Well, it looks like being a short but sweet existence for the Alliance of American Football (AAL) who have announced via e-mail to its players that it is suspending operations after a whole two months. So technically it’s not gone but without a huge influx of cash and an uncharacteristically fast agreement on practice squad players by the NFLPA then it looks like the AAL will become history faster even than the somewhat farcical XFL which ran for a season under the auspices of WWF wrestling supremo Vince McMahon. An announcement was made on Tuesday apparently by e-mailing the players and coaches. This came with only two weeks of the regular season left, which added to the mess.
So what went wrong? Well, owner and main investor Tom Dundon deciding to take his money home certainly didn’t help, and the likely protracted negotiations indicated by the NFLPA regarding squad players added to the woes. Add to this the relatively low crowds (by NFL or even Power Five College standards) and the lack of broadcasting and sponsorship money and it was always going to be a struggle. However, having watched a couple of games of late there were signs of an improving playing standard and with proper support from the NFL, this could have been a nice stepping stone development league for players who were not ready post5 draft but could still make the grade. Division two if you like.
Everything will become clearer over the next few weeks, however, its hard not to see this as a chance missed.
