The NFL is doing well.
People love to watch the NFL and college football so much that there have been a few attempts at creating a “minor league” of pro football or another attempt at pro football in the Spring and Summer.
There are obvious issues here in creating another football league, as the XFL and the other iterations of pro football have painfully learned.
One is that the players in a 2nd tier football league are, well, 2nd tier. Not that we won’t watch 2nd tier football it’s just that we already have that with college football.
College football, it’s popularity and now that it pays players, is the reason that the NFL can’t start a minor league system like professional baseball has in America.
I doubt the NFL would want a minor league system, college football works pretty well for them
But the NFL would like to make more money.
And the fans would like to watch more quality football.
And the NFL doesn’t want to water down the product to the point the games are not much watch TV.
So where can the NFL go?
So far the trend has been to grow the fan base for the league outside of the USA. This approach is working, Germany is a huge NFL TV market for instance.
This doesn’t add more football for fans though, just more money for the league.
What if there was a way to add another football league, combine it with the NFL for a built in fan base, stadium, and practice infrastructure?
I think there is a way.
NFL Lite: An NFL for players under 180 pounds Each, or how every many teams wanted, could field a team, using the same logo, jerseys, stadiums, weights rooms, parking lots, etc, to start this new league.
Players under 180 have essentially no chance at making the league outside of a few positions. Most kickers are over 180 pounds for example.
And the regular kickers, place holders, long snappers could play if they are under 180 as a form of practice.
The athletes would be top flight, just not genetic freaks.
We have classes in boxing, and sports car driving, so why not football?
I think the on field product would be great and the fact that teams would already have a built in fan base that would start to care once their teams under 180 team started to win.
So Roger Goodell what do you think?