INDIANAPOLIS – The typical path to NFL stardom usually begins in the Midwestern melting pot that is the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

It is here, in this ideally central location, where the top prospects migrate from every nook and cranny in the country to be poked and prodded by everyone from medical lab technicians to NFL head coaches and general managers.

Very often, futures can be shaped — positively or negatively — based on how a player measures out and performs, but what about the players who don’t get invited to the annual meat market? How do they get their opportunity to strut their stuff in pursuit of fulfilling their dreams of playing in the NFL?

Well, in 2019, one way will be to shine in the fledgling Alliance of American Football, the new minor-league venture spearheaded by former Bills general manager Bill Polian, and now being bankrolled, in large part, by Dallas billionaire Tom Dundon.

In conversations with various people at the combine, the sentiment about the AAF is crystal clear: Everyone thinks it’s a great thing for players who have fallen through the cracks and are looking for an opportunity after being initially overlooked, or perhaps unable to secure a 53-man or practice squad spot last year.

Bills general manager Brandon Beane, who recently signed wide receiver Duke Williams from the Canadian Football League, doesn’t like to leave any stone unturned in the search for viable players. Thus, he sent several scouts down to San Antonio when the AAF held its league-wide tryout and training camp, and he’s watching the weekly game film that the league shares with every NFL team.

“We’re definitely keeping an eye on it,” Beane said. “Anytime there’s a league that has players playing that are eligible for you at a certain time you need to watch. Sometimes guys fall out of favor for various reasons — injury, maturity, the wrong situation — so I imagine there’ll be some guys that will find their way back into some camps and be great stories when they land on a team.”

Several ex-Bills in Alliance of American Football

The bulk of the rosters in this first season are filled with either former NFL players needing a reboot, or players who have failed in the past to survive NFL training camps and need a second chance.

For example, former Bills who are playing include offensive lineman Cyril Richardson, Mo Porter and Chris Martin, tight end Keith Towbridge, defensive end Ryan Davis, defensive tackles Rickey Hatley and T.J. Barnes, cornerbacks Ron Brooks, Sterling Moore and Bradley Sylve, wide receivers Rashad Ross, Kaelin Clay and Quan Bray, linebacker A.J. Tarpley, and punter Colton Schmidt.

What Beane and other NFL executives like about the AAF is that there are reputable football men running the show. Polian is at the forefront along with his co-founder, TV executive Charlie Ebersol, and among the head coaches on board are Steve Spurrier, Mike Singletary, Dennis Erickson and Mike Martz, all former NFL head coaches.

Among the assistant coaches with Bills’ ties, David Lee, Ted Cottrell, Pepper Johnson, Dennis Thurman and Donnie Henderson are involved.

And what all eight teams are doing is teaching the players how to play the game the way the pros play it. So often, the biggest reason why college players don’t make it in the NFL, or don’t come close to succeeding the way they did in school, is because the games are so different. In the AAF, the players are learning NFL schemes and techniques.

“They’re going to develop some players who get 10 games under their belts and (NFL execs) can evaluate them on film and compare them to the guys they’ve got on their roster,” said former Bills star Steve Tasker. “It’ll, theoretically, make the bottoms of NFL rosters more efficient and better. I don’t think you’re going to find a guy who starts. It’s possible, and maybe in the future there will be a handful of guys that step up and start because of injury, but the depth of teams are going to be better.”

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh sounded as excited about the AAF as he was about being in Indianapolis to meet the college prospects.

“Big time,” he said of the Ravens’ interest in the new league. “Our scouts know all the players in the AAF, they’ll know all the players in the new XFL (slated to open in 2020), and we’ll be all over that stuff, I promise you. You look for players, and players develop. Sometimes they’ll develop after they get out of college.”

Following the NFL Europe model

Tom Telesco, the Los Angles Chargers’ general manager by way of St. Francis High School outside Buffalo, said he’s taking the same approach with the AAF that he did with the old NFL Europe.

“We have our pro scouts and we’ll watch game tapes of that,” he said. “And we’ll go see some games. There’s some potential players in that league. Down the road, maybe in a couple years it could be a developmental league. I don’t know yet. But it’s a great spot for young players just to get live game

reps, I think that’s really important.”

The league hit an early speed bump and it needed an infusion of cash, and that’s where Dundon rode in on a white horse a couple weeks ago. He had just spent $420 million to buy the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes 13 months ago, and he was thinking about investing in the AAF, but he wanted to see what the league looked like, first.

After two weeks, he liked what he saw both from a management and performance standpoint, so when the league needed help, he shelled out $250 million and became the league’s chairman.

“He bailed them out,” said Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “I think it was around $10 million that they needed urgently because they had an investor back out. But it’s not a check for $250 million, it’s a commitment over time. This is money that will fund it, if the money is all paid out, for multiple years.”

Dundon told The Ringer, “I provide capital and they have bills to pay.”

Should the NFL buy the AAF?

The AAF was not founded to compete in any way with the NFL, which is why its schedule will take place during the NFL’s off-season. Its goal is to become a feeder league for the NFL, which begs the question – at least before Dundon stepped in – why doesn’t the NFL just take it over?

The NFL reported revenue of more than $8 billion in 2017, a figure that will be higher when the 2018 report comes out, and with future TV contracts coming up soon for renewal, the league will certainly soar past the $10 billion mark.

It could easily take the reins and the AAF could truly become the minor league for the NFL in the way Triple-A baseball is for Major League Baseball, and the AHL is for the NHL. The only difference would be each team wouldn’t have its own farm team, the AAF player pool would have to be shared with players being free agents.

“I think the AAF is trying to position itself for a stronger relationship with the NFL that could culminate in the NFL buying the league, but I think the danger is if the NFL sees this thriving, maybe they just say, ‘Screw it, we’ll start our own league and not take it over,’” said Florio. “I think that either you buy the AAF or you start your own thing if you’re the NFL. There’s definitely an appetite out there for football after football season ends and we’re seeing it very gradually with the AAF.”

Florio said one way the NFL could boost the AAF’s Q-rating and therefore make it a more profitable entity should the NFL eventually take it over would be for teams to lend some of its lower-echelon players to AAF teams.

“Players who aren’t playing in the 16 regular-season games, loan them to the AAF (after the season) and give them reps that way,” said Florio. “That gives the AAF names that are either recognizable, or players in whom fans can be invested because, ‘Hey that guys’ on my favorite team and I want to see how he does.’ Right now all the AAF has to market is coaches; they need players they can market. I think that would be a way to benefit the NFL like NFL Europe did.”

For now, the NFL is watching closely, and when the AAF season ends, there will certainly be players who will be signed to training camp rosters, and then it will be up to them to seize the opportunity.

“The cool thing about the AAF is those guys have come through this whole process here, so we have a database of those guys at the combine, original draft grades, pro grades,” said Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach. “There’s certainly a handful of those guys that we have liked, and maybe for one reason or another, roster depth or not having enough space, we weren’t able to acquire those guys. I think it’s a cool opportunity for us to see those guys in a competitive environment and kind of see where they are and how they’ve developed.”

Last year, unheralded Colorado running back Phillip Lindsay was not invited to the combine, and he did not get drafted. His hometown Denver Broncos signed him to a free agent contract, and not only did he make the team, he rushed for 1,037 yards and became the first undrafted offensive rookie to ever make the Pro Bowl.

“That was a great story of what Lindsay did this year,” said Beane, who pointed to Robert Foster on his own roster. “Every year there's guys who fall through the cracks for various reasons at various positions.”

Meaning, there are diamonds in the rough to be found, and the AAF is one more place to look for them.

MAIORANA@Gannett.com