The United Football League will debut its second season this Saturday. Some football fans have been pretty harsh on this league saying it is no NFL, and that it does not have legitimate pro football talent. As a big fan of this league I disagree with those assessments. First, of course it is no NFL. It is an upstart league, trying to bridge the gap in football between college and the NFL. This seems to be an untapped market with a lot of potential.
With that being said here is a quick breakdown on the football experience of the 259 UFL players for 2010:
- 120 players (46.3%) have played at least one regular season game in teh NFL
- 234 players (90.3%) have some kind of NFL experience
- The average NFL career of a UFL player is 3.4 years
- 92 players (35.5%) played in the UFL in 2009
- 158 players (61%) finished their collegiate careers at BCS schools
- The average age of UFL players in 2010 is 26.8 years
So what kind of conclusions can we draw from these numbers. The first seems to be that the majority of UFL players didn’t make it in the NFL. Either they were not up to the talent level of that league, or they got drafted by teams that gave up on these players early on in the process. Saying a guy is not good enough for the NFL is not a knock on this league. There are plenty of very good football players that are not on the level of the NFL. That is what this league is based on. While they look silly playing against the best football talent on earth, put in a league together you get a very good on the field product.
Related Links:
- UFL Examiner
- The Business of the UFL
- MTR Football
