Football Content: Not the NFL - Montreal Alouettes (CFL)

Team: Montreal Alouettes
Hometown: Montreal, QC, CAN
League: CFL
Years: 1946 -
Stadium: Percival Molton Memorial Stadium
Record: 490-489-21
Grey Cup: 1949, 1970, 1974, 1977, 2002, 2009, 2010
Head Coach: Khari Jones

About three weeks ago I started a small project here where I started talking about the coolest football teams to never play in the NFL.  Teams were picked based on their success on the field as well as their branding.  Using these two very broad and vague descriptors allows us to put together a fantasy league that features the Philadelphia Stars, Orlando Apollos and the Iowa Barnstormers.

TTM Return # 31 - Former Phillies' Outfielder & Coach, Milt Thompson || Fan Pack Return #19 Da Bears

Player: Milt Thompson
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 9/21/19 (77 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Cincinnati Reds' Stadium listed on SCF.


Team: Chicago Bears
Sent: 9/13/19
Return: 9/21/19 (8 days)
Items: 2 stickers, 2 2019 pocket schedules
Address Source: email from SCF.
See all Fan Pack Returns Here

Nice way to end the week, getting two returns in a day.  That's pretty uncommon here, considering the low volume of requests I actually send out.  But it was nice to get Milt Thompson back after almost two months (77 days).  And an 8 day turn around to get a couple of Chicago Bears schedules is really good, too.

Football Content: Not the NFL - Las Vegas Locomotives (UFL)

Team: Las Vegas Locomotives
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
League: UFL
Years: 2009 - 2012
Stadium: Sam Boyd Stadium
Record: 18-7 (regular season & playoffs)
UFL Championship: 2009, 2010
Head Coach: Jim Fassel

It had been 8 years since the last nationwide professional football league launched (and failed) with the XFL when the UFL opened for business with four teams and a six week season in 2009.  

While the league had big plans, and was originally connected to some very wealthy people, it seemed that nothing quite came together the way the league had hoped.  Money men like T. Boone Pickens and Mark Cuban fell through, the original slate of teams never materialized and the league was never able to find it's fanbase.

Fan Pack #18 - Pittsburgh Steelers (First NFL Fan Pack Return, First Fan Pack Since July!)

Team: Pittsburgh Steelers
Sent: 9/13/19
Return: 9/18/19 (5 days) [TTM HOF Entry]
Items: sunglasses, lanyard, can coozie, 2 stickers, 2019 pocket schedules
Address Source: email from SCF.
See all Fan Pack Returns Here

I've only been a football fan for about a decade, going back to a run working for a semi-pro team in South Jersey in the old NAFL.  One of our boys from that team went on to play a couple years indoor and had a cup of coffee with the BC Lions.  From there, I spent some time trying to build my own semi-pro team, and finally settled in doing some work with Globe Games.  Those experiences lead me to being a fan of the indoor and Canadian game, but I never had much time for the NFL.

Football Content: Not the NFL - Michigan Panthers (USFL)

Team: Michigan Panthers
Hometown: Pontiac, MI
League: USFL
Years: 1983, 1984
Stadium: Pontiac Silverdome
Record: 24-15
USFL Championship: 1983
Division Championships: 1983
Head Coach: Jim Stanley

We're looping back around on leagues now, and with the tenth entry in the Not the NFL frankenleague, we're catching back up with the USFL.  There aren't many modern era football leagues, but plenty of great teams we can still revisit.

Team number 10 in the NNFL is the Michigan Panthers.  

Football Content: Not the NFL - Mayas CDMX (LFAP)

Team: Mayas CDMX
Hometown: Mexico City, MEX
League: LFAP
Years: 2015 - current
Stadium: Estadio Wilfrido Massieu
Record: 20-6
Tazon Mexico: 2016, 2017
Division Championships: 2017
Head Coach: Francisco Chaparro

There's been a push in the last decade or so to grow the sport of American football.  Canadian Football League Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has even hinted at possible expansion to Mexico as recently as last year's Grey Cup.  And of course, whenever the idea of NFL expansion is broached, everybody has Mexico City at the top of their wish list.  The CFL's interest in Mexico has already evolved to the point where the league is now drafting players out of the LFAP.

