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Two weeks shy of it’s play off season the Alliance of American Football is ceasing all football operations.
Sources: The AAF will suspend all football operations today. New owner Tom Dundon will lose approximately $70 million on his investment. Dundon makes decision against wishes of league co-founders Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 2, 2019
The league was bleeding money and one of the owners decided he was done.
I thought the idea of squeezing their season in between the super bowl and NFL draft was genius. It could have given a lot of guys “on the bubble” a chance to showcase their talents and earn a shot in an NFL camp.
They also went with central ownership of teams and placing teams in secondary markets.
Several Bulls were using the league to keep the dream of getting (back) into the NFL alive.
Branden Oliver, John Kling and Matt Weiser all made rosters in the league. BO was trying to show that he had recovered from an Injury that knocked his career off the track and Weiser and Kling hoped to earn another shot at NFL preseason camps.
I guess the lesson here is that you just can’t make “minor league football” work without support from the NFL and the NFL Players Association.