Earlier this year, it was announced that Vince McMahon would be resurrecting the XFL in 2020. Well, now there's a third league that will arrive before the XFL. February 9th of 2019 (the week after the Super Bowl), Charlie Ebersol is launching the Alliance of American Football. If the name Ebersol sounds familiar, that's because Charlie is the son of Dick Ebersol, the man behind NBC Sports for almost two decades, and was the one who partnered with Vince McMahon in the original XFL.

Where will the teams be located? It's not known yet, but the league will start with 8 teams. The locations will be announced in the next 3 months. Each team will consist of 50 players, that will be selected through regional drafts to allow the cities to get familiar players who played at local colleges.

Some other rules of the league:

  • There will be no kick offs, the ball will be placed on the 25 yard line.
  • The play clock will be 30 seconds long.
  • Every touchdown will be followed by a 2 point conversion.
  • There will be no TV timeouts, and 60% fewer commercials than an NFL game.

Charlie Ebersol believes that there is enough talent for all these leagues:

"There are 28,000 Division I football players.  Only 1,700 have NFL jobs.  We're looking for those Kurt Warners working in grocery stores, and we think we will find them."

Former NFL general manager Bill Polian (you know, the guy that said he had a first round grade for Tom Brady but somehow let him plummet in the draft to pick 199) will be on staff to help out, along with former Pittsburgh Steelers Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu.

And this league does have a step up on the XFL already. Well, make that two. The first that it's not being attached to a previously failed league with the same name. But it also, already has a TV deal in place, and no, it's not NBC. It's with CBS. Although the majority of the league's games will be on it's own app, the first game and the championship will be on CBS.

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