How the AAF Will Change Football
We learned a lot about the game in its new presentation
The top sports highlight of the week came from the brand new Alliance of American Football, where Shaan Washington of the San Antonio Commanders sacked Mike Bercovici of the San Diego Fleet.
Bercovici’s helmet came off and he was ineffective thereafter. He lost his starting position to Phillip Nelson following San Diego’s 15–6 loss.
But the reaction to the sack was almost universal criticism for the National Football League.
“In the NFL, that would have been a penalty!”
During the same weekend, ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported on Bob Costas’ departure from NBC. He’s grown wary of football’s violence and the concussions so many players receive, and his criticism of it, legitimate as it may be, grew too much for the network.
Now here’s something I think we’re all missing. The Alliance of American Football was supposed to be something of a safer brand of football. No kickoffs, remember?
But the play everyone is talking about was not the Orlando Apollo’s “Philly Special” flea flicker that resulted in wide receiver Jalin Marshall’s touchdown pass to quarterback Garrett Gilbert on national television that clinched their team’s lopsided victory against the Atlanta Legends, even though it was the name everyone saw live.
It was Washington’s sack.
“Football like it ought to be played,” right?
Barbaric as it may be, as long as he gets up afterwards, we like seeing players get lit up. Bercovici is the AAF’s Nat Moore, a Miami Dolphins’ receiver who when tackled in a game against the New York Jets almost two generations ago spun around in the air like a propeller.
You don’t have to be of the age to know the play. You’ve seen the highlight before. And you love it. Now in its first week the AAF has a comparable face.
Thanks football, we needed that.
During the era of Moore, the late defensive lineman Lyle Alzado once lamented rules changes designed to increase offense. After interviewer Roy Firestone asked “isn’t that what fans want;” Alzado emphatically responded with his belief fans wanted to see the game played as aggressively as possible.
He’s right. And aggressive covers both the “Philly Special” play Steve Spurrier called for the Apollos and Washington’s sack for San Antonio.
But the problem is ultimately Washington’s sack is going to make more people criticize football’s very existence the way Costas has.
Football will survive this; after all boxing still exists despite all the calls through the years to ban it. If anything combatant sports became more violent with Mixed Martial Arts, a sport the late Senator John McCain once called “human cockfighting.”
Alzado was right.
But isn’t there a bit of hypocrisy here? One minute player safety is championed with the bans on kickoffs and rushing more than five players. The next we see what may be the end of a quarterback’s career in the very game it was supposed to be revived in.
Ultimately, that’s football. Players will get hurt.
Football is also a game of field position, an element of the game sacrificed in the name of player safety by banning the kickoff.
More power to those wishing to making the game safer. But at the expense of one of the more exciting aspects of the game that has already been made safer by moving the spot the ball is kicked off from up?
What about a weight limit on players? Why does a lineman have to weigh more than 325 pounds?
The future of football hopefully will have fewer injuries. But they’re going to be a part of the game.
Will that divide the socioeconomic status of the participants and fans in the future? Probably.
But isn’t that happening already?
MORE AAF NOTES-
* While the ratings were good, outdrawing the NBA in prime time, the attendance was lousy. There were only 17,000 people in Birmingham to see the Iron defeat the Memphis Express at 72,000-seat Legion Field.
This is a statement on what I spoke of before, a league running all the franchises is simply not going to be invested in the cities they play in the way an individual owner will. Promotions will go through corporate. There simply cannot be a community involvement the way an owner invested in his own team will have.
If the franchises are not committed to their cities, there can be no fan loyalty. Without the identity of civic fan bases, the sport becomes roller derby.
How’s that working out?
* There are several things that can kill this league- the fact the television deal is one where local basic cable packages won’t be able to watch it the majority of time comes to mind.
Also, after awhile, do you want to see second-stringers? Even minor league baseball promises the viewing of a future star. The development of another Tommy Maddox isn’t as intriguing as the development of a №1 draft choice.
- That said, the thing that may ultimately catch on in football is the actual broadcasting of the replay officials making their decisions. It beats waiting around while announcers guess. While historically umpires and officials unions have balked at this, it figures to be so popular that leagues may find their officials expendable if they revolt on higher levels. The public will feel officials care more about saving face than getting the call right if this trend does not catch on to other sports.
Remember, players strikes stop seasons. Umpire and referee strikes do not. Such discussions will wind up even on Jumbotrons in the future.
Marky Billson is a sports talk show host in the Tri-Cities, TN market. Watch his show live 12–2 p.m. ET weekdays or archived here.
