KeB
All American
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| Quote : | " Start-up pro football leagues seem to make a lot of people stupid.
Otherwise rational beings have thrown good money after bad trying to capitalize on the nation's appetite for the sport.
The AAFL is looking at legendary coaches like R.C. Slocum to lead teams. (Getty Images)
The AAFL is looking at legendary coaches like R.C. Slocum to lead teams. (Getty Images)
• Donald Trump was practically running the USFL when it folded after the 1985 season. (Or maybe it folded because The Donald was running it.)
• California lawyer Gary Davidson helped found three pro leagues in eight years from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s (American Basketball Association, World Hockey Association, World Football League). All three folded but only the WFL doesn't have a former franchise that still exists today.
• Nobody ever said Vince McMahon was a genius, just a shameless money-grubbing shlub. A moment of silence, please, for the one-and-done XFL.
• Even the high and mighty NFL admitted failure, folding NFL Europa last week after 16 seasons.
Which leads us to the new members of The Foolish Club. Scheduled to kick off next spring, the All American Football League has one sugar daddy (millionaire Marcus Katz of San Diego) and a bunch of high-minded former college administrators bent on spending that cash.
Besides that, what does the AAFL have that the other pretenders didn't? Passion, for one. Franchises will more or less be located in college football hotbeds (Gainesville, Knoxville, Birmingham for starters). That's the reason that The Swamp has a team and the Orange Bowl doesn't.
"Teams tied to big-time universities, not fickle universities like the University of Miami," said former Florida receiver Travis McGriff, who joined 400 others trying out in Orlando this week. "They have an awful fan base despite their success."
Sites of prospective
AAFL franchises
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Michigan
Mississippi
Nebraska
North Carolina State
Purdue
Tennessee
Texas
It, as they say, is on. Sure, McGriff's trash talking sounds like an XFL outtake. But in a couple of sentences he summed up what McMahon couldn't summon in that one avert-your-eyes season in 2001. Without having snapped a ball, the AAFL actually (hopefully?) means something to the people who will (hopefully?) watch it.
Think Florida vs. Georgia or Tennessee vs. Alabama -- in May. Same stadiums, same colors. In some cases, the same (but older) players.
"I got back from our first meeting," said AAFL board member Gene Corrigan, the 79-year-old former ACC commissioner and Notre Dame athletic director. "I talked to a bunch of coaches in the ACC. They said, 'Man, what a great idea.' ... That's really all it is. It's high Triple A football."
Telling people it's minor league football might not be the best strategy. But after all the other failures, why lie? The league is evolving as something between NFL Lite and NCAA-Plus. Faded stars, maybe, but athletes who must have their degrees in order to play in the new league.
"Guys might think that school is a necessary evil," McGriff said. "'I want to play in the NFL, but if I don't, I better get my degree, because there's this other league.' The league is very much so trying to project an image. First class people and good students who got their degrees."
In other words, He Hate Me is being replaced by He Helped Me (With Tuition).
Players will be placed in the city of their alma maters as much as possible, wearing their schools colors. In a 7-on-7 tryout scrimmage this week former Florida quarterback Shane Matthews quarterbacked the Floridas against the Tennessees.
"That was the very first thought I had that got my motor running," said McGriff, a 31-year-old former NFL and Arena League player, "to play in those colors, it's such nostalgia. For players, it just kind of tugs at your heart, when you leave college you never get to do it again. You don't get to do it again in this league, but you do."
Prospective coaches are faded stars themselves. Jackie Sherrill, Jim Donnan, Bob Pruett and R.C. Slocum are some of the names being tossed around. But no one will be coming to watch the coaches.
The essence remains wringing all the wild-eyed football devotion out of the Southeast as possible. Katz, 59, is a Georgia alum -- a rabid Dawg -- who lives in La Jolla, Calif. He made is money in the 90s developing a successful student-loan business. It's his financial stake -- projected to be as high as $50 million -- that will help kick off the league. It will have to. There is no TV contract.
There is a buzz, if only slight. In the dog days of summer, it's something to write about for those of us who can't wait for the college game to start. The league has gotten incredible attention considering it already has postponed its launch once. The number of franchises isn't exactly known either.
But the idea is interesting. Katz says he is firming up a deal to play in Little Rock, with the help of outgoing Arkansas AD Frank Broyles. Tennessee (Neyland Stadium), Raleigh (North Carolina State) and West Lafayette, Ind. (Purdue) might get teams. The Florida franchise might move around, playing games in Gainesville, Jacksonville and Tampa.
And the only competition, it seems, would be the swimming pool. The league would start after most schools complete spring practice and end in July.
The tryouts Monday and Tuesday in Orlando were by invitation only. The league hopes to capitalize on NFL cuts and conduct another tryout in September. The folding of NFL Europa puts more players on the market.
"There's an emotional attachment (to a school)," Katz said. "It becomes like a part of you. There's a lot of people that care. If we can transcend that gap and make the games fun we'll succeed. ... If I could have picked my first profession, it would have been a football coach. The second profession would be a sportswriter."
That's scary enough, without taking a look at the AAFL's board of directors. Katz' neighbor, board chairman Cedric Dempsey, once ran the NCAA as its executive director. There's Corrigan, former UCLA chancellor Charles Young and Doug Dickey, the former coach at Tennessee and Florida.
At one point or another, they were all very, very good at spending other people's money.
Strange how quickly they all traded the amateur ideal for a shot at pro glory. It is assumed that none of them have their own stake in the league. It's also assumed that fans aren't going to be lured by senior citizen administrators either. They are glorified consultants. This league of extraordinary gentlemen was astounded at the research done by the league's marketing firm, Octagon.
People really do want to see the Travis McGriffs of the world. Or, conceivably, Heisman winner Eric Crouch back playing for a Nebraska franchise. The financial model is ambitious. At least initially, franchises will be owned by the league. Salaries will top out at $75,000. Rosters will be limited to 40-45. Katz has predicted a sellout at The Swamp (capacity: 89,000) for the opener.
Minor league, you say? Not everyone involved in a start-up is stupid. Consider one of the few pro leagues to succeed. The Arena League is played indoors and has prospered with a bunch of no names capitalizing on the uniqueness of its game.
"That's what this league is," McGriff said, "It's something fans haven't seen. My analogy is, your college playing days are your undergrad degree. This is graduate school. It's such an intriguing idea to me."
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  7/9/2007 9:05:12 AM
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