Football Content : Not the NFL - Omaha Beef (CIFL)

Team: Omaha Beef
Hometown: Omaha, NE
League: CIF (current)
Years: 2000 - current
Stadium: Ralson Arena (current)
Record: 171-128 (all time)
League Championships: noneConference Championships: 2017
Division Championships: 2001, 2003
Head Coach: Marvin Jones (current)

Indoor football is unstable, unpredictable and not a good long term investment.  So when a team can boast 20 years of playing the 50 yard floor war, you have to give them some respect.  That's the case here for the Omaha Beef.  The team has been around since the turn of the century, outlasting four of it's own leagues.

Football Content: Not the NFL - San Antonio Riders (WLAF)

Team: San Antonio Riders
Hometown: San Antonio, TX
League: WLAF
Years: 1991, 1992
Stadium: Alamo Dome, Bobcat Stadium
Record: 11-9
WLAF Championships: none
North America West Division Championships: none
Head Coach: Mike Riley

The World League of American Football, for you millennials that aren't old enough to remember the Willenium, was exactly that.  Or the closest thing to it we've ever seen.  The WLAF featured three divisions with teams on two continents.  It is the first iteration of what would be a moderately successful venture into Europe for American-style football, and become somewhat of a development territory for the NFL.

Football Content: Not the NFL - Birmingham Thunderbolts (XFL1)

Team: Birmingham Thunderbolts
Hometown: Birmingham, AL
League: XFL
Years: 2001
Stadium: Legion Field
Record: 2-8
Million Dollar Games: none
Division Championships: none
Head Coach: Gerry DiNardo

Legion Field in Birmingham Alabama has hosted more non-NFL professional football and more leagues than any other stadium in the US.  It's the Madison Square Garden, or the Korakuen Hall of football.  If you have a professional minor football league, and you're not in Birmingham, are you like, even playing football?

Eight teams in seven leagues (two entries in the WFL) since 1974 have called Legion Field and Birmingham home.  Birmingham's fan base is rooted in a long tradition of college football, which creates a rabid and educated fan with no professional allegiance.  I would imagine that makes the city and region very attractive to a non-NFL professional league.  Add Legion Field, a site that goes back to pre-Depression era college football, and it makes sense that every pro league has tried to establish a foothold here.

Football Content: Not the NFL - Baltimore Stallions (CFL)

Team: Baltimore Stallions
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
League: CFL
Years: 1994, 1995
Stadium: Memorial Stadium
Record: 27-9 (regular season)
Grey Cup: 1995
Division Championships: 1994, 1995
Head Coach: Don Matthews

No single football has rattled the NFL's cage more than the "Baltimore Football Club" (as they were known during the '94 season).  

Baltimore had been without a professional football team since the Colts split town under cover of darkness after the 1983 season.  An unannounced, and traumatic move that left a gaping scar on the city's football community.  Baltimore successfully retained the name "Colts", but there was no team to hang the name on.  That was until 1994 when the Canadian Football League dipped it's toe into southern expansion.

Football Content: Not the NFL - Iowa Barnstormers (Arena League)

Team: Iowa Barnstormers
Hometown: Des Moines, IA
League: IFL (2015-current), Arena Football League (2010-2014, 1995-2000, AF2 (2008-2009, 2001)
Years: 1995-2001, 2008-current
Stadium: Wells Fargo Center (current)
Record: 168-141 all time (including post season)
IFL Championships: 2018
Conference Championship: 1996, 1997
Division Championships: 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2009
Head Coach: Dixie Wooten (current)

The Barnstormers were an flagship team of the Arena Football League for a long time.  I might be remembering wrong, but I seem to recall when the AFL was on ESPN the first time, in the 90's, there were a lot of Tampa Bay Storm vs Orlando Predators a games.  But as a youthful young man, I was really drawn to the Barnstormers for the very mature, and totally logical reason that I really liked their helmets.  Back then they were gold black goggles wrapping around.  I thought it was really creative and cool.  Full disclosure, I also listened to Jars of Clay in the 90's, so I may not have been an authority on cool.  I also watched a lot of ECW wrestling back then.  The 90's were a confusing time.

