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FXFL Brings Pro Football Back to Brooklyn
Four-Team FXFL Wants to Become a Minor League to NFL

By ANDREW BEATON
Oct. 7, 2014 9:55 p.m. ET

The Brooklyn Bolts will kick off their first season in the new Fall Experimental Football League next week at MCU Park in Coney Island. FXFL
In this age of billion-dollar contracts and $500 seats on the 50-yard line, scoring a ticket to a professional football game in New York for $20 sounds like something out of a bygone era.

Until this week, it was something out of a bygone era. But thanks to an upstart league ready to kick off its inaugural season, pro football will be played in New York City for the first time since the Jets made their home at Shea Stadium in the 1970s and ’80s.

The Fall Experimental Football League, or FXFL, will start play Wednesday in Nebraska when the Boston Brawlers visit the Omaha Mammoths. Then next week, the four-team league will stage the first pro football game in Brooklyn in more than 50 years when the Brooklyn Bolts host Boston at MCU Park, where the Cyclones play during the summer.

Unlike several short-lived professional leagues before it, the FXFL has no notions about competing with the National Football League. In fact, it’s barely interested in basic sporting concerns like selling tickets or who wins and loses the games.

Instead, the league’s ultimate goal is to partner with the NFL as a minor league, much as the National Basketball Association has incubated its Development League. In the meantime, the FXFL will attempt to prove itself as a viable developmental platform for players, coaches and referees who are on the NFL’s outskirts and have nowhere else to turn.

“We’ve created a model and an entity that I believe the NFL knows they need right now,” said FXFL founder and commissioner Brian Woods. “The problem right now is they don’t have an area to develop their younger players. Our long-term goal, obviously, is to establish a partnership with them.”


Brooklyn Bolts quarterback Tajh Boyd, who was cut by the Jets during training camp, at a practice for the new FXFL. FXFL
Woods, a 40-year-old sports lawyer by trade, said 95% of the league’s players are coming directly from NFL training camps, fresh from being cut before the season started. Tajh Boyd, the former Clemson star and a sixth-round draft pick by the Jets this year, is among the FXFL’s higher-profile players. Boyd, who set the Atlantic Coast Conference record with 107 career passing touchdowns, completed 7-of-12 passes with a touchdown in the Jets’ final preseason game.

“Worst-case scenario, I’m on the practice squad,” Boyd recalled thinking of his chances with the Jets.

Two days later, he was called into general manager John Idzik’s office and cut “without any hint of the practice squad,” he said. On a 12-hour drive home to South Carolina that same day, he weighed his options. Like many other players, he didn’t seriously consider the Canadian Football League because, in most circumstances, it requires a two-year commitment.

Boyd said one of the factors that drew him to the FXFL was the contract structure, which allows—if not encourages—players to leave for the NFL at any time, even if just for a tryout. The league will measure its success by how many players reach the NFL, not by revenue. “Success doesn’t necessarily lie with attendance,” Woods said.

Two FXFL teams, the Omaha Mammoths and Miami Blacktips, are owned by the league. The Brawlers have independent ownership, while the Bolts are owned and operated jointly by the league and the New York Mets, Mets owner Jeff Wilpon, and the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Each of the FXFL’s roughly 120 players signed a standard contract with the league that pays $1,000 a game for four games, and each can be moved from team to team as the league sees fit. The FXFL doesn’t want its coaches trying to outscheme one another to grind out a win. Instead, teams will work from a standard package of plays meant to develop NFL skills.

Boston coach Terry Shea, a former head coach at Rutgers and offensive coordinator with the Chicago Bears, is the league’s highest-profile coach. He is a renowned quarterback guru, having trained NFL stars such as Robert Griffin III and Matthew Stafford. After Boyd was initially placed on the Miami Blacktips’ roster, he was moved to the Brawlers, ostensibly to learn from Shea.

“He can be that mentor and tutor for me,” Boyd said.

Brooklyn Bolts coach John Bock was an offensive lineman with the Jets and Miami Dolphins, and can empathize with the journey of an FXFL player. After going undrafted in 1994, Bock was signed and quickly released by the Buffalo Bills, but still managed to carve out a solid six-year NFL career.

For the first season in Brooklyn, Bock has imported a staff that includes two former Jets: James Brown, a 1990s-era tackle, and Marvin Jones, a linebacker who played 10 seasons in New York.

“I went out and found the best guys possible,” Bock said, adding that he “wanted to bring some New York flavor back.”

Ultimately, the players are just happy to have another chance. “I’d rather be playing football than sitting at home and watching football,” said Brooklyn tight end Kyle Auffray.

Auffray is the prototypical FXFL player. A tight end at the University of New Hampshire, his 6-foot-5 frame and athleticism flashed potential, but he had limited game film to show NFL teams. After he was cut (most recently) by the Oakland Raiders, his agent told him other teams might be interested if he could provide more game film—essentially, demo tapes.

Auffray couldn’t provide it without playing somewhere. Enter the FXFL. The games will also be televised, some on regional networks like SNY in New York, while seven games are scheduled to be shown on ESPN3, ESPN’s online platform.

“Your film is your résumé,” Bock said. “And if you don’t have a lot of film, you don’t have a résumé.”

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Only ******* you

 

 

:rl:

 

 

You are a plethora of useless information.

