AAF offers a new perspective but fails to impress
By: Joe Connors
Staff Writer
The NFL and Alliance of American Football are vastly different even though they are for the same sport.
The most obvious difference between the two leagues is the talent level. NFL is full of superior athletes that never stop working to improve. The AFF is full of draft busts or undrafted players. Not just busts from the NFL but even guys who couldn’t make the Canadian Football League.
The biggest skill gap isn’t between the players; it’s between the coaches. It’s safe to say Bill Belichick could go undefeated for a lifetime in this league. Most of these coaches were never head coaches until now and none that were had a winning record in the playoffs in the NFL.
Sure at first glance one thing is certain it’s football, but it’s more middle school pick-up than professional.
One specific play can really breakdown the AAF. During this normal pass play, the quarterback Philip Nelson let’s loose. He scrambles to his left going nowhere fast and is soon swarmed by five defenders. But if you look closely at the play, number 32 who appears to be chasing him is actually a teammate of Nelsons. It’s tough to tell because both teams are rocking almost identical uniforms.
If this were the NFL, most likely the play ends here, the quarterback takes the sack yet keeps the ball and cuts his losses where he can, but Philip Nelson’s seen a couple of fights and he has nothing to lose. As defenders begin to turn around Nelson can no longer see his receivers but Nelson decides the best course of action is to throw the ball like a bride does a bouquet on her wedding night.
Surely this won’t end well. The ball will most likely be intercepted and taken back for a pick 6. Nope, instead, the ball flops through the air for 6 yards and lands in the hands of wide receiver Escobar (not Pablo). He then runs out of the gate for another 2 yards to get the ball back to the line of scrimmage.
“Vintage Nelson and Escobar,” all fans say in their heads.
Why does this play sum up this league so well? Almost every team is made up the same way: a quarterback undrafted or got into legal trouble and flunked out of the league. For most skill positions this is true but, a lot of the less glorified positions are guys who have played football their entire lives expecting to make it to NFL but failed still have talent.
After one week, the AFF faced controversy of not paying their players.
Everyone flipped out and thought it was the end of the league but for some reason the owner of the ice hockey Carolina Hurricanes invested $250 million into the league to bail them out.
People should take AAF with a grain of salt much like the crazy backward pass Philips threw.