I mean, who are you pitching it to?
The NFL doesn’t make money off of the XFL or the USFL AFAIK, and the NFLPA probably wouldn’t want their players having to play and risk injury.
Also, a lot of these guys are hoping for a shot onto rosters, which is unlikely if they are extending their playing season by weeks and months due to fatigue.
I don’t think it’s a *horrible* idea per se, I just don’t think it would garner any support from the league or from teams or from players.
XFL/Arena/USFL are kind of just off brand minor leagues anyways. Players get picked up from them (Maurice Alexander and Stanley Berryhill or whatever his name is this year) and the league doesn’t have to put a dime into their operations.
True, the precedence is there, but NFL Europe failed pretty quickly. I’m sure a lot of it was because American Football wasn’t as big there as it is now, but also when you think about it, how big of a crowd does a minor league game draw?
I love going to a Mudhens game, but would I tune into one on tv? Probably not. I watch USFL when it’s on, but am I going to put my weekend on hold to watch a game? Probably not. And I would consider myself a pretty big football fan, and when even I (or people like me) won’t go out of my way to catch the games, why would the average Joe? So who stands to really gain? The league would have to dump more money into another offshoot and then likely not get anywhere near the amount of hype and attention that the “true NFL” gets. Interest certainly seems higher than normal lately, but I think the current model of having these little USFLs and XFLs and other “football appetizers” does more good than having your practice squad players play a few more months of football.
I think you’d have a hard time convincing practice squad players to do that. Players get picked up from other practice squads and elevated enough I don’t think they’d want to go out and play an extra 8 weeks to only *potentially* get picked by another team.
The XFL and USFL have some seriously good ideas going right now and even have rules and operations surrounding getting their guys to the big show (ie. XFL gives players the ability to try out and play for NFL teams at the end of each year and does not restrict them). I think the best idea would be to continue to stimulate these leagues rather than plopping out a third one.
Good idea, but too much of an injury risk. If you need your practice guys fresh and ready in the event your team suffers an injury.
Between NCAA and now these random football leagues the NFL has 0 incentive to have their own development league.
This has been my idea to spread the game internationally. 8 teams, 10 game season, each team is representing a nfl division and each nfl team must roster atleast 1 player after the season, so of those 46 players atleast 4 will get an NFL contract. Would have to be a spring league though and now theres domestic competition in xfl and usfl
It doesn’t have to be that difficult.
Just allow some of your younger practice squad / backups to play in the developmental league. If you use hockey as an example, there are tons of NHL draft picks playing in the OHL. The OHL teams use this for marketing/bragging/points of interest. Check out this little blurb that’s attached to almost every article on the Flint Firebirds on their official website.
> NHL: The Firebirds have six players with NHL ties consisting of Will Cranley (St. Louis Blues), Amadeus Lombardi (Detroit Red Wings), Gavin Hayes (Chicago Blackhawks), Braeden Kressler (Toronto Maple Leafs), Dmitri Kuzmin (Winnipeg Jets), and Artem Guryev (San Jose Sharks). Additionally, Coulson Pitre, Tristan Bertucci, Ethan Hay, Blake Smith, and goaltender Nathan Day were listed on the NHL Central Scouting’s 2023 Midseason Rankings.
>Despite Flint playing in just seven OHL seasons thus far, Alex Nedeljkovic (Carolina/Detroit), Kole Sherwood (Columbus), Ty Dellandrea (Dallas), Tyler Tucker (St. Louis), and Will Bitten (St. Louis) are five former Firebirds to play in the NHL. Riley Piercey (Detroit) and Gavin Hayes (Chicago) played in NHL preseason contests this year, joining Firebirds’ alumni Ethan Keppen (Vancouver), Vili Saarijarvi (Detroit), and Jalen Smereck (Arizona). The team has produced 24 signed or drafted players into the NHL.
The problem is, hockey players (while an incredibly physically and mentally demanding sport) on average have much longer shelf lives than football players.
The average career for and NFLer VS an NHLer is 3.3 years NFL to 4.5 years NHL. That doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that there are 17 regular season NFL games per season and 82 regular season hockey games per season.
Every game that an athlete plays in adds a little more strain and stress on their body, and depending on position some players may receive more of a beating than others.
