New fall developmental league wants to springboard players to NFL

[boozeman]

New fall developmental league wants to springboard players to NFL


By Josh Katzowitz | NFL Writer

June 23, 2014 9:42 pm ET

An interesting idea, one that's been debated probably since the demise of NFL Europe and/or the XFL, will come to fruition this fall when the Fall Experimental Football League will be launched.

It will feature six teams, a 40-man roster for each, six games per season, and $1,000 per week for each player. But most importantly, the league wants to serve as a stepping stone for those who feel they belong in the NFL.

According to the Associated Press, it won't have any NFL affiliation, but like the best independent baseball leagues, that doesn't mean that its athletes can't, at some point, make it to the biggest stage.

But maybe not for place-kickers. That's because one idea with this league is to eliminate the kicking game. Meaning no kickoff or punt returns and no extra points (a 2-point conversion would be required after a touchdown).

Either way, Brian Woods, the FXFL commissioner, wants to try something new.

"Given the current Division I landscape in football and the collective bargaining agreement the NFL has with the union, there is more than ever a need for another platform out there," Woods told the AP. "A platform like for basketball and baseball players.

"Pro football has nothing. The NFL has the practice squad, but it does not develop players because they don't get into games. You don't develop if you aren't getting on the field."

The cities that will be represented in the FXFL: the New York area, the Boston area, Austin (which will be partially-owned by three-time Pro Bowler Tommie Harris), Portland, Omaha, and somewhere in Florida.

"Our long-term goal is to establish a partnership with the NFL, and we feel can do that on many platforms," Woods said. "It would give them a way to work with younger players that they don't currently have. We can help them train prospective NFL officials -- in the NBA, every referee entering the league [in recent years] comes from NBA Developmental League.

"We can be a testing ground for proposed rules, too."

And for college underclassmen who aren't eligible to play in the NCAA.

More from the AP:



Mainly, the core of FXFL players will be no more than two years removed from their college careers, with the majority coming from that year's draft class. That would include players cut in training camp or those who never even got a look from the NFL.

That approach would not impact the NCAA, and the league says it won't actively recruit players who are still enrolled. But Woods explains that some players could come from the ranks the NFL doesn't touch.

"We are not ruling out the possibility of working with players who have hardships," he said. "We'll look at it on case-by-case basis. There might even be a situation for a player right out of high school who might not want to go to college."


Games will be played on weeknights, mostly on Wednesday.

"This league will provide the opportunity for players who otherwise might not get it," said Eric Bassey, the other co-owner of the Austin franchise. "There's those 100-150 players who don't get drafted and this would be a perfect opportunity for them. We're talking about extremely good athletes, and we will set up a platform for those guys to get an opportunity to prove themselves.

"Sometimes they are not ready to play at that pace of the NFL when they get out of school. Maybe they just need that one year or two years that we can provide."

 

[boozeman]

Does the NFL need a developmental league? Mark Dominik thinks so

By Kevin Nogle  @thephinsider on Jul 8 2014, 11:00a 10






Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports


Should the NFL create a developmental league? Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik thinks so.


Minor league baseball. Developmental league basketball. Minor league hockey. North American Soccer League. NASCAR Nationwide Series. Major sports leagues and series in the United States have developmental leagues (although, Major League Soccer does not officially affiliate with NASL). Well, except for one - the National Football League.

There's no real developmental league for the NFL. After college, you are either in the league, or you are looking for a job in the Canadian Football League, Arena Football League, or one of the lower indoor leagues. Every time someone starts a potential developmental league for the NFL, it seems to disappear shortly thereafter.




That does not change the fact that a minor league for the NFL would seem like a good idea.

Yesterday, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik spoke about the idea of a developmental league on SiriusXM NFL Radio's Late Hits.


"Start with the 'Ws': Where? or When? I think it has to be in the spring. I think that's the most important thing. It can't be in the fall. I don't think it should be a league that's running - it's not competing with the National Football League in terms of exposure and television.

"The first thing, I think, is the reason why it's in the spring is, number one, I think you are going to get more participation from coaches. You are going to get better quality of coaches, like some of these coaches that are in the National Football League are in entry level spots, or even there could be a college program, once they are done with their spring program, you could also introduce college coaches to the National Football League game.

"Two. Officials need to be able to work these games and use it as a training ground for officials. Not during the season, because some of those officials are officiating SEC games, college games, arena games, wherever they are coming from. If they are not an NFL official, it's good training grounds for younger officials that would be working somewhere else, so you can continue to work with them there.

