University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang Blog: Awasom And The UFL Show Some Promise
7/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
|
| By Stephen Howard, July 26, 2009 - 8:24 a.m. |
I’m not sure if the upstart United Football League can survive, but it certainly has some things going for it. One of those is former Mean Green defensive end Adrian Awasom, and host of big uglies just like him.
The former three-time All-Sun Belt monster was one of 96 players drafted back in June for the inaugural season of the UFL, which is set up to succeed better than any dog-and-pony show that has attempted to challenge the NFL.
Rather than compete for ratings and attention with gimmick camera angles, crazy rules and smoke & mirrors, the UFL has basically adopted the motto “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
The four-team UFL will be an NFL development league playing on Thursday and Friday nights in football hungry cities like Las Vegas, Orlando, Hartford, Los Angeles and Sacramento.
And they’ve got some real-deal coaches and administrators. Former NFL head coaches Dennis Green, Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett and Ted Cottrell will man the sidelines, and a host of the NFL’s big wigs run the front office.
I know what you’re thinking, because I’ve heard it already from my co-blogger Steven Bartolotta. “Another challenger to the NFL. That worked out real well for the XFL.”
Thankfully I don’t see Vince McMahon running around anywhere, so we can rule out “He Hate Me”, no halo rules and crazy colored footballs.
Even Steven had to admit that this isn’t the XFL. This is real football, with real players, real rules and NFL money, which just might give a chance to players who were previously overlooked by the league.
Patrick Cobbs is living proof that players who didn’t come from BCS conference schools can compete with the big boys, and my guess is there are dozens more just like him. They might not look so great at the combine, often undersized or on the ass-end of a 4.7 forty-yard dash, but put them on a football field and things happen.
Instead of getting a cold shoulder because their college jersey didn’t say “USC” on the front of it, these players can take their talents to the UFL and prove the league wrong.
Plus, you can rule out a lot of competition. When the XFL started up in 2001 they not only had to compete with the NFL and the Canadian Football League, but also NFL Europe and the Arena Football Leagues. Don’t kid yourself, both of those leagues pulled in money, fans and some serious players.
Why would a talented athlete want to play for a gimmick upstart with funky rules when he could head to Europe and actually play for an NFL development league? NFL Europe played in front over ever increasing crowds (a league average of over 20 thousand in 2007) and sent hundreds of players to NFL camps in its 12 years.
The reason it crashed was due to monetary issues of moving an entire football league 5,000 miles every year. No such issue with a league located right here in the good-ole USA.
The NFL needs a feeder league too. What would Major League Baseball be without minor league system to back it up? You would have a bunch of players who aren’t ready for the rigors being tossed to the curb. The average NFL career is under three years, which shows that too many players can’t cut it right away.
Even NASCAR and the NBA understand that concept. Not everyone can be Jeff Gordon and LeBron James, and those that aren’t need some time to mature in a conducive environment.
Perhaps if the UFL were in place, Casey Fitzgerald would be catching passes somewhere or Dylan Lineberry would tossing around would-be sackers just like they did here in Denton. They might have a chance, and that's really all they're asking for.
