The Alliance of American Football is one step closer to taking the field next year, unveiling the names of its four Western division teams Tuesday morning.

Football fans, meet the Salt Lake Stallions, San Antonio Commanders, San Diego Fleet and Arizona Hotshots.

The newly announced set goes with the group announced last week: the Atlanta Legends, Birmingham Iron, Memphis Express and Orlando Apollos.

The name of the Arizona franchise could be considered controversial, but team president Scott Brubaker and league CEO Charlie Ebersol don’t see it that way.

“It represents fierceness, bravery, toughness,” Brubaker said. “It represents all the bad asses who protect us every day.”

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Hotshots are elite crews who hike up to battle raging wildfires at the frontlines of a blaze. Near Prescott five years ago, 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots crew died battling the Yarnell Hill fire.

In a separate interview, Ebersol said the goal was to recognize “this extraordinary group of men and women who fight fires in the most dangerous places … we wanted to pay homage to them.”

The league promises a charitable commitment to Arizona-based Hotshot crews and firefighters in general across the nation, Ebersol said.

He also likes the “double entendre, not only are they baaad boys getting out there and doing that, also our head coach has a bit of a flair for the dramatic and is a bit of a hot shot himself, so we thought it would be a good fit for what’s going down in Arizona.”

Arizona coach Rick Neuheisel, as a college senior, once told a UCLA coach, according to a Sports Illustrated profile from 1995, that he could “complete 80 percent if you call the plays” in a seven-on-seven drill, “90 percent if I call them.”

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It matters

Don’t write off mascots and colors as no big deal.

To this day, New York Times bestselling author Jeff Pearlman remembers how he felt flipping to a feature on the USFL and Herschel Walker in the spring of 1983.

“The words ‘Hitting Pay Dirt’ accompanied Walker’s smiling face, as well as ‘The USFL’s Commanding General, Herschel Walker,’ ” Pearlman wrote in his new book, “Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL.”

“I quickly scanned the index and turned to page 40, where I was greeted by ... a photographic spread featuring 12 football helmets, the like of which I’d never seen. There were speeding horses and exploding stars and bright sunbursts and a clenched fist gripping a lightning bolt. The colors were silver and gold and rust and black and … and … and … and … Holy s--t!”

Could there be an 11-year-old somewhere in Phoenix clicking through a photo slideshow online right now, catching the same feelings for the Alliance? Pearlman thinks it’s possible.

“I do,” he said. “I mean the one thing I’ll say, part of the magic of it all, was the inaccessibility of it all. Like back in ’83, I couldn’t go online, obviously, and order an Arizona Wranglers hat. I couldn’t go to Lids and find a million different hats. It all felt very mysterious.”

Back then there was “a mystique to it all that I don’t think you have now. But I still think cool logos and cool helmets catch the eye of people, it’s just not as mysterious as it was.”

Mystery or not, people love this stuff. The NFL had the “Color Rush.” The NBA and Major League Baseball seem to have alternate unis for every day of the week. College football has Oregon and Arizona State.

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Sustainability

But slick logos and dope colors won’t be enough to sustain a league. Ebersol knows this. To that end, he’s baked in an in-game gambling model that he thinks will transform the experience of being a fan.

“We are not building just a football league,” Ebersol said. “We’re building an entire tech platform that will fundamentally shift the way people interact with sports.”

They call it “real-time gaming,” meaning you’ll be able to get action while the players are on the field.

Aside from that, Ebersol said, the league has “500 players under contract” and “we’ve started selling a truckload of tickets.”

He declined to provide specific sales numbers, but Ebersol plans to be around awhile.

Pearlman, the author, said the Alliance could stick if it keeps its rosters regional, celebrates when players make the NFL and doesn’t try to take on the NFL directly as the USFL did.

“Couldn’t work,” Pearlman said. “It was dumb. Stupid, stupid idea that could never work.”

The Alliance plans to check those boxes.

One more thing the league could use: Star players.

Ebersol’s working on it.

“Be patient,” he said. “We’ve got some surprises coming.”

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Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @WritingMoore.