"Three. I think you are going to get a better quality, quantity and quality, of player because no club is going to want to give up a player to go train in a developmental league when their season is going on. They are really going to think I need that guy here learning the playbook.

"So I think there are so many factors. Then, you might actually get viewership of the game, which would always help offset some of the costs; who's going to sponsor it, and who's going to watch, and that can help offset some of the costs throughout the league.

"Where or when is the most important part. I think it's in the Spring. I think it's March or April. I think you could end the season right around the Draft, and you could kind of kick off the new regime of it all into the next year with the new Draft and the new Draft class.

"My gut is, that way, even the players that are over there, they are coming back the same time a draft class would be coming in your building. They are not that far behind all the other players trying to learn it, but they've also just had another six- or eight-weeks of really great training to give them the best opportunity, the best chance, to ever become a National Football League player."

Dominik went on to describe the ideal location as a centralized location with a bus-league operating out of it. A place that would have nice weather in March and April, allowing players to play on real grass in outdoor stadiums. He specifically looked at Orlando as the hub, with games potentially taking place in Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Gainesville.

Using the bus-league style, similar to a minor league baseball league, could help the NFL solve the biggest flaw from the World League/NFL Europe league - cost.


"NFL Europe was costing the owners over a million dollars a club," Dominik continued. "If you can somehow lower the cost, but continue to develop the game the way it needs to be developed. Take the opportunity, not only are you developing players, but you are developing officials, you are developing young coaches. Send over the assistant general manager or the assistant director of pro personnel and be the director of pro personnel for eight weeks. Be the general manager for eight weeks. Just let them get their feet wet in what is it like. It can be training ground for everyone. It can be the training ground for the assistant trainer who wants to be a head trainer on day.

"There's so much development that can happen by a developmental league. We are just starting to scratch the surface, but it's a must - not a need, but a must."

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I think for QB development it absolutely does. Part of the reason you see so few late round QBs succeed is because they don't get the snaps and opportunities to develop that higher draft picks do. Part of developing as a QB is just simply playing in live action games until the clock in their head speeds up.

Of course the problem with a league like this is that it has no NFL affiliation. Players would rather be third string QBs on an NFL team then to start in a developmental league like this. For a developmental league to really work you need to have NFL teams sending their third string QBs and other backups to play in it and develop them.

 

[Clay_Allison]

I used to really like the idea of a second football league but this shit never works. They always screw up and try to be national when they need to start up in a region and save travel costs. People get more interested in minor leagues that are regional too. People in Dallas want to root against San Antonio, Austin and Houston, not LA, NYC and Chicago. People in NY are going to be more invested in rivalries with Boston, Philly, New Jersey, etc.

Instead they all want to be the XFL, and they end up like the XFL and more recently the UFL: Out of business.

 

[Newt]

I like the idea of a farm league, I would like to see it set up for each NFL team though. Have no idea how it would work but if we had a developmental team that could play during the spring and then those same players could participate in training camp along with our draft picks. Those that don't make the team could drop back down. I think you would have to set a limit on how many years you could play for the developmental team though. Maybe a three year max. If you can't crack the roster by then its probably over for you anyways.

 

[boozeman]

I used to really like the idea of a second football league but this shit never works. They always screw up and try to be national when they need to start up in a region and save travel costs. People get more interested in minor leagues that are regional too. People in Dallas want to root against San Antonio, Austin and Houston, not LA, NYC and Chicago. People in NY are going to be more invested in rivalries with Boston, Philly, New Jersey, etc.

Instead they all want to be the XFL, and they end up like the XFL and more recently the UFL: Out of business.

That is why the NFL will need to allocate the talent and not depend on the developmental league management to do it. Look at the UFL. Good coaches but I don't think they produced many players.9

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I would do an 8 team developmental league. Each team would represent a division in the NFL. So one team would be comprised of all NFC East players. Another would be all NFC South players. You'd have each team designate like 10-12 guys and the rest of the roster could be comprised of free agents basically trying to earn a chance.

It would be perfect because you'd have that built in fan base. I think fans would be more interested to watch a team full of players from their division as opposed to a few players from their team and a bunch of players from teams they never see during the NFL season. Do it between the end of the NFL season and the draft and that would allow teams to designate players from kind of the most expanded roster possible.

