It is the most wonderful time of the year. No, not the holiday season (though it does encompass it). I’m talking about football season. There is nothing like it. It starts in the late summer and races on at breakneck speed until it culminates in the bitter cold of winter.
But what about the spring? Football is the most watched sport in the country and yet from March to July there is no professional football to be seen.
Well, my frantic football fans the solution may finally be here. A brand new professional football league has been developed strictly for the spring. Say hello to Major League Football (MLFB), a league that is engrained with decades of NFL knowledge and service.
The league is set to debut in 2016 and will be played from mid-March to early-July. The MLFB will be comprised of 10 teams that will play their way through a 12 game schedule before heading into a five team postseason. The MLFB, who will be announcing team locations soon, has set their eyes on emerging cities that don’t already have an NFL team. Early reports have cited Eugene (OR), Little Rock (AR), Orlando (FL), and Birmingham (AL) as potential spots for teams.
One of the key components of Major League Football, is their dedication to their credo. The MLFB is set around what they call “the three laces”.
Each lace stands for a different quality that the MLFB has committed itself to. The first, stands for being dynamic. The MLFB devotes itself to the fan experience by using social media to provide constant contact with players and coaches. What really makes the league dynamic and truly weaves fans into the foundation of the league is that the MLFB is publicly traded (SYM: MLFB). Which means you, the fan, can actually own shares in the league.
The second lace represents being disruptive. The MLFB is intent on becoming a springtime pastime and is looking to shake things up on the field to do so. The MLFB has shortened the play clock to fire up offenses into a faster style of play, completed field goals of 50 yards or more will be rewarded with four points, and the ground can cause a fumble.
Being community-centric is the third lace. By choosing burgeoning cities, the MLFB hopes to impact such communities in a way that creates “a social haven of shared interests and value.”
“I see it as a vision and an opportunity to go in and make a real, real difference,” said MLFB President and former-New Orleans Saints and -San Diego Chargers Pro-Bowl receiver Wes Chandler. “It means something to feel the heartbeat of a community. It means something to know that the community understands that we care, that we’re not just there. We’re having an impact, we’re going out into that community, we are going to be married to that community for lots of reasons other than just football.”
With Chandler, as President of the MLFB, it shows just how deep the ties to the NFL go. The league’s CEO, Jerry Vainisi, was the former-Chicago Bears general manager who helped build the teams only Super Bowl championship team in 1985 and also worked in the Detroit Lions front office as the V.P. of player personnel and helped launch NFL Europe in 1990. Former-Los Angeles Rams cornerback Ivory Sully, also is a part of of the MLFB brass as EVP of Branding and Licensing.
Any surfacing of a new professional football league comes with weary as fans recall failed leagues of the past like the WFL, UFL, USFL, and the XFL. But the question of “what makes this league different” is answered simply.
Major League Football has developed it’s league around the NFL and has ensured that is a non-adversarial league. With no intent to take on the NFL and stacked with a wealth of former-NFL experience both on and off the field, the MLFB seems like they may have finally locked down a place for a second professional football league in America.