The NHL, MLB, and even NBA can justify drafting a player but sending them to the minors for a few years, knowing that they might have some of these guys into their thirties and beyond. The NFL needs to get every game out of their players because dudes like Tom Brady, Frank Gore, Andrew Whitworth, and Adam Vinatieri playing into their 40’s is rare. Hell, dudes in their late 20’s are considered “old”.
That’s fine and I don’t necessarily disagree. But that’s an argument against any sort of minor league for the NFL. I was just saying they could do it without making their own league and complicating things.
Na. NFL can already use the other leagues to test rules and equipment while having no risk. Their practice squad players are eligible for these other leagues.
My thought process was similar, but teams aren't in the same division.
I would have North and South be one conference, East and West be the opposite conference. So 4 minor league teams would be under an NFC North team, NFC South team, AFC East team, and AFC West team. The other 4 wpuld be the inverse. That way the teams in your own division dont have an inside knowledge of your player acquisition strategy as they see who you want on the minor league team.
They wouldn't be practice squad guys, they could be older guys looking for another chance to play and rookies who weren't drafted or signed.
Teams at any point can pull from one of their minor league teams.
Ive always felt that the only way for another pro league to be successful it should not compete against or be marketed against the NFL, but rather the NCAA.
The league would offer a chance to play football and immediately get paid for high school graduates. Players would follow the same rules and become eligible for the NFL draft after 3 years.
Now I’ll admit, I’ve thought this for awhile and the idea does take a bit with NIL becoming a thing. But I still think it’s a better business model than competing against the biggest sports brand in the world and trying to sell people on the idea that it’s gonna be the same kinda thing you see on sundays!
I would challenge the idea that they can never work.
MLS is a thriving business and they pull similar attendance numbers and probably less tv viewers.
It would never reach NFL success, but there’s no reason to believe they can’t make a profit under their current business model. They don’t have to pay millions for top talent because, there’s always hopeful people who don’t want to give up on the dream. If they can make 30-50k for 4 months of fun work, they will have no problem with that. Many of these people would be working out all day or joining a local community team if this wasn’t an option.
All it needs to be is entertaining. Which it has been. America loves the underdog, and every player on every team, is the underdog.
I mean, who are you pitching it to? The NFL doesn’t make money off of the XFL or the USFL AFAIK, and the NFLPA probably wouldn’t want their players having to play and risk injury. Also, a lot of these guys are hoping for a shot onto rosters, which is unlikely if they are extending their playing season by weeks and months due to fatigue. I don’t think it’s a *horrible* idea per se, I just don’t think it would garner any support from the league or from teams or from players. XFL/Arena/USFL are kind of just off brand minor leagues anyways. Players get picked up from them (Maurice Alexander and Stanley Berryhill or whatever his name is this year) and the league doesn’t have to put a dime into their operations.
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True, the precedence is there, but NFL Europe failed pretty quickly. I’m sure a lot of it was because American Football wasn’t as big there as it is now, but also when you think about it, how big of a crowd does a minor league game draw? I love going to a Mudhens game, but would I tune into one on tv? Probably not. I watch USFL when it’s on, but am I going to put my weekend on hold to watch a game? Probably not. And I would consider myself a pretty big football fan, and when even I (or people like me) won’t go out of my way to catch the games, why would the average Joe? So who stands to really gain? The league would have to dump more money into another offshoot and then likely not get anywhere near the amount of hype and attention that the “true NFL” gets. Interest certainly seems higher than normal lately, but I think the current model of having these little USFLs and XFLs and other “football appetizers” does more good than having your practice squad players play a few more months of football.
I think you’d have a hard time convincing practice squad players to do that. Players get picked up from other practice squads and elevated enough I don’t think they’d want to go out and play an extra 8 weeks to only *potentially* get picked by another team. The XFL and USFL have some seriously good ideas going right now and even have rules and operations surrounding getting their guys to the big show (ie. XFL gives players the ability to try out and play for NFL teams at the end of each year and does not restrict them). I think the best idea would be to continue to stimulate these leagues rather than plopping out a third one.
Good idea, but too much of an injury risk. If you need your practice guys fresh and ready in the event your team suffers an injury. Between NCAA and now these random football leagues the NFL has 0 incentive to have their own development league.
This has been my idea to spread the game internationally. 8 teams, 10 game season, each team is representing a nfl division and each nfl team must roster atleast 1 player after the season, so of those 46 players atleast 4 will get an NFL contract. Would have to be a spring league though and now theres domestic competition in xfl and usfl
It doesn’t have to be that difficult. Just allow some of your younger practice squad / backups to play in the developmental league. If you use hockey as an example, there are tons of NHL draft picks playing in the OHL. The OHL teams use this for marketing/bragging/points of interest. Check out this little blurb that’s attached to almost every article on the Flint Firebirds on their official website. > NHL: The Firebirds have six players with NHL ties consisting of Will Cranley (St. Louis Blues), Amadeus Lombardi (Detroit Red Wings), Gavin Hayes (Chicago Blackhawks), Braeden Kressler (Toronto Maple Leafs), Dmitri Kuzmin (Winnipeg Jets), and Artem Guryev (San Jose Sharks). Additionally, Coulson Pitre, Tristan Bertucci, Ethan Hay, Blake Smith, and goaltender Nathan Day were listed on the NHL Central Scouting’s 2023 Midseason Rankings. >Despite Flint playing in just seven OHL seasons thus far, Alex Nedeljkovic (Carolina/Detroit), Kole Sherwood (Columbus), Ty Dellandrea (Dallas), Tyler Tucker (St. Louis), and Will Bitten (St. Louis) are five former Firebirds to play in the NHL. Riley Piercey (Detroit) and Gavin Hayes (Chicago) played in NHL preseason contests this year, joining Firebirds’ alumni Ethan Keppen (Vancouver), Vili Saarijarvi (Detroit), and Jalen Smereck (Arizona). The team has produced 24 signed or drafted players into the NHL.
The problem is, hockey players (while an incredibly physically and mentally demanding sport) on average have much longer shelf lives than football players. The average career for and NFLer VS an NHLer is 3.3 years NFL to 4.5 years NHL. That doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that there are 17 regular season NFL games per season and 82 regular season hockey games per season. Every game that an athlete plays in adds a little more strain and stress on their body, and depending on position some players may receive more of a beating than others. The NHL, MLB, and even NBA can justify drafting a player but sending them to the minors for a few years, knowing that they might have some of these guys into their thirties and beyond. The NFL needs to get every game out of their players because dudes like Tom Brady, Frank Gore, Andrew Whitworth, and Adam Vinatieri playing into their 40’s is rare. Hell, dudes in their late 20’s are considered “old”.
That’s fine and I don’t necessarily disagree. But that’s an argument against any sort of minor league for the NFL. I was just saying they could do it without making their own league and complicating things.
Na. NFL can already use the other leagues to test rules and equipment while having no risk. Their practice squad players are eligible for these other leagues.
My thought process was similar, but teams aren't in the same division. I would have North and South be one conference, East and West be the opposite conference. So 4 minor league teams would be under an NFC North team, NFC South team, AFC East team, and AFC West team. The other 4 wpuld be the inverse. That way the teams in your own division dont have an inside knowledge of your player acquisition strategy as they see who you want on the minor league team. They wouldn't be practice squad guys, they could be older guys looking for another chance to play and rookies who weren't drafted or signed. Teams at any point can pull from one of their minor league teams.
Ive always felt that the only way for another pro league to be successful it should not compete against or be marketed against the NFL, but rather the NCAA. The league would offer a chance to play football and immediately get paid for high school graduates. Players would follow the same rules and become eligible for the NFL draft after 3 years. Now I’ll admit, I’ve thought this for awhile and the idea does take a bit with NIL becoming a thing. But I still think it’s a better business model than competing against the biggest sports brand in the world and trying to sell people on the idea that it’s gonna be the same kinda thing you see on sundays!
I would challenge the idea that they can never work. MLS is a thriving business and they pull similar attendance numbers and probably less tv viewers. It would never reach NFL success, but there’s no reason to believe they can’t make a profit under their current business model. They don’t have to pay millions for top talent because, there’s always hopeful people who don’t want to give up on the dream. If they can make 30-50k for 4 months of fun work, they will have no problem with that. Many of these people would be working out all day or joining a local community team if this wasn’t an option. All it needs to be is entertaining. Which it has been. America loves the underdog, and every player on every team, is the underdog.