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Former Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis will cover AAF with NFL Network this spring


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7 minutes ago, Bunghole said:

Wait...isn't this the new league that the wrestling promoter guy is starting? Or is that yet another different league? The XFL or something?

 

 

Yeah this is something Bill Polian and the NFL have a hand in. The XFL doesn't start until next year.

 

Glad to see you around. Hope you are getting your health in order and all is well with you.

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On 2/5/2019 at 11:29 AM, Sea Ray said:

I'm surprised the NFL Network would cover another league

 

 

 

Relationship between AAF and NFL grows but there’s no investment, yet

 
Mike Florio
ProFootball Talk on NBC SportsFeb 9, 2019, 5:35 PM
 
 

The Alliance of American Football emerged in early 2018. In early 2019, the relationship between the AAF and the NFL began to gradually expand.

With the new league due to launch tonight, six days after the conclusion of the NFL’s 2018 season, PFT asked both the NFL and the AAF to comment on where things stand between the league that will soon launch its 100th season and the league starting its first.

“There’s no investment,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT via email, in response to the question of whether the league or any owners have invested in the AAF. “It’s a programming partnership with the AAF.”

The NFL sees a clear benefit in broadcasting 19 AAF games this season.

“The AAF provides another opportunity for players, coaches, officials, personnel people to get valuable experience,” McCarthy said. “The AAF, and also the XFL, demonstrate the strength of the game and the health of football as entertainment. They reflect substantial investments and major commitments by serious and credible football and business people.”

AAF co-founder Charlie Ebersol expressed similar sentiments in a statement sent via email to PFT.

“Over the past three years we have worked diligently to promote a strong and wide-ranging partnership with the NFL,” Ebersol said. “History has clearly shown with all previous failed attempts at spring football what doing the reverse looks like. What we have created is a broad, symbiotic relationship. We allow players to move freely back and forth to the NFL from The Alliance (70 players have been released to the NFL, with 35 returning to play for us this season), we built our data system to work with the NFL (a first for the NFL) and we’ve partnered with the NFL on television rights for 19 of our 43 games. Over 30 of our 85 referees are in the NFL’s ODP, all of our coaches have NFL experience — something no other league could have or can say. In fact, our executives, G.M.’s and coaches have over 500 years of combined NFL experience. In short, we count ourselves lucky to have fostered such meaningful connections with America’s most popular and dominant sports and entertainment brand.”

Where those connections are for now is one thing. Where they may go could be quite another. If the AAF thrives (and having relationship with the NFL can’t hurt), the ties could deepen and, ultimately, the NFL could end up absorbing the AAF and making it an official arm of the National Football League.

 

 

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/relationship-between-aaf-nfl-grows-210501424.html

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I think the goal of the league is to eventually become a minor league for the NFL. Unlike other leagues who have tried to compete against it, this one seems more complimentary. 

 

Guys who simply don’t want to go to college and certainly for UDFAs or for QB development.  It would be nice if your backup was playing in this league right now although I am not sure how that works. 

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So what do you all think? After watching this last night here are my impressions:

 

I like the pace of the game but the athleticism is subpar to what we're used to. They kept comparing it to the NFL. That's not a fair comparison. You can't do that. What I saw was far inferior to what you'd see in a major college football game, like say Clemson vs Alabama. Logan Woodside wouldn't even be a backup at a place like Ohio State, Alabama or Clemson. No QB had the skills of what we saw in the CFB Championship game last month. The plays were very vanilla.

 

I don't know what their main TV schedule is going to look like but I know that primetime on CBS with minimal commercials is not a sustainable model. How many of these games will be on tv from week to week and where can they be found? They'll have to be on free TV in order for it to work. If CBS puts it on its streaming service, that'll hurt 'em. It was mildly entertaining and I'll watch more in times where I don't have something better to do but we'll see where this goes.

 

I thought coverage and commentary of it was very slanted to the positive. No one mentioned how mediocre the skills were of these players. They kept comparing it to the NFL. Of course it's not the NFL but is it even the CFL or the CFB league? IMO, no, not yet

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OK, broke down and turned on tonight's alleged football game between a group of no ones from Salt Lake City against a group of nobodies from Phoenix. The only recognizable names were the two coaches: Dennis Erickson and Rick Neuheisel, respectively. In a 2/3 empty Sun Devil Stadium. Of course, the only real reason to have wasted a good hour, was to catch the commentary of the former/hated HC. 

 

He wasn't half bad, actually. Was more of an early Gruden-era all analytics type...what they were running, why it worked/didn't work, that sort of thing. Called a couple of formations before a snap with what they were showing, and called the eventual plays correctly. He was mechanical a bit, but with some experience, he might just make it. 

 

The rest of the garbage going on the field became unwatchable, so an hour was enough. So much for the AAF. 

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It was like watching an NFL pre-season game that didn't involve the bengals. Subpar, no vested interest. If I lived in San Antonio, my whole life and never had a hometown football team, I might be interested. But none for me, thanks. 

 

Also, having it start one week removed from the Super Bowl was poor marketing. Give NFL fans a few weeks to start jonesing for football. 

