One league closes, one lays its foundation...

The NFL experiment in Europe came to an end over the weekend, as NFL Europa closed up after years of multi million dollar losses. The NFL determining that a change in strategy was in order, preferring to concentrate on staging regular season event games around the world, rather than funding a league that was struggling to find its niche.

With its demise will come a shift in the football landscape as some 300 football players, coaches and Managers begin the process of looking for new employment.

Some will eventually end up with CFL teams, though most CFL GM's don't expect a giant flood of talent this year, but the 2008 season might find a few of the Europa refugees arriving in CFL outposts. Most observers suggest that the Arena Leagues will be helped out more by the sudden influx of football resumes.

The main change for CFL scouts and GM's will be a reduction in the International travel budget as the five German and one Dutch franchises offered up a bit of a change from the normal routine of bird dogging though the US and Canadian college ranks.

While the CFL may benefit from some of the migration, a new American Football league is finding the timing of its development to be rather spot on. If filling rosters is a priority with them, the shutting down of NFL Europa may just help out.

Officials of the All-American Football League, hope to be up and running in the Spring of 2008 with plans to aggressively pursue former college players who may have stepped away from the game after graduation, in fact many of the franchises will be located in the big college cities hoping to cash in on the demand for football after the Bowl games have all been resolved.

It's another attempt at a Spring league in the US, which has seen more than a few attempts fall short and end in failure. But hope as they say, springs eternal, especially when it comes to football. They have an interesting spin on things at the AAFL however, building on the success and savvy of the US college programs, many of the proponents of the league come from the big machines of football and are no doubt hoping to extend the fan's interest into a new season.

What will be interesting to watch will be the impact that the league has on the Arena leagues in the US and what effect it may have on CFL teams that will open up their camps after the AAFL season is launched. The plan is to start the league up in early April and have the Championship Game played on the fourth of July,

As far as taking away CFL talent, the chances are probably quite slim. There were reportedly some 2000 applications for tryouts for the Orlando franchise mini camp, so there is apparently an insatiable supply of talent out there. Some of it good, some of it still developing and some of it just dreaming the dreams of the dreamer.

The ambition of the AAFL is to become the second most popular league in the US, which means that the promoters at least aren't lost in their own rhetoric. Second place would be a pretty good spot to be after the Big show of the NFL, but there's probably a lot of work to do and a lot of old football grave sites to think about before they get to boasting too much.

But if it is successful, at least all those college marching bands will have something to do after January.