For those not familiar with Team Texas and the AAFL, this intro paragraph is for you. I you are already familiar, you can skip it. The AAFL is a new Pro Football league that will begin play this April. It will start with six teams: Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, and Tennessee. Players must have completed their college degree. The league is trying to cater directly to College Football fans. One of the way they are doing this is by allowing teams to 'protect' players that went to college in their home state, and with smaller states, adjoining states. Team Texas will play at Rice University in Houston. They will have 5 home games.
The AAFL draft is this coming Saturday and Team Texas has protected 30 players from the state of Texas. Twenty more players will be selected in the draft. Through a number of inquires and bush beatings I've learned that The University of Texas only has 5 players that have submitted paperwork necessary to be drafted this Saturday. 5. Out of 1200 only 5 are from UT. 0.4%. Texas A&M has 14 players in the draft. Almost three times as many as Texas. Now there may be some very good reasons for this, but it may very well be that Mack Brown and DeLoss Dodds dropped the ball.
I have to admit that there may be a fuzzy line approaching for the AAFL. The University of Florida is so involved with Team Florida that the University Foundation members are getting first crack at tickets and three home games are being played in the Swamp. I can foresee a day when the NCAA may one day turn a curious eye toward this type of arrangement. In five years this relationship could give The University of Florida an unfair recruiting advantage. The NCAA might frown on that. But right now it is legal to have that kind of relationship and it will be a recruiting advantage. Team Florida has already announced 10 Florida Gators will be a part of their roster. Team Michigan has announced 14 players that are either from The University of Michigan or Michigan State.
At first I though Team Texas was just sandbagging. I figured they were waiting until draft day to drop a big beautiful burnt orange bomb of James Brown, Chance Mock, Aaron Humphrey, Wayne McGarity, and Nate Jones. It probably isn't going to happen. Only 5 players from Texas submitted their transcripts. Phillilp Geigger is one and he is on the team. Who are the other 4? Will any of them be protected? We will have to wait until Saturday to find out, but something isn't right here.
Do our players not graduate? Surely some don't. Scott Derry would probably be great for this league, but from what I can tell, he hasn't graduated yet. Some players from the 2007 Longhorn squad have. Why aren't they on this list? Beyond those, how does The University of Florida have 10+ players eligible and we only have 5. Do they graduate that many more then us? I doubt it.
Is all our talent in the NFL? Sure...some of it is. But Michigan and Florida send a ton of guys to the NFL as well.
Does the Longhorn network pull players out of the pool? This is a possibility. If you don't make the NFL, many look for a "real job." We love our horns and we love to hire our horns.
I have to think that Mack and DeLoss either just missed the boat or had a good reason for not more actively recruiting former players to this new league. Don't get me wrong. We hope we graduate men who can take care of themselves. I sure as hell would rather have Mack in Darrell Scott's living room then trying to help Wayne McGarity get a transcript sent in. But...on the other hand this could be a huge recruiting tool.
And, please, think of the tailgates!
So what is the deal? Did Team Texas contact UT and get turned away? Did Team Texas ignore the Horns? Were Mack and DeLoss so distracted in their coaching searches that they missed a golden opportunity? Leave a comment. I'll try to get the bottom of this.
In the mean time. There is a supplemental AAFL draft on February 16th. 10 more players will be drafted and Team Texas will be able to protect three more players.Will someone at Belmont please go pull the T-Ring roster, go down to main hall, request those transcripts be sent to:
All American Football League HQ
One Glenlake Parkway
Suite 700
Atlanta, GA 30328
Then get on a fax machine and start faxing draft paper work to player, agents, and players' mommas.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Team Texas - Did Mack and DeLoss Drop the Ball?
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1 comment:
umm, could it be that a lot of our guys who don't go on to play in the league decide to go on with their real life and not try to continue the dream in some brand new, likely to fail, minor league football concept.
I would hope that Mack and Deloss don't counsel or encourage kids to join up. Instead, the ones that have graduated should go get a job and start becoming the people they went to school to become.
Now, for a player like Geigger, I can see going to this league. He is one of those fiery guys who just doesn't have the athletic ability to play in the NFL, but you can tell he loves the game and probably really misses it.
Anyway, this post sounds kind of whiny. This whole concept won't start attracting the best until it proves it can compete and attract crowds and $$$. I know football is king, but there's a reason why there's never been a successful alternative league to the NFL. The USFL got closest, at a time when the NFL owners thought they had a right to get players for whatever they wanted to pay. The USFL changed that and then went away.
I think it's going to be hard to attract a big audience. The quality of football won't be as good as the NFL and it won't be as fun as college, even if the quality is good. And, it's going to be in the spring/summer, which is when most of us are trying to make up for being absent from our families from August thru January.
Let's see where this concept is in 3 years. If it is successful and it can actually be a recruiting advantage, I'm betting Mack is all over it. You really think he's going to let a recruiting advantage by without using it as well? Really?
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