Spring league ready to bloom

But the NFL isn’t backing four-team outfit

Spring football — what an idea.

The concept has been tossed around before, and this latest spring thing got off to an awkward start Thursday when the SiriusXM NFL Radio account tweeted this: “Breaking: The NFL will have a spring league starting in the spring of 2017, structured around four squads of veteran free agent players.”

In a memo sent to all 32 teams, the NFL let it be known internally that there would indeed be a spring developmental league starting this April for veterans not signed to NFL contracts.

But it will have no connection to the NFL and instead be run by outside interests, many of them connected to the failed Fall Experimental Football League, which unexpectedly folded midway through its second campaign in 2015.

Outside of the initial uncertainty surrounding who would be in charge of the startup league, the story is legit. Plans to have four teams made up of veterans playing three games apiece from April 5 through April 26 are in place.

Catchy name and all, the Spring League already has a website — thespringleague.com — and the sign-up page indicates it’ll cost prospective players $350 to try out for a spot in the four-team circuit, with housing and a daily per diem paid to those who make the cut.

The teams will practise and play at Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., a three-field facility that has hosted NFL training camps and practices.

Most will take a wait-and-see approach to the new league, especially after Major League Football came oh so close to getting off the ground earlier this year, even deciding to hold a draft this past January for the eight franchises.

Alas, inevitable bumps in the road appeared — mostly financial and logistical — and the project went off the rails.

While the NFL continues to discuss the possibility of its own spring feeder loop, that’s expected to lean more toward the development of young players rather than those older free agents looking for another chance.