The World Football League - And What the UFL Can Learn From It

UFL

This article is part of a multi-segment series on alternative leagues to be featured on UFL Access. 

 

The World Football League was the first major challenger to the National Football League following the absorption of the American Football League in the late 1960’s. The league brought the world singular nicknames such as the Philadelphia Bell and Southern California Sun. It brought professional football to Hawaii and explored other markets such as Portland, Birmingham, and Memphis, which would later play host to many alternative leagues over the years.

 

In the long run the most successful thing the World Football League accomplished was to drive up salaries as teams like the Memphis Southmen lured away NFL players like Larry Csonka.

 

The league would schedule twenty games in year one, a very long schedule for a professional football league needless to say, and after the initial games it seemed as if everything was going well as attendance seemed high. It would be a shock to the league’s system and reputation when the numbers turned out to be highly inflated by free giveaways – in and of itself this might not have been a bad thing except that the teams didn’t initially tell the press about the giveaways.

 

The league was plagued with instability as the New York and Houston franchises moved before September (after the league kicked off in July) – and the Detroit and Jacksonville franchises moved mid-season. Lots of financial difficulties were reported, even including one team dealing with jerseys being impounded for nonpayment.

 

In 1975 the league would return and the instability would continue as more teams would fold shortly before the entire league would shut down midseason.

 

Beyond salaries the WFL had a few rule changes that would later reach the NFL or college football. For one, they had goalposts at the back of the endzone. In 1975 the league would bring into play sudden death overtime that the NFL would later adopt, as well as introducing a prohibition on bump and run coverage that the NFL would eventually bring into play (minus the New England Patriots in the playoffs a few years back when they were playing the Colts – pardon the editorial comment).

 

One thing that the WFL did that we know the UFL will adopt was weeknight games, as they went against the NFL in the fall – the only alternative league since the American Football League and before the United Football League to do so.

 

The major problem with the WFL was a lack of financing which led to a lack of credibility. That is something that Commissioner Huyghue is trying to fight against with what he has stressed to me – and other media outlets – is a stringent process designed to ensure that every group has the money to last. That will be the key for the UFL. Other startups have been plagued by financing problems – and I am sure that the UFL won’t always go smoothly – but if they can avoid folding teams and moving teams as much as possible then the league will be better off in the long run.

 

The best way to defeat skepticism is to help prove that fans have nothing to be skeptical about – and that seems to be the goal of the brain trust of the league. Perhaps that is the reason for the hold up of the announcement…

Nation Hahn @ February 21, 2008