Alliance of American Football 2019

Realt Dearg Sec · 10-02-2019 2:08am

Deco99 wrote: »

How does the college/NFL team link up work? Just a kinda buddy system? Or something more formal?

I THINK it's more formal. My understanding is that if you want to play in the league coming out of college or after being cut from the NFL, the team attached to them has first refusal on your rights in the league.

I stand to be corrected on that.

Anyway I'll give it a shot. Not sure whether to support my local team, San Antonio, or whoever is attached to the bears, or Mike Singletary's team...

Interesting to see if anyone can jump start their career a la Kurt Warner who is on board as a colour commentator. I have no doubt it'll be a big help for guys getting ready for the draft and udfa though

eagle eye · 10-02-2019 2:37am

San Antonio have Mike Riley as HC and Mike Martz is coaching San Diego. Haven't heard anything about Martz for years. Interesting to see how Riley does, always liked him as a college coach.

Realt Dearg Sec · 10-02-2019 2:45am

That's the hardest hit on a QB I've seen in a long, long time

eagle eye · 10-02-2019 2:47am

It's his own fault, how did he not see a player coming from his right side?
I'm checking out already, they need to find decent QBs or it won't take off imo.

Realt Dearg Sec · 10-02-2019 2:50am

eagle eye wrote: »

It's his own fault, how did he not see a player coming from his right side?
I'm checking out already, they need to find decent QBs or it won't take off imo.

Very bad on his part. I don't think there's going to be good QB play. If you get one or two in the league it would be a surprise. Not even every NFL team has a decent one

thomond2006 · 10-02-2019 9:25am

Full game: https://youtu.be/w2QDafPCufg

rebelyell99 · 10-02-2019 10:42am

I saw a bit of the Orlando Atlanta game and i thought the quality was ok ,the qb play was poor for the most part but Orlando had some nice defensive plays .It will be intresting to see how much support this things generates ,the crowd was small enough but you would expect that really.

ArmaniJeanss · 10-02-2019 1:49pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

Full game: https://youtu.be/w2QDafPCufg

Followed the first quarter and flicked through the rest (it became uncompetitive near the half).
Enjoyable enough, thought the winning quarterback was decent.

Really don't like the lack of PATs thus having to go for two points every time. It takes away from the natural excitement of going for two when it happens after every touchdown.

QuadaLumpins · 10-02-2019 10:39pm

Birmingham
New England Patriots
Buffalo Bills
Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers
Montreal Alouettes
Ottawa Redblacks

Atlanta
Jacksonville Jaguars
Carolina Panthers
Atlanta Falcons
Washington Redskins
Toronto Argonauts

Memphis
Tennessee Titans
New Orleans Saints
Indianapolis Colts
Cincinnati Bengals
Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Orlando
Miami Dolphins
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
New York Jets
New York Giants
Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Phoenix
Arizona Cardinals
San Francisco 49ers
Chicago Bears
Baltimore Ravens
Edmonton Eskimos

Salt Lake City
Seattle Seahawks
Denver Broncos
Minnesota Vikings
Green Bay Packers
Calgary Stampeders

San Antonio
Dallas Cowboys
Houston Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
Philadelphia Eagles
Saskatchewan Roughriders

San Diego
Los Angeles Rams
Los Angeles Chargers
Oakland Raiders
Detroit Lions
British Columbia Lions

Source: https://www.al.com/sports/2018/07/alabama_auburn_on_birminghams.html

QuadaLumpins · 10-02-2019 10:40pm

Memphis @ Birmingham game now live on Facebook if anyone fancies a watch ...

OldMrBrennan83 · 10-02-2019 10:42pm

On YouTube too. Probably can't put up a link but it'll come up easily in a search.

