New AAF pro football league, set for 2019 debut, described as 'complementary' to NFL

A.J. Perez | USA TODAY

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The XFL won’t be the only new professional football league set to launch over the next couple of years.

The Alliance of American Football was unveiled at a press conference Tuesday in New York. It involved less hype than when Vince McMahon made public his XFL re-launch for 2020, but this new league did offer more details, including a debut date (Feb. 9, 2019) and a TV partner (CBS Sports Network).

Charlie Ebersol, who will serve as AAF’s CEO, presented the new spring league not as a rival to the NFL. Fellow co-founder and former longtime NFL team executive Bill Polian described the AAF almost as a feeder system to the the NFL, since players will not be locked into long-term deals and seasons will end in April, well before the start of NFL training camps.

“I think this will be complementary to the NFL,” said former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, who will serve as the AAF’s head of player relations.

The league will consist of eight teams, although Ebersol said the teams won’t be introduced until next month.

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Polian said that eliminating one of the most dangerous parts of football – kickoffs -- was paramount to those involved in creating the AAF. There will be no kickoffs as teams will start on the 25-yard line after a score and at the start of each half.

Since there are no kickoffs, however, that means no onside kicks, but Polian said he found a solution: The team that scored a touchdown gets the ball on its 35 in a 4th-and-10 situation.

“If you make it, you keep going,” Polian said. “That will be exciting, strategic and will create a lot of interest.”

There will also be no extra points in AAF as teams will be forced to go for a 2-point conversion.



