Tag: Johnny Manziel AAF

The AAF is Once Again in Danger of Going Out of Business

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Update: They finally did go out of business. 

 

ESPN – The majority owner of the Alliance of American Football told USA Today Sports that league is in danger of folding without help from the National Football League Players Association. Tom Dundon, who became the AAF’s chairman last month, told USA Today Sports in a recent interview that the NFLPA is not cooperating with the AAF by refusing to allow the first-year league to use young NFL players.

“If the players union is not going to give us young players, we can’t be a development league,” Dundon told USA Today Sports. “We are looking at our options, one of which is discontinuing the league.”

Dundon said he expects to make a decision about the league’s future over the next two days…The eight-team AAF, billed as a development league, kicked off the weekend following the Super Bowl. The league is seven games into its 10-game regular season.

What kind of business model pumps its own tires as much as the AAF did prior to launching only to make it barely 2 months before nearly going out of business TWICE? In case you forgot, they almost couldn’t make payroll in Week 2 of the first season. Who is running these leagues? Obviously we’ve seen football leagues come and go over the past 20 years as the NFL has maintained its stranglehold on consumers’ attention without even lifting a finger. Most of these leagues fail because its just morons running the business side of things it would seem.

In marketing they say the average person needs to see an ad or a brand message seven times before it sticks. Now apply that to the AAF. How many AAF games do you think the average sports fan has watched? One? Maybe two? The AAF *had* to be prepared for slow adoption, otherwise it was a stupid business venture.

First off, if the AAF’s thinly veiled expectation was for the NFL to welcome them with open arms and create yet another item on their budget sheet then they were sorely mistaken. Sure the NFL needs a minor league system….but they already have one.

It’s college College Football.

Does College Football’s love of wishbone offenses, pistol offenses, air raid offenses, shotgun only offenses, and run pass option offenses prepare players for the NFL? Well five years ago I would have said no, but now…um yea it kind of does. So many coaches are taking College Football offensive plays, concepts, and entire schemes and running them as is in the NFL now. Belichick does it, so does Andy Reid, Matt Nagy, Doug Pederson and Sean Payton.

So if the AAF was hoping to be a way of preparing young players for the standard operating procedure in the NFL, well then they’re fucked because the market has shifted.

To just expect this league full of no name players would be a mega hit from Day 1 is so shortsighted it’s almost funny. Did anyone in that league go to business school? Isn’t Bill Polian supposed to be one of the smartest football execs ever? Yet somehow they don’t have a plan to make it through even one full season without fears of going out of business?

I was texting back and forth with Mattes about this story and he summarized his opinion succinctly, if not spitefully, after getting roasted by AAF Reddit for somehow not believing in this league:

“As Dashboard Confessional once said: I AM VINDICATED.” – Mattes

Real talk though, this is not a good turn of events for my guy Johnny Manziel. After flaming out in two different football leagues, it would be some shit luck for the third one to just straight go out of business. Looks like it’s XFL or bust baby.

 

Johnny Manziel May Start This Weekend and Officially Launch My AAF Fandom

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Yahoo – Johnny Manziel is in contention to make his gridiron return after signing for the Alliance of American Football’s Memphis Express.

The 26-year-old quarterback has been given a chance at redemption following ill-fated spells with the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League and for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League.

Having signed on Saturday, Manziel practised with his new team-mates on Monday ahead of the upcoming clash with Birmingham Iron.

An opening for Manziel may have emerged following an ankle injury to starter Zach Mettenberger, with head coach Mike Singletary having turned to third-string option Brandon Silvers rather than returning to the dropped Christian Hackenberg.

Oooooooooooohhhhhhh.

It was actually a lot more difficult to find CFL games streaming than I had originally anticipated, but it didn’t matter in the end as Johnny Manziel didn’t really play much and then got injured and then got booted from the league. Is it mildly concerning that Manziel has now flamed out in two consecutive football leagues? Mildly. But as the saying goes: third times a charm.

Before I get any further into this though, how about Christian Hackenberg? The former SECOND ROUND DRAFT PICK of the NY Jets couldn’t even beat out that stiff from LSU Zach Mettenberger, let alone the infamous Brandon Silvers who I’m not convinced is an actual person.

After a rocky first season for the AAF in which Mattes dumped all over the league, and then shortly thereafter got roasted by AAF Reddit (it’s a thing)

and of course the story of how the league almost went bankrupt in Week 2. All that combined with a lack of any real juice I just have not been able to get into it. Hell I was watching the start of a game last weekend and the announcer literally said the name of the league wrong in the introduction. I will say it is perfect Saturday day drinking background fodder at the bar though.

But now? My man Johnny Football may be making his debut right where he belongs back in the good old US of A? Who cares that he literally signed with the team less than a week ago. The AAF defenses cannot be that complex. Just get Johnny out there and let him do his thing. This is exactly what I needed to launch my AAF fandom and dare I say it purchase an AAF jersey. Do they actually sell AAF jerseys? Well if they do I can tell you that a Manziel #2 Memphis jersey is v high on my wish list