Death of the Alliance of American Football

[Gold Pinstripes]

On 6/2/2018 at 1:26 PM, Gothamite said:

 

Without helmets?   Yep, I’m down for that. 

Football without helmets would lose to 3am infomercials in the TV ratings, and high school games would outdraw the NFL.

[NYC Cosmos]

San Antonio? Seriously? The usual gang o' four. As with Birmingham, the WLAF touted the fact the Riders would be playing in the Alamo Dome once complete. We all saw how that worked out.

 

I mentioned this before (and tell me if I am wrong.) Here is a roster of all the teams the Gang o' Four had:

Note: this does not contain Arena League Teams.

 

San Antonio (4)

Wings

Gunslingers

Riders

Texans

 

Orlando (5)

Blazers

Renegades

Thunder

Rage

Tuskers

 

Birmingham (4)

Americans/Vulcans

Stallions

Barracudas

Bolts

*Failed NFL expansion

 

Memphis (4)

Grizzlies (Southmen)

Showboats

Mad Dogs

Maniacs

*Failed NFL expansion. Oilers not included as Memphis was a 

 

That is 17 teams. Wow.

 

Louisville and Sacramento make sense. If Sacramento gets it s**t together about the Railyards project, then the Republic gets an MLS franchise and, possibly an AAFL team. Louisville should have always been on any league's list. It of course depends if the little a**hole, Papa John himself, has anything to say about it. His name is on the stadium My guess is that San Antonio gets the nod. And if they are very, very careful and follow the MLS' lead then if and only if the league shows promise, they will expand by two next year – St. Louis and the loser of Sacramento/San Antonio.

 

By the way, I like Mike Martz's staff. Jon Kitna is smart. I saw him practice at camp in Florida and Barcelona. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

On 6/2/2018 at 1:26 PM, Gothamite said:

On 6/2/2018 at 9:40 AM, Gold Pinstripes said:

I think all demographic groups enjoy real football, or football the way it was meant to be played.

 

Without helmets?   Yep, I’m down for that. 

 

There is a league that plays without helmets or pads.  It is called the American 7s Football League.  The A7FL  is a semi-pro league with teams mainly in New Jersey and Maryland.  The uniforms are uniformly terrible.  Some of the team names are silly (Spanktown Boyz); some are downright embarassing (New Jersey Savage, with a logo consisting of an Indian headdress).  You can see gameplay at the league's YouTube channel.

The idea, however, is an excellent one.  If played by high-quality athletes, American football without helmets or padding would be great fun to watch.  It would reach back into the game's roots in rugby.

Injuries would occur; no sport can be without them.  There would even inevitably be head injuries.  But players would not experience the same high rate of chronic brain injury in a game played without helmets, no matter how counter-intiutive that may seem. 

The problem (as discussed in the thread in this forum on new sports) is the public's prejudice against anything outside the big 4 leagues.  Even if a hundred NFL players jumped to a new no-helmet / no-pads league, the majority of fans would still dismiss the endeavour out of hand. 

[MJWalker45]

3 hours ago, walkerws said:

They came out already and said they would have unique names. Hopefully they can get some decent logo designers on standby so they don’t look like ABA 2000. 

They also want fan input on nicknames so wait until someone suggests Football McFootballFace.

[Gothamite]

4 hours ago, Gold Pinstripes said:

Football without helmets would lose to 3am infomercials in the TV ratings, and high school games would outdraw the NFL.

 

If the sport requires players to undergo brain trauma as a matter of course, it should not be allowed to survive.  

 

And it certainly shouldn’t be played by high schoolers. 

[B-Rich]

9 hours ago, NYC Cosmos said:

 

I mentioned this before (and tell me if I am wrong.) Here is a roster of all the teams the Gang o' Four had:

Note: this does not contain Arena League Teams.

 

Birmingham (5)

Americans/Vulcans

Stallions

Fire (WLAF) 

Barracudas

Bolts

*Failed NFL expansion

[MilSox]

14 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

There is a league that plays without helmets or pads.  It is called the American 7s Football League.  The A7FL  is a semi-pro league with teams mainly in New Jersey and Maryland.  The uniforms are uniformly terrible.  Some of the team names are silly (Spanktown Boyz); some are downright embarassing (New Jersey Savage, with a logo consisting of an Indian headdress).  You can see gameplay at the league's YouTube channel.

The idea, however, is an excellent one.  If played by high-quality athletes, American football without helmets or padding would be great fun to watch.  It would reach back into the game's roots in rugby.

Wow... this is pretty much EXACTLY the idea I had!  A version of gridiron football inspired by rugby sevens.

Good to see it actually works in practice.

[WideRight]

21 hours ago, walkerws said:

They came out already and said they would have unique names. Hopefully they can get some decent logo designers on standby so they don’t look like ABA 2000. 