ScrubsfanChris · 10-02-2019 10:44pm

Birmingham v Memphis is streaming live and free on the AAF YouTube page:

On second viewing, I don't think thats their official page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YffWQYTQR9c

Realt Dearg Sec · 11-02-2019 5:19am

Watching salt lake v Arizona and it's been pretty entertaining. Hard to be too harsh on the QB play in week one of a brand new league, it'll take longer for the offenses to find their feet so it'll probably be more defensive for a while. That's definitely better than the easy option, which would have been to tilt the whole field in favour of offensive play in various ways. My suspicion is that's what the xfl will be doing.

BaronVon · 11-02-2019 10:31am

Hotshots off to a winning start!

Loughc · 11-02-2019 2:47pm

I have to day the uniforms and team names just don't do anything for me... they all scream highschool setup.

LuckyLloyd · 12-02-2019 1:20pm

Quality is good imo, relative to what I would have expected for a minor league type collection of teams. The way in which they have set this up - with a long lead time and focus on what's possible - is prudent and led to a smooth start. Attendances are decent. All of the players are earning $70k this year + performance incentives, and accruing tape to help them springboard to an NFL training camp.

I like the idea, I'm intrigued and I'll be dipping in and out over the next few months.

Salt Lake Stallion · 16-02-2019 7:48pm

Week 2 starting in 15mins, tough one for the Stallions @ Birmingham Iron. 2nd road game against a team that hasn't conceded any points and without their top 2 QB's. Hopefully the Stallions can pull off the upset, hate to be the 1st team with 2 defeats.

OldMrBrennan83 · 16-02-2019 8:43pm

What's with the weird camera angles and no commentary?

Deco99 · 17-02-2019 11:29am

Stadiums are empty for alliance, are they adding crowd noise to TV feed? I'm interested but I wonder how audience was this week

jack presley · 17-02-2019 7:07pm

What's the story with the app? It's a piece of crap basically, especially if you have no interest in fantasy.

Mr_Man2121 · 17-02-2019 8:23pm

Do ye have teams that you're supporting yet?

jack presley · 17-02-2019 8:25pm

Mr_Man2121 wrote: »

Do ye have teams that you're supporting yet?

I'm just back from Orlando so they're my team now I suppose. I was actually there when they were playing last Sunday but I wasn't that keen on treking out to see it in person.

EDIT - Very little buzz in the local press and TV about them. Small bit of coverage but nothing more. And no merchandise in the sports stores in the malls.

jack presley · 17-02-2019 10:16pm

Watching the game on the app. The use of the spider cam exclusively and no commentary makes it a very hard watch. No replays either

Salt Lake Stallion · 18-02-2019 3:33am

jack presley wrote: »

Watching the game on the app. The use of the spider cam exclusively and no commentary makes it a very hard watch. No replays either

Checkout reddit nfl streams, you'll get a proper tv feed there.

LuckyLloyd · 18-02-2019 12:37pm

Deco99 wrote: »

Stadiums are empty for alliance, are they adding crowd noise to TV feed? I'm interested but I wonder how audience was this week

Some attendances thus far:

Orlando Appollos: 20,191 w1
Birmingham Iron: 17039 w1; 17,319 w2
Memphis Express: 11,980 w2
San Diego Fleet: 20,019 w2
San Antonio Commanders: 27,857 w1

"Empty" seems like the wrong word to use.

el Fenomeno · 18-02-2019 1:01pm

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Some attendances thus far:

Orlando Appollos: 20,191 w1
Birmingham Iron: 17039 w1; 17,319 w2
Memphis Express: 11,980 w2
San Diego Fleet: 20,019 w2
San Antonio Commanders: 27,857 w1

"Empty" seems like the wrong word to use.

I'd bear in mind that these are likely exaggerated.

Whether they're as exaggerated as the USFL (teams announcing attendances that were more than the stadium's max capacity) remains to be seen. I doubt it.

LuckyLloyd · 18-02-2019 1:03pm

el Fenomeno wrote: »

I'd bear in mind that these are likely exaggerated.

Whether they're as exaggerated as the USFL (teams announcing attendances that were more than the stadium's max capacity) remains to be seen. I doubt it.

