GCn20

A Div 1 team spends more on player development in a year than any CFL/XFL/USFL team spends on their entire operations. These kids are polished gems or they will never be. Also, being pro ready in other sports is about playing time, in pro football it's about understanding expanded playbooks. Football is about having the skills to play your position, having the physical ability to do so, and demonstrating that you can do it with the Friday night lights on. At 22-23 you either can or you can't. I suppose if one wanted to make the argument that Canadian players could be coached up, I would agree a little more, as they have for the most part been subject to subpar competition and coaching compared to what is needed in the pros. However, that's not the discussion. I suppose if it didn't cost the NFL anything at all, they could probably find some guys with behavioral problems or high measurables/low football IQ and fill some rosters up to see if it works out but realistically they would not spend money on this.

I wouldn't.

True. Might not even be a season for all we know, or maybe Russia goes Nuke crazy by then, or global warming causes environmental catastrophe that changes everything. However, on the assumption that there is one and restrictions are lifted in the next couple months, I think Tui is definitely a possibility.

Football has PRs for those that need pro seasoning....and I didn't call the NCAA a development league, Jerry Jones pres. of the NFL owners association did NUMEROUS times. Go argue with him about it. You are absolutely delusional trying to compare hockey, or basketball 17 and 18 year olds to 23-24 year old NCAA football athletes. First of all the obvious, hockey is a game of split second decisions played at blinding speed at high emotional levels where you must find a role, and then hone it to become a pro. Football is a game of preparation, discipline, and physical ability. A non-pro ready football player is simply cut because if they don't have the attributes at 23 or 24 they are never going to have them. A non-pro ready hockey player can be developed because most of the time it's between the ears, or they simply need to wait for 20 lbs of adulthood. This idea of yours that after 4 years of NCAA has not prepared them for life in the pros is completely inaccurate. By your own admission, you have stated that NCAA operates like a pro league.

I don't think we should be ruling Tui out yet. With restrictions lifting like crazy, the flight ban will likely be long gone by July, and the fact no one else has signed him makes me think that they may have a deal worked out if restrictions are lifted.

NHL players are rarely physically ready when drafted, NCAA football players are. Pretty simple really.

No they didn't. They partnered on innovations but definitely not as a developmental league. The XFL would love everyone to believe that they are, and are marketing it as such, but developing what exactly that is of value to the NFL? Nothing. As a testing ground....sure. Fact remains that no money makes for an ultra-weak partnership. The CFL is as much a player development league for the NFL as the XFL...probably more so even. Football is not a game that even allows a player to ripen on the vine. Players are coming out of college 24-25 years old. They are as ripe as they are going to get. A developmental league for players to do what exactly, come into the league past their prime? This isn't hockey where players are drafted at 18 and need time to grow into their adult bodies. The NCAA churns out more pro ready players than the NFL can handle already. For the odd one that slips through the cracks the CFL was more than enough to find the diamond in the rough. The NFL has zero interest in a player development league because the NFL does not need a player development league. Simple as that. Even Jerry Jones has said so on behalf of the NFL owners who would have to pay for it, but hey...you guys know more than him because some guy in Buffalo wants to see better NFL officiating.

That is exactly what it is. The NFL will let them toss around their illusions of a relationship in exchange for them testing out some rules and giving more coaches a place to get better. No cash, no support otherwise. There is no player sharing, and no money changing hands. The only thing this deal benefits is the NFL and that is why they are allowing it. If the XFL comes hat in hand to the NFL they will have the door slammed in their face. Wrong time of year, and too bad of a history for failure for US sports fans to even give these leagues a fighting chance.

NFL officials are not NFL owners and partnering on developing officials and testing rules is a FAR cry from a player development league. Not even in the same stratosphere. They don't have a developmental partnership with the XFL as far as players go. You made the comparison to NFL Europe which was an NFL funded player development league that was actually even profitable, and the NFL still shut it down because they felt it was a waste of time. The XFL is NOT a developmental league for the NFL no matter how much they claim to be. They have an agreement in place for the XFL to be a testing ground for them and a breeding ground for coaches. Nothing more. That isn't worth a wooden nickel to the NFL.

I'm not moving the goal posts one inch. The discussion was would the NFL keep any of these leagues alive so that they could have a developmental league. I stated that NFL ownership has already said no chance they would fund a league, and NFLPA has stated no chance they would allow the transfer of players to such a league. Show me where I moved the goal post? You came into the conversation talking about XFL testing rules and turf and being buddy buddy with the NFL....that was YOUR effort to move the goal posts because that wasn't the discussion at all. Even the XFL has stated they will never be a player developmental league.

Pffft...he's been a member of Riderfans for a couple years now, compared to the bias over there we are like Switzerland in comparison.

