A NEW Take on Springtime Pro Football: The 2022 Pro Football Showcase!
In a previous blog post, we outlined what football fans want in an alternative, spring-time pro football league. Unfortunately, a lot of things we want are very difficult to obtain. In terms of an alternative football league, the bar is set very high. Unless an entity or group of owners is willing to lose massive amounts of money until parity with the NFL is achieved, spring time pro football--the kind that fans really want--will never happen. So instead, we semi-professional “feeder league” offerings like Fan Controlled Football, the XFL and the Alliance of American Football.
But there is an alternative to a full-blown alternate spring-season football league.
Welcome to the Pro Football Showcase!
The Pro Football Showcase is not a league. It's a fan-friendly, month-long extension of the football season. History has shown that fans DO show up to an alternate league's first couple of weekends of play, with generally strong, sometimes impressive attendance figures. Call it novelty, call it habit, call it whatever, fact is, people have demonstrated a willingness to continue to watch pro football games after the Super Bowl is in the books. For awhile anyway. Once the baseball season begins and hockey and basketball playoffs, there's increased competition for the sports dollar/viewing and attendance at spring football games naturally fades. It fades even faster when the football product is minor-league caliber. But history has shown that for a month or so after the Super Bowl, there IS an appetite for more pro football.
So, the PFS gives pro football fans exactly what they want: a month-long extension of the football season featuring recognizable, talented, pro-level players, splashy uniforms, exciting games with innovative rules. Plus it provides bonus wagering and fantasy elements, and, in the spirit of "leave 'em wanting more," almost as quickly as it appears, it's over. Not only is this the perfect scenario for fans, it's also perfect for TV networks, which have routinely seen solid ratings for spring football, but only for a few weeks. The networks get the benefit of the novelty and curiosity factor, without committing to televising extended weeks of football games with ever-shrinking audiences.
It also provides a valuable launching pad (or, in many cases, the opportunity to re-launch) for players wanting a shot at playing pro ball. That includes solid veteran players squeezed out of the league by salary cap restraints, young players who've tasted pro training camp and want another shot, and even college players who want to elevate their status in the upcoming pro draft and believe enough in their abilities to take a chance on themselves.
The PFS is not a "feeder league." It's a showcase. It's not chump change: players are paid a minimum $100,000 salary for two months worth of work. There's room to pay more for players with the ability to draw fans, which includes regional college stars who might not have high standing with pro scouts or recognizable pro talents who'd amp up TV ratings by being on the field. There'd be bonus money for wins and championships.
It's not one-and-done, PFS players would be welcome to continue to participate in as many yearly showcases as they're willing/able to. While $100,000+ might be "fun money" for the NFL's top stars, it's sustainable career income for hundreds, even thousands of football players with pro potential, especially considering that it's only eight weeks worth of work. Thus it's reasonable to assume that the PFS would, after a number of seasons, develop its own stars, which would ratchet up fan interest even further. Given time, the PFS could become an established part of the sports landscape.
Our original vision of the PFS included a single showcase of four teams. We expanded that to a pair of four-team showcases, eastern and western, for a total of teams. The two showcase champions meet at a neutral city for a cleverly-named championship game. The PFS is a single entity, the league runs all teams and recruits/assigns talent. The teams are corporate sponsored, similar to the way stadiums are. (We've used PLAAY sponsors for our teams.) There's a multi-network TV contract in place, every game is televised. Each of the showcases has its own three-week "seeding season," run concurrently, every team in the showcase plays the other teams once. The games are played as double-headers in league cities--each city hosts one double-header. After three weeks, there's a playoff double-header, the top seed plays the bottom seed, and the number two seed plays number three. The winners play for the showcase championship and every player on the winning team gets a big bonus check. The season culminates with the two showcase winners, east and west, playing each other in the big finale.
As an aside, you might ask, "what's the point of the "seeding season" if everyone makes the playoffs and there are no home teams?" Valid, so here's what I propose. In the playoff games, games start differently. The top seed starts its playoff game with the ball, first and goal from the bottom-seeded team's one yard-line. It also receives the second half kickoff. The number two seed starts its playoff game with the ball, first and goal from the third-seeded team's ten yard-line, and also receives the second half kickoff.
While fans want familiar, traditional pro football rules, there is leeway in an alternate league to do some things different. Some of the rules we'd incorporate are a game clock that continuously runs. Once it reaches zero, the referees implement "stoppage time," expressed in a number of plays to be run. Standard bonus time would include eight plays, to which the referees could, at their discretion (and based on a computer analysis of the in-progress game) assign an additional number of plays. We'd also add an interesting points-after-touchdown conversion process similar to what we use in Fury Football. (But, you are free to implement any rules tweaks you wish!)
