It's All Over But The Crying

I can't believe they killed it.

The Alliance Of American Football League suspended operations this past week after eight weeks of games.  They had two more to go, and then two stages of playoffs to determine a champion.

But majority owner Tom Dundon wouldn't let it finish.  Citing unsustainability, he cancelled the rest of the games.  The league hasn't been officially dissolved yet, but it seems like it's coming.  The remaining piece of the company is the tech side which developed an app for gambling on sports or something, which may be the only part Dundon was really interested in.

Most media aren't surprised by the outcome.  They describe it as unwanted, sub-par product that was doomed from the start.  Lumped in with the XFL, USFL, and WFL, the AAF is just another failure like the rest.

I disagree.  I was really enjoying the league.  It seemed like they had done a few things differently. 

They weren't competing with the NFL, but were trying to cooperate with and enhance it by giving former and prospect players the chance to showcase their skills in full-speed games.  They paid every player the same, which eliminates a lot of the eliteism that plagues the NFL today.  A lot of fans are bolting from the NFL because of the drama that comes with prima donna players with exhorbitant salaries, and the resulting criminal activity, social protests, and other chaos generated by players who think they're above the rules.  There weren't many Colin Kaeparnicks, Odell Beckhams, Ray McDonalds, or Aldon Smiths in the AAF.  (OK, Johnny Manziel was a partying dumbass at one point, but he moved past that before he joined up.)

They played by different rules than the big league too.  Mandatory 2-point conversions, the elimination of kickoffs and extra points, a 4th and 12 instead of an onside kick, different timing rules, and other things that the NFL has talked about for years, were happening in every AAF game.  This was their opportunity to try different changes and see how they worked before implementing them on Sundays in the fall.

And the games were fun.  I didn't think they were that far below NFL level of play.  I've seen plenty more NFL games that were much more awkward, sloppy and hard to watch.  AAF action was pretty consistent and kept getting better every week.

The look of the league was cool too.  Each team had very distinctive color schemes and symbology.  The team names and concepts meant something to the home cities.  Arizona retired the number 19 in tribute to the firefighters that perished a few years ago that were their namesakes.  Other teams represented the major industries or traditions of their town.  I couldn't remember any of the UFL teams from a few years ago, because they all had the same colors and had generic mascots (I think).   This was so much better.

And it was almost done!  I can't imagine that they couldn't map it out so they could finish at least the first season.  It would have only been eleven games!  Two weeks of four games and then three playoffs.  Would have been so much nicer to at least be able to look back and say "Remember the AAF, when the Orlando Apollos won the only championship?  That was so much fun to watch."  Now, their legacy is that it was ripped away when it was just getting good by some owner guy who didn't even originate the league after he lost a few million.

I got two boxes of the trading cards and wasn't afraid of the idea of buying shirts and stuff with the logos of a couple AAF teams.  Now you probably won't be able to.  Maybe they'll have value in the nostalgia market like the Michigan Panthers or London Monarchs gear.

Living in Washington, it's easy to hear "it's a business" and translate that to "it's all about the profit margin for the owners, they don't care about the players or fans that much."