Death of the Alliance of American Football

[bosrs1]

16 hours ago, neo_prankster said:

Now that the Super Bowl is pretty much in the books, lets see a show of hands.

 

Who is excited for the start of the Alliance next Saturday?

 

*raises hand*

 

I actually am. I will be rooting for my hometown team in San Diego as I'm just glad there is some pro-football here for folks to watch. Even if lower level. The Chargers left a massive hole in the sports landscape that the Fleet are among several new teams eagerly trying to fill. And I wish them well with it just as I do the San Diego Legion (Major Rugby League), San Diego Seals (National Lacrosse League), San Diego StrikeForce (Indoor Football League), San Diego Warriors (Freedom Football League), San Diego Pacific Pro Team (Pacific Pro Football), ASC San Diego (NPSL Soccer's new Founders Cup) and of course the already established San Diego Sockers (Major Arena Soccer League) and San Diego Gulls (American Hockey League).

 

Seriously the number of minor/fringe leagues that have set up shop or tried to set up shop (such as MLS) in SD in the wake of the Chargers departure is kinda staggering. It's as if the Chargers were the only ones who couldn't see the value of the San Diego market. 

[Wings]

Dean Spanos: Nitwit Emiritus

[neo_prankster]

7 minutes ago, Wings said:

Dean Spanos: Nitwit Emiritus

 

More like Stupidicus Greedius Billionarus Maximus Rex. 

[Quillz]

5 hours ago, mkg74 said:

 

That kinda sucks. These guys have no room for error then. If you think you can do better then why aren’t u playing in the league. It takes awhile to build a product. The nfl wasn’t built in a day either. 

Because it's not 1920 anymore. We live in a very different world. If these startups want to be successful, they need to provide an engaging product from the get-go. That doesn't mean the quality has to be on par with the NFL (it won't). But remember the XFL? Despite all its flashiness and hype, it ended up being a very low-scoring, boring product.

 

Also the "if you think X why aren't you doing Y" is an incredibly weak fallacy.

[Skycast]

One thing I hear consistently about the Alliance is that many people are skeptical about how the product is going to be on the field because these aren't NFL caliber players, but you can have very exciting, competent and competitive football at all levels of play. From high school and up through the various "lower" tiers of college football to the Group of Five, Power Five and the CFL...there is a LOT of great football being played.

[BBTV]

I think for the most part, the lower skill kind of balances out - mediocre offensive players might look decent because they're going against mediocre defensive players, and vice versa.  The big exceptions are the QBs - there's no hiding that barring some fluke Kurt Warner story, the QBs won't be nailing down field passes with any kind of precision, and will probably be missing open guys and making wrong reads.  Same with the receivers - it's doubtful you'll see too many ridiculous catches, because most of the guys that can do that are already in the NFL.

 

I do wonder if this was 2000, would Tom Brady - a 6th round pick with (at the time) no real chance of playing - have joined one of these leagues so that he'd play and build a resume, rather than ride the pine for the duration of his rookie deal (which is what probably would have happened if not for Bledsoe's injury)?

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, Quillz said:

Because it's not 1920 anymore. We live in a very different world. If these startups want to be successful, they need to provide an engaging product from the get-go. That doesn't mean the quality has to be on par with the NFL (it won't). But remember the XFL? Despite all its flashiness and hype, it ended up being a very low-scoring, boring product.

 

Also the "if you think X why aren't you doing Y" is an incredibly weak fallacy.

 

Amen.  On both counts. 

[Quillz]

1 hour ago, Skycast said:

One thing I hear consistently about the Alliance is that many people are skeptical about how the product is going to be on the field because these aren't NFL caliber players, but you can have very exciting, competent and competitive football at all levels of play. From high school and up through the various "lower" tiers of college football to the Group of Five, Power Five and the CFL...there is a LOT of great football being played.

I agree and that was the other problem the XFL suffered from. There were 8 teams, but only 3 were actually competitive, and all in the Western Conference. Virtually all XFL games were one-sided blowouts or slow, defensive slogs. There was almost no middle ground.

[mkg74]

Let’s just hope QB play in the AAF is a lot more solid than that of the XFL. Save for Tommy Maddox 

[dfwabel]

6 minutes ago, mkg74 said:

Let’s just hope QB play in the AAF is a lot more solid than that of the XFL. Save for Tommy Maddox 

Well, two teams only managed one TD in their scrimmage games.  Since most OL play is criticized by former players and coaches, the OL will likely struggle. 

