Thursday, July 9, 2009

The UFL

The UFL, United Football League, the latest league to attempt to take on the NFL is taking the field this October. The league seems to have learned from previous upstarts/failures such as the XFL, they are coming along slow and steady and appear cautious. The league has decided to begin small and start with only 4 teams, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Orlando and New York City, which will all play in “Markets” to find out potential expansion locations, games will be played on Thursday and Friday nights with the Championship Game being held Thanksgiving Weekend. Most of the rules seem to mimic the NFL with a few exceptions; the most notorious rule to be dropped is the infamous “Tuck Rule” along with some changes to fumbles, OT and celebrations.

So far not much more is known about the league, the four coaches are Jim Fassel (Las Vegas), Ted Cottrell (NY), Jim Haslett (Orlando) and Dennis Green (SF), the league recently held its annual draft which yielded a few has-beens and a couple of offspring/siblings of current and former NFL players. Other then that the team names and uniforms are to be announced in August with training camp beginning September 1st.

I love football and have always given the new leagues a chance. Very few leagues make it more then a season or two though. Some of my favorite leagues actually lasted quite a few seasons, the WLAF/WL/NFL Europe/ NFL Europa and the AFL. Fortunately the Arena Football League has announced its plans to return to play in 2010. Until then, I’ll give the UFL a chance.

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