Commentary

Spurrier will succeed, but will AAF?

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Steve Spurrier made the Gators a name-brand powerhouse. He lifted South Carolina out of the low country.

Now he's itching to attempt a real football miracle, namely make a pro league not named "NFL" succeed.

It feels as if millions have tried -- and that's just in Orlando -- but none have done it. Then again, none had the Head Ball Coach as their marquee performer.

"I think my record says maybe I've got some ability to coach," he said this week, "and I ought to use it."

The event was the Head Ball Coach's welcoming party at a downtown restaurant. It was thrown by his new employer, the Alliance of American Football.

The league wants to be called The Alliance or the AAF. The question is whether it will eventually be known as the WFL, USFL, Continental Football League, XFL, WLAF, Lingerie League or any of the other football comets that briefly streaked across the Orlando sky.

The AAF's best move would be to hire a team of scientists to clone Spurrier. With his Florida roots and star power, he is a home run choice for Orlando's un-named team.

But there are seven more franchises that don't even have cities yet, much less coaches. It's hard to come up with a list of available guys who'd excite their markets like Spurrier will.

Rex Ryan? Frank Beamer? Lloyd Carr? Don Shula?

"There aren't a lot of Spurriers, that's for sure," said Tom Veit, the AAF's head of business. "But get ready because there are other guys you're going to see that are really going to take off. Some big names."

Anyone have Vince Dooley's cell number?

The AAF's overall concept sounds solid.

It will start a week after next year's Super Bowl, looking to give football-deprived fans something to watch besides NFL mock drafts.

The season will last 10 weeks and games will be over in 2 1/2 hours. The rosters will be evenly stocked with regional college products that aren't quite NFL material. Which brings us to the big tease:

"If Tim Tebow is going against Johnny Manziel on a Saturday night, I think America could watch that game," Spurrier said.

He noted there's no indication such a matchup will happen. Orlando fans would be thrilled, if for no other reason it would mean Spurrier didn't draft Shane Matthews or Danny Wuerffel.

One clarification -- Spurrier did coach in the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits way back when, but that league went kaput after an owner named Trump decided to take on the NFL.

Fear not, The Donald will not own an Alliance team.

It will be a single entity guided by ex-NFL wise men like Bill Polian with help from notables like Troy Polamalu, Hines Ward, Justin Tuck and Jared Allen.

It has a CBS contract and figures to catch the streaming app wave that's washing over the world.

It sounded good at the welcoming party. But all those other leagues sounded good at first (well, maybe not the XFL), but all their parties eventually got pooped.

Even with a sound business plan, what will make this one fly?

"It's a proven fact people will watch football if it's a good game," Spurrier said.

He might turn 73 on Friday, but Spurrier still has that competitive twinkle in his eye. He may have burned out on recruiting, but he still thinks he can out-scheme God.

You can just envision him Funning and Gunning, tossing his AAF visor, running it up on Dooley's Atlanta team.

A league chain is only as strong as its weakest link, however. There are a lot of reasons to think the AAF will succeed with Spurrier.

Now all it has to do is find seven more coaches like him.

Sports on 04/21/2018

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