The AAF -- or, as Tony Kornheiser of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption always called it, the Aaaaaaaaf! -- followed such failed leagues as the 1st American Football League (1926), the 2nd AFL (1936-37), the 3rd AFL (1940-41), the World Football League (WFL, 1974-75), the United States Football League (USFL, 1983-85), and the original XFL (2001), a product of World Wrestling Entertainment.
The only challengers to the NFL that have ever succeeded, even in part, are the All America Football Conference (AAFC, 1946-49), which contributed 3 teams to the NFL: The Cleveland Browns, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Baltimore Colts; and the 4th AFL, founded in 1960, which lasted 10 years and contributed 10 teams to the NFL that still survive: The New York Jets, the New England Patriots, the Buffalo Bills, the Miami Dolphins, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Denver Broncos, the San Diego (now Los Angeles) Chargers, the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans), and the Oakland/Los Angeles/Las Vegas Raiders.
The WWE will be trying a second version of the XFL next year, and it is looking like even less of a good idea that it did a year ago, Which is less than it did when they tried it the 1st time in 2001, turning into the most spectacular flop of the bunch.
The AAF looked like it might have known what it was doing. It was founded by Charlie Ebersol, TV producer, and son of TV producer Dick Ebersol and actress Susan Saint James; and Bill Polian. Polian's experience includes: Scouting for the Montreal Alouettes, and helping them win a Grey Cup; personnel director of the Chicago Blitz of the USFL, so he knows what to do, and what not to do, in building a new league; general manager of the Buffalo Bills, building them into 4-time AFC Champions; GM of the Carolina Panthers, building them into NFC Finalists in just 2 seasons; and GM of the Indianapolis Colts, building them into Super Bowl winners. He's a 6-time NFL Executive of the Year, and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Ebersol and Polian
The AAF limited itself to 8 teams -- fewer than the 12 the WFL started with in 1974, and the 12 the USFL started with in 1983, although starting with just 8 didn't help the XFL much in 2001.
Only the Atlanta Legends and the Arizona Hotshots played in the same market as an NFL team, the former playing in Georgia State Stadium, the reconfigured Turner Field; and the latter playing in Arizona State's Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburbs.
The other 6 were playing in NFL-deprived cities. The San Diego Fleet set up shop in SDCCU Stadium, formerly Jack Murphy Stadium, once home of the Chargers and still home to San Diego State. Most of the others played in cities, and in some cases in stadiums, that were home to WFL and USFL teams -- in other words, old stadiums by today's standards.
The Memphis Express played at the Liberty Bowl, home to the University of Memphis, and formerly home to the 1997 Tennessee Oilers. The Birmingham Iron played at Legion Field, home to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and frequently a 2nd home for the main Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa.
The Orlando Apollos played at Spectrum Stadium, the new home of the University of Central Florida. The Salt Lake Stallions played at Rice-Eccles Stadium, home of the University of Utah, and the main stadium for the 2002 Winter Olympics. And the San Antonio Commanders played at the Alamodome, home to the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Alamo Bowl, former home of the NBA's Spurs, and the emergency home field for the New Orleans Saints for 3 games in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina.
Note the blue & orange color scheme,
matching the Florida Gators.
Salt Lake was coached by Dennis Erickson, who won 2 National Championships at the University of Miami, and a Pac-10 (now Pac-12) Championship at both Oregon State and Arizona State. San Diego was coached by Mike Martz, assistant coach with the St. Louis Rams when they won Super Bowl XXXIV, and head coach when they lost Super Bowl XXXVI. San Antonio was coached by Mike Riley, who won 2 Grey Cups as head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Memphis was coached by Mike Singletary, legendary Chicago Bears linebacker and former San Francisco 49ers head coach. Arizona was coached by Rick Neuheisel, a former UCLA quarterback who'd dealt with a startup league before, playing in the USFL, and had coached the University of Washington to a Pac-10 title.
Atlanta was coached by Kevin Coyle, a former NFL assistant in Cincinnati and Miami. Birmingham was coached by Tim Lewis, a former NFL assistant with the Giants, Pittsburgh, Carolina, Seattle, Atlanta and San Francisco -- but never before a head coach, the only one in the AAF who wasn't.
Still, at the very least, the football-playing side of the AAF looked like it would have its act in gear. Ebersol put in as few changes as possible, to keep the game recognizable, but the changes he made all seemed like good ones:
* No TV timeouts: Ebersol believed that a fan's attention span wasn't much over 2 hours, and the AAF's games did tend to be close to 2 1/2 hours, instead of 3 or more, as in the NFL.
* No kickoffs. At the start of each half, and after each score, the other team takes over possession at its own 25-yard line. This also cut down on length of real game time.
* A 35-second play clock, 10 seconds shorter than the NFL's.
* No extra point kicks, only two-point conversion attempts.
* Overtime, if necessary, would be decided by each team getting one possession from the 10-yard line, and must score a touchdown, no field goal. If still tied after 3 rounds, that's it, it's a tie. This rule would have gone by the boards in the Playoffs: Sudden death.
* 8 officials, as in college, as opposed to the NFL's 7.
Even the business side of things looked good. Charlie Ebersol put his father Dick on the league's Board of Directors. Other executives included Polian, former Pittsburgh Steeler Super Bowl winners Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward, former Giant Super Bowl winner Justin Tuck, former Minnesota Viking All-Pro defensive end Jared Allen, former Atlanta Falcons executive J.K. McKay (son of legendary USC and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jim McKay, and brother of Atlanta Falcons GM Rich McKay), and former NFL referees Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino.
