Since NY doesn't have a team I can't say I gave a rooting interest but I will easily root against whatever team has Christian Hackenbust as their QB because fuck that guy. Didn't bother to do the work and threw everyone but himself under the bus. How Mcagcagnan survived from that pick alone still irks me.

Amazing the maturity difference between Darnold and Hackenbust. Don't recall McCown speaking so glowingly of Hackenbust like he did with Sam.

Oh count me an Arizona fan because Nick Folk is the man.

I watched quite a bit of this at work last night , it was a cool novelty for a little bit but it's obvious the talent drop off from the NFL is immense. The blitzing rule is annoying but it's really just an attempt at smoke and mirrors to make up for the lack of talent from the offensive line and quarterback because if you started blitzing the shit out of these guys every down - the product would suffer and no one would move the ball.

Don't think I'll ever follow it , I might watch bits and pieces of it sometimes - especially some players that I recognize but it's still the minor leagues.

Caught the end of the first half of Memphis/Birmingham and the presentation seems great. The guess the play game on the app is genuinely enjoyable and compensates for the fact that no one really has a passionate interest in this just yet. I'm here for the rest of the night. 👍

No kickoffs is a really good idea. So good not to have to wait for all the stoppages around plays where something only happens once in a blue moon.

Been a rough game so far for some of the big names. Hack is 3/11 for 20 yards and a pick, Richardson 10 carries for 20 yards and a fumble.

The pace of play is so good! Memphis turn the ball over on downs and we have ONE ad.

Enjoying having the coaches mic'ed up as well.

Punters are fantastic in this game, o-lines not so much.

Love getting the live feed of the replay official discussing with the on field refs. They probably made the wrong decision but at least you get an explanation.

Luis Perez is doing a nice job making some tough throws under pressure. Get this guy in the NFL!

Love no PATs as well.

Birmingham got a little help from the refs there but they seem fairly clearly the better team here at at 17-0 you can't see Memphis coming back considering how anaemic their offence has been.

Hack cursing so much after every busted play the commentators have to apologise for all the bad language. :lol:

Richardson has really got cooking down the stretch here, breaking a lot of tackles, killing the clock and getting into the end zone twice.

Marvin Lewis couldn't be less hyped and is the complete opposite of what the whole vibe is supposed to be, someone get him a coffee!

Little Giants/Jets UDFA QB battle here between Woodrum and Wolford. Sterling Moore looks like he's going to be the "hey remember that guy!" player of the game, already making a few plays in the secondary.

Nice drive by Arizona - they look like the best o-line I've seen today, genuinely carving out some running lanes for their backs.

Salt Lake receivers looking very ordinary on the other side, two passes have already gone through hands and doinked them in the helmet.

Nick Folk bangs a 53 yarder right down the middle for the longest FG in league HISTORY! Blindy

I'm convinced the Arizona DC doesn't know the illegal pass rush rule - they've been flagged for it about 5 times in the first half.

This is a good game! First one to have both teams score a TD. Arizona look like the more impressive offence but it's 19-16 at halftime.

Feb 11, 2019 2:11:53 GMT @admin said:

Nick Folk bangs a 53 yarder right down the middle for the longest FG in league HISTORY! Blindy

Should still be in the NFL. I blame the Tampa Bay water. It took the careers of Arroyo, Catanazaro and Folk.

And my god Hackenbust..... My God. They can't even blitz in this league and he was dominated. I owe Todd Bowles an apology for being angry of not seeing a hackenburg get some snaps late in 2017 over Bryce Petty. Imagine this stiff playing against Belichick? Bill would bench guys who werent thirty minutes early for warm up and film room for that one because that's easy money for any defender.

It wasn't a good performance at all by Hack, but in his defence the rest of the Memphis offensive unit weren't exactly helping. They brought in the backup QB when the game was lost and he instantly threw a pick.

Folk clangs the upright with his second FGA - maybe that Tampa water isn't clear from his system just yet.

Unfortunately it looks like Woodrum going down with a hamstring injury might have ended this as a contest. Arizona lighting it up with two TDs in a matter of seconds. John Wolford looks like a guy that probably only isn't in the NFL because of his height.

Wolford usually got late fourth quarter time during the preseason and often got dominated so seeing him light it up is shocking to say the least. He looks so in control. This is especially amazing given its Rick Neuiheisel as the shot caller.

So many Jets in these games.

He only played one preseason game from what I can see?

It's reasonably interesting that he was one of three guys who beat out a first round pick in the QB draft to be the opening day starter. Maybe it just shows that there's really not much separating most of this tier of player.

SLS really disappointing in the last 5 minutes, choosing to punt instead of going for it, bad clock management from the coaches, and some very undisciplined penalties.

