September 25th, 2020
By Monty South
Podcast Summary
On this week’s episode Muf, Monty, and Eli are back to talk about football. Despite it being September the NFL is not the topic for today’s podcast. This time we are actually talking about the variety of spring football leagues that have been tried out recently. Tune in this time to learn more about what happened with these leagues and learn about the possible future of spring football leagues.
Eli led us in the first discussion in this week’s podcast . In this discussion we talk about many of the different aspects of the AAF. These topics include the history and founding of the league, the people who led the league, the rule changes, the app, the aspects of the league that were unique, and the fall of the AAF.
Following this, Monty led the second discussion in this week’s podcast. In this portion of the podcast we talked about the XFL. Like the discussion of the AAF, in this discussion we talked about the history and founding of the league, the people who led the league, the rule changes, the app, the aspects of the league that were unique, and the fall of the XFL. To add on, we also discussed the unique marketing of the XFL and compared their goals to that of the AAF. Before finishing this discussion we also quickly touched on the potential future of the XFL.
Following the discussion of the XFL and the AAF, Muf led us in the discussion of what is needed for a spring football league. In this discussion, Muf talks about why there hasn’t been a successful alternative to the NFL to this point and compares this to other professional sports.
Finally, we all have a quick chat about whether we think a spring football league can and/or will exist in the future.
My Thoughts
Like Eli and Muf, I personally think that the XFL was the best attempt to create a spring football league. I also think it is the league that has the best chance to succeed going forward. I feel this way because I just don’t see a reason for the NFL to put in the investment it would need to create its own spring football league. The NFL is already massively profitable and has its own developmental league in the NCAA already set up for free. It’s because of this that I think the only model for a successful spring football league going forward is going to be one that does not require the NFL to adopt it as a developmental league.
Whether or not we need it, I do think there will one day be a successful spring football league. The market for football in the United States is just way too large for us to constrain it to the 5 month period in which it currently resides. I just hope that when one league does become successful that it can bring the same level of excitement and football quality that the last iteration of the XFL was so close to attaining.
Sources for podcast and this post
- The inside story of the XFL’s sudden collapse, and what comes next for spring football
- https://www.businessinsider.com/xfl-america-history-of-football-league-first-season-2020-1
- https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2020/4/10/21216992/xfl-suspend-operations-canceled-season
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/sports/football/xfl-bankruptcy-vince-mcmahon.html
- https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2019/4/4/18294528/american-alliance-football-aaf-collapse-suspend-xfl
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/kirkwakefield/2019/04/03/why-the-aaf-failed-before-it-started/#27b33ee21b70
- https://www.cbssports.com/aaf/news/aaf-2019-what-went-wrong-and-what-happens-next-following-leagues-sudden-shutdown/
- https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/26957796/inside-short-unhappy-life-alliance-american-football
- https://athlonsports.com/aaf/aaf-football-what-is-alliance-american-football
