The Professional Spring Football League (PSFL) was an outdoor

american football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

minor league slated to begin in 1992. The league had a preview show on

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in late 1991/early 1992, laying out the ten teams that would play.Full PSFL preview show
/ref> The league was founded by Vincent Sette, a computer sales executive. Rex Lardner, a television executive, was the commissioner. As far as sports leagues folding before they actually began to play their first season, this league probably got the closest to actually starting the season than any other example, as each team had players already in camp and practicing, and rosters cut down to 60 players, before the plug was pulled. Some fairly high-profile coaches had been announced, and a number of current or future notable

Arena Football Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller ...

and NFL players were in the teams' training camps, including mid-90s

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Bernie Parmalee Bernard Parmalee (born September 16, 1967) is an American football coach who is the running backs coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the special teams coordinator for the Atlanta Fal ...

, AFL QB

Ben Bennett Allen Beverly Bennett II (born May 5, 1962) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals and Chicago Bears. He also was a member of the Jacksonville Bulls, Chicago Bruisers ...

, AFL DS Durwood Roquemore, and AFL WR/DB

Barry Wagner Barry Wagner (born November 24, 1967) is a retired American football player in the Arena Football League for the Orlando Predators, with whom he won his first ArenaBowl Championship, and the San Jose SaberCats, with whom he won two championships ...

. Notre Dame QB

Tony Rice David Anthony Rice (June 8, 1951 – December 25, 2020), known professionally as Tony Rice, was an American guitarist and bluegrass musician. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and a ...

Timmy Smith Timothy LaRay Smith (born January 21, 1964) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for th ...

RB –

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(200+ yards in Super Bowl XXII) and many others that played professional football. The 1992 PSFL Championship Game, "The Red, White And Blue Bowl", was to have been played at

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. It is located about due east of the U.S. Capitol building, near the ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, on Sunday, July 5. The folding of the league was announced on February 19, 1992, 10 days before the scheduled season opener. The league had over 7 million dollars in

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from ticket sales as funds were not to be spent until the games were played and revenues were earned. This protected fans and sponsors from losses or failure, and ticketholder received full refunds. The PSFL tried to regroup for 1993 season, but again the start-up funding did not get secured and the league organization disbanded. This league was the first sports LLC which has been the blueprint of several leagues since. (Most well-known is the WNBA). Rather than the league being set up as a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

which technically exists for the benefit of its for-profit

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

s, the PSFL was one single

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(the "entity" model of sports league organization) with

limited partners A limited partnership (LP) is a form of partnership similar to a general partnership except that while a general partnership must have at least two general partners (GPs), a limited partnership must have at least one GP and at least one limited ...

operating the teams and performing many of the functions usually performed by team owners in the traditional model of North American professional sport organization. This eliminated weak financial teams as well as the potential for

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as all players were contracted from the PSFL and then assigned to teams. The teams shut down all on the same day as all invoiced expenses were paid by the league headquarters on a budget system. The start-up funding to get to the first games did not show up for various reasons. It was responsible for many NFL changes in player relationships, stadium signage configurations, and marketing sponsorship innovations. Two-point conversions were to be allowed and overtime was to be a modified sudden death, with each team being guaranteed a possession. The league did play a few exhibition games in Florida for the benefit of area police departments.

Teams

References

External links

Remember the PSFL
{{Profootball Defunct American football leagues in the United States Sports leagues established in 1991 Organizations disestablished in 1993 1991 establishments in the United States 1993 disestablishments in the United States