 

 

While all of this absolutely mirrors my initial thoughts, I couldn't help but chuckle when Tajh Boyd's name happened to catch my eye.  Anyone want to bet that he puts up the best performance of any Jets QB this season?

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FXFL Brings Pro Football Back to Brooklyn

Four-Team FXFL Wants to Become a Minor League to NFL

By ANDREW BEATON

Oct. 7, 2014 9:55 p.m. ET

The Brooklyn Bolts will kick off their first season in the new Fall Experimental Football League next week at MCU Park in Coney Island. FXFL

In this age of billion-dollar contracts and $500 seats on the 50-yard line, scoring a ticket to a professional football game in New York for $20 sounds like something out of a bygone era.

Until this week, it was something out of a bygone era. But thanks to an upstart league ready to kick off its inaugural season, pro football will be played in New York City for the first time since the Jets made their home at Shea Stadium in the 1970s and ’80s.

The Fall Experimental Football League, or FXFL, will start play Wednesday in Nebraska when the Boston Brawlers visit the Omaha Mammoths. Then next week, the four-team league will stage the first pro football game in Brooklyn in more than 50 years when the Brooklyn Bolts host Boston at MCU Park, where the Cyclones play during the summer.

Unlike several short-lived professional leagues before it, the FXFL has no notions about competing with the National Football League. In fact, it’s barely interested in basic sporting concerns like selling tickets or who wins and loses the games.

Instead, the league’s ultimate goal is to partner with the NFL as a minor league, much as the National Basketball Association has incubated its Development League. In the meantime, the FXFL will attempt to prove itself as a viable developmental platform for players, coaches and referees who are on the NFL’s outskirts and have nowhere else to turn.

“We’ve created a model and an entity that I believe the NFL knows they need right now,” said FXFL founder and commissioner Brian Woods. “The problem right now is they don’t have an area to develop their younger players. Our long-term goal, obviously, is to establish a partnership with them.”

Brooklyn Bolts quarterback Tajh Boyd, who was cut by the Jets during training camp, at a practice for the new FXFL. FXFL

Woods, a 40-year-old sports lawyer by trade, said 95% of the league’s players are coming directly from NFL training camps, fresh from being cut before the season started. Tajh Boyd, the former Clemson star and a sixth-round draft pick by the Jets this year, is among the FXFL’s higher-profile players. Boyd, who set the Atlantic Coast Conference record with 107 career passing touchdowns, completed 7-of-12 passes with a touchdown in the Jets’ final preseason game.

“Worst-case scenario, I’m on the practice squad,” Boyd recalled thinking of his chances with the Jets.

Two days later, he was called into general manager John Idzik’s office and cut “without any hint of the practice squad,” he said. On a 12-hour drive home to South Carolina that same day, he weighed his options. Like many other players, he didn’t seriously consider the Canadian Football League because, in most circumstances, it requires a two-year commitment.

Boyd said one of the factors that drew him to the FXFL was the contract structure, which allows—if not encourages—players to leave for the NFL at any time, even if just for a tryout. The league will measure its success by how many players reach the NFL, not by revenue. “Success doesn’t necessarily lie with attendance,” Woods said.

Two FXFL teams, the Omaha Mammoths and Miami Blacktips, are owned by the league. The Brawlers have independent ownership, while the Bolts are owned and operated jointly by the league and the New York Mets, Mets owner Jeff Wilpon, and the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Each of the FXFL’s roughly 120 players signed a standard contract with the league that pays $1,000 a game for four games, and each can be moved from team to team as the league sees fit. The FXFL doesn’t want its coaches trying to outscheme one another to grind out a win. Instead, teams will work from a standard package of plays meant to develop NFL skills.

Boston coach Terry Shea, a former head coach at Rutgers and offensive coordinator with the Chicago Bears, is the league’s highest-profile coach. He is a renowned quarterback guru, having trained NFL stars such as Robert Griffin III and Matthew Stafford. After Boyd was initially placed on the Miami Blacktips’ roster, he was moved to the Brawlers, ostensibly to learn from Shea.

“He can be that mentor and tutor for me,” Boyd said.

Brooklyn Bolts coach John Bock was an offensive lineman with the Jets and Miami Dolphins, and can empathize with the journey of an FXFL player. After going undrafted in 1994, Bock was signed and quickly released by the Buffalo Bills, but still managed to carve out a solid six-year NFL career.

For the first season in Brooklyn, Bock has imported a staff that includes two former Jets: James Brown, a 1990s-era tackle, and Marvin Jones, a linebacker who played 10 seasons in New York.

“I went out and found the best guys possible,” Bock said, adding that he “wanted to bring some New York flavor back.”

Ultimately, the players are just happy to have another chance. “I’d rather be playing football than sitting at home and watching football,” said Brooklyn tight end Kyle Auffray.

Auffray is the prototypical FXFL player. A tight end at the University of New Hampshire, his 6-foot-5 frame and athleticism flashed potential, but he had limited game film to show NFL teams. After he was cut (most recently) by the Oakland Raiders, his agent told him other teams might be interested if he could provide more game film—essentially, demo tapes.

Auffray couldn’t provide it without playing somewhere. Enter the FXFL. The games will also be televised, some on regional networks like SNY in New York, while seven games are scheduled to be shown on ESPN3, ESPN’s online platform.

“Your film is your résumé,” Bock said. “And if you don’t have a lot of film, you don’t have a résumé.”

Thank you Captain.  Much appreciated 

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