Nick Morgan, Sports Editor
Just one week after the New England Patriots took down the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 13-3 in Super Bowl LIII, football fans across the country found sweet relief in the primetime season-openers of the American Alliance of Football (AAF). The AAF was created by Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian, both of whom have spent decades in and around professional football.
Ebersol was one of the creators of the short-lived “XFL,” a spin-off football league created alongside WWE CEO Vince McMahon that lasted only one season in 2001. Polian was the vice chairman of the NFL Indianapolis Colts from 1998 to 2011 and, more recently, was an NFL analyst for ESPN. The two designed a league that is dedicated to showcasing developing talent and serves as a minor league to the NFL. They describe the AAF as “football for football people, by football people.”
There are eight inaugural teams in the league: the Arizona Hotshots, Atlanta Legends, Birmingham Iron, Memphis Express, Orlando Apollos, Salt Lake Stallions, San Antonio Commanders and San Diego Fleet.
The 40-game regular season began on Saturday, Feb. 9, on CBS and drew 2.9 million viewers, which surpassed the 2.5 million viewers watching the NBA’s primetime broadcast of the Houston Rockets hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder, according to SBNation.
The NFL and the AAF are not “partners,” even though the AAF serves as a developmental league. Former NFL players, such as Troy Polamalu, Michael Vick and Hines Ward, have all had their hand in the formation of the new league and serve in capacities from the front offices to the sidelines as coordinators. The AAF will also allow players coming out of college a chance to hone their skills under the supervision of former NFL coaches and players and, eventually, take the next step into making their way onto an NFL roster.
The appeal of this league that we have already started seeing is that while it is traditional football with all the same regulations of the NFL, it is a bit more lenient in how it handles penalty calls. The league also has greater transparency by putting microphones on players, coaches and officials for viewers to hear it all.
The rule that many fans of the NFL had issues with this past season is the reinvention of the “roughing the passer” call. Pass rushers are no longer allowed to land on top of the quarterbacks when tackling them, nor are they allow to hit quarterbacks below the knees or on the helmet. In the very first game of the AAF season, Shaan Washington of the San Antonio Commanders came into the backfield unblocked and hit Mike Bercovici, quarterback of the San Diego Fleet, so hard that his helmet flew 15 yards downfield, and there was no flag.
Whether the AAF can blossom into a full-fledged supplement to NFL teams in the way that the minor leagues in baseball and the G-League for the NBA are or not, it is, for the time being, a nice way for us football fans to get our fix during a dull period in sports. The NBA playoffs, as well as the MLB’s Opening Day ceremonies, don’t start until late spring. The AAF’s regular season will run through April 14, and the playoffs and championship dates are still to be announced. CBS will continue airing one AAF game per week, while the NFL Network will also carry two games per week.