That's great, but that is a far cry from them being a player developmental league and providing financial support of any kind. I think you guys are confused at to what the conversation was about originally. I was responding to the idea that the NFL would float money to these leagues to keep them alive so that they have a player developmental type league. I have no doubt that the NFL would use any league willing to be their guinea pigs on stuff like rule changes, football leather types etc. but that is not even remotely the same thing as being a fully funded developmental league. The XFL gets some credibility by having the NFL endorse it's existance but that's as much as they will gain from this. The road to profitablity and sustainability is solely on XFL/USFL ownership to generate enough revenue to exist, and that is something that historically has never happened for a spring league. Through most of the US, fishing season, golfing, baseball, and other outdoor activities begin right at the time this league begins. It's a hurdle no spring league has ever come close to clearing and there is absolutely zero reason to believe The Rock or anyone else will make it happen now.

He would do well to learn.

The NFL owners have unequivocally stated that they don't see a need for a developmental league. The NFLPA has unequivocally stated that they will NOT support the transfer of players between the NFL and any other league. Not sure what you are basing your opinion on? Owners and NFLPA have already weighed in on this, and it's a big fat NO.

In fairness to DT, when you are working the booth with neanderthals like Mullinder, it is probably a good idea to just keep talking stats instead of letting the baboon next to you have air time. He won't have that problem if Doug Brown is back, he is a great color guy.

Welcome aboard DT. Look forward to hearing your broadcasts.

Hunter Biden took more money from Russia than the 2 million donated to the British Conservative party. This is deeply concerning that politicos of ALL stripes seem to be in Russia's pocket.

Not true but not false either, they have not been historically interested enough in these leagues to make them financially viable. That is a fact. Attendance in every incarnation of the spring leagues has been abysmal and TV ratings poor. Could some of these leagues build themselves into viability eventually, maybe, but it would take billionaire ownership of each franchise to do it because it would take years to even get to a break even point and would hemmorhage money before that. It's a business model that just doesn't work in it's market. Proven time and time again.

He's been chipping away at this for 20 years now. He is getting old and impatient now but this was always his plan.

Sure that is what Putin wants, and that is a very serious miscalculation on his part. As for NATO, let's not pretend the USA doesn't wear the pants there. I don't want NATO to fight, I want them to supply the fight. Theoretically, I doubt he does. He's crazy but he's also smart enough to know that they would be nuked back to the stone age as well. If we were to invade Russia maybe he would, but he would not risk losing all of Russia over the Ukraine.

Jerry Jones said that NFL owners feel that the NCAA is the greatest feeder league in the world and it would be wasted money for NFL owners to pay for one. This is when he was directly asked if NFL owners had any interest in propping up the AAF. That was 3 years ago. I can't possibly see what would have changed their mind from then to now. He even stated that there are more than enough NFL ready prospects coming out of the NCAA and that development after college is a waste of time as the majority of players only have a 5 or 6 year window out of college. He stated that is why the NFL expanded their PRs and PR eligibility and that NFL teams develop players far better this way than in a different league. I do not foresee an instance where the NFL provides any meaningful financial assistance to the USFL or XFL, and I see no chance of either being financially viable on their own. Dobson signed a contract that is highly unlikely to be valid or in place after it's first season. Every time one of these fly by night rinky dink spring leagues pop up the CFL writers predict doom and gloom, and every time they fold and hundreds of players are out there looking for work.

Escalating it? To what exactly. It's war and it's time people wake up and see that. Putin has escalated this and will continue to do so. Nip it in the bud now or he will have his iron curtain back before we grow the onions to do something about it. Sanctions are a good first step, but the time for military support is now....right now. Putin does not care. He is Nero fiddling on the roof. This is his last chance to realize his dream of regaining the USSR and he won't stop.

Well aware of Kaliningrad. Just don't see it as a bigger problem than what Russia is doing right now. Invasion is invasion and no free passes should be handed out to this nut bar.

I expect them and the rest of NATO to do like they have all over the middle East when it was in turmoil, and provide military support to Ukraine. Not troops, or a declaration of war, per se but NATO should be shipping all weapon tech, munitions, training support etc just like they did against Iraq, Iran, Syria etc.

Biden is a no show on Putin right now, as far as I can tell he is part of the Russian bootlicking problem. Putin won't stop until he is stopped. How many countries have to fall before that happens will depend on when the world finally decides to treat him like the power mad dictator that he is. Why is Poland and Lithuania a bigger problem than Ukraine? Any invasion, including this current one, is a massive world problem. This is a country being invaded for the simple reason that they wanted to join the EU and NATO. The G7's and NATO allies response to this so far is absolutely sickening and cowardly.