In other words, the Board had ex-players, ex-coaches, ex-execs, and ex-refs, so that there perspectives from pretty much everywhere in organized pro football.
Everything seemed like it was above-board. This league looked like it would avoid the mistakes of previous startup leagues.
*
Looks turned out to be deceiving. The league made a big mistake by not negotiating a televising deal with ESPN. Instead, they went to CBS, and their games were televised not on CBS proper, but on CBS Sports Network, which most fans didn't even know existed, let alone whether their cable packages had it.
On Pardon the Interruption, Kornheiser's broadcast partner Mike Wilbon said that not getting an agreement with ESPN was the biggest mistake the AAF could have made. Kornheiser also pointed out that, with the NFL Draft and its leadup, plus the off-season programming of the established networks of the NFL and the major college conferences -- with the ACC soon to join the Big 10, the SEC and the Pac-12 as having them -- "the itch is fully scratched": There is no need for Spring football games.
Football fans are addicts, who -- despite Donald Trump's and his idiot fans' bloviations on the subject -- will never boycott NFL games; and, through said off-season programming, are already getting the football equivalent of methadone.
Furthermore, while not putting teams in the big markets of New York, New England, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco may have helped those teams not have to compete with established teams, it also depressed interest in TV viewers in those markets.
Let's face it: If you're an Eagles fan in South Jersey, you might be interested in Alabama playing Florida, 2 established college football powers, in a matchup to decide the SEC Eastern Division title. But a game between brand-new pro teams, with no history, no pageantry, no traditions, no rivalries, in Birmingham and Orlando? Would that tide you over until the Iggles play their 1st exhibition game at The Linc? Probably not.
Worse, the actual operators of the teams barely invested in them. Players weren't paid on time. None of the teams owned its own stadium, and rent wasn't paid on time -- which is a huge reason why teams in the startup leagues of the 1970s failed: The WFL, the American Basketball Association, and the World Hockey Association.
It seemed to be the fault of the league's largest stakeholder, Tom Dundon, owner of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. Polian said:
I am extremely disappointed to learn Tom Dundon has decided to suspend all football operations of the Alliance of American Football. When Mr. Dundon took over, it was the belief of my co-founder, Charlie Ebersol, and myself that we would finish the season, pay our creditors, and make the necessary adjustments to move forward in a manner that made economic sense for all. The momentum generated by our players, coaches and football staff had us well positioned for future success. Regrettably, we will not have that opportunity.
Tom Dundon
The players didn't learn of the league's suspension from ownership, or their coaches. They found out about it through social media. Their health insurance was lost, and they had to pay their own medical bills from their game-related injuries. Players were evicted from the hotels where they were housed, and they, not their teams' owners, were stuck with the bills. They weren't even given plane tickets home, and had to pay their own way.
It's almost as if a filthy rich guy founded the AAF with the sole purpose of feeding, and then crushing, the dreams of guys who wanted to play football, and screw them over, and didn't care if he lost money in the process, because he got off on the players' hardship.
The AAF was a Trump league. That may not have been the intent of Ebersol and Polian, but that's what Dundon turned it into.
The new XFL plans to begin play shortly after next year's Super Bowl. If the AAF does come back -- don't hold your breath -- that'll be 16 teams, in 2 leagues, competing for football fans' attention during the NFL's off-season.
If you think either of these leagues will be operating in the Spring of 2021, then you have more faith in them than I do.
At any rate, here are the 2019 AAF season's final standings:
2019 Alliance of American Football standings
| |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Conference | |||||||||
| Club | W–L | PCT | CONF | PF | PA | DIFF | SOS | SOV | STK |
| (x) – Orlando Apollos | 7–1 | .875 | 5–0 | 236 | 136 | 100 | .406 | .375 | W2 |
| (x) – Birmingham Iron | 5–3 | .625 | 3–2 | 165 | 133 | 32 | .406 | .300 | W1 |
| (e) – Memphis Express | 2–6 | .250 | 1–4 | 152 | 194 | -42 | .578 | .500 | L1 |
| (e) – Atlanta Legends | 2–6 | .250 | 1–4 | 88 | 213 | -125 | .609 | .438 | L3 |
| Western Conference | |||||||||
| Club | W–L | PCT | CONF | PF | PA | DIFF | SOS | SOV | STK |
| San Antonio Commanders | 5–3 | .625 | 3–2 | 158 | 154 | 4 | .516 | .450 | L1 |
| Arizona Hotshots | 5–3 | .625 | 3–2 | 186 | 144 | 42 | .469 | .500 | W3 |
| San Diego Fleet | 3–5 | .375 | 2–3 | 158 | 161 | -3 | .469 | .417 | L3 |
| Salt Lake Stallions | 3–5 | .375 | 2–3 | 135 | 143 | -8 | .547 | .417 | W1 |
| (x)–clinched playoff berth; (e)–eliminated from playoff contention | |||||||||
This could be partial revenge: As a University of Florida guy, Spurrier has no love for the State of Alabama. In 1974, the WFL championship game, the delusion-of-grandeur-named World Bowl, was won by the Birmingham Americans over the Orlando-based Florida Blazers. Spurrier himself wasn't on the Blazers: He was then backing Tom Owen up on the 49ers.
But the Apollos have claimed the 2019 AAF Championship. I don't think there will be a 2020 AAF Championship.
And that's not because the football was bad. It's because the players, the coaches, the team executives, the league executives, and anybody whose job depended on the league staying in operation was betrayed by one guy who owned it all.
It was a Trump league. And they couldn't make Spring football great again. As Fat Nixon himself would say, "Believe me!"
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