Steve Spurrier Hired As Coach In Proposed New Football League

  • by 904 Newsroom
  • April 8, 2018
  • 1261 views

 

The Orlando Alliance announced Saturday that it has hired Spurrier as its first head coach. Spurrier will coach in the planned Alliance of American Football.


The inaugural eight-team, 10-game Alliance of American Football season will kick off Feb. 9, 2019 — the week after Super Bowl LIII — as a league that executives describe as “complementary” to the NFL

The Alliance is the creation of Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Polian and longtime TV and film producer Charlie Ebersol. The league plans to have eight teams and will play a 12-week season Feb. 9, 2019, and will be broadcast on CBS.

The league will begin announcing the cities, stadiums and coaches of the teams in April, with rosters largely made up of players cut from the NFL. Ebersol said they focused on cities and markets with the highest levels of fan engagement, both professionally and collegiately. There will be no owners, just one single entity.

The league has a multi-year deal with CBS, which will air the season-opener and championship. Every other week, CBSSN will air one game while the other three will be streamed for free through the league’s app — which will also feature “integrated, in-game fantasy” for fans.

Orlando has never had much success with startup football leagues. The Florida Blazers lasted only one season in the ill-fated World Football League during the 1970s, followed by several other short-lived teams: The Orlando Renegades of the United States Football League, the Orlando Thunder of the World League of American Football, the Orlando Rage of the infamous XFL, and the Florida Tuckers of the United Football League.


Spurrier coached collegiately at Duke (1987-89), Florida (1990-2001) and South Carolina (2005-2015). The 1966 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback also coached the NFL’s Washington Redskins (2002-03).

He is the fourth person to be inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.

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