We talked about this a little bit in the XFL thread - but I thought with the inaugural season kick off just a couple of weeks away now that the league deserved it's own thread. 

I'm actually really excited for this! The long wait between the end of the Super Bowl and the next NFL season has always been a major drag, so to have something to at least fill the couple of months up to the draft is going to be great. It seems like the league is set up well with a lot of football people involved, and will be very accessible to fans with CBS showing one game a week and the others available to stream through an app - although that slightly disconcertingly hasn't been released yet.

I think it would be cool if we got at least one PWer supporting each of the eight teams. They have linked each one with various NFL/CFL/CFB teams to make it easy to pick a team to root for. Having a foot in all the camps should make game discussion more fun compared to how we rarely have NFL games where we have a fan of opposing teams. 

🤯			@theshow	@admin		shinobimusashi	CM Punk'd

I'll go and cheer for San Diego, since the city has been without a team for the last two years.

Yeah I'm pretty stoked about this. Been wanting some spring football for a while now and we're about to get 2 separate leagues(which I'm predicting now they will eventually merge). XFL putting a team in Houston wins me over, I'm hoping to go to their first game and buy some merch, hopefully they have a sweet logo/colors. Always loved San Antonio too though so they will definitely be my 1B spring team.

Jan 24, 2019 6:16:55 GMT CM Punk'd said:

I'll go and cheer for San Diego, since the city has been without a team for the last two years.

The Fleet might have the most name recognition with guys like fantasy favourite Bishop Sankey, Damontre Moore and Gavin Escobar. 

I thought the San Antonio head coach sounded familiar, he is the San Diego Chargers coach from 1999 to 2001(1-15 in 2000, eek). Also didn't know Steve Spurrier was coaching the Orlando team, that's kinda huge right?

Jan 24, 2019 23:48:19 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I thought the San Antonio head coach sounded familiar, he is the San Diego Chargers coach from 1999 to 2001(1-15 in 2000, eek). Also didn't know Steve Spurrier was coaching the Orlando team, that's kinda huge right?

Most of the coaches are big names; Brad Childress, Mike Singletary, Mike Martz. Birmingham's Tim Lewis is the only one who hasn't been a HC in the NFL or college.

Mike Riley is the San Antonio coaches name, he coached the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to the 1990 Grey Cup Championship in the CFL. Lets fucking go!

Also the more I look at those unis/logos the more the Orlando Apollos grows on me, thats probably my favorite looking design, its kinda got this Houston Astros thing going on with the colors. The name is pretty fly too. Nice choice HR

Apollos was one of the finalists for the Houston Texans name back in 2001-2002 before they chose Texans. I think Texans is way better, Houston Apollos just sounds weird. Orlando Apollos just has a nice ring to it.

I'll get behind the Hotshots. Whynots?

Jan 26, 2019 1:22:06 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Also the more I look at those unis/logos the more the Orlando Apollos grows on me, thats probably my favorite looking design, its kinda got this Houston Astros thing going on with the colors. The name is pretty fly too. Nice choice HR

I was going to go with Memphis before they announced all the affliations, I think they have the nicest looking uniforms:

Jan 26, 2019 3:43:25 GMT 🤯 said:

I'll get behind the Hotshots. Whynots?

Our teams play in the first week! Both won their first scrimmage games too - Orlando 31-28 over San Diego and Atlanta 36-17 over Birmingham.

I’ll definitely be rooting for the Memphis Express due to several former LSU stars and players from small Louisiana colleges being on the roster.

Jan 28, 2019 22:41:35 GMT @theshow said:

I’ll definitely be rooting for the Memphis Express due to several former LSU stars and players from small Louisiana colleges being on the roster.

Kind of a shame that either Mettenberger or Hackenburg will be stuck as a backup!

So AAF' website doesn't have a page for the season schedule... That's promising.

Feb 4, 2019 4:07:08 GMT 🤯 said:

So AAF' website doesn't have a page for the season schedule... That's promising.

aaf.com/schedule

The rollout hasn't been super smooth I'll give you that, especially with the app not out yet. I'm hoping that they are just making sure everything is perfect and things like the late TV agreements with NFL Network have just pushed things back, rather than them being completely unorganised. 

Either way the presence of some form of football is even more welcome after that underwhelming Super Bowl. 

The app is finally out! Still not entirely clear whether we are going to be able to stream live/on demand - but the interactivity (watching simulations of live plays, "predict the play" game) looks pretty cool. No fantasy football seems like a strange decision though.

Having looked a bit more closely at the schedule I'm reconsidering my Orlando pick - because almost all their games are on Saturday I won't actually get to watch them. Atlanta seem like they are in a bit of a shambles but I might end up following them instead just so I can see them play. Maybe Birmingham? Trent Richardson is pretty fascinating.

The first game for CBS will be San Diego vs. San Antonio. I think that's fitting. Two cities with no NFL teams, playing in the league's inaugural game.

Here we go!

Im getting Orlando vs Atlanta. This should be interesting

Blitz limitation only 5 man rush wtf?

Orlando unis are dope as fuck. Hr you might have to scooch over make room for me on the wagon hoss

I got San Diego/San Antonio.

Surprised you ain't getting this game, Nobi. Since it involves a team from your state.

Feb 10, 2019 1:39:41 GMT CM Punk'd said:

I got San Diego/San Antonio.

Surprised you ain't getting this game, Nobi. Since it involves a team from your state.

I live in ass backwards northeast Texas where all the tv channels are from Shreveport Louisiana

We got rain. Ugly game so far. 3-0 Atlanta.

Dont like these blitz rules at all. Atlanta just got 15 yard penalty for illegal defense, you cant rush more than 5 and cant rush 2 linebackers from same side. GHEY!

Scoreless still in the SD/SA game.

Greg Ward however, is having a great game so far at WR.  Clearly playing for a bigger, better job.

First td in AAF history! 2 pointer is good 8-3 Apollos

Oh nice pick by Orlando! Bussiness is picking up

Oh fuck Orlando sack nullified since they rushed both linebackers and all 4 linemen. Fuck this rule

Hmmm. I didn't know Starter was still making sports apparel.

So Nobi, what's your verdict on the AAF after the first game?

It was ok I guess. The blitzing rules really irked me but once Orlando got going and making plays it was good, I was entertained and I love having football on my TV this time of year. Definitely turning on San Antonio and changing my team to Orlando, the colors and the name all seem very Houston so I'm very attracted to them plus I seen their very first game so I guess that's who I'm riding with.

I'm way more into the XFL though, bring that shit on I think it's going to be better.