I'm going to do my best @Titans Bastard impression and try to keep a thread afloat for the other pro football leagues. Apologies to those of you to find these leagues ridiculous and stupid rather than ridiculous and funny like I do.
United Football League
So the XFL (not to be confused with the 2001 XFL) and the USFL (not to be confused with the 1983-1985 USFL) have merged to form the UFL (not to be confused with the 2009-2012 UFL). To briefly summarize the absurd journey we've taken so far:
Link to the full schedule is here, but it's a pretty impressive set up. All weeks will have two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday, with the exception of Week 4, which has a Saturday tripleheader. All games will be on FOX, ABC, and ESPN except one scheduled for ESPN2 and one scheduled for FS1. There are also two instances of regional broadcasts, with two games scheduled to be played concurrently on FOX.
The XFL and USFL names live on as the conference names. As it was with the XFL, all teams will live in Arlington and travel out to their home games.
XFL Conference
Arlington Renegades (coach: Bob Stoops)
DC Defenders (coach: Reggie Barlow)
San Antonio Brahams (coach: Wade Phillips)
St. Louis Battlehawks (coach: Anthony Becht)
USFL Conference
Birmingham Stallions (coach: Skip Holtz)
Houston Roughnecks* (coach: Curtis Johnson)
Memphis Showboats (coach: John DeFilippo)
Michigan Panthers (coach: Mike Nolan)
*To make things extra confusing -- the Houston Roughnecks were the XFL team and the Houston Gamblers were the USFL team. The league wanted to keep the Roughnecks brand, since they'd been playing in the home market, had existing season ticket holders, etc, but labor negotiations required them to keep half the USFL team rosters. So they kept the XFL name and the USFL players and coaches.
Canadian Football League (CFL)
Clearly the second best football league in the world, the modern incarnation of the CFL dates back to 1974, but individual clubs and the league's trophy have far longer histories. It's sort of funny that the NFL likes to frame its history as having begun in 1966 while the CFL does the opposite.
Despite its longevity, the CFL has not enjoyed the explosion in value that we've seen in other sports properties. In addition to the rule differences, because the CFL season culminates opposite the NFL and college football seasons, it has had a ton of trouble penetrating the US television market. (In 2023, CBS Sports Network paid $1M for the rights to 34 games.) In the past decade, they've tried to focus their growth efforts elsewhere: the Canadian-specific "This is Our League" campaign and more recently on non-US international marketing initiatives.
The results have been uneven. The major markets -- Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver -- have struggled to draw fans and in some cases to find buyers for the teams. Efforts to expand to Atlantic Canada and bring the league back to an even number of teams have stalled. The fan base is rapidly aging. On top of all of that, the COVID pandemic -- which cost the league the entire 2020 season and a chunk of 2021 -- was brutal on a league that relies so heavily on attendance revenue.
Despite the challenges, the CFL remains the most stable, highest paying, highest attended, and highest caliber non-NFL league in the world. The Montreal Alouettes claimed the 110th Grey Cup in November, upsetting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who were making their fourth straight championship appearance.
The 2024 season kicks off on June 7. Vancouver will host the 111th Grey Cup on November 17. The league has also scheduled a neutral site game in Victoria, British Columbia, with the BC Lions playing the Ottawa Redblacks on August 31.
Other stuff
The CFL and UFL are alone in the second tier of the pro football ecosystem. But other efforts of varying levels of professionalism are always out there. Two I wanted to acknowledge:
United Football League
So the XFL (not to be confused with the 2001 XFL) and the USFL (not to be confused with the 1983-1985 USFL) have merged to form the UFL (not to be confused with the 2009-2012 UFL). To briefly summarize the absurd journey we've taken so far:
- 2016: Charlie Ebersol directs the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary "This Was the XFL" about Vince McMahon's infamous 2001 XFL.
- 2017: After shooting, Ebersol approaches McMahon about acquiring the XFL IP to try again. Shooting the documentary has also given McMahon the itch and he turns Ebersol down. Both men advance plans for their own leagues.
- 2018: To pre-empt Ebersol's forthcoming announcement, McMahon announces the return of the XFL in 2020. Shortly thereafter, Ebersol announces that the Alliance of American Football (AAF) will take the field in 2019. Both leagues will use basically the same format as the original XFL: eight teams, 10 weeks, kicking off the week after the Super Bowl.
- 2019: The AAF plays eight weeks before running out of money and going out of business. (The lead investor is later sentenced to 6 years in prison for an unrelated crypto scam.)
- Feb/March 2020: The XFL plays five weeks before the COVID-19 outbreak shuts down the season.
- April 2020: The XFL declares Section 11 bankruptcy with McMahon's goal being to get out of some unfavorable contracts, cut costs, and re-assume the league's assets for a re-launch.
- August 2020: Unexpectedly, a group consisting of Dany Garcia, her ex-husband and current business partner Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and RedBird Capital (now minority owners of Fenway Sports Group) buys the XFL for $15M. The league announces it will return in 2022.