 

[NoDak]

I would do an 8 team developmental league. Each team would represent a division in the NFL. So one team would be comprised of all NFC East players. Another would be all NFC South players. You'd have each team designate like 10-12 guys and the rest of the roster could be comprised of free agents basically trying to earn a chance.

It would be perfect because you'd have that built in fan base. I think fans would be more interested to watch a team full of players from their division as opposed to a few players from their team and a bunch of players from teams they never see during the NFL season. Do it between the end of the NFL season and the draft and that would allow teams to designate players from kind of the most expanded roster possible.

I think you need more teams than that. What happens if Dallas, Philly, and NY all have QBs on the same team that they want to get playing time? Who gets priority?

If possible, I'd go 16 teams. Each team getting a certain number of players assigned to them by 2 teams. Don't really care how they decide which 2 teams share a developmental team. The rest of the players made up from UDFAs that didn't get drafted, or have no team affiliation. They could be signed at any time by an NFL club, but it would count against their number of players in the league. If they signed somebody, they'd have to cut somebody. I like the idea somebody said of only having 3 years of eligibility. And each year would be a new one. Every UDFA has to go through their "training camp/tryout" to make the team. The team allotted players would already have a spot, but would still have to be there for TC.

There could be tryouts right after the NFL draft for the outgoing players from college. Have a spring league that is over a month or so before training camp starts, to give players time to rest and heal up. And I'd have maybe two 8 team conferences. One in the south, one in the north. Keep travel to a minimum. The only time the N and S would play would be in a championship game.

As far as season length, I'd keep it relatively short. Maybe 6 games. Top two teams play each other for the right to play the winner of the other league.

I know there is probably a lot wrong with this idea that would make it hard to do,but oh well. Just threw it together off the top of my head without really thinking about it.

 

[boozeman]

I like part of both of these suggestions, but I think a smaller league is the way to go.

I would have a hard time thinking of sixteen venues that would actually be capable of showing a profit.

There are a few places, like L.A. obviously that are sure sites. But there are some sports starved cities like Des Moines, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Portland, San Antonio, Columbus and Omaha that could support teams. I'd take a look at where Arena teams have done well and concentrate there.

The teams would need to allocate the talent, perhaps geographically. I don't give a crap if three teams allocate a QB, the best guy should win. The idea is to develop the best talent, not worry about if everyone plays like a Pee Wee game.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

The teams would need to allocate the talent, perhaps geographically. I don't give a crap if three teams allocate a QB, the best guy should win. The idea is to develop the best talent, not worry about if everyone plays like a Pee Wee game.

I agree, you can't treat it like a preseason game where all the talent rotates into the game. If you do that no one will actually root for the team and the product. I think you want fans to actually connect with the team and like the product that is on the field. To do that you need to have the best players play and the players who give your team the best chance to win out on the field.

I think the one thing everyone can agree on is that there has to be a connection to the NFL to try and tap into their spare talent. Without that a league won't succeed.

 

[boozeman]

I agree, you can't treat it like a preseason game where all the talent rotates into the game. If you do that no one will actually root for the team and the product. I think you want fans to actually connect with the team and like the product that is on the field. To do that you need to have the best players play and the players who give your team the best chance to win out on the field.

I think the one thing everyone can agree on is that there has to be a connection to the NFL to try and tap into their spare talent. Without that a league won't succeed.

You have to have some official team affiliations. I know I paid attention to certain NFL Europe teams because I knew there were Cowboys there.

If you get that somehow figured out and being equal, then it becomes more attractive. Bad thing is if some poor team gets a couple of bad organizations supplying them the talent.

 

[boozeman]

I also think the timing of play needs to be figured out. That would need to be in the spring, right after the draft. Give them a month for training camp, play a shortened season that plays a little into the NFL season starts and then have players able to move into the NFL via call up, perhaps no later than midseason.

The physical nature of football makes it hard to run a concurrent minor league with call ups and assignments down to the minors, but there has to be a way that they can use this talent. Practice squads are a bit of a joke since the practices are padded a small percentage of the time.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

You have to have some official team affiliations. I know I paid attention to certain NFL Europe teams because I knew there were Cowboys there.

If you get that somehow figured out and being equal, then it becomes more attractive. Bad thing is if some poor team gets a couple of bad organizations supplying them the talent.

I think all the players from one NFL team need to go to the same developmental team. In NFL Europe the Cowboys may have one or two players on multiple team. I didn't like that at all. I think it makes it easier for a NFL fan to root for the team that all of his NFL team's players are on.