NFL farm team league. Why not?

[Murgen]

I was thinking, why doesn't the NFL have a practice league where teams can put guys they think have potential and see how they do over a entire season (maybe 8-10 game season) instead of making a decision on a guy's entire future based solely on a single training camp/pre-season. Can coaches really tell what a guy will be like after a year of experience under their belt? Maybe they can. Dunno. I think you would be able to find a lot more diamonds in the rough that way like Driver, grant etc... Granted, that increases your expenses with double coaching staffs etc..

I'd actually pay to go watch a NFL farm team league. Have it run opposite the Pro schedule. And would fill in a fix for football over the off season. Have that championship in August up North somewhere. GB might actually get a farm league championship game played at Lambeau.

I think they would generate enough revenue to pay for themselves. And since it's a NFL league you would have more interest in it knowing X player might break into the pros. Could call guys up from it if you lost a player to injury like they do in Baseball.

I guess the man reason is it would be a hassle to setup, but if baseball does it, there must be a lot of advantages.

What do you guys think?

 

[Mushroom]

Ive always loiked that idea but I imagine the owners dont want to pay anybody not directly contributing to the team...(idk)
Its a hell of an idea though...I wondered that some time ago and never thought much of it again

 

[bad93ex]

It's called the SEC, PAC-10, Big Ten, Big 12 and the ACC.

 

[ryanbodman]

Hockey has farm teams. Here in Winnipeg, we had the Jets of the NHL until 1996. They moved to Phoenix and now we have the Manitoba Moose, who are the farm team for the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks and Moose ownership share costs. The NHL team pays us to be their farm team, and then also pay partial salary. We get to see young talent like rookies, and even big league stars who are coming off injury. It's great. In the NFL, you could put these teams in cities like Omaha, Toronto, and other smaller cities that can't sustain an NFL team at the moment. I could see it working. You could even put a team in Minnesota when the queens leave for LA!

 

[SpartaChris]

There's rumors of the UFL working with the NFL to serve as a farm league. Not to mention you still have College football, the CFL and the AFL systems (Ever heard of Kurt Warner?) that can serve as farm leagues for the NFL.

Having an official NFL farm league would be a great idea, though I wouldn't run it during the off-season. I'd run it concurrently so you can pull guys up if needed due to injury. Plus, someone who's been playing all off-season long is more likely to get injured during the season as there's a lot of wear on the body.

 

[ryanbodman]

Anytime a CFL player gets good, they jump to the NFL. Actually, here in the CFL, all contracts have a player option year. So, for example, John Smith signs a contract for 2 years plus an option. So, after the first 2 years, there is a window where he can try and get signed by an NFL team. If not, he goes back to the CFL team.
Some recent players I can think of that are in the NFL right now, out of the CFL are Mike Sellers, Kyries Hebert, Israel Idonije (A Manitoba boy), and Stefan Logan of the Steelers. Not to mention Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia and Warren Moon.

 

[PackersRS]

I like it. Rather than having Arena League football players that aren't used to the field lenght and speed...

 

[Forget Favre]

This wouldn't work for a few reasons.
Teams already have guys on a practice squad. Not good enough yet to play in games but good enough to not be cut. So they can always go to them if someone is injured.
The farm team would have to be no where near any college or pro or even in some cases where high school football is being played. You would have to somehow build a fan base and in places where fans are already passionate about a team, somehow you would have to make the farm team attractive to them. (There are probably fans who see a HS game on Fryday, college on Sat and then pro on Sun. Either in the stands or at home or a bit of both. So it would be hard for some fans to change their ways to watch a new team.)
So to bring in more football to compete for attention of those who are already fans of other teams, may not work.
And then new fields and stands may have to be built. (Unless the game is on a Sat on a HS field.) But then there may be objections from folks like me against new development.
I think the system is fine the way it is.

Here where I live we have a local baseball team that plays every summer made up of college kids. It's not a farm team but it is successful because it's all we got and the owner makes it attractive with gimmicks and give a ways.
I could go a couple hours away to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers play, but **** that.
I have a lot of fun watching the local team and it's all at a very cheap price compared to MLB and I can ride my bike to the games since the ball park is about a mile away from where I live.

 

[G0PackG0]

The biggest hurdle to this idea would be from the Players Union. They would never agree to it. Just thin k of how much money would have been saved if Jamarcus Russell would have been signed to a minor league contract? Would be great for the owners and the fans. not for the big name college players about to fal on their faces in the NFL