{"id":58272,"date":"2019-02-10T23:28:41","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T04:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=58272"},"modified":"2019-02-10T23:28:41","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T04:28:41","slug":"alliance-of-american-football-season-successful-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/02\/10\/alliance-of-american-football-season-successful-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Alliance of American Football Inaugural Season Sees Successful Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the NFL season concluding last weekend, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/aaf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alliance of American Football<\/a> took the professional football spotlight this past weekend. The league founded by <strong>Charlie Ebersol <\/strong>and hall of fame executive <strong>Bill Polian <\/strong>played the first week of their regular season games this past weekend. Many football fans wondered how the league would look in their first week of play. Although there were some bumps, for the most part, the Alliance of American Football\u2019s teams did Ebersol and Polian proudly. It appears that the inaugural season of the AAF is off to a successful start.<\/p>\n<h1>Alliance of American Football Inaugural Season off to a Successful Start<\/h1>\n<p>The last time a professional spring football league took the field was back in 2001, when the <strong>XFL\u00a0<\/strong>played their first (and only) season.<\/p>\n<p>Created by pro wrestling mogul <strong>Vince McMahon<\/strong>, the XFL was hoping to succeed where other professional spring leagues had failed. Partnering with NBC Sports, the XFL had television exposure and the money for at least a chance to appeal to wide audiences. Unfortunately for McMahon, the league&#8217;s playing style prevented it from seeing widespread success.<\/p>\n<p>There isn\u2019t much doubt that Polian and especially Ebersol, whose father <strong>Dick Ebersol<\/strong> helped McMahon run the first version of the XFL, studied what caused the XFL&#8217;s failure. From what we witnessed during the AAF&#8217;s first weekend of play, it appears that the AAF is doing everything in its power to not repeat history.<\/p>\n<h2>The Quality of Play<\/h2>\n<p>The four games that took place this past weekend included everything that professional football fans want to see. When the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/02\/10\/san-diego-fleet-at-san-antonio-commanders-week-one-aaf-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Diego Fleet took on the San Antonio Commanders<\/a>, they saw quality defense from both units. For the fans that got to see the <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/02\/09\/aaf-week-one-atlanta-legends-vs-orlando-apollos-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Legends\u00a0go up against the Orlando Apollos<\/a>, they were able to watch a high scoring offense, presented by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/SpurSt00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steve Spurrier<\/a><\/strong> and the Apollos offense &#8211; even if it meant seeing <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/02\/07\/atlanta-legends-starting-offense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta&#8217;s offense limp through<\/a> downs in a stunning 40-6 loss.<\/p>\n<p>Great defenses and offenses weren\u2019t the only things that fans witnessed this past weekend from the Alliance of American Football. In recent NFL seasons, big hits have gone missing from NFL games. Coaches are afraid of personal foul penalties while players are looking to avoid possible fines for unnecessary roughness. During the Fleet-at-Commanders game, fans looking for big hits got their fix.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome to every AAF promo reel, Mike Bercovici <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9xHi9e1p39\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/9xHi9e1p39<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BarstoolBigCat\/status\/1094412358183718912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 10, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the San Diego Fleet quarterback <strong>Mike Bercovici<\/strong>\u00a0was the target of that fix. On a first and 10, Bercovici dropped back to pass. Commanders linebacker <strong>Shaan Washington <\/strong>went unblocked and was able to destroy Bercovici. Although Bercovici wasn\u2019t injured on the play, it did provide the highlight of the weekend for the AAF.<\/p>\n<p>The speed of the games this past weekend weren\u2019t up to NFL standards by any means. The offenses are still catching up to the defenses. In general, the offenses played head and shoulders compared to the XFL\u2019s offenses in their first week. Spurrier and the Apollos offense were the best of the weekend. Of course, as the weeks go by the offenses will start to find their grooves. When that happens, the speed and the quality of play will (or should) only get better.<\/p>\n<p>Still, for the first weekend of play for a brand new football league, it was solid. While improvement will be needed, the play of the Alliance of American Football is off to a solid start.<\/p>\n<h2>The Speed of the Game<\/h2>\n<p>Before the Alliance of American Football ever kicked off, it was no secret that they were hoping to increase the speed of the game. Based on opening weekend, it appears that they&#8217;re on track to do just that.<\/p>\n<p>As most NFL fans know, the amount of commercials that are aired during an NFL telecast is out of control. It isn\u2019t just the fans that are watching at home that are suffering, but the ones that are attending the games are also having to deal with the delays as well.\u00a0 It seems the plan of cutting down the commercials during AAF games has helped with the pace of the games. Here&#8217;s hoping that the NFL is watching.<\/p>\n<p>But it wasn\u2019t just cutting down the commercials that helped the Alliance\u2019s games this weekend. The Alliance is also using a 35-second play clock, which really makes a difference. And as much as football purists don\u2019t like seeing the kickoff removed from the game, it is helping increase the speed of the games.<\/p>\n<p>Polian and Ebersol aren\u2019t looking to change the core of how professional football is played. But what they are looking to do is improve how football fans see a game. If this weekend is any indication of what they are doing, it seems to be working.<\/p>\n<h2>Alliance of American Football\u2019s Fans<\/h2>\n<p>As with any new league, a good indication on how it&#8217;s being received is from fan interactions. While the stadiums weren\u2019t sellouts, the games we witnessed seemed to have solid attendance. However, it isn\u2019t just the butts in the seats that drew our attention &#8211; it was also the interaction of the fans.<\/p>\n<p>What we saw during the San Antonio game really caught our attention. San Antonio has always wanted professional football and that showed on Saturday night. Not only were San Antonio&#8217;s fans loud, but they were also knowledgeable about when to make noise and when not to. They helped establish a home-field advantage for the Commanders.<\/p>\n<p>Fans at the games helped make the Alliance of American Football\u2019s inaugural weekend a success, but they also helped through interaction on social media. Our Twitter feeds were littered with tweets from fans talking about how the AAF\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/big-win-aaf-new-football-league-posts-better-ratings-rockets-thunder-174503810.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">did better in TV ratings<\/a> than the NBA did on Saturday night. That&#8217;s the type of attention the AAF needs to be a successful professional football league.<\/p>\n<p>While one week doesn\u2019t make a season, it seems that the Alliance of American Football is off to a solid start. If Polian and Ebersol learned anything from the XFL, they know that they will need to build off the momentum from their inaugural season&#8217;s first week. If they can do that, and maintain it, they have a very good shot of being the first successful spring league for professional football.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"2FvXG8gyT19sUSyozdMCrQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1128591397\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie<span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span>.widgets.load({id:'2FvXG8gyT19sUSyozdMCrQ',sig:'WimyfppOd-pkttepPeGTUeWuN2KC4--fCe514WdWlpo=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1128591397',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although there were some bumps, it appears that the brand new Alliance of American Football is off to a successful start after its inaugural weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1749,"featured_media":58280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4737,54,2],"tags":[4626,3990,3991,1935,1934,61,4760,40,3992,1929],"class_list":["post-58272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aaf","category-editorials","category-featured","tag-aaf","tag-alliance-of-american-football","tag-bill-polian","tag-charlie-ebersol","tag-dick-ebersol","tag-football","tag-mike-bercovici","tag-nfl","tag-steve-spurrier","tag-xfl"],"modified_by":"Dale Lavine, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1749"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}