Exaggerated? Maybe. But declaring attendances of 11k for games hardly seems a stretch! I'd suggest the numbers seem solid for a brand new league, and don't feel out of kilter with the tv broadcasts.

jack presley · 18-02-2019 1:24pm

Attendances at American sporting events are always a bit funny. They count the number of tickets sold, not the number who pass through the turnstiles. Therefore every season ticket holder is deemed to be there regardless of whether he/she is actually at the game.

The former GM of the Miami Marlins baseball team has said that the team used to buy a load of tickets (but not give them to anyone, just shuffling money from one side of the business to the ticketing department) so they could inflate their attendances. So the reported attendance would be 10,000 when it was plainly obvious there were only about 1,000 in the crowd.

Deco99 · 18-02-2019 9:14pm

The 11k announced for Memphis game is clearly inaccurate as the stadium was empty but listening to highlights you'd think there's a crowd there. So I suspect they add crowd noise to TV feed.

OldMrBrennan83 · 18-02-2019 9:17pm

Completely empty? Like as in, was there a fan shut out or something?

jack presley · 18-02-2019 9:17pm

Deco99 wrote: »

The 11k announced for Memphis game is clearly inaccurate as the stadium was empty but listening to highlights you'd think there's a crowd there. So I suspect they add crowd noise to TV feed.

https://www.nfldraftdiamonds.com/2019/02/aaf-attendance-3/

This looks as if it was taken just before the players come on to the pitch so maybe there were loads of late arrivals or they're all at the bar but 11k looks a stretch here alright.

Deco99 · 18-02-2019 10:01pm

jack presley wrote: »

https://www.nfldraftdiamonds.com/2019/02/aaf-attendance-3/

This looks as if it was taken just before the players come on to the pitch so maybe there were loads of late arrivals or they're all at the bar but 11k looks a stretch here alright.

Ya, to be fair it looks mainly like Memphis is the main culprit. Other games look well attended.

jack presley · 19-02-2019 2:50pm

https://twitter.com/profootballtalk/status/1097820176282730504?s=21

Doesn’t sound too promising.

Edit - Apparentky the players didn’t get paid in week 1. They were told it was just a glitch in the payroll system.

Realt Dearg Sec · 19-02-2019 4:53pm

Speaking of Vegas opening a book on this league, are they taking bets on how many weeks it will last? Looks like they've made a hames of it already.

MileHighGuy · 19-02-2019 5:19pm

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Speaking of Vegas opening a book on this league, are they taking bets on how many weeks it will last? Looks like they've made a hames of it already.

pretty bad all right. I wonder if the NFL are giving it any funding beyond screening some games. I guess it's good for the league to have a minor league of sorts, especially with all the (relatively) new mini camp rules preventing the number of hours players can practice. Colin Kaepernick could become a part-owner of the entire league if his settlement figures are to be believed.

Realt Dearg Sec · 19-02-2019 5:40pm

MileHighGuy wrote: »

I wonder if the NFL are giving it any funding beyond screening some games.

That was my initial impression but it might be the other way round, with the AAF league paying the NFL to screen them. I really hope this league survives but I'm not optimistic anymore.

mooreman09 · 20-02-2019 3:07pm

I like the bits I've seen so far. I'd imagine cashflow is a major issue at the start - hopefully that improves.

I doubt they'd have gotten further investment of 250m if it was a failing model.

Anyway, lets see how things go.

Salt Lake Stallion · 21-02-2019 1:35am

mooreman09 wrote: »

I like the bits I've seen so far. I'd imagine cashflow is a major issue at the start - hopefully that improves.

I doubt they'd have gotten further investment of 250m if it was a failing model.

Anyway, lets see how things go.

That's the key point, the guy who invested is very successful in sports and would have no doubt done his due diligence.

Deco99 · 23-02-2019 8:10pm

Can I stream these games somewhere in Ireland?

Salt Lake Stallion · 24-02-2019 12:29am

Stallions got their 1st win of the season, happy out!

