Are you ready for some (more) football?
It’s not yet known how much NFL can benefit and learn from new Alliance of American Football
Football fans already got a look at how the Alliance of American Football, which kicked off Saturday night, will feed into the NFL.
Josh Johnson, Eli Manning’s 2016 Giants backup who had fallen out of the NFL, was the San Diego Fleet’s No. 1 overall pick in the Alliance’s inaugural draft in late November.
But only a week later, Johnson was plucked by quarterback-desperate Washington back to the NFL’s NFC East. And days later, Johnson was playing against the Giants at FedEx Field, afforded a second chance at the sport’s highest level.
This isn’t how it will work for every player in the AAF, but it’s the blueprint for how the new eight-team football league that opened play Saturday night with games in Orthe lando and San Antonio can complement the NFL, even in coaching ranks.
Fleet head coach Mike Martz already lost offensive coordinator Jon Kitna, who played 14 seasons in the NFL with four teams, to the Dallas Cowboys as quarterbacks coach, and defensive backs coach Dre Bly to the University of North Carolina as cornerbacks coach. But that’s how it’s supposed to work.
“Before we even played a game, we had guys move on. How cool is that?” said Martz, the former St. Louis Rams head coach and Super Bowl champion offensive coordinator, in a recent interview. “That’s the whole purpose of what we are doing: moving coaches and players on.”
This is also one of the biggest draws for fans. Because the Alliance will allow the NFL to poach its players at any time, any player who stands out for the Atlanta Legends or Orlando Apollos in the spring could be playing for your Falcons or Dolphins in the fall.
Like Johnson, there are plenty of former NFL players involved, including at least 14 former Giants, such as 2012 fourthround pick Adrien Robinson (TE, Memphis) and 2013 third-round pick Damontre Moore (DL, San Diego).
Other names Giants fans should recognize: punter Brad Wing and O-lineman Jessamen Dunker of the Memphis Express; running back Jhurell Pressley and O-linethe that will bring them back to man Malcolm Bunche of NFL mini-camps in the Arizona Hotshots; wide receiver spring. But they aren’t paid Amba Etta-Tawo of the until the football starts and Birmingham Iron. don’t make much, whereas a
And there are also defensive player who plays the Alliance’s tackle Josh Banks and first full 10-game season safety Will Hill III of Orlando; will make about $70,000 wide receiver Kaelin Clay and between Saturday’s kickoff punter Austin Rehkow of the and the April 27 championship Salt Lake City Stallions; safety game in Las Vegas. Orion Stewart of the San Antonio The Alliance’s players also Commanders; and Olineman will be coached by respected Damien Mama and football minds such as Martz, safety Eric Pinkins of the Steve Spurrier (Orlando), Fleet. Mike Singletary (Memphis)
The Alliance has attracted and Rick Neuheisel (Arizona), these players by signing all of which bodes well for their development. them to identical three-year, Hall of Fame executive $250,000 contracts and giving Bill Polian is the cofounder them a platform to develop, alongside television improve and open NFL and film producer Charlie scouts’ eyes. The league also Ebersol. provides housing and health And the Alliance is being insurance. televised nationally, on prominent
Comparatively, each January networks such as CBS, many fringe NFL players CBS Sports Network, NFL sign reserve/future contracts Network, TNT and Bleacher
Report LIVE, which maximizes players’ exposure.
So what’s the downside to this new minor league of football? For one, it easily could be met with skepticism that the NFL is unprecedentedly supporting such an enterprise, including televising it on one of the league’s national networks. What does the NFL have to gain? Practice time, of course.
NFL coaches constantly complain there isn’t enough practice time in the collective bargaining agreement to properly develop players in the offseason. So some sources have speculated that perhaps supporting the Alliance is a way to circumvent those rules, developing players on someone else’s time and dime, with the luxury of plucking them once they’re ready.
For players, one major obvious downside is increased injury risk as they play more football. More reps mean a higher toll on the body. If a player gets hurt badly during the AAF season, it could cost him an opportunity at an NFL training camp he might have otherwise had if he’d signed an NFL reserve/future contract and stayed off the field and healthy.
Conversely, players on NFL futures contracts at the moment cannot cross over the other way into the AAF, so that decision becomes a calculated risk both ways. And this brings into question how the Alliance’s dynamic will impact NFL player acquisition.
The Alliance’s contracts also, like most of the NFL’s deals, aren’t guaranteed. So that three-year, $250,000 deal can be pulled away from the players if they’re released.
But the Alliance is trying to mitigate injury risk with the elimination of kickoffs and the presence of a sky judge, an official who will sit at press box level and has the power to assess penalties for unsafe play.
The sky judge also will have the authority in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter to pick up or have flags thrown for defensive or offensive pass interference, which every New Orleans Saints fan wishes had been possible in this year’s NFC Championship Game. And new ideas such as the sky judge and the elimination of kickoffs can be used as trial balloons for the NFL possibly to one day implement itself.
It remains to be seen if football succeeds in creating its own feeder system, but it’s certainly obvious the NFL has a vested interest. And it will bear watching how many players benefit, too.