Major League Football – The Long Journey By Nick Athan

As a writer of professional football, I’ve met a wide variety of people that have shaped my beliefs and passion for the sport. I’m an old AFL guy who remembers fondly the rise of the upstart football league in the 1960’s. So when the opportunity arose eight years ago to listen to another man’s dream, about bringing a new football league to the masses, I listened intently.

If you ever been to Mobile, Alabama in your life, it’s a nice city. Obviously its claim to fame is the annual Senior Bowl that features a host of potential future NFL stars. The weeklong event showcases former college standouts chasing their football dreams. In this process, they get to work with NFL coaches and discuss future representation with agents.

The experience is surreal but it’s also very entertaining to witness first hand. It makes you realize how difficult it is for any athlete to have the talent, luck and fortune to get a full time gig as an NFL player. It also breaks your heart because so many of them get left standing at the alter with their football dreams dashed.

What caught my eye the first time I watched one of these workouts in Mobile was the fact, no matter how hard some of these gifted athletes worked at their craft, they ultimately needed more time to develop their game. In those days, coaches were allowed to spend more quality time getting players up to NFL speed in off-season workouts and training camps.

Yet when the NFL and the NFLPA came out of their lockout a few years ago, the amount of actual coaching time, with each player attempting to make an NFL roster, was significantly reduced. That meant players had to work harder on their own without coaching instruction just to get better. However, not every player has the same motivation and drive to work on their own.

Thus the result today is more injuries occur and players don’t get the coaching structure they need to get better on the field at a faster rate. Further, some never develop the specific workout regiments they need to be productive NFL players on the field.

So I thought to myself there has to be a better way.

Thus in 2007 I met a man by the name of Tom Marino. At that time, he told me about a plan to hatch a spring football league.

Of course at first, I was very skeptical. After all, the USFL and XFL had failed to establish any long-standing footing within the vast majority of football fans. So why would this league be different? And honestly, who will take it seriously?

However, after hours of discussing the Major League Football plan, I began to love the idea even further. At the time we initially spoke about the concept, NFL Europe was winding down it’s run. Even though the league was a success it failed to develop front line players. Further, outside of NFL circles, it just wasn’t popular stateside.

Granted it served a purpose in trying to find hidden gems amongst the mixture of American and Foreign players to serve its NFL master. However the overall cost of the league led to its demise and the NFL shut it down that same year.

As I learned in depth the true nature and value of Major League Football, it dawned on me, I was just like everyone else who had to fill the football void in the Spring—I missed football as much as anyone. True I was in the media and I could get my fill in the off-season but I missed the live game action.

I’m old school in regards to my passion for professional football. I love the X’s and O’s but the people that made up the game itself, the players, coaches and even some executives were my real heroes growing up.

Still the idea of building something from scratch, that mixed in my passion for the game, plus my desire to honor the greatest football man I had ever met in my career, the late Kansas City Chiefs and AFL Founder, Lamar Hunt, my interest level peaked to near euphoria.

In the summer of 2014 in Philadelphia, years of hard work, dedication, trials, tribulations and failures suddenly took a turn in making Major League Football a reality. The efforts of the plan I first heard eight years ago was on the doorstep of reality.

What transpired in that meeting was the coming together of some great individuals that ultimately will deliver our brilliant plan to unleash Spring Football on the world. As a unified front, we set the tone, policies and defined our mission statement to eventually unveil our spring football plan to the world.

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day nor was Major League Football. It’s hard for most people to imagine the tens of thousands of hours it has taken to date to hatch and ultimately execute our dream for Spring Football.

It’s taken multitudes of people that have invested so much of their personal expertise, passion and football cache into a league that not many people felt would ever get off the ground.

Well that’s no longer the case.

Even though Major League Football hasn’t officially made their intentions known, nor indicated which emerging markets they’ll establish MLFB franchises in the Spring of 2016, the ball is already on the field and people are taking note of our efforts.

In short order, Major League Football will become mainstream sports news. In fact, with the team we’ve assembled, and our brilliant marketing strategy in hand, the MFLB story may someday even rival the plight of the old AFL.

When that happens, football fans of all ages can rejoice, that professional football is going to expand its brand to a new legion of members within the time of year they’ve been clamoring for decades upon decades.

As I look back on the Major League Football journey, it’s been one heck of a ride. The fact I’m blessed to work with Mr. Marino, Wes Chandler, Rick Smith, Ivory Sully and Mike Queen is truly

a once in a lifetime opportunity. However, despite the fact Major League Football is a publicly traded company under the symbol, MLFB, there is so much work still to be done.

With a first rate cast of executives, that expands over 100 years of professional football experience on and off the field of battle, the fun is about to begin. Soon details of our spring football league will be unveiled to the mass audience of football fans around the world.

That’s because Major League Football is slated to begin play in March of 2016.