Jose A. Reyna
On February 9, 2019, just one week after the National Football League’s Super Bowl 53, the Alliance of American Football kicked off its inaugural season. The AAF is a new professional American football league in the United States. The league currently consists of eight teams, and like the NFL, is separated into two conferences: the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, each consisting of four teams. The league has teams from coast to coast, from Orlando all the way to San Diego, and closest to us here in the Rio Grande Valley are the San Antonio Commanders, who are playing their home games in the Alamodome.
The AAF is gaining massive national attention thanks to the NFL currently being in its offseason, in which all teams are on vacation and there is no games. The same goes for college football, which is also extremely popular, yet is also in its offseason. Football has become the country’s most popular sport, without a close divide between other sports; basketball and baseball have fallen far behind football in viewership. Due to the sports immense popularity, viewers will watch anything they can that is related to football, which is why the AAF is becoming so popular, as it is the only professional outdoor football league currently in season in the United States.
Another advantage the AAF has that no other non-NFL league has is budget and national exposure. A few days ago on February 19, 2019, Tom Dundon, an American billionaire and owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, invested $250 million into the league. With this investment, the league also granted him a major stake of the league’s ownership in addition to being named chairman of the AAF. With this investment the league has a lot of breathing room to thrive for the years to come, as it gives all of its players the same 3-year, $250,000 contract, Considering there are only eight 52-player teams, it will cost the league $104 million to pay all of its players for three years, which is not even half of the investment, in addition to the initial sum that was used to start the league. Also, the league’s games are being aired on major national networks, including CBS, CBS Sports Network, the NFL Network, and Turner Sports. On opening day, the AAF beat an NBA game that was nationally televised on ABC in ratings, showing just how quickly the AAF will gain what will soon be millions of viewers.
As a whole, the AAF is showing more promise than any other non-NFL league has in a very long time. The league has both the funds and the momentum to successfully sustain itself for many years. It also has some pretty recognized players, most notably running-back Trent Richardson, former NFL first round pick. Though the AAF may never reach the heights of the NFL, it can definitely become a household name across the country like no other secondary professional football league has done before.
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