[MJWalker45]

OL almost always suffers at the start for some reason. I'm planning to catch the Fleet vs Commanders game. It's already getting a lot more press than the Talons ever did when they were here. 

[Quillz]

Another big factor that is going to determine if this league survives or not is how it's covered by the media. The XFL games were treated as one-off spectacles, similar to UFC matches. They received almost no local sports coverage. If AAFL games are treated similarly, that's going to be a big issue and harm the credibility. Obviously I'm not expecting front page news, but if you see AAFL box scores listed alongside those from the NFL, NHL, MLB, etc, that's a good sign.

[mkg74]

25 minutes ago, Quillz said:

Another big factor that is going to determine if this league survives or not is how it's covered by the media. The XFL games were treated as one-off spectacles, similar to UFC matches. They received almost no local sports coverage. If AAFL games are treated similarly, that's going to be a big issue and harm the credibility. Obviously I'm not expecting front page news, but if you see AAFL box scores listed alongside those from the NFL, NHL, MLB, etc, that's a good sign.

Uh, already an identity crisis ahead. It's the AAF, not the AAFL

 

Joking aside....

 

The XFL was trash talking the NFL from the outset and the media didnt take too kindly to it. The media had alot to do with the XFL's demise moreso than their quality of football, by week 2 it was like... stick a fork in these guys. this experiment aint flying lol

[Gothamite]

No, it was the quality of football.

 

The XFL was treated like a joke because it was a joke, more spectacle than sport. Yes, McMahon was trash-talking.  But it was empty talk, with nothing to back it up.  Harder to run an event when you can’t script it. 

[mkg74]

The quality of play did improve as the season went on. Too late. The media already buried the league by week 2.  From what I gather the AAF has done the right thing so far. Like I said before as long as the quality of play is at least WLAF level and that’s by mid season things should be good and well. I can’t wait to find out. And I’ll get a good angle of it seeing it in person this Sunday in Tempe. 

[dfwabel]

2 hours ago, mkg74 said:

The quality of play did improve as the season went on. Too late. The media already buried the league by week 2.  From what I gather the AAF has done the right thing so far. Like I said before as long as the quality of play is at least WLAF level and that’s by mid season things should be good and well. I can’t wait to find out. And I’ll get a good angle of it seeing it in person this Sunday in Tempe. 

1

Done the right thing?  By having the same length of training camp as the XFL?

 

Hell, they are late in delivering their app, which Ebersol has touted since Day 1 and supposedly have worked two years on.   Even the Stans on the AAF Reddit are expressing concerns not only over the app, but their digital ticketing for this weekend as they were supposed to be within the app and some with season tickets are not available on the Ticketmaster app and the lack of information regarding the teams they wish to follow. 

[Skycast]

Man, as much play as the lack of the app currently being released is getting you'd think the league is already a failure. I see more posts and discussion about it that anything else. Has the actual league ever given a release date? I've only seen reports of 2/2 - 2/4 from an "inside source" but nothing official from the league.

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, Skycast said:

Man, as much play as the lack of the app currently being released is getting you'd think the league is already a failure. I see more posts and discussion about it that anything else. Has the actual league ever given a release date? I've only seen reports of 2/2 - 2/4 from an "inside source" but nothing official from the league.

Ebersol said it in the transcript I linked above that Charlie Ebersol said the app was to be released in January.  Ebersol conducted that Q&A via Instagram on November 13. 

[Red Comet]

The lack of transparency involving the app is more concerning to me than it not coming out on time. This is a startup league so I expect that there are things that are not ready to go immediately or even scaling back from highly ambitious plans because they don't quite work as planned but to not even hear that the app is delayed is a major red flag to me. At least you can watch AAF games on their website but hell, who knows if that will actually work? Vince better be taking notes so that if/when the AAF completely goes boobs up after this year that the neo-XFL doesn't fall to the same fate because screwing up something as relatively simple as an app indicates that there may be major systemic problems with this league.

[TheYellowWolfMC]

16 hours ago, Quillz said:

Another big factor that is going to determine if this league survives or not is how it's covered by the media. The XFL games were treated as one-off spectacles, similar to UFC matches. They received almost no local sports coverage. If AAFL games are treated similarly, that's going to be a big issue and harm the credibility. Obviously I'm not expecting front page news, but if you see AAFL box scores listed alongside those from the NFL, NHL, MLB, etc, that's a good sign.

 

AAF not AAFL