Despite the past history of failed efforts and a rather worrisome economic picture, a new band of football enthusiasts has launched yet another football league in the United States.
Something called the United Football League held it's first draft last week, stocking some of the spots on their four team rosters for a hopeful launch this fall.
Apparently not fearing to tread where the USFL, WFL, XFL and even the currently suspended Arena Football league went before, the United League has introduced its four member franchises, which will play in seven American cities this fall. Teams will be based in New York, Orlando, Las Vegas and San Francisco, the three neutral site locations apparently will be Hartford, Los Angeles and Sacramento.
The four debut teams selected some of the players for the inaugural season on June 19th. Former NFL head coaches Dennis Green, Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett and Ted Cottrell have all been tapped to run the four league franchises this year and assessed and selected the first batch of United Footballers.
The league will play an eight game season on either a Thursday or Friday evening starting in October leading up to the Championship game played on the American Thanksgiving Weekend.
And that is what will make things interesting for the CFL, clearly the United Football League will be waiting for the NFL cuts to filter through the system, a situation which could provide an impact on the CFL as they will perhaps have to compete for a key player that they have had their eyes on through an NFL camp.
There probably won't be a huge fallout for the CFL this year, after all, as much as it has had a troubled past at times, in the end a CFL pay cheque may be a tad more reliable than the first year UFL might be able to offer.
But if the new league should get its footing in place, next year could be a most interesting experience for the CFL especially the NFL camps begin to shed their cannon fodder, anxious to carry on a career but suddenly with a bit more leverage in negotiations
Arizona central-- Upstart United Football League moves forward
Daily Advertiser-- Fenroy decides to play in Las Vegas instead of CFL
Newark Star Ledger-- New area United Football League franchise to play in New York, knows it can't compete with NFL
Associated Press-- Former NFL exec Rick Mueller to serve as GM of all four UFL teams
Philadelphia Daily News-- League of their own
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