The 2019 AAF season was the only season in the history of the
Alliance of American Football (AAF),
[ which began on February 9, 2019. A ten-week regular season was scheduled for each of the league's eight teams.
On April 2, multiple sources indicated that Thomas Dundon, controlling owner of the AAF, had followed through on threats made in the previous week and suspended the AAF's operations, against the will of its founders. By the end of the week, the AAF front office had confirmed the suspension of operations and allowed players to opt-out of their contracts to sign with other leagues. The league filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 17, 2019.]
At the time the season ended, eight out of ten scheduled weeks had been played, and the Orlando Apollos
The Orlando Apollos were a professional American football franchise based in Orlando, Florida, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which began play in February 2019. The team played its home games at Spectru ...
, with a league best 7–1 record two games ahead of its nearest competitors, had clinched no less than a share of the regular season's best record, regardless of how the rest of the schedule would have played out. A four-team playoff was scheduled to start on April 21, with a championship game on April 27. Initially scheduled for Sam Boyd Stadium
Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a football stadium in the western United States, located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hot ...
on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...
, the title game was moved to the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas
Frisco is a city in Collin and Denton counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Its population was 200,509 at the 2 ...
, before the league ceased operations.
Teams
The Alliance of American Football had eight teams competing during its inaugural season.
Final standings
The Orlando Apollos clinched a playoff berth on March 24, and top seed in the Eastern Conference on March 30. The Birmingham Iron clinched a playoff berth on March 31.
Schedule
Each team had a ten-game regular season schedule, consisting of six in-conference games (home-and-away against each of the other three teams) and four out-of-conference games (one game against each of four teams; two home and two away). Weeks 2, 4, 6, and 9 were scheduled with out-of-conference games. Each team played one preseason exhibition game against an out-of-conference opponent. All of the preseason scrimmage games were held January 27–28 at the Alamodome
The Alamodome is a 64,000-seat domed indoor multi-purpose stadium in San Antonio, Texas. It is located on the southeastern fringe of downtown San Antonio. The facility opened on May 15, 1993, having been constructed at a cost of $186 mil ...
, in conjunction with the league's training camp.
Playoffs
Following the 10-week regular season, the top two teams in each conference were due to face each other in conference championship games, hosted by the higher seeded team. These semifinals were scheduled for April 21. The winners would then meet in the league championship game on April 27 at a neutral site. Originally, the title game had been set for Sam Boyd Stadium
Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a football stadium in the western United States, located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hot ...
near Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...
announced October 23, 201
but was changed to Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas
Frisco is a city in Collin and Denton counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Its population was 200,509 at the 2 ...
on March 20, 2019,[ before the season was ended.
]
Attendance
Announced attendance figures for each home game. In the weekly columns, dashes (—) indicate away games, while bold font indicates the highest attendance of each team. Games marked "N/A" were not played.
Source:
Awards
Players of the week
Statistical leaders
Records reflect statistics through the eight regular season games played by all teams.
Officials
The league used the Official (American football)#Eight-official system, eight-official system (with the center judge), also seen in NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
college football. There were six officiating crews, staffed with officials from FBS conferences.
The officiating crews included one former NFL official— Jimmy DeBell, a back judge on the Smith crew—and three former NFL players: Nate Jones (side judge, Cruse crew), Terry Killens
Terry Deleon Killens (born March 24, 1974) is a former professional American football player who played linebacker for seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans, the San Francisco 49ers, and the S ...
(umpire, Blake crew), and Mike Morton (umpire, Cruse crew).[
]
Broadcasting
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...
, Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...
and NFL Network
NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...
served as the Alliance's broadcast partners for the 2019 season. The CBS Sports deal was announced at the time the league launched, while the Turner Sports and NFL Network contracts were announced less than two weeks before the season began.
* CBS Sports carried the two inaugural games (February 9) regionally via the CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
broadcast network, and was due to carry the championship game broadcast nationwide on the same network. CBS later added one conference championship game and one Week 9 regular season game to their schedule, neither of which was played. CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...
carried a game of the week on Sunday afternoons.[
* The Turner Sports contract included one regular season game (February 16) and a conference championship game on ]TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
, and a Saturday afternoon game of the week on Bleacher Report's live streaming service, B/R Live
Bleacher Report (often abbreviated as B/R) is a website that focuses on sport and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London.
Bleacher Report was acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in Aug ...
. The network had the option to change which service it broadcast its games on, with TNT adding three midseason Saturday afternoon games from B/R Live. Had the league survived the full season, B/R Live would have carried a Sunday afternoon game for Week 9, swapping a game with CBS.[ In Week 10, B/R Live was due to carry the league's one game of the season scheduled for a Friday.
* NFL Network carried the remainder of the league's games, a Saturday night game and a Sunday night game each week.
]
Viewership
''In millions of viewers''
One decimal place is shown in table but three decimal places are used in all calculations. None of CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...
's broadcasts register in the Nielsen Ratings and thus viewership estimates for those games are not available.
Local radio coverage
Each AAF team had a local radio partner, and Sirius XM Radio
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...
carried a game of the week package.
Signees to other professional leagues
NFL
On April 4, the AAF announced players could leave their contracts to sign with NFL teams following the reported suspension of league football operations. The following 99 players signed with NFL teams:
Nine players who were under contract with AAF teams at the time the league ceased operations made initial NFL 53-man active rosters on August 31, 2019: offensive tackle Brandon Greene with the Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...
, quarterback Garrett Gilbert and running back D'Ernest Johnson with the Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...
, cornerback De'Vante Bausby and defensive tackle Mike Purcell with the Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...
, long snapper Cole Mazza with the Los Angeles Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...
, kicker Taylor Bertolet
Taylor Bertolet (born October 24, 1992) is an American football placekicker who is a free agent. He played college football at Texas A&M and holds a school record for most extra points in a single season.
College career
In 2012, Bertolet and ...
with the New York Jets, cornerback Kameron Kelly
Kameron Rashad Kelly (born August 19, 1996) is a professional gridiron football defensive back for the St. Louis Battlehawks of the United Football League (UFL). He played college football at San Diego State University.
Early years
Kelly ...
with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and offensive tackle Daniel Brunskill with the San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
.
CFL
The following players signed with Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
(CFL) teams:
The AAF reportedly blocked AAF players from signing with CFL teams, claiming their AAF contracts were "assets in potential bankruptcy proceedings." Plummer, Gilchrist, and Braverman had signed contracts with AAF teams, but had not yet been activated to the roster from their respective teams' rights lists at the time that the AAF suspended football operations. By April 18, CFL players were allowed to sign AAF players.
AFL
The following players signed with Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...
(AFL) teams:
Wide receiver Malachi Jones received first-team All-Arena, Receiver of the Year, and Offensive Player of the Year honors at the conclusion of the 2019 AFL season, which was also the AFL's final season before shutting down afterwards. Wide receiver Fabian Guerra was named co-Rookie of the Year as well.
NAL
The following three players signed with National Arena League
The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. It consists of teams based on the East Coast of the United States.
Teams' typical payroll budget is $600,000 per season, while players are paid $ ...
(NAL) teams:
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
Statistical leaders
at NoExtraPoints.com
{{AAF
Alliance of American Football
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...