It seems like just yesterday they were putting up goalposts at Rosenblatt Stadium and Otis Day was shouting to us from center field at halftime.
Are the Nighthawks about to soar like a flashing comet into the sky? Become a sports footnote in this town, somewhere alongside the Omaha Mustangs?
It doesn't have to be that way. The UFL, a good idea in the proper place, can live for another day.
How? Glad you asked.
Some say the UFL should sign kids out of high school, lure them from college football the way the old American Football League raided college football. The idea would be to become a curiosity, get people into the stands, see if Johnny High School can make it to the second quarter standing up.
Others say play in college towns. Play in the spring. Summer. August through October. Become a farm system to the NFL. Play with a lime green football. Sign Hollywood celebrities to suit up and butt heads with real football players. Get a national network signed on by turning the entire league into a "Hard Knocks" show. Hire fantasy football winners to be general managers.
It's all good fun, but the bottom line is that any talk about a model for survival for the UFL comes back to one simple principle.
Whatever the National Football League wants it to be.
That's it. Nothing else matters. The only way the UFL makes it is if the NFL signs on as a partner. That's the only path to credibility, which is the key to getting on TV, which is how you pay bills.
I'll take it a step further: The UFL should let the NFL run the league.
Amazingly, there is optimism for a 2012 UFL season because NFL involvement could be close.
Joe Moglia, the Nighthawks' coach and president, brought it up Tuesday at a press conference. He said the NFL once offered to buy into the UFL, but wanted 51 percent of the league. The UFL owners, Moglia said, balked because they had a plan and a model and wanted to see if it could work. They wanted to do it their way.
Oops.
When this story came out in Feb. 2010, there was a school of thought that the NFL was positioning itself for the offseason of 2011, when a lockout seemed imminent. It looked like a game of chicken with the players union; if the NFL owned the UFL, too, there wouldn't be an alternative outlet for the players to go during a lockout.
Conversely, the UFL was counting on being center stage during a lengthy lockout.
The labor drama was settled and now here they are, like an old Groucho Marx line. Hello, we must be going.
Next time the NFL calls, the UFL owners should fall on their knees and beg. Apparently there's still hope. According to Moglia and Nighthawks General Manager Rick Mueller, the NFL still has interest in the UFL, and sees it as a viable developmental league.
"I think the possibility is always out there," Mueller said. "I don't even know that it has to wait until the end of the (NFL) season to happen. They look at this league and they think it's a benefit for them."
It's been that way in each of the UFL's three seasons. Back in August, Moglia said the Nighthawks sent 21 players to NFL training camps. According to the UFL, 19 former UFL players made NFL rosters this fall. After this weekend's finale, there are bound to be more.
That's just a start. The way to make this work would be to make the UFL teams affiliates of the 32 NFL teams. Make it a true developmental league, much like Class AAA baseball. The UFL teams could be part live practice squad. If the Denver Broncos want to see what Tim Tebow can do, they wouldn't have to mortgage their season to find out. They could send him to Omaha for two months.
"I've been in that chair in the NFL, the personnel director's chair," said Mueller, who was in that role with the New Orleans Saints for eight years. "You spend a lot of money on draft picks, unproven kids. There's a chance you'll keep a guy around for three or four years that never really gets a chance. You've got an investment in him, but you've got to know, sooner or later, whether this kid can play or not.
"One correct decision on personnel in the right direction can save you a million dollars. A lot of these kids develop, and they aren't even first-round picks. This league (UFL) can develop players. You can find out who can play."
Mueller's idea: Have a UFL of eight teams, placed regionally in cities like Omaha, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Chattanooga, where there is a passion for football and no NFL in the area. Each of the eight UFL teams would be affiliated with four NFL teams in that region.
"If we're Omaha, you could have Kansas City, Denver, Chicago and St. Louis to pull from here, or feed our team," Mueller said. "You would certainly have a number of guys that the Nighthawks would sign. Then say the four teams put five guys each into a spring league. That's 20 guys on your roster. How those guys go back to their teams can be decided. But at least those players could play, get snaps, rather than trying to evaluate 80 guys in preseason games. Now you actually have seen them play and have an evaluation.
"You could look at playing in the spring, be done by OTAs, so you would have information on guys going into training camp. Or, start after the final cuts in the fall. There's not much difference in the last 10 guys you cut and the last 10 you keep. Keep them around, develop them, let a high draft pick not have to get thrown in early. The benefit of playing in the fall is, after we're done, they're getting a guy who's in game shape, not someone who's been sitting on his couch since Sept. 1."
August would be a preferable kickoff date, especially in a college football hotbed like Omaha, where fans are chomping at the bit for ball in late summer. Play until late October.
I hope that this happens. I'm a fan of the UFL, but it has to be done right. It's good football. And Omaha fans have taken to the product, not to mention the party. The crowds are down this year. Part of that is the novelty wearing off. Part is people not wanting to invest money or emotions into something that won't be here.
But if you knew that this was long term, and it was run by the NFL, to benefit the NFL, Omaha would be all-in. I think that every game would sell out. There would be at least seven other cities that would do the same.
Maybe it's a long shot. The UFL owners, starting with Las Vegas' Bill Hambrecht, a power broker in the league, would have to let the NFL call the shots. Set the calendar. Hire the commissioner. Put the games on the NFL Network, which is always looking for inventory. This would be a league for the NFL, by the NFL.
What's in it for the owners? Fans, games, merchandise, ticket revenue, TV money. Affiliation with the most powerful league in professional sports.
Last, but not least: avoiding footnote status.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com
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