Throwball

I found myself pondering professional football today. Why have so many non-NFL attempts at professional football failed? The XFL flamed out it one season. NFL Europe died a slow painful death. And then there's Arena League which took this year off (never a great business move, even in a recession), so we'll see what happens in the future.

But there's no good reason why a second tier football league, played during the off months can't succeed. I understand the usual argument - College Football is the minor leagues. Well yes, but from all these colleges you get a huge pool of talented players who will never play in the NFL. There is enough talent there to support a moderate sized second league. Find the next 16 cities that don't have football teams and put teams there. Run the season from March to June. That's all it takes. The NFL has spent the last few years rekindling it's love affair with England, but in reality they're just giving the many many ex-Pats living England a chance to see a game in person. That's all well and good, but Roger Goodell is just leaving easy money on the table.

If the NFL wants to expand properly, they'd can the overtures to Europe and set up a second tier league to rake in additional money, attendance and hype year round. Would the quality be a bit lower? Yes. But people watch ACC games, right?