AFA Responds To The SemiPro Vs. Minor League Terminology Confusion Running Rampant In Football Cyberspace



Annually more than 50,000 adult players, coaches and team administrators participate in the semi-pro football levels from coast-to-coast. They play for the love of the game and whatever local recognition they can attain to prove to their families, friends and peers that they are (as the AFA motto implies) . . .Semi-Pro and Proud . . . to help continue a century old sports tradition.
By Ron Real - AFA President

Forget what Mr. Webster has to say about the differences between the words Amateur, Semi-pro, Minor League and Professional when related to the sport of football. He doesn t run a league, own a team or play the game (as far as I know) as a non-paid weekend warrior - so why then would we try to let him settle the minor league vs. semi-pro football dispute by thumbing through the pages of his big book of words and their definitions . . . . as they have nothing whatsoever to do with the sport of football.

If we were looking for a pecking order that makes sense with the rest of the sports world(s) then I would agree that the term minor league should be held in higher esteem than the term semi-pro, although Mr. Webster doesn t seem to agree. His term for semi-pro is that the participants on that level don t get paid as well as the pros and don t play the game as a full time way of making a living. Add to the confusion the word semi (half) and relate it to a salary for performing ones talents on a football field - post college age - and every adult amateur (semi-pro) player in the country would be glad to try to get by on only half (or any of) the amount of the paychecks their NFL counterparts collect. Contrary to what some people are trying to confuse the issue with these days - players on AFA semi-pro teams are not allowed to be paid for their services and as such retain their amateur status.

If those leagues (and teams) promoting themselves as minor leagues were actually able to live up to the minor league sports moniker, they would be so busy right now sending their players up to the NFL to replace those players who have gone down with season ending injuries that those leagues wouldn t have time to - forfeit league games or try to romance semi-pro teams away from other leagues. If they were actually football development leagues, as some profess to be to their players - they would now be scurrying to find places on their rosters for those hundreds of players cut by NFL teams after their final roster cuts took place. After all, isn t that what happens in other sports with actual minor league systems.

The term semi-pro football has a negative connotation to it, say many adult amateur team and league promoters. We don t want to be saddled with carrying around that black eye created by semi-pro teams in our area in the past who left town owing money for football fields, equipment, printing, newspaper, radio/TV advertising and such. So, they think all they have to do is call themselves minor league and that makes everything better - and more business like.

Wrong! The new wave of minor league promoters can fool the players because they want them to think they are on a par with their counterparts in other minor league sports like baseball, hockey, basketball and now even soccer and the players want to think the same. Many players are quick to swallow the bait because they think they re only inches away from being discovered by an NFL pro scout. While the movers and shakers of those new minor league(s) have been able to use cyberspace technology to impress some post high school and post college players - they still haven t been able to convince the national or even their local medias that minor league football is any different than semi-pro football - only spelled differently.

No matter what you call it - semi-pro/minor league/adult amateur - our game doesn t attract many Division I players from college football factories that the pros may have some interest in. With that said, I certainly don t intend to discourage any young athletes who want to pursue their dream of turning-pro with a stint in the lower levels of the game as a stepping stone. While our level does have a few success stories over the years of players making it to the big time (NFL) . . . those stories are few and far between - and have absolutely nothing to do with whether those players calling themselves minor league or semi-pro or even adult amateur for that matter. Not since the early 50 s, 60 s and late 70 s has a successful minor league pipeline provided venues for undiscovered footballers to make it to the big show . Not that it couldn t happen again - but it will take a lot more money to put together than the average non-professional team has access to - or the average football fan has an interest in.

Why is it over the years those leagues across the country calling themselves minor league seem to have such a high mortality rate while those not afraid to call themselves semi-pro have stood the test of time The American Football Association has semi-pro teams as members that are more than a hundred years old; complete leagues that have been around for twenty, thirty and forty years. It s called tradition . And what is it those semi-pro teams coast-to-coast have over those pretending to be something they are not (minor league) It s tradition and they re proud of their semi-pro heritage and what it means to their respective football