Football Content: Not the NFL - Southern California Sun (WFL)

We're putting together our Best of the Rest, the Not the NFL A franken-league featuring the best (or coolest) teams to tread the football landscape.

So far, we've featured the Philadelphia Stars and the Orlando Apollos.  You can see previous entries here.

Today's entry:

Team: Southern California Sun
Hometown: Anaheim, CA
League: World Football League
Years: 1974, 1975
Stadium: Anaheim Stadium
Record: 20-12
WFL Championships: none
Division Championships: 1974, 1975
Head Coach: Tom Fears

The WFL had nothing to fear, but Fears himself.

No, that's not true.  Not even remotely.  The WIFFLE had many issues. Most were self inflicted.  Launching in 1974, the World Football League came only a few years after the AFL-NFL war, and five years on from the collapse of the Continental Football League.  

Football Content: Not the NFL - Orlando Apollos (AAF)

Team: Orlando Apollos
Hometown: Orlando, FL
League: Alliance of American Football
Years: 2019
Stadium: Spectrum Stadium
Record: 7-1
AAF Championships: none
Conference Championships: 2019
Head Coach: Steve Spurrier

Too often start-up leagues end up with a set of logos that all kind of look the same (UFL, I'm looking at you...).  But while the AAF's logo set was absolutely created by a single design firm, each logo has a unique feel.  For an 8 team start-up league like the AAF,  there are logos that I loved (Orlando and Birmingham) and logos that - had I come across on the street, I would have picked up in a plastic bag and flushed down a toilet (Arizona, San Antonio).  To have that kind of variety come out of the same design house is incredibly impressive.

Football Content: Not the NFL - Philadelphia Stars (USFL)

It was a slow day at work, and I spent a significant portion of my afternoon looking at mini helmets on eBay. The temptation to get all the AAF helmets was real. But while I was looking at a Orlando Apollos helmet I thought of a new series of posts for the blog. "Not the NFL", the best football teams that never played in the NFL. We're going to look at football teams that succeeded despite not being in the National Football League. The criteria is very stringent. Teams that played well, sold a lot of tickets and/or had cool looking helmets and uniforms.  I'm going to put the limitation on myself that when we're done, after 10 or 12 teams, maybe, that we've built a football league with a footprint that sort of makes sense.

Here we go, team number one:

Team: Philadelphia Stars
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
League: United States Football League
Years: 1983, 1984
Stadium: Veterans Stadium & Franklin Field ('84 postseason)
Record: 48-13-1
USFL Championships: 1984
Conference Championships: 1983, 1984
Head Coach: Jim Mora

Fantasy Football Content: I had Concerns Starting Jackson Over Ryan...

For most of the last 20 years, I have considered myself an alt-football fan.  I have enjoyed watching indoor, Canadian and semi-pro football when I've had the opportunity (and thoroughly enjoyed the AAF for as long as that lasted), but never really enjoyed the NFL or NCAA football.

But when I moved to New England, I started a fantasy league as a way of staying in contact with my coordinator at work, as he would be in a position to promote me, and I wanted to make sure he didn't forget who I was while I was whiling away at one of his locations.

That's how the Masshole Fantasy Football League was born.  I got promoted right before draft season last year, and was too busy to run the league, but after a career change this spring, I found myself with plenty of time to bring the MFFL back.

And this year, I'm taking it seriously.  During the first season, I decided that we were going to go big with the championship trophy.  The team that won got an undisclosed sum of money, and also a professionally made, custom 2ft x 3ft championship banner (which, according to his wife, "will never see the light of day as long as I'm around".)

The MFFL drafted two weeks ago.  We're a 12 team, .5 pt PPR league.  During our draft, I picked up Lamar Jackson in round 9 as a back-up to Matt Ryan.  Patrick Mahomes had gone #2 overall to my partner's brother's team Flutie Flakes.  So everyone's quarterback strategy was immediately screwed up.  I went with Jackson as a back-up because I liked the synergy of Jackson coming off a week 8 bye into Ryan's week 9 bye.  But then as I looked at the match-ups, and read some coverage, I started to like Jackson versus the Dolphins more and more.