That's probably enough vision-casting for this post, let's get to the specifics. Here are the eight 2022 Pro Football Showcase rosters. All of these are real players, you'll undoubtedly recognize many of them. The rosters were put together by PLAAY Gamer Judah Williams, who answered the bell when I asked him to give me a list of the top 200 football players NOT playing in he NFL in 2021. Of course, with COVID protocols ravaging NFL rosters, some of these players have found temporary NFL roster spots--but that doesn't diminish the fact that they could/would plausibly be expected to participate in an alternate pro football experience. In fact, their demonstrated willingness to chase the dream actually adds credence to the idea, I think.
We've also added about five dozen college stars, players who are eligible to be chosen in the upcoming NFL draft. We excluded the top 30 or so college prospects, those who might figure to lose more than they would gain by playing in an alternate league. The players included could be open to seizing an opportunity like this, especially if it's assumed that the coaching, accommodations and compensation would be first-rate. The college players are listed in blue.
The first thing you'll notice is that there are no player run/pass ratings. That is by design, and will, I think, make for a strongly compelling tabletop football project, one in which everyone's experience is different. Here's how it will work...
The player ratings will be generated by the SECOND SEASON game engine, as you play. It will be completely open-ended--just as if you were watching the showcase unfold before your eyes on TV.
We'll use the decider die to accomplish this. That is to say, when you roll a result in the Second Season game book and it asks if the player is rated "2," or "0," you'll roll the decider die. If it's "yes," you'll pencil in that rating for the player for whatever play was called, run or pass. If "no," you'll pencil in a rating of "1" for that player for whatever play was called, run or pass. After the initial call, when a player gets called on again, he'll use whatever rating the decider die generated.
In some situations, the game book will bring into play two players--for example, it might ask if players A or C are rated 2/pass. In these cases, you'll roll the decider die. If both players are un-rated, on a "yes" decider result ONE of the players will get the 2/pass rating. You can decide arbitrarily, or roll the decider again. The other player will remain un-rated. On a "no" decider roll, BOTH players are given a 1/pass rating.
As you continue to play, the ratings will create themselves, team identities will emerge and players will establish themselves as stars, scrubs, or somewhere in between. Reserve player ratings can also be established, by replacing starters. If a stater generates a poor rating though game play, you can start the reserve the next game and, using the same NO/YES process, see if he becomes a better performer.
Download the 2022 Pro Football Showcase for SECOND SEASON Pro Football Game here!
Here are the teams: cities, nicknames and sponsors…
• Dallas Dollar Bills (Lone Star Financial)
• Atlanta Drillers (Pro Grip Power Tools)
• Chicago Keggers (Ice Brew)
• New York Dough Rollers (Pizza Kingdom)
• Houston HammerHeads (Houseman Home Improvement)
• Southern California Flash (American Vehicle Corporation)
• Tampa Bay Bottom Line (Suncoast Capital)
• Washington Sell-Outs (Bargainmart)
2022 Pro Football Showcase Schedule
Week ONE
Dallas vs. Houston, Los Angeles vs. Chicago (at Chicago, IL)
Washington vs. New York, Tampa Bay vs. Atlanta (at Atlanta, GA)
Week TWO
Dallas vs. Chicago, Houston vs. Los Angeles (at Houston, TX)
Washington vs. Tampa Bay, New York vs. Atlanta (at Tampa, FL)
Week THREE
Dallas vs. Los Angeles, Houston vs. Chicago (at Dallas, TX)
Washington vs. Atlanta, New York vs. Tampa Bay (at Washington, DC)
Week FOUR (playoffs)
Eastern Showcase Playoffs (doubleheader), One Seed vs. Four Seed, Two Seed vs. Three Seed (at New York, NY)
Western Showcase Playoffs (doubleheader), One Seed vs. Four Seed, Two Seed vs. Three Seed (at Los Angeles, CA)
Week FIVE (Showcase Titles)
Eastern and Western Showcase Finalists (doubleheader), at Minneapolis, MN)
Week SIX (Championship)
Championship Showcase, East vs, West at Las Vegas, NV
We'll feature the Pro Football Showcase on our February 10th episode of the PLAAY Space LIVE, giving you a visual demo of how the ratings process works. Hope you'll join us!