Alliance of American Football league brings football to Orlando
By Brian Miller
There is a new league in town and it is the Alliance of American Football and it’s coming to Orlando. The eight team league starts play in 2019.
To be honest, I only casually heard of the Alliance of American Football and frankly thought it was a new players union. Nope. So then I thought this was the new league being developed by the WWE guy. Nope. This is a league all onto it’s own.
The NFL has seen competition over the years. There was the WFL which stole a bunch of players from the NFL including three prominent members of the Miami Dolphins and the USFL which competed with the NFL especially as it related to draft selections.
The XFL is set to debut in 2020 but the AAF is going to debut one week after the NFL’s Super Bowl. The league will be hosting three combine events in August..
August 4, 2018
Los Angeles
August 18, 2018
Houston
August 25-26, 2018
Atlanta
The “combine” is open to college and professionally experienced athletes. There is a price to enter the combine.
The league is comprised of eight teams with head coaches who had stints as previous NFL head coaches (if you are wondering where they ended up).
- Alliance Orlando – Steve Spurrier
- Alliance Atlanta – Brad Childress
- Alliance Memphis – Mike Singletary
- Alliance Salt Lake – Dennis Erickson
- Alliance Phoenix – Rick Neuheisel
- Alliance San Diego – Mike Martz
- Alliance Birmingham – Tim Lewis
- Alliance San Antonio – Mike Riley
The league also has a bevy of former players and associates managing the league. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
- Charlie Ebersol, co-founder and CEO
- Bill Polian, co-founder and Head of Football[4]
- Troy Polamalu, Head of Player Relations[1]
- J.K. McKay, Head of Football Operations[4]
- Tom Veit, Head of Business Operations
- Hines Ward, Player Relations Executive[4]
- Jared Allen, Player Relations Executive and investor[4]
- Justin Tuck, member of Player Engagements Board Of Advisers[4]
The league will have no kick-offs and no extra points so if you are a place-kicker, don’t bother unless you can punt. Teams will begin on the 25 yard line and onside kicks will be a single play from the 35 yard line. If the team makes it 10 yards they retain possession if not, the ball goes over to the other team.
All teams will go for two-point conversions and will use a 30 second clock instead of a 40. In addition, there are no TV timeouts which will limit television interruptions.
After previous leagues have failed against the NFL will these new start-ups find a niche to keep the ball, moving? Will the AAF find success from football crazed fans who dread the off-season? Time will tell but more importantly how will this league compete against the XFL a year later and would you be interested in watching it?