- Summer 2021 The XFL announces that it is exploring a partnership of some sort with the Canadian Football League (CFL). By the time those talks fall apart, the XFL has to delay its kickoff until 2023.
- Summer 2021: Meanwhile, FOX -- one of the broadcasters of the 2020 XFL -- decides to purchase a stake in a collection of intellectual property from the United States Football League (USFL) that played in the 1980s. A reborn USFL schedules its kickoff for summer 2022.
- 2022: The USFL plays its first season. To save costs, all eight teams live and play their games in Birmingham. The playoffs are played in Canton; the Birmingham Stallions defeat the "Philadelphia" Stars to win the championship.
- February-April 2023: The XFL finally returns to the field in February 2023. To save costs, all eight teams live and practice in Arlington TX but travel out to their home cities for games. In San Antonio, the 5-6 Arlington Renegades upset the 10-1 D.C. Defenders to win the championship.
- April-July 2023: The USFL, now solely owned by FOX, plays its second season. Instead of everyone living and playing in one city, the league now operates out of four hubs -- Birmingham, Canton, Detroit, and Memphis. The Birmingham Stallions win their second championship in Canton, defeating the "Pittsburgh" Maulers.
- September-December 2023: The XFL and USFL merge and form the United Football League (UFL). Eight teams survive the merger.
Link to the full schedule is here, but it's a pretty impressive set up. All weeks will have two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday, with the exception of Week 4, which has a Saturday tripleheader. All games will be on FOX, ABC, and ESPN except one scheduled for ESPN2 and one scheduled for FS1. There are also two instances of regional broadcasts, with two games scheduled to be played concurrently on FOX.
The XFL and USFL names live on as the conference names. As it was with the XFL, all teams will live in Arlington and travel out to their home games.
XFL Conference
Arlington Renegades (coach: Bob Stoops)
DC Defenders (coach: Reggie Barlow)
San Antonio Brahams (coach: Wade Phillips)
St. Louis Battlehawks (coach: Anthony Becht)
USFL Conference
Birmingham Stallions (coach: Skip Holtz)
Houston Roughnecks* (coach: Curtis Johnson)
Memphis Showboats (coach: John DeFilippo)
Michigan Panthers (coach: Mike Nolan)
*To make things extra confusing -- the Houston Roughnecks were the XFL team and the Houston Gamblers were the USFL team. The league wanted to keep the Roughnecks brand, since they'd been playing in the home market, had existing season ticket holders, etc, but labor negotiations required them to keep half the USFL team rosters. So they kept the XFL name and the USFL players and coaches.
Canadian Football League (CFL)
Clearly the second best football league in the world, the modern incarnation of the CFL dates back to 1974, but individual clubs and the league's trophy have far longer histories. It's sort of funny that the NFL likes to frame its history as having begun in 1966 while the CFL does the opposite.
Despite its longevity, the CFL has not enjoyed the explosion in value that we've seen in other sports properties. In addition to the rule differences, because the CFL season culminates opposite the NFL and college football seasons, it has had a ton of trouble penetrating the US television market. (In 2023, CBS Sports Network paid $1M for the rights to 34 games.) In the past decade, they've tried to focus their growth efforts elsewhere: the Canadian-specific "This is Our League" campaign and more recently on non-US international marketing initiatives.
The results have been uneven. The major markets -- Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver -- have struggled to draw fans and in some cases to find buyers for the teams. Efforts to expand to Atlantic Canada and bring the league back to an even number of teams have stalled. The fan base is rapidly aging. On top of all of that, the COVID pandemic -- which cost the league the entire 2020 season and a chunk of 2021 -- was brutal on a league that relies so heavily on attendance revenue.
Despite the challenges, the CFL remains the most stable, highest paying, highest attended, and highest caliber non-NFL league in the world. The Montreal Alouettes claimed the 110th Grey Cup in November, upsetting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who were making their fourth straight championship appearance.
The 2024 season kicks off on June 7. Vancouver will host the 111th Grey Cup on November 17. The league has also scheduled a neutral site game in Victoria, British Columbia, with the BC Lions playing the Ottawa Redblacks on August 31.
Other stuff
The CFL and UFL are alone in the second tier of the pro football ecosystem. But other efforts of varying levels of professionalism are always out there. Two I wanted to acknowledge:
- The European League of Football will kick off its fourth season in May, featuring a mix of rebooted NFL Europe brands, teams that have been competing at the semi-pro level for decades, and expansion teams. As posters here will be able to tell you, the league has experienced growing pains, including seeing teams dropping out midseason. Still, they continue to play, and Jim Tomsula's Rhein Fire won the 2023 championship in front of 30,000 people in Duisburg. The Madrid Bravos join as the 17th team in 2024.
- Arena/indoor football has been fractured and really more of a semi-pro situation since the original Arena Football League (AFL) filed for bankruptcy in 2009. The AFL brand is being rebooted for the third time since, with 16 teams scheduled to play this summer. Posters here may be familiar with the Indoor Football League's Massachusetts Pirates or Antonio Brown's misadventures as the owner of the National Arena League's Albany Empire.
