Which past (https://wtop.com/nfl/2022/05/column-spring-football-leagues-time-has-come-and-gone/) alterative (https://footballstadiumdigest.com/2019/01/from-usfl-to-aaf-a-history-of-spring-football/) league (https://www.audacy.com/wtic/blogs/rob-joyce/history-of-failed-pro-football-leagues) to the NFL was the best (https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/04/03/aaf-joins-xfl-usfl-wfl-start-up-pro-football-leagues-failed/3349422002/)?


World Football League (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Football_League) (1974–1975)

United States Football League (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Football_League) (1983–1985)

XFL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFL_(2001)) (2001)

United Football League (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Football_League_(2009%E2%80%932012)) (2009–2012)

Alliance of American Football (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_of_American_Football) (2019)


For the record, this will only concern leagues that emerged following the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. I also purposely left out the World League of American Football (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_Europe) (later NFL Europe or NFL Europa) because it was always a subsidiary of the National Football League instead of a true "rival".

XFL, It & The USFL were that quite good

In my opinion stuff just got worse as time went on....

I picked the first option on the poll "World Football League" (74-75)

I suppose it was still AS GOOD until 1985 however........

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In 1992, fans were promised a brand-new (https://paisano-online.com/38944/sports/the-tremulous-history-of-spring-football/) spring football league (https://footballstadiumdigest.com/2019/01/from-usfl-to-aaf-a-history-of-spring-football/): the Professional Spring Football League (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Spring_Football_League) (PSFL). Ten teams, real players and coaches, even a preseason TV special. But before a single snap was played (https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/bojoih/oc_lost_leagues_history_of_the_professional/), the PSFL collapsed.

From unpaid hotel bills to empty stadiums and only 100 season tickets sold for one team, the league’s downfall was sudden and spectacular. Players were left stranded, coaches lost jobs, and fans never got the season they were promised.

In this video, I look at the rise and fall of the PSFL — how it was supposed to work, why it failed, and what happened to the people involved. From future pro football names like Bernie Parmalee and Barry Wagner, to founder Vince Sette’s later legal troubles, the PSFL is a forgotten piece of football history worth remembering.