Anyway I had a fucking blast watching these games today. The pace of play is the most enjoyable part, games taking just over 2 hours total is so refreshing. Obviously there are some issues with the talent level with some generally poor o-line play, quite a lot of bad drops - but there's still plenty of entertainment. I'll be here Sunday nights for the next couple of months. 😎

I was tuning in and out today because of Elimination Chamber but I’ve hit the jackpot with Orlando. They took a little while to get going this week but when they do they’re explosive. Garrett Gilbert hit three 50+ yard completions to Charles Johnson.

It wouldn’t be ridiculous to predict a rematch of Orlando vs San Antonio for the championship. I think Atlanta might be in the mix too but they were far less impressive this week.

I saw the game in San Diego, and I can see why the Chargers left town. There's just not that much interest in pro ball there anymore.

Feb 18, 2019 6:57:37 GMT CM Punk'd said:

I saw the game in San Diego, and I can see why the Chargers left town. There's just not that much interest in pro ball there anymore.

20k on a rainy night isn’t bad at all. Obviously they aren’t going to do NFL numbers.

Feb 18, 2019 7:33:45 GMT @admin said:

Feb 18, 2019 6:57:37 GMT CM Punk'd said:

I saw the game in San Diego, and I can see why the Chargers left town. There's just not that much interest in pro ball there anymore.

20k on a rainy night isn’t bad at all. Obviously they aren’t going to do NFL numbers.

Alright.  It just looked worse on TV.

Feb 18, 2019 15:45:49 GMT CM Punk'd said:

Feb 18, 2019 7:33:45 GMT @admin said:

20k on a rainy night isn’t bad at all. Obviously they aren’t going to do NFL numbers.

Alright.  It just looked worse on TV.

Running in huge stadiums doesn't help from a optics perspective, that's for sure. Having seen some photos I think that 20k number is probably a little generous, they might have reported the number of tickets sold rather than the actual attendance. 

There were mixed results around the league, Memphis only pulling 11k for their first home game was disappointing, but on the flip side both Birmingham and San Antonio (29k!) had larger crowds for their second home games than they did in Week 1. Hopefully they can keep building as word gets out that the product is actually very entertaining. 

Was just reading that the league had trouble making payroll for week 2. Not a good sign, that's pretty quick. Luckily they were able to get an influx of cash from NHL owner investing $250,000,000!! I wonder how far that will get them. Hopefully this thing survives.

Have been seeing around the web that certain teams are affiliates with NFL teams, San Antonio is a Cowboys affiliate(all the more reason for me to be an Apollos fan!), Birmingham is affiliated with the Browns. I wonder what exactly that means? And what are all the official affiliations?

Feb 20, 2019 0:00:06 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Was just reading that the league had trouble making payroll for week 2. Not a good sign, that's pretty quick. Luckily they were able to get an influx of cash from NHL owner investing $250,000,000!! I wonder how far that will get them. Hopefully this thing survives.

Have been seeing around the web that certain teams are affiliates with NFL teams, San Antonio is a Cowboys affiliate(all the more reason for me to be an Apollos fan!), Birmingham is affiliated with the Browns. I wonder what exactly that means? And what are all the official affiliations?

Not to mention Memphis in Titans Territory, and the Chargers still having fans in San Diego.  And what about Orlando?  they're in close proximity to Tampa.

I could be completely wrong about this, but you could interpret this as being the initial owners hope/plan all along - banking on the first couple of weeks being attractive enough that a big money investor would be enticed enough to get involved. Someone isn't going to drop $250m at the drop of a hat so I imagine there has always been contact between Tom Dundon and the Alliance. I'm interested about what this means regarding future expansion - you'd imagine he'd want a team in Carolina.

The affiliations are largely geographical Shin, here's the list of NFL teams:

Arizona Hotshots- Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers
Atlanta Legends- Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Washington Redskins
Birmingham Iron- New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers
Memphis Express- Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, Tennessee Titans
Orlando Apollos- Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Salt Lake Stallions- Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks
San Antonio Commanders- Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles
San Diego Fleet- Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Oakland Raiders

One of the big mistakes of the USFL was expanding too quickly, I believe they added like 4-6 teams in year 2, can't remember exactly but it was a big part of their downfall(and this was a spring league that stole 3 Heisman trophy winners in a row from NFL).

All the failures of start up football leagues over the years really does make you look back in awe at what the AFL was able to do back in the day, and they went head to head with the NFL on Sundays in the fall, it's crazy, but I think what they had that other startups have been lacking is the right network of team owners each putting all they had into their own individual teams(some owners had to pitch in to help the stragglers that were failing early on to make sure the league kept 8 teams). The concept of a central ownership operating all the teams under one umbrella just seems destined to fail.