 

Based on what we have seen so far design-wise, I expect they will get a good designer.  I expect Ebersol is keyed in on the marketing/branding side of things.  The league logo, wordmark and website use pretty decent design elements.  They have also said that they want each team's name to reflect the local region, culture, tradition, etc. which is a good sign to me.  This is one aspect of the league that I feel good about.  Still a bit dicey on them choosing Birmingham, as I think St. Louis, New Orleans or Louisville would have been better team to finish the Eastern division with.  Hoping they go with either San Antonio or San Jose for the final city.  

[NYC Cosmos]

I sill think Columbus would make an excellent home for a team. Add St. Lois, and Louisville, and you have a nice little rivalry.

 

Speaking of colors, I hope Orlando does not do anything garish. If they form some sort of alliance with Orlando City, purple will be the color. I bet Birmingham does the Alabama/Auburn/UAB thing (red/blue/gold). San Diego, if they are smart, go with the powder blue of the Chargers. Salt Lake may go with red/black/blue for BYU/Utah/Utah State. The others are a mystery. But they better get their ass in gear for nicknames and marketing.

[MJWalker45]

51 minutes ago, NYC Cosmos said:

I sill think Columbus would make an excellent home for a team. Add St. Lois, and Louisville, and you have a nice little rivalry.

 

Speaking of colors, I hope Orlando does not do anything garish. If they form some sort of alliance with Orlando City, purple will be the color. I bet Birmingham does the Alabama/Auburn/UAB thing (red/blue/gold). San Diego, if they are smart, go with the powder blue of the Chargers. Salt Lake may go with red/black/blue for BYU/Utah/Utah State. The others are a mystery. But they better get their ass in gear for nicknames and marketing.

Nicknames will probably be revealed early December when there's that bit of a lull in college football. 

[tigers]

On ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 3:27 AM, MJWalker45 said:

They also want fan input on nicknames so wait until someone suggests Football McFootballFace.

 

People just can't be bothered suggesting racist team names anymore.

 

With the royal wedding not long ago, where are all those Regal names?

[Mac the Knife]

On 6/6/2018 at 7:05 AM, WideRight said:

Based on what we have seen so far design-wise, I expect they will get a good designer.  I expect Ebersol is keyed in on the marketing/branding side of things.  The league logo, wordmark and website use pretty decent design elements.  They have also said that they want each team's name to reflect the local region, culture, tradition, etc. which is a good sign to me.  This is one aspect of the league that I feel good about.  Still a bit dicey on them choosing Birmingham, as I think St. Louis, New Orleans or Louisville would have been better team to finish the Eastern division with.  Hoping they go with either San Antonio or San Jose for the final city.  

Didn't Todd Radom do the league logo?  If he's on board and they have the financial resources to pay him?  They'll have quality identities... and hopefully he'll help them avoid picking moronic team names, suggesting that he can't "find the vision" for something like a Memphis Maniax or Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz-like name.

 

9 hours ago, tigers said:

With the royal wedding not long ago, where are all those Regal names?

Hey, don't laugh... they could do a spin on Real Salt Lake somehow...

[WideRight]

44 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

Didn't Todd Radom do the league logo?  If he's on board and they have the financial resources to pay him?  They'll have quality identities... and hopefully he'll help them avoid picking moronic team names, suggesting that he can't "find the vision" for something like a Memphis Maniax or Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz-like name.

 

Hey, don't laugh... they could do a spin on Real Salt Lake somehow...

 

 

Yeah, my big suggestions to them would be:

 

1. Avoid anything that smacks of "kewl", so no use of -z instead of -s, no deliberate misspellings  (Xtreme, etc.)

 

2. Don't be afraid of a "boring" name like Wildcats, Tigers, Mustangs if it is appropriate to the area.

 

3. Do try to pick names that mean something to the region/city.  What is the local history, culture, industry, character, etc. 

 

4. Avoid anything that deals with Native Americans, the Confederacy or other hotbutton historical elements.

 

5. Nothing wrong with animals, weather, professions, etc. 

 

6. Don't try to mimic the colors of local colleges or lost pro teams. Go a new direction. 

 

7. It is ok to have a non-plural name if it is a word that has meaning and is not too conceptual  (Thunder, Lightning, Rampage, Forge, etc.)

 

 

 

[Mac the Knife]

There are all sorts of variables when it comes to branding, those among them.  First and foremost though, you have to have the ability to trademark whatever name you're going to use in all the different classifications that might apply through USPTO.  That can be tricky because there are so many classifications.  Just for sake of example, let's say that AAF wanted its Atlanta team to be dubbed the "Atlanta Chiefs."

 

They would have to register "Atlanta Chiefs" as a trademark in at least 4-5 different trademark classifications in order to conduct all the business normally associated with operating of a pro football team.  On the three most critical - "organizing sporting events...," "programming, production and distribution of radio and television programs...," and "clothing, namely hats, headwear, caps, sweatshirts, jackets, etc.," they'd come across immediate red flags as others have right to "Atlanta Chiefs."  Then they'd also likely have to contend with the Kansas City Chiefs, which either directly or through NFL entities hold dozens of other trademarks.  This is a major reason you see "Yard Dawgs," "Jumbo Shrimp," "Sand Gnats," etc., etc.