Guffy · 24-02-2019 2:17am

Deco99 wrote: »

Can I stream these games somewhere in Ireland?

They're free on the website.

https://aaf.com

OldMrBrennan83 · 24-02-2019 9:19am

Guffy wrote: »

They're free on the website.

https://aaf.com

No commentary and a weird Madden camera angle though. I'd to give up on it last week.

Salt Lake Stallion · 24-02-2019 6:33pm

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

No commentary and a weird Madden camera angle though. I'd to give up on it last week.

They had a normal tv feed on there last night for the Stallions game, I think it depends which broadcaster is showing the game in the US as to what stream the AAF can put on their website.

'AAF All Access' channel on youtube streams each game live too.

Deco99 · 04-03-2019 10:31pm

No chat about this weekend. Has the honeymoon ended?

OldMrBrennan83 · 04-03-2019 10:35pm

No game I tried to watch had decent coverage with commentary and a proper camera angle so I gave up.

mooreman09 · 07-03-2019 5:33pm

I plan on watching this Saturday. House to myself!

Realt Dearg Sec · 07-03-2019 7:34pm

mooreman09 wrote: »

I plan on watching this Saturday. House to myself!

You might have the whole league to yourself. Although I see there are talks afoot to make the league effectively a minor league for the NFL, with players being farmed out to the AAF to get more practice and game reps, players like 3rd string QBs and stuff who don't get enough practice under the current collective bargaining agreement. I think the ratings are unlikely to sustain the AAF alone, but if they had the kind of links to NFL teams that minor league baseball has to the MLB then it would be serve a slightly different purpose and could thrive in the same way. I remember going to see the South Bend Cubs when I lived there; I don't really know a damn thing about baseball, but it was a really lovely atmosphere and a great local experience to go to it. It was understated and unpretentious, not trying to sell itself as an incredible spectacle, because it wasn't one.

I also wonder if a league like this would work better in the run up to a new NFL season rather than at the tail end of one. The week after the super bowl you might want to watch games but that thirst passes on because the quality is lower. I wonder if people would be more into it if it was to whet your appetite for a new NFL season.

Fr Tod Umptious · 08-03-2019 12:43pm

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

You might have the whole league to yourself. Although I see there are talks afoot to make the league effectively a minor league for the NFL, with players being farmed out to the AAF to get more practice and game reps, players like 3rd string QBs and stuff who don't get enough practice under the current collective bargaining agreement. I think the ratings are unlikely to sustain the AAF alone, but if they had the kind of links to NFL teams that minor league baseball has to the MLB then it would be serve a slightly different purpose and could thrive in the same way. I remember going to see the South Bend Cubs when I lived there; I don't really know a damn thing about baseball, but it was a really lovely atmosphere and a great local experience to go to it. It was understated and unpretentious, not trying to sell itself as an incredible spectacle, because it wasn't one.

I also wonder if a league like this would work better in the run up to a new NFL season rather than at the tail end of one. The week after the super bowl you might want to watch games but that thirst passes on because the quality is lower. I wonder if people would be more into it if it was to whet your appetite for a new NFL season.

I've thought of this myself.

The notion seems to be that people are still hungry for football after the Superbowl, and you also have this gap between the end of football and Opening Day at the beginning of April.

But what they are getting is an inferior product that loses interest quickly.

Would a better option be to start later and run up to the start of training camp ?

Obviously those in the know know better than I but it's just an observation.

The ill fated XFL also started right after the Superbowl.

jack presley · 27-03-2019 8:03pm

The chairman of the league’s threatening that they might fold unless the NFLPA allows practice squad players signed to future contracts to sign with their teams.

Realt Dearg Sec · 27-03-2019 8:57pm

jack presley wrote: »

The chairman of the league’s threatening that they might fold unless the NFLPA allows practice squad players signed to future contracts to sign with their teams.

That chairman is the same guy who put 250 million quid into the league a couple of weeks back. It sounds like it's done.

Alliance of American Football 2019

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