Second Verse --- Same as the First!

It seems that every time a NEW football league comes rolling around, it has a bang of a start, then somewhere along the line, the league runs into the massive road block that is known as the Those THREE LITTLE LETTER! NFL! That’s right—the NO FUN LEAUGE!

They rule the gridiron as if they have a monopoly! They don’t like to have anyone else play in their sand box and Lord help you if you do!

So we have had the World Football League in the 70’s, we had the USFL that lasted more than one season (until Donald *Now President* Trump) meddled in the happenings, and that dissolved that league!

Then came along the XFL but that didn’t have anything to do with the NFL it imploded on itself, thank you Mr. Vincent Kennedy McMahon! YOU pretty much screwed that up all on your own!

So now that brings us to this incarnation of a league—THE AAF! The Alliance of American Football.

Eight teams that were put together, in towns that pretty much didn’t have professional football and were eager and hungry to have something to cheer for and call their own!

San Diego, San Antonio, Birmingham, Memphis, Salt Lake City, Orlando, Arizona, and Atlanta, now two of those entries have NFL teams in them.. Atlanta and Arizona, however, they play in other stadiums other than where the NFL team calls home, none the less, these 8 teams are in trouble, they have played 7 weeks out of the 10 scheduled, they got an influx of money from the owner of the Carolina Hurricane of the NHL, of 250 million dollars and that was just to cover payroll.

Now from there, they named Thomas Dundon who was a majority investor in the league, the “chairman” and to make the best moves in the interest of the league.

HOWEVER—and this is where it gets really sticky- Dundon has stated that this league, unless it gets some help from the NFLPA (that’s the National Football League Players Association—in other words UNION) to allow players that are on practice squads to play with the AAF, it will have to fold, due to the lack of quality players for fans to keep their interest in.

So far the NFLPA has not responded to his request, and the other grand move, is that in late April, the 27^th to be exact, the AAF Championship game WAS to be played in Las Vegas, Nevada at Sam Boyd Stadium—the home field of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) but Dundon moved the game with some negotiation with Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones, to Frisco, Texas- which is the World Headquarters of the Cowboys, and their facility at the Star, and Ford Center. The Cowboys indoor practice field.

So all of this is being done, and the outlook is that this league won’t survive after that game is completed. Its pretty much doomed.

EVEN with the signing of former Heisman Trophy winner (2012) Johnny Manziel, and the buzz that it creates is still not enough to make this league make the profit it was hoping for.

They have some “name” players on rosters, and coaches in the right spot, but the fact is the product, though for the most part, is not bad, its not drawing attention that they had hoped for.

CBS Television was one of the major players in this league, hyping the league with promotions during the Super Bowl broadcast, that “football isn’t over—the week after the “big game” will have the new AAF”. Well they showed up, and their ratings were great, but as the season went on, the over the air broadcast didn’t exist, now you have to watch it on cable, or sometimes online!

You are not able to watch YOUR team in your area, because of the way that the broadcast is being fed. Unlike the NFL—which divides the country up for better viewership, and lets face it, if the Dallas Cowboys are on the schedule to play on a Sunday afternoon—most likely they will get the late game slot, if they are on Monday Night, Sunday Night, Thursday Night Football, well you can bank your bottom dollar that the ratings for that time slot will be won by game is being played as long as the Cowboys are a part of it!

Its not brag—its fact! The Cowboys draw, love them or hate them, they will put eyeballs on the sets and that’s great for advertisers!

AAF—not so much—you have to figure a better way to skin the cat!

Lets look at another couple of leagues that DID have the blessings of the NFL… The World League of American Football in Europe, was a summer league and it filled some of the stadiums but not the TV sets in America, the Arena Football League (AFL) had backing of NFL teams and were using the NFL facilities for training and help with players, and such, but because of a greedy Commissioner, it folded and ceased operation one year, the league has never come back to what it once was, and there are now splinter leagues from the AFL trying to survive.

SO as you can see, the NFL wields the power, and all others must fall into place. There is another league going to kick off next season in 2020 and it’s the resurrection of the XFL, but this time more serious than the first incarnation of it, but in the same boat as the AAF, no agreement with the NFL to use their players, and if that is the case, you might as well fold up your tents and call it a day, since the NFL is not going to let you play with their toys in their sand box, the likely hood of you succeeding is pretty slim and nill and lets face it, SLIM just left town.

So all in all there is more about this than meets the average eye, and in the end its all about the one and only thing, its about money and its about surviving!

Its just a thought.