Spring Football League
The Spring Football League was a professional American football minor league that existed for one season in 2000.
Spring football
Founded by several ex-NFL players such as Eric Dickerson, Drew Pearson, Bo Jackson, and Tony Dorsett, the SFL planned to use the four-game mini-season to test cities, fans, stadiums, the media, entertainment, and springtime American football as a product. The year before, the Regional Football League staggered through a spring season, then announced it would not return for 2000.In late 1999, the SFL announced an inaugural season of 2000, with ten individually-owned teams playing a 12-week schedule, followed by a championship game during Memorial Day weekend. Mark Rice, chairman of the SFL board of governors, placed eight of the franchises in Birmingham; Canton, Ohio; Houston; Jackson, Mississippi; Los Angeles; Miami; San Antonio and Washington, D.C. On March 1, 2000, the SFL announced the league had scaled down to four teams that would play four-game schedules on Saturdays from April 29, followed by a championship game in Miami on May 27.
Teams
SFL teams consisted of 38 players, each of whom would receive $1,200 per game with a $200 winners bonus.The league's games included pre-game and half-time shows featuring national musical acts, a pronounced effort to attract both African-Americans and Latino fans, and innovative use of wireless communication.
SFL coaches of note:
- Lew Carpenter - Green Bay Packers
- Guy McIntyre - San Francisco 49ers
- Doug Cosbie - Dallas Cowboys
- Keith Millard - Minnesota Vikings
- Jim Jensen - Miami Dolphins
- Hugh Green - Miami Dolphins
- David Little - Pittsburgh Steelers
- Neal Colzie - Oakland Raiders
- Donald Hollas - Oakland Raiders
- Don Narcisse - Saskatchewan Roughriders
Mini-season cut short
The Spring Football League suffered from a distinct lack of media attention: newspaper coverage was spotty at best, and the SFL had no radio or TV contracts. Attendance was disastrously low, despite some very competitive contests; only 1,100 people showed up at the one game played at cavernous Los Angeles Coliseum. The SFL wasn't even able to finish out its modest, one-month season—league officials ended the test program after only two weeks and four games. Houston and San Antonio, both with 2–0 records, were declared league co-champions.The SFL planned to return in 2001 with at least eight teams. However, with funding for the league having been provided by tech-stock entrepreneurs, any chance that the SFL would return was scotched by the tech-market crash of 2000 and the subsequent announcement of the XFL by the WWF.
The last professional football game played at the Miami Orange Bowl was an SFL game: a crowd estimated at "less than a thousand" watched on April 29, 2000 as the San Antonio Matadors defeated the Miami Tropics, 16-14.