The NFL might allow some of its young players to get experience by playing in the Alliance of American Football.
Bill Polian, the Hall of Fame general manager and AAF executive, says he and some NFL colleagues have talked informally about whether certain young players could play in the AAF during the NFL offseason.
“The talk is ramping up – I’ll say that,” Polian told USA Today.
It could make sense for the NFL to assign some players who haven’t had much playing time to the AAF to help them gain additional experience. Young quarterbacks in particular might be able to improve with AAF playing time -- and for those who don’t improve, it at least alerts their NFL teams not to count on them in the fall.
It’s unclear whether the NFL Players Association would approve of such an idea. When the current Collective Bargaining Agreement was negotiated, the players got a reduced offseason workload. The union might not agree to allow players to spend three months in the AAF during the offseason. Then again, those players would be collecting an additional salary from the AAF, which the union might view as worth it.
“Those discussions will continue but whether they bear fruit remains to be seen,” Polian said. “There are lots of procedural hurdles that have to be crossed before you could make that happen.”
The AAF has been careful to make clear that it is not competing with the NFL and actually wants to solidify its relationship with the NFL. Next year, that might even include some NFL backups on the field in the AAF.
