The new Alliance of American Football league is something that's been on my periphery for a while. I've known that it was a new spring football league and that it's starting soon but that's about it. Well, this week the AAF had a quarterback draft. The eight-team league held a four-round draft during which they selected only quarterbacks. Interesting.
Now is the time of a little background on the Alliance of American Football.
The Alliance of American Football is the creation of CEO Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian. Ebersol is the son on NBC executive Dick Ebersol and partner of Vince McMahon in the first iteration of the XFL. Everyone that's paid attention to the NFL for the last 30 years knows Bill Polian. He's the Hall of Fame architect of the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, and Indianapolis Colts. The presence of Ebersol and Polian feels like a fine start for a football startup. They've done a few other promising things. For one, the league will be a spring league. The AAF debut season kicks off a week after the Super Bowl LIII, February 9. The Championship game will be played the last weekend in April.
Some AAF twists to the game:
-No TV timeouts
-60% fewer commercials
-no kickoffs
-no onside kicks-instead trailing team receives the ball on their own 35-yard line facing 4th-and-10
-30 second play clock
-mandatory 2-point conversions after TDs
The first two twists are terrific perks to football fans hungry for some spring football. I also think that the NFL will be thrilled to see this onside kick idea played out in real games.
The AAF did a wise thing in limiting the league to eight teams. They didn't overextend themselves and they picked eight interesting locations. As important, the cast of coaches is impressive.
Atlanta Legends-Brad Childress (Offensive coordinator: Mike Vick)
Orlando Apollos-Steve Spurrier
San Diego Fleet-Mike Martz
San Antonio Commanders-Mike Riley
Memphis Express-Mike Singletary
Birmingham Iron-Tim Lewis
Salt Lake Stallions-Dennis Erickson
Arizona Hotshots-Rick Neuheisel
Tim Lewis is the only one of the eight without significant head coaching experience but he's been coaching since 1987, including seven years as an NFL defensive coordinator.
Maybe it's just me but the locations of the teams are a curiosity in that the teams are in areas of the country that the NFL wasn't when it started in the 1920s. That probably makes it the only national professional football league without a midwest or northeast presence.
The AAF also brought in Troy Polamalu to oversee the player side and JK McKay to oversee the team side of the league. There's a very USC-feel to those hires. That's a shaky move. Hines Ward, Justin Tuck, and Dick Ebersol have been enlisted as advisers.
As for the players, 661 had been signed across the league as of November 9. Some of those are household names.
Bishop Sankey, RB, San Diego Fleet
Tommy Armstrong, QB, Salt Lake Stallions
Edmond Robinson, LB, Arizona Hotshots
Will Sutton, DT, Arizona Hotshots
Jake Weineke, WR, Salt Lake Stallions
Stephen Hill, WR, Atlanta Legends
Trent Richardson, RB, Birmingham Iron
Trent Richardson!!!
And now for that quarterback draft that got this AAF attention started.
It should be noted that players were allocated based on some regional connection. That included the quarterback position. In the first round of the quarterback draft each team had the opportunity to protect a regionally connected quarterback. Four did so.
The AAF Quarterback Draft
Round 1
1. San Diego-Josh Johnson (protected), San Diego
2. Atlanta-Aaron Murray (protected), Georgia
3. Memphis-Troy Cook (protected), Tennessee-Martin
4. San Antonio-Dustin Vaughan (protected), West Texas A&M
5. Birmingham-Luis Perez, Texas A&M-Commerce
6. Arizona-Trevor Knight, Texas A&M
7. Orlando-Garrett Gilbert, SMU
8. Salt Lake-John Woodrum-Liberty
Round 2
1. San Diego-Mike Bercovici, Arizona State
2. Burmingham-Blake Sims, Alabama
3. Arizona-John Wolford, Wake Forest
4. Orlando-Stephen Morris, Miami
5. Atlanta-Matt Sims, Tennessee
6. Salt Lake-B.J. Daniels, South Florida
7. Memphis-Christian Hackenburg, Penn State
8. San Antonio-Marquise Williams, North Carolina
Round 3
1. San Antonio-Logan Woodside, Toledo
2. Memphis-Brandon Silvers, Troy
3. Salt Lake-Austin Allen, Arkansas
4. Atlanta-Peter Pujals, Holy Cross
5. Orlando-Austin Appleby, Florida
6. Arizona-Quinn McQueary, Montana Tech
7. Birmingham-Scott Tolzien, Wisconsin
8. San Diego-Philip Nelson, East Carolina
Round 4
1. San Antonio-Dalton Sturm, Texas-San Antonio
2. Memphis-Zach Mettenburg, LSU
3. Salt Lake-Matt Linehan, Idaho
4. Atlanta-Justin Holman, Central Florida
5. Orlando-Kevin Anderson, Fordham
6. Arizona-Jack Heneghan, Dartmouth
7. Birmingham-Alek Torgersen, Penn
8. San Diego-Alex Ross, Coastal Carolina
There's some familiar names among those 32 quarterbacks.
Mike Vick as the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Legends might be the greatest curiosity of the AAF.
It'll be fun to see how the Alliance of American Football does. There are enough differences from the NFL and enough familiar names to draw a curious audience. I'm curious about the league after this brief look into it. Football is fun. More Football is fun.
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