Pro football – actual games – won’t disappear from TV screens
https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Daryl-Williams-Jersey , mobile devices and the American consciousness once the Super Bowl ends next February.The Alliance of American Football will kick off the following Sunday. On network television (CBS) as well as through a multitude of free digital platforms.Yes, spring football. We know, from the USFL to the World League to the XFL, the idea has not worked. Here’s why the Alliance has a strong chance of succeeding: the folks involved.The Alliance is the creation of Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Polian, one of the most respected and accomplished executives in NFL history, and Charlie Ebersol, a longtime TV and film producer. Ebersol’s father, Dick, defined NBC Sports’ programming for more than two decades and created ”Sunday Night Football.” Dick Ebersol, who also pioneered NBC’s Olympic broadcasts, will serve on the board of directors.Former players such as Justin Tuck, Hines Ward and Jared Allen will have significant roles in a league the younger Ebersol calls a ”true partnership.””That’s the best way a league can perform and will be ultimately the key to success, having an interwoven product,” he says.”Whenever you have an endeavor that involves the kind of teamwork football involves,” Polian adds, ”it implies a partnership, the need to get their buy-in and do things
https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Donte-Jackson-Jersey , particularly in a startup, that represent their best interest … to make sure players know we have their best interests at heart. That is the guiding philosophy.”Co-founder Polian, who built the Bills, Colts and Panthers into Super Bowl teams, will oversee the football side, helped by former player and front office executive J.K. McKay, who has been involved in other startups.The league will have eight teams – cities and stadia to be announced, though look for complementary sites, not NFL venues, and warmer climates given the February-late April schedule. Rosters will be culled from NFL cuts to the 53-man maximum after preseason, which Polian calls ”the core of our constituency”; collegians who have gone undrafted, including underclassmen who have lost any remaining eligibility; players looking to return to the sport; and free agents from the CFL or elsewhere.As a single entity, the Alliance will own all contracts and players will be dispersed in a variety of manners. If someone played in the NFL or in college for a Florida team or school, he’d likely wind up on a Florida-based franchise, for example. There also will be a mechanism after those allocations for a team interested in a certain player to get his rights. And then coaches of specific teams will have access to a group of players outside the allocations.A draft of players in late fall after the college season concludes – ”Players who probably are coming off injury or some other situation where they want to perhaps play in our league in order to enhance their draft status,” Polian explains – also is planned.With an eye on player safety, the Alliance also will eliminate kickoffs. There is a unique plan for onside kicks
Greg Olsen Jersey , with the team wanting to try one instead taking possession at its 35 yard-line on a fourth-and-10 to try one play to keep the ball.”This eliminates two plays that if you were reinventing the game are plays you would probably leave out,” Polian says.The three-point stance for linemen, judged by many a dangerous technique, also could be banned.The preponderance of video reviews by officials won’t be an issue in the Alliance, Polian says. Each coach will be allowed two challenges and that’s it for replay.And here’s one everybody but a placekicker will love: all extra points are 2-point conversion plays from the 2-yard line.Ebersol has spent three years putting together the Alliance. He and Polian, backed by the numbers showing America’s passion for the sport, see a huge void the league can fill.”Football is so dominant for six months of the year,” Ebersol says. ”It even hides a number we focused on: millions of fans who stop watching the top five sports in America when football is off the air. Millions of football fans who don’t want to watch other sports.”And there are 59 million who play fantasy sports, 29 million of them stopped when football ended.”So what to do to really empower our fans? Fans are investors. They invest time and emotion and money … and what they get in return is the thrill of victory and agony of defeat. We wanted to empower the fans so they will be rewarded for being fans of their team, so fans have a real stake in the league.”How will they do so?Ebersol mysteriously says to ”stay tuned.”— CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)The Carolina Panthers are being sold for an NFL-record $2.2 billion.Hedge fund manager David Tepper has agreed to buy the Panthers from team founder Jerry Richardson, two people familiar with the situation said Tuesday. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team has not yet announced the sale.The purchase is subject to a vote at the NFL owners meeting next week in Atlanta.Richardson announced in December he was selling the team amid an NFL investigation into sexual and racial misconduct in the workplace. That decision came after a report by Sports Illustrated detailing Richardson’s alleged misconduct.The league’s investigation into the allegations is still ongoing.The price tag is the most ever paid for an NFL franchise, eclipsing the $1.4 billion the Pegula family paid to purchase the Buffalo Bills in 2014.Ben Navarro, the founder and CEO of Sherman Financial Group, was considered Tepper’s biggest competitor in the bid to purchase the Panthers. He conceded Tuesday that he’d lost the bid.”My family and I are grateful to have had the opportunity to be included as a potential buyer of one of the premier assets in all of the Carolinas – the Panthers football team,” Navarro said in an email to The Associated Press. ”It would have been a privilege to become the stewards of this iconic franchise to ensure its home remains in the Carolinas where it belongs, to establish a new era of leadership and excellence on and off the field
Fozzy Whittaker Color Rush Jersey , and to leverage the team’s NFL platform to further our quest to help all children gain access to a great education.”Tepper’s plans on whether the team will remain in Charlotte for the long-term future remain unclear.The Panthers are tied to their downtown stadium through the 2018 season because of an agreement with the city. After that a new owner is free to extend the lease to the stadium, build a new stadium or possibly move the team.Moving the Panthers out of Charlotte would seem to a longshot.NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he would prefer to keep the team in Charlotte where it has been successful. The Panthers have been one of the NFL’s best supported teams with only two non-sellout games since the team began playing its home games in Charlotte in 1996.Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Tepper, 60, is a part owner of the Steelers and founder and president of Appaloosa Management, a global hedge fund based in Miami.Because he holds a 5 percent stake in the Steelers, Tepper’s finances already have been vetted by the league, meaning it wouldn’t take much for NFL owners to approve the sale. However, Tepper would have to sell his minority ownership stake of the Steelers, per league rules.Forbes listed Tepper’s net worth at $11.4 billion in February 2017.Tepper is known for his philanthropy.He donated $55 million to Carnegie Mellon University’s business school in 2013. Tepper graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, where the Tepper School of Business is named after him.Richardson was the first and only majority of the Panthers. He became only the first former player since George Halas to become an NFL owner when he was awarded an expansion franchise in 1993. Richardson promised fans at the time the Panthers would win a Super Bowl ”within 10 years.” Carolina has reached the Super Bowl twice, including in 2015, but has never won.—
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