 

I'm not generally in favor of 'singular' nicknames, but there are individual cases where they either make sense or are actually preferable.  The "Fargo Force," for example, could be branded and marketed in any one of several different ways because it's relatively generic.  "Thunder" and "Rampage" are a little too generic for my tastes, but again there are exceptions.  The misspelled names (Maniax, Fire Catz, etc.) are what aggravate me most; don't use your brand to promote the intellectual decay of the populace.  

[NYC Cosmos]

Oh the Atlanta Chiefs...NASL....not a fan of the logo which we will not discuss here. Colors were ok – royal and red. The name was ok. There are several teams named "Datu" in the Philippines. The Datu was the leader of the tribe, the leader, the "chief". Ih the Philippines, it is an honor to be called a Datu.

[Mac the Knife]

I just picked an AAF city and a potential name at random.  I remembered the NASL connection only after the trademark listings popped up on my Trademarkia search, actually.

[dfwabel]

Charlie Ebersol spoke with Mike Florio on PFT PM podcast yesterday and really didn't say much be their roll is (obviously) in "Phase 1" which is the "Football portion".

Phase 2 is "The Players" and Phase 3 is "The Fans".  A lot of his answers were, "when we do X in the next couple of weeks..."

 

Players just out of HS will NOT be eligible, but they'll have a policy similar to the NFL regarding age.

 

He was more interested in integrated daily fantasy over the traditional pari-mutual wagering.

"

They know the 8th city, but claims that cities have contacted them and said, "The idea of the major market is non-existent".

 

(Interview begins at the 19:30 mark)

 

https://art19.com/shows/pft-pm

[tigers]

9 hours ago, Mac the Knife said:

Didn't Todd Radom do the league logo?  If he's on board and they have the financial resources to pay him?  They'll have quality identities... and hopefully he'll help them avoid picking moronic team names, suggesting that he can't "find the vision" for something like a Memphis Maniax or Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz-like name.

 

Hey, don't laugh... they could do a spin on Real Salt Lake somehow...

 

The Royal Imperial Noble Regal Monarchs

[Gold Pinstripes]

On 6/5/2018 at 11:47 AM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

There is a league that plays without helmets or pads.  It is called the American 7s Football League.  The A7FL  is a semi-pro league with teams mainly in New Jersey and Maryland.  The uniforms are uniformly terrible.  Some of the team names are silly (Spanktown Boyz); some are downright embarassing (New Jersey Savage, with a logo consisting of an Indian headdress).  You can see gameplay at the league's YouTube channel.

The idea, however, is an excellent one.  If played by high-quality athletes, American football without helmets or padding would be great fun to watch.  It would reach back into the game's roots in rugby.

Injuries would occur; no sport can be without them.  There would even inevitably be head injuries.  But players would not experience the same high rate of chronic brain injury in a game played without helmets, no matter how counter-intiutive that may seem. 

The problem (as discussed in the thread in this forum on new sports) is the public's prejudice against anything outside the big 4 leagues.  Even if a hundred NFL players jumped to a new no-helmet / no-pads league, the majority of fans would still dismiss the endeavour out of hand. 

Tackle football without helmets won't cut it, there are thousands of guys playing and paying just to play amateur football.  Tackle football with helmets is so interwoven into the American sports fabric, no reason to try anything else.

[NYC Cosmos]

Looks like the next franchise will be St. Louis:

 

The other city that lost an NFL team to L.A. could be getting a team in a new league.

Via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, both the Alliance of American Football and the XFL have contacted the Rams’ former home “to explore availability and interest.”

Per the report, a third, yet-unnamed league has approached St. Louis. It’s a group of former NFL players hoping to build ownership groups in various different markets.

New XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck said earlier this week on #PFTPM that roughly 30 cities are under consideration for teams in the league that launches in 2020. The AAF has identified seven of its eight inaugural cities, including San Diego; co-founder Charlie Ebersol said on #PFTPM that the AAF already has decided on the eighth city.

 

My guess is that the AAFL wants to beat the XFL to the punch in St. Loo.

 

30 cities for the XFL? Really, Ollie? Is Jersey City being considered? (nothing against JC, but my ex lives there.)

 

By the way. I've met Oliver Luck several times. He is one of the biggest, most self-assured a**holes I have ever met. For all his talent (practicing lawyer in both the US and Germany), his contacts, etc. he is absolutely one of the most arrogant people I have ever met. He hops from job to job — West Virginia AD (why are they in the Big 12? Well the ACC didn't want them but that's where they belong), Houston Dynamo, Frankfurt Galaxy, WLAF/NFL Europe (he did absolutely nothing for the league), etc. He also hires his own incompetent relatives for primo jobs. Good luck to the XFL with a self-aggrandizing bastard. He will tank the XFL too then run to the next job.