The United Football League burst onto the scene in May, 2007 with a New York Times magazine feature regarding the venture. This article caused a minor stir as it noted that Tim Armstrong of Google and William Hambrecht of some Wall Street renown were putting up several million dollars to get a new professional football league off of the ground. A few former NBA executives had become employees of the venture and notorious NBA owner (and SEC investigation target, although not at that time) Mark Cuban would potentially be the first owner. The stir was mostly met with questions of “why” as a half dozen or so leagues have tried and failed to create space in the market for professional outdoor football versus the NFL, and dozens of other leagues have been announced only to see their launch press conference or press release be the only thing they contribute to the sports landscape.

The UFL also had the misfortune to follow in the footsteps of the XFL – which had initials that stood for nothing and Vince McMahon as an owner. The XFL burst onto the scene with a tremendous amount of hype thanks to the roaring success of WWE, NBC’s involvement, and Vince McMahon’s gigantic mouth. It had a blimp that crashed while promoting the league, cheesy skits involving cheerleaders, lingering questions about the validity of play, mostly mediocre nicknames, an awful broadcasting crew, and still managed to attract a huge amount of viewers in the first week of the league. Unfortunately for the XFL those viewers tuned into a truly terrible football game, and by the time the football had improved most Americans had tuned right back out.

Unfortunately for me the only rival sports league I have seen in my lifetime happens to be the XFL – so how did I, at twenty two years of age, develop an interest in alternative leagues?

My interest began with a book actually. Terry Pluto wrote a wonderful book entitled Loose Balls which was basically a compilation of stories from the wild and crazy American Basketball Association. I fell in love and read that book more than a half dozen times. It captured my imagination because I have always been mad about rebels and underdogs. When I was a young kid I’d wage imaginary battles in the field below my house in which I was inevitably outnumbered a hundred to one. I studied history, but specifically losing causes, and when I would watch sporting events I would ask my Dad who was favored and then pull for the other team. So with that in mind I logged on to the internet by way of my 28k connection and found a website about the ABA and then clicked on the links section to find out that rivals to every major league had existed at one time or another.

My interest moved on to the United States Football League. In the links section of the ABA site I found a great page ran by a fellow named Paul Reeths. The site was both a living memorial to the league and a community where fans of the defunct league gathered to discuss alternative football leagues. Fans of the USFL constantly reported on rumors of new leagues and I followed each rumor with relish. I was actually disappointed when the XFL was the one league that came true from all of the rumors as I believed that ABA co-founder Dennis Murphy’s International Football Federation or the proposed Turner/NBC league had a better chance to earn recognition and survive. Despite my disappointment I still watched the XFL develop with great interest.

The XFL flamed out dramatically in year one and this was a tremendous disappointment because I had spent the last five years wanting to see my own personal USFL develop. The XFL showed that it decidedly was not going to be that sort of league before it folded, but when it failed after one season I feared that it was a long term setback for fans of non-NFL football. I find the NFL to be too straight laced and boring, although I do watch the games on occasion. I love college football (particularly North Carolina games as I am an alumnus and Butch Davis seems to be turning us around) but it doesn’t last forever and I can always watch more football, particularly a “rebel” league. The question at the time was whether or not we would see a new attempt for a very long time.

So I dove into other pursuits and on occasion I  would skim the ‘net for word on a new venture, usually to little success. Sure, the ill-fated AAFL popped up at one point but it never seemed legit in my eyes. I was basically resigned to the fact that nothing new would emerge for at least another five years to give more time for the stench of the XFL to wear off when I finally read the news of the UFL in the Times.

I was impressed by the biographies of those involved, the bank accounts, and the ideas. For the first time in a long time I felt that we had the possibility of seeing a new league kick off and maybe my generation’s USFL. Nothing that has happened since then has ended that hope as I have followed the league and reported on it for over a year now. While the economy isn’t helping matters I am very optimistic – and who knows, maybe I can write my own version of Loose Balls in a few decades.

* The above UFLAccess.com editorial is not indicative of the opinions held or expressed by the United Football League.