After the Superbowl, the sports landscape hits rock bottom. I find the month of February is the worst. Perhaps it is the sacrifice month you give back to your sweetheart. Pitchers and Catchers reporting to spring training is a yawn. The NBA soap operas and all-star game are nothing to get jacked up about. As teams play “red rover red rover and let so and so come over,” the NBA is not worth my time. The NHL is where I go to. It takes a few weeks to learn what is going on exactly with the league. You forget some names on the teams you follow, like the young guys coming up. The next few weeks instead of just looking at the standings regularly, you catch up on what you have missed throughout the hockey world.  While I caught up last weekend, I gave the AAF a whirl. I have a few takeaways.

THE PRODUCT ON THE FIELD:  I watched three out of the 4 games this weekend. The one I missed was the blowout between Orlando and Atlanta. The league is made up of 81% players that have played in the NFL. They had many players with only a cup of coffee.  I noticed many players that have played in the league for multiple years. All of the players have the same contract. Most of these players want to make it to the NFL, or even get back in the NFL. I noticed many players happy  to be there and playing their hearts out. Just playing the game again, a dream reborn. All the games were interesting because these teams played hard together. They played hungry which makes it a better game to watch. The brand of football they played got my attention.

RULES NOT A FAN OF:   They have punt returns, but no kick offs. The onside kick is obsolete. The kick off is one of the most exciting plays in the game of football. The hits. The run backs. That to me will take some time to get used to.

The defensive rule where only five defenders can only blitz. First thing about rules like this… it ruins the game. Why handicap one side of the ball like that? Throwing the kitchen sink at the offense is something that is not done on every snap. Trying to get pressure on key down to force a turnover is a valuable strategic part of a defensive unit. Plus seeing quarterbacks stand in the pocket and hang on to the ball until the last possible second, finding a receiver crossing over the middle and letting it fly. These plays can result in huge plays for the offense. It’s a gamble now that is taken away. Seems like the Referees have problems calling that penalty. The sky cam is the one that catches defenses blitzing too many players.

RULES I DID ENJOY: I like going for two point conversions instead of kicking extra points. This makes that part of the game really interesting. Kicking extra points is relatively way too easy. Once in a while they shank it. The two point conversion adds more strategic moves by the offense and the defense on how to stop them.

On the plays that were challenged, I did like seeing the guy talk about what he was seeing on all the views in the replay booth. Asking the referees what they saw out there. Felt like when you watch a game with friends and throw your two cents into the ring as you watch the different views of the replay. As you can see and hear, they are trying to get the play on the field right.

GOOD DEFENSE: The whole league only had a certain time frame to get everything installed on their offense and defenses. Plus the same amount of time frame to get in game shape. Defense will obviously be ahead of the offense in those situations like that. I noticed teams were tackling very well which has become a lost art in the game. The San Antonio Commanders  defense looked awesome. The Birmingham squad looked good against a bad offense. We will see when they play a much better offense as the season goes on. Mike Singletary’s defense – the bend and will not break and stopping teams in the red zone. To allow only field goals in those situations is huge. Only if they had an offense. Arizona Hotshots looks legit. Some big NFL names in their unit.

LETTING THEM PLAY: The NFL during regular season were way too flag happy. Then in big moments in the playoffs they forgot how to throw a flag. I noticed the AAF this first week, they let these guys play football. No ticky tack calls were made on every other play like some of the NFL referee teams they had officiating. It was good to see the AAF does not call pass interference call on the slightest contact. However they are not gun shy to  make calls on the total obvious.

SKY CAM GOOD AND BAD: The jury is still out on the AAF sky cam. I think it’s good to have an eye in the sky. Only to help with the big controversial plays I’m in favor of. If it constantly is  interrupting the play on the field for illegal defenses, I’m not a fan.  Most of the time the refs are missing this rule because it is too hard to enforce.

PLAYERS REBORN: Trent Richardson had high hopes in the NFL. He bombed with the Browns and the Colts. He looked awesome in his debut with the Birmingham Iron with a few touchdowns. The way he broke through tacklers. He had some moves as well. If he continues this all season, he will definitely punch his ticket back to the NFL.

THE VULTURE: Matt Asiata used to take all the goal line carries for the Vikings. Adrian Peterson would get the team all the way down to the goal line. Then Matt Asiata would bulldoze his way into the end zone for the score. He racked up many scores like that for the Vikings. He even had three of them in one game. He’s back to his same old tricks with the very first ever score for the Salt Lake City Stallions. He was used on the offense, besides the goal line package. I thought he made a few good runs on Sunday Night. If he becomes the whole package as a running back, he will get offers to come back to the NFL.

Good to see familiar faces in the league. To see them get a second chance playing the game of football. This will probably be their best road back to the NFL.

Week one watching the overall action of the Alliance has me coming back for week two. It earned that. I will have some takeaways again next week and really dissect this league from top to bottom. Find out if it really is something to keep watching.