Another new professional football league will start next February, getting a head start on the XFL
Spring football is returning — and sooner than we thought.
The Alliance of American Football league was announced Tuesday and will debut on Feb. 9, 2019, a week after Super Bowl LIII and at least a year before the XFL resurfaces sometime in 2020.
Charlie Ebersol — whose father, Dick Ebersol, founded the original XFL with WWE’s Vince McMahon almost two decades ago — created the new league along with Pro Football Hall of Fame member Bill Polian, formerly NFL general manager and currently an ESPN analyst.
The league will consist of eight 50-man teams representing cities that have yet to be named. Players will include those who were cut from NFL rosters after preseason, undrafted college athletes and former players from the NFL and other professional leagues.
“There are 28,000 Division I football players,” said Ebersol, who produced a documentary on the original XFL. “Only 1,700 have NFL jobs. We’re looking for those Kurt Warners working in grocery stores and we think we will find them.”
CBS will broadcast the league’s inaugural and championship games, while CBS Sports Network will show one game a week. Fans will also be able to view games using the league’s app.
The league is aiming for games to last about 2½ hours, with no TV timeouts and fewer commercials than NFL broadcasts. Coaches will be allowed to challenge two officials’ calls per game, but there will be no other replays to slow the action.
Placekickers may not be too crazy about the league. All extra-point attempts will be two-point conversions from the 2-yard line. And, instead of kickoffs, the ball will be placed on the receiving team’s 25-yard line. In situations where a team would have opted to attempt an onside kick, instead that team will get the ball on its own 35 for one fourth-and-10 play to determine whether or not it gets to keep the ball.
Two former USC players — J.K. McKay and Troy Polamalu — will play key roles in the league, while Dick Ebersol and former NFL players Hines Ward, Jared Allen and Justin Tuck will serve as advisors. The league’s financial backers include former Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and the Chernin Group.
Twitter: @chewkiii
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