Football options available for undrafted players

Do you remember the Arkansas Twisters, an indoor football team based in Little Rock for 10 years?

The Twisters are now the Texas Revolution, based in Allen, Texas.

Why should you care? You shouldn’t.

But college players who did not hear their names called during the NFL draft last week should be aware of other options in football unless, of course, they want to get regular jobs like the rest of us slugs.

Deatrich Wise was the first Arkansas player selected when he went in the fourth round (131st overall) to New England. A few who weren’t drafted will sign as free agents, but the odds of making an NFL team that way are long. Then what?

Ever heard of the Iowa Barnstormers?

That’s where quarterback Kurt Warner landed after he was bypassed in the NFL draft and then cut as a free agent in 1994. Warner played so well with the Barnstormers, he was signed by the St. Louis Rams in 1998 and led his team to the Super Bowl in January 2000. Warner is now in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Former Little Rock Central standout Reggie Swinton also used indoor football as a springboard to a four-year career in the NFL. Swinton was signed by Dallas off the Arkansas Twisters roster and contributed mostly to the Cowboys as a kicker returner.

Anyone remember former Arkansas receiver Joe Adams and former Auburn running back Michael Dyer? Both are current members of the Texas Revolution.

Dyer, who is still only 26, is eager for another opportunity in the NFL after being one of the final cuts for the Oakland Raiders in 2015. He leads the Texas Revolution in most offensive categories and scored four touchdowns in his last game.

“Dyer looks like a man among boys in many ways, but, in other ways, he’s still learning on and off the field,” said Cameron Irvine, director of communications for the Revolution, who lead the league with an average home attendance of 3,747. “If he’s seen by the right people, I think Michael could be someone like Fred Jackson, the Buffalo Bills running back who played for the Sioux City Bandits. He has the talent.”

Indoor football or the Canadian Football League are not the only options for former college players trying to extend their careers.

The Spring League, based in Virginia, is halfway through its inaugural season with a roster full of young players and veterans with NFL experience like Ben Tate, Ahmad Bradshaw and bad boy Greg Hardy.

There’s a long list of failed football leagues, including NFL Europe, which folded in 2007. But Spring League CEO Brian Woods is optimistic his business model has a chance to succeed, especially with teams playing games in one location instead of placing them in different cities, which can drive up costs.

Woods said scouts from the NFL and Canadian Football League regularly attend the games, which are played at a site that previously served as a preseason training camp for the New Orleans Saints. Former Arkansas offensive lineman Alvin Bailey, who was recently cut by the Cleveland Browns, is the type of player the Spring League would welcome.

“We want to give players a platform to be seen by NFL,” Woods said in an article published in the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail. “We also realize these are young men and nobody wants to be judged by mistakes they’ve made in their 20s. We’ll let the NFL decide, ultimately, what they want to do with these players.”

If East Mississippi Community College is “Last Chance U,” then the Spring League is a last chance for players still chasing NFL dreams. The opportunity is there, if they’re prepared to start at the bottom in relative obscurity.