AAFL gets drafty

While most football fans likely spent this past weekend in limbo with no games to watch for the first time since early August, the All American Football League was busier than the photographers chasing Tom “The Boot” Brady.

The AAFL, which I’ve blogged about a couple times before (scroll down) and written about a few times (links posted below), spent Jan. 26 conducting its inaugural draft.

Each of the six teams was allowed to “protect” a large group players, mainly ones from that team’s specific region (Team Michigan protected 20), meaning that no other team could select them.

That also meant there was little drama in the draft because the majority of the well-known and top talent was protected. Team Arkansas made former Troy University offensive lineman Zarah Yisrael the No. 1 pick.

While that selection was followed with a couple of former standout signal callers, as Virginia Tech’s Bryan Randall went No. 2 to Team Tennessee and Nebraska Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch was taken No. 3 by Team Texas, peering over the draft results (which you can find on the league’s Web site at www.aafl.com) leaves little excitement.

And the AAFL will need every ounce of excitement it can conjure up to get fans interested and survive.

Team Michigan’s first pick was former UCLA quarterback David Koral. The squad also had former University Illinois QB Jon Beutjer protected, along with six former University of Michigan players. (Head back to the AAFL site for Team Michigan’s post-draft roster.)
The team also unveiled a uniform — dark blue with white numbering and a solid gold stripe across the shoulders and under the neck with some red trim. A gold picture of the state (both parts, don’t want to upset any Yoopers adorns the dark blue helmets, which also have a single gold stripe going down the middle.

Team Michigan kicks off its inaugural season April 12 at Tennessee.

Team Florida and former University of Florida QB Chris Leak and Florida State University receiver Peter Warrick will visit Ford Field for Team Michigan's April 19 home opener.

Here are the links I mentioned to my past stories on the AAFL:
http://www.candgnews.com/Homepage-Articles/2007/12-05-07/XS-AAFLUPDATE_horiz.asp
http://www.candgnews.com/Homepage-Articles/2007/9-26-07/XS-LASTCHANCE_vert.asp
http://www.candgnews.com/Homepage-Articles/2007/8-15-07/XS-NEWTEAM.asp