Upstart leagues cause no great panic for CFL

TSN Football Insider

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Out of the dead of winter comes noise from the latest wave of alternative professional football on this continent, the reborn versions of the USFL and XFL.

While neither has played a down, both have been very busy of late.

The USFL completed its initial two-day draft this week, with eight teams selecting 276 players for an upcoming 10-game season that begins on April 16.

This USFL has no relation the old USFL of the 1980s and is playing its entire regular season schedule out of a hub in Birmingham, Ala., and its playoffs in another hub in Canton, Ohio. It has Fox Sports as an equity partner and host broadcaster.

And this USFL isn’t competing with the National Football League for players like the old one did. Instead, it’s shopping the bargain aisle for players, paying $45,000 (U.S.) plus victory bonuses. Several players released by CFL teams, including quarterbacks Shea Patterson and Paxton Lynch, were involved in this week’s draft.

Meanwhile, the latest version of the XFL had some news to share this week as well, entering into an agreement with the NFL that will see it act as a kind of football laboratory to test out innovations to the game and equipment. The two leagues will also collaborate on other ways to grow the sport.

Of course, it was about a year ago that the Canadian Football League announced it was collaborating with the XFL on ways to grow the game, an arrangement that led to the study of forming a new league before parting ways without agreement.

The XFL and the NFL will remain separate, but their agreement certainly signals a spirit of closeness and co-operation that could open doors to further co-ventures once the XFL re-launches in the spring of 2023.

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