Great game!
I will definitely watch more games of that league.
If the Patriots do what several of the the headlines are stating regarding a new or backup QB there is going to be another reason lots of people hate them. I suspect it will convert a few to that side of the aisle too.
Wheels
I’ve heard we’re a possibility here in Charlotte too- my fingers are crossed for that, as we need another QB who can actually play- Cam keeps getting hurt, and I think it’s only going to get worse.
I must have missed that. What did you hear?
EDIT: explained via PM, thanks!
Btw I don’t really think the AAF is any competition for the NFL.
But I think it could become a few things
- a “farm league”, basically an extended training camp, also a second chance for players fallen from grace
- a way to test out rules and audience reactions to them without any danger for the big marketing machinery that is the NFL
- three months more of Football during the time in which there is no NFL, keeping football in the discussion.
Plus, the teams are mostly not where NFL teams are, so I guess there could actually be more synergy with the NFL than competition.
Now watching:
AAF, Birmingham Iron @ Atlanta Legends.
Didn’t think I would see a guy named Simms as starting QB again.
Another pretty cool game, lots of good action, especially defensively.
I also like that onside conversion play. IMO more interesting than an onside kick.
Huh?
There are no kickoffs in the AAF (teams start their drive on the 25 yard line), so you cannot do an onside kick either of course.
So to keep the possibility of making a high risk play to stay in possession after scoring they have included the choice of playing an “onside attempt”.
You basically get a 4th and 12 situation on your own 28 yard line if you choose to do so.
Interesting…not are I would like no kickoff but if that is what that conference does, OK…but an Onside Conversion seems a bit contrived.
BTW, I saw this when looking for a YouTube video and thought of this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZgICeN3Oc8
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That’s a cool video, and yes, occasionally something interesting like this or a good return happens during a kickoff, but then… most of the time the kickoff is a rather boring play, and at the same time one with a high injury probability.
So I kinda understand why they try how the game feels without a kickoff.
The thing about the onside conversion is: if you don’t have something like that you could end up with several minutes of game clock without even a theoretical chance for a comeback.
Talking about conversions:
I also kinda like that there are no PAT’s in the AAF, they always go for 2.
The PAT might be slightly less boring in the NFL since they moved it a bit back, but it still isn’t quite the most interesting play.
LOL…yes, when I played football in junior high school we also always went for the 2 pt conversion…because we didn’t have anybody who could kick a field goal.
With the NFL, a lot of kickoffs just get downed in the end zone and are brought out to the 20. True enough, not all that exciting.
When you are on a special teams squad, a kickoff seems a lot riskier than that It is a big open field with a lot of things that can happen…it feels almost out of control. The receiving team can try to get some open field blocking going but your back is to the ball…you kind of sort of hope one of the receivers run the same way you practiced but…maybe not.
On the kicking team, you sort of see where the ball went but once it gets behind all those guys in the different jerseys, “stuff” can happen…
From either team, the perspective from the middle of the field, looking down the field, doesn’t look anything like the standard TV shot. It is really a lot more exciting than it seems. 
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I am sure it is a lot more exciting when you play it yourself, that’s true for many things in sports that aren’t exactly fun to watch for an outside observer.
I’ll quote an old article (from last year)
Kickoffs take longer to set up than any other football play, and the most common result is a touchback: 1,444 of the 2,550 kickoffs (56.6 percent) in the NFL last season were just that. Twenty-two players lined up, a kicker booted the ball out of the end zone, and then everyone trotted off the field, allowing television networks to squeeze in two commercial breaks around zero seconds of action.
There were only seven kickoffs returned for touchdowns in 2017, making a touchback 206 times more likely to happen. A kickoff was returned for a touchdown in 1.4 percent of games and just 0.27 percent of the time. As SB Nation’s Jon Bois explained in a video last year, 96.3 percent of kickoffs from 2011 to 2016 gave the returning team the ball between its own 10- and 40-yard lines, meaning that even when players did elect to attempt a return, they rarely gave their offense possession far from the 25-yard line, where teams take over following a touchback.
If they made downing the ball in the end zone a Safety, it would be more fun to watch. playing ball as a youngster we rarely had a touchback.
Actually, the games are enjoyable to watch. It’s a mix of college players who couldn’t make the NFL, and NFL players who were cut. So not as good as watching Alabama (or Ohio State 
play, but better than watching my Dolphins.
And Aginor was right. Seems a testbed for rule changes the NFL has been talking about for years. I still miss the kickoffs and PATs, but they shortened the time in between plays. Brilliant!
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One time on a kickoff in high school during my junior year, I saw a really crazy play. I was playing fullback and was one of the short receivers on kickoffs. It was a night game. I heard the ref’s whistle, then toe meets leather and about a second later, another really loud boom. The ball sailed back the other way over the kicking team’s heads, including the kicker. They stopped from a sprint, turned around and ran back toward their goal and recovered the ball. It was hard to tell what happened from my perspective, so I had to wait until we watched game films before Monday’s practice.
What had happened was that the kicker kicked a line drive that hit one of our guys right in the forehead of his helmet. He kicked it so hard and the ball hit with such a force that the ball sailed backward about thirty yards. The funny thing was is how loud it was from where I was on the field. I thought that the ball had exploded, but no, that was just it bouncing off a lineman’s head. The guy that got beaned was a friend of mine, an offensive lineman who grew up on a dairy farm milking cows at 4:30 in the morning. Anyway, he staggered around until someone showed him the way to our sideline. I kidded him later for being asleep during the kickoff. “Hey Jeff, weren’t you supposed to be running back to setup a wall or whatever you guys do?”
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Now watching the AAF, San Diego Fleet @ Memphis Express.
Now watching San Antonio Commanders vs. Birmingham Iron.
A nice defensive battle. Great plays by both sides.
You realize that MLB Spring Training games have started. Regular season opening day is 20 March.
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Nope. 
Thanks for the reminder, I’ll check out if I can see a game or two soon.