be one of those people.

As I’ve said many times, I love the CFL, and it’s not a part-time relationship.

Just because traditional American football is cranking up doesn’t mean I have to abandon the brand played north of the border.

In fact, one of the reasons I subscribe to ESPN + is so I can watch any CFL game I want. Now it’ll just be a matter of prioritizing.

And since this is the first year since 1986 that I’ve been able to be a legitimate fan instead of someone who writes about games on deadline, I plan to make the most of it.

But how do you juggle it all?

In the interest of full disclosure, there are four football teams who are the primary objects of my affection. They are – listed in rooting order – UAB, the New York Jets, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

I’m a UAB alumni and contributed seed money so their gridiron program could restart for the 2017 season. Aside from having a diploma, I also have financial skin in the game, so that makes the Blazers my top priority.

I started rooting for the Jets when they were in the American Football League (I’m showing my age here), and they’ve remained my favorite pro football team since I was a kid.

Roman Gabriel helped make the Rams my favorite NFL team, but when the franchise moved to St. Louis, I lost interest (and they were replaced by the Atlanta Falcons). But now that they’re back in L.A., they’re back in my favor as I’ve started pining for childhood memories, so I’ll root for them against any team not named the Jets.

As for Hamilton, I just liked their black and gold unis, and picked them as my favorite CFL team back in the 1970s. And except for that brain fart involving the Art Briles hire (and the brief tenure of the Birmingham Barracudas in 1995), they’ve been my No. 1 CFL club for 40-plus years.

The odd thing, though, is that I like CFL rules better than American football rules, and I like pro football much better than college football.

That makes my rooting preferences out of whack, but that’s just the way it is and I’m not going to overthink it.

Anyway, there will be some programming decisions I’ll have to make between now and December, but fortunately things break pretty favorably for me.

Tonight when Hamilton takes on Edmonton, it’ll be the only game in town. Cleveland does play Philadelphia in an NFL preseason game, but I’d never watch an exhibition over a CFL regular season game.

The Tiger-Cats’ next game is Monday, Sept. 3, against the Toronto Argonauts. That’s the same night of the Virginia Tech vs. Florida State and Alcorn State vs. Georgia Tech games take place.

I’ll be watching Hamilton.

And a quick glance at the schedule reveals that the Ti-Cats have no regular season Sunday games going forward, meaning there will be no conflicts with the Jets or Rams.

Thing is, though, I like the CFL in general. So there will be times when I might have a choice between a Football Bowl Subdivision game and a CFL matchup on Saturday, and I can tell you right now the Canadians will win more than they lose in that competition.

So to make a short story long, no, I don’t give up on the CFL just because the field gets crowded. It’s a great league with great players, and I’m glad there’s still plenty more games to watch.