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25 minutes ago, Hooky said:

It was like watching an NFL pre-season game that didn't involve the bengals. Subpar, no vested interest. If I lived in San Antonio, my whole life and never had a hometown football team, I might be interested. But none for me, thanks. 

 

 

 

 

I like it because I love football. And I like the idea of a developmental league.

But yeah, it would make it better if I had a "hometown" team to root for.

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On 2/7/2019 at 4:42 PM, SF2 said:

Seriously, that is when you make young kids fans forever.  The day Billy Kilmer handed me 4 quarters and told me to buy him a pack of Kool Filter Kings from the Red Maple's (http://www.theredmaple.com/)  cig machine is the day I became a Saints Fan forever. Can't blow off the kids at training camp or the local restaurant/bar. 

I don't remember the year, but one year Gradkowski  spent a few minutes during training camp throwing the ball with my oldest nephew. Yeah he was a backup but even so that made my nephew's day.

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42 minutes ago, Jamie_B said:

I don't remember the year, but one year Gradkowski  spent a few minutes during training camp throwing the ball with my oldest nephew. Yeah he was a backup but even so that made my nephew's day.

Munoz, Boomer and Bruce Reimers showed up at Harrigan's Tavern in Kettering once after some golf thing I believe over at NCR Country Club.   They were great, just ate some marginal food and shot the shit with everyone.   I think it was planned because channel 7 was there but they were all cool. 

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2 minutes ago, SF2 said:

Munoz, Boomer and Bruce Reimers showed up at Harrigan's Tavern in Kettering once after some golf thing I believe over at NCR Country Club.   They were great, just ate some marginal food and shot the shit with everyone.   I think it was planned because channel 7 was there but they were all cool. 

When my Dad was a practicing Physician Assistant in Cincinnati and not just teaching at the PA School for Kettering, he was on the team that did some surgery for Johnny Bench's mom, said Bench was the nicest guy in the world.

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Chad story time? He used to come in the Penn Station in Clifton every so often.  Saw him in there one day & some HS kids from Hughes were getting autographs.  There were a couple of JV football guys egging each other on until one of them asked Chad about a drop he'd had the previous Sunday.   He laughed and told junior to get his ass to practice.  For all the diva shit on TV he was nothing but genuine & approachable in public.  He was having fun & seemed to want everyone in the city along for the ride.

 

 

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On 2/10/2019 at 4:23 PM, Sea Ray said:

So what do you all think? After watching this last night here are my impressions:

 

I like the pace of the game but the athleticism is subpar to what we're used to. They kept comparing it to the NFL. That's not a fair comparison. You can't do that. What I saw was far inferior to what you'd see in a major college football game, like say Clemson vs Alabama. Logan Woodside wouldn't even be a backup at a place like Ohio State, Alabama or Clemson. No QB had the skills of what we saw in the CFB Championship game last month. The plays were very vanilla.

 

I don't know what their main TV schedule is going to look like but I know that primetime on CBS with minimal commercials is not a sustainable model. How many of these games will be on tv from week to week and where can they be found? They'll have to be on free TV in order for it to work. If CBS puts it on its streaming service, that'll hurt 'em. It was mildly entertaining and I'll watch more in times where I don't have something better to do but we'll see where this goes.

 

I thought coverage and commentary of it was very slanted to the positive. No one mentioned how mediocre the skills were of these players. They kept comparing it to the NFL. Of course it's not the NFL but is it even the CFL or the CFB league? IMO, no, not yet

All the games will be broadcast live on YouTube.  Some of the games this weekend hit 50k+ live viewers just on YouTube. 

The fantasy app is pretty cool. 

Wish Louisville had a team.

Wish we could send Driskel down. 

Really liked it, watched a little of every game. 

Orlando is probably the best team. 

Forgive me if im wrong but I think I have seen Woodside play one game live. A Friday night game against BYU that was a all out shootout. That kid was a beast. Don't count him out yet. 

I agree should at least wait a couple more weeks after the Superbowl. Also March Madness is Gon hurt them too. They might as well do Monday night games during the sweet 16 to final 4. I'm sure way smarter people than me are working that out. 

 

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10 hours ago, Catfish Bob said:

All the games will be broadcast live on YouTube.  Some of the games this weekend hit 50k+ live viewers just on YouTube. 

The fantasy app is pretty cool. 

Wish Louisville had a team.

Wish we could send Driskel down. 

Really liked it, watched a little of every game. 

Orlando is probably the best team. 

Forgive me if im wrong but I think I have seen Woodside play one game live. A Friday night game against BYU that was a all out shootout. That kid was a beast. Don't count him out yet. 

I agree should at least wait a couple more weeks after the Superbowl. Also March Madness is Gon hurt them too. They might as well do Monday night games during the sweet 16 to final 4. I'm sure way smarter people than me are working that out. 

 

What do you mean by "counting out" Logan Woodside? Playing in the NFL? In his last game as a Toledo Rocket he completed 16 passes for 124 yards, zero TDs, 3 INTs. We all saw him in preseason NFL games. He's an OK MAC QB. Is that what we can expect in this league? OK MAC QBs? I want to like it but that's not going to hold my interest. I'm going to need to see players working their way into the NFL

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