Professional Football Researchers Association Forum
PFRA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history of professional football. Formed in 1979, PFRA members include many of the game's foremost historians and writers.
JameisSaintston wrote: ↑Fri Sep 29, 2023 3:49 pm
More likely than functioning as an actual farm league, I would like to see the new USXFL participate in the recruiting cycle, in the same capacity as something like Overtime Elite. Draft eligibility would be the same as if they went to college. It lacks the kind of draw it would've had prior to NIL, but it would definitely bring the league some much-needed attention if it can sign away elite recruits like Arch Manning.
This was potentially a possibility prior to the age of NIL. But not in the current era of college football we are in. Minor league teams simply wouldn't be able to compete financially for the top recruits against the major colleges. The colleges will be able to offer the kids NIL deals that the USFL/XFL simply wouldn't be able to match (and if they tried to match it the league wouldn't last very long). Archie Manning is currently making about 4 million dollars this season. That's likely more than the entire roster that teams in the XFL or USFL are making.
On top of that is that these kids will get far, far, far more attention playing at a top 20 college football team than they would playing in a professional minor league system where they may be lucky to get 20,000 people to show up to their games (some of these kids probably played in front of crowds that size in highschool). The XFL would end up competing against colleges not for the four and five star talent but for the two and some three star talent.
THe only way the XFL/USFL could compete against colleges for the top recruits in the country is if the NFL teams got involved and started paying the kids to go to the minor league system. And that simply isn't going to happen when the NFL already has their farm system that they don't have to pay a dime for.
74_75_78_79_ wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 8:00 pm
XFL and USFL should each have called themselves by different names and left the past alone. Same with not having the same team names/uniforms.
My 'ideal' current spring football situation is having two separate eight-team, two-division leagues (4x4, 4x4) as already the case. But the rules should be exactly the same as NFL rules (no gimmicks)! Perhaps smaller-enough rosters to the point where coaches may have no choice but to play some players both-ways or even three-ways (60-minute-men). Wouldn't it be fun to see a star-RB/star-MLB and a star-RB/star-MLB from opposing teams constantly squaring off vs one another? Or two C/NTs, or two WRs/DBs, etc?
No inter-league play during the regular season. The only such game being a final game 'Super Bowl' between both league champs! A simple everyone playing their division foes twice and the other four teams just once to make it ten games. Also, only division-winners make the playoffs! Unless, like pre-'66, two teams tie with the same W/L/T record! Then the league championship games get pushed another week for the division tiebreaker. And if its more-than two teams tied (as what almost happened in '57), then push things yet another week for an added division semifinal-round! And no neutral site for this 'Super Bowl'; simply league champs taking turns hosting the event at their own stadium every year! Oh, and of course no overtime in the regular season!
But, of course, that's all fantasy.
This is my quote/feelings on the matter from a previous thread.
What do we make of this? Will the resulting "USXFL" finally play a meaningful role in the professional ecosystem? Will the product finally produce recognizable stars in the way, say, the CFL does?
I think one spring league is better than two. I also think they need to have each team play in it's own city and in an APPROPIATELY (read: MUCH smaller) sized stadium to avoid the mausoleum atmosphere at almost all USFL / XFL games. This might also develop a much stronger rooting interest among a cities' fans. (USFL concept of naming teams after cities where they don't even play!! is/was ridiculous in my opinion.) Perhaps a Regional approach to the league that would save greatly on travel costs would be smarter. (That will never happen, they all want to pretend they are a national big league like everyone else.)
I'd go to cities where "minor league" (Perish the thought!) football has shown past signs of success and interest. Omaha NE and Hampton Roads area of Virginia spring to mind. (Virginia Beach and/or Norfolk VA.)
Yes, definitely smaller stadiums to properly 'compact' the atmosphere (the Raiders sure could have had themselves a slightly smaller stadium while in LA).
And I'm all for a minor-league system with smaller markets (ideally to go in conjunction with the NFL and college in the fall). Cities the size of the earliest NFL franchises if not some of them being those actual cities like Duluth, Portsmouth, Muncie, Rock Island, Akron, Dayton, etc. And it can be a sizeable entity from the east to the west coast. They can have Tuesday and/or Wednesdays throughout the fall (football 7-nights-a-week).
Lee Elder wrote: ↑Fri Sep 29, 2023 10:40 am
George Allen suggested that the Bears establish a relationship with a minor league team when Allen was an assistant in Chicago. Allen suggested that the minor league team use offensive and defensive schemes suggested by the Bears and that the Bears help with filming and the like. Allen thought the Bears could stock a minor league team with players the Bears had cut, in case of need. This was in a letter to George Halas in 1965.
George Allen was the kind of guy that wasn't going miss a trick if he could help it. He would have gladly spent the money. Didn't Dan Reeves once say about him: "I gave him an unlimited budget and he exceeded it."? Every team s/b thinking the way he did.
It was actually Edward Bennett Williams who came up with that quip. An intriguing idea, but as far as bringing it up to Halas, there's another famous quote about Papa Bear. "He throws nickels around like manhold covers." I've seen that variously attributed to Bronko Nagurski and to Mike Ditka.
