In the aftermath of Alliance of American Football majority owner Tom Dundon acknowledging last week that the AAF may not make it to year two, PFT reported that the AAF may not make it to the end of year one -- and that this past weekend of games could be the last.
Dundon said Monday that a decision on whether the plug will be pulled could come as soon as Tuesday.
He told Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Daily that, without an agreement to use NFL players, there’s a “real possibility” the league will close its doors.
“Trying to figure that out so I will have more information tomorrow,” Dundon said. “It’s pretty fluid. It’s day to day, I would say.”
Dundon has tied the league’s viability to the ability to use bottom-of-roster NFL players. An agreement with the NFL, which hinges on an agreement with the NFLPA, hasn’t been reached. On Sunday, PFT reported that there had been no movement regarding a possible deal.
“It is just what we think would make this the most compelling league,” Dundon told Kaplan. “We don’t know what they [the NFLPA] are going to do, if they will do it. That is kind of our thought. That’s what we are trying to figure out right now.”
Some think that using obscure NFL players won’t help the AAF, if the AAF is poised to fail without those players. And the NFLPA isn’t particularly thrilled with the suggestion that the NFLPA holds the keys to the AAF’s survival.
Dundon is the one who holds the keys for now. If he decides to stop funding the league, the league will need to complete the same kind of Hail Mary pass that brought Dundon on board several weeks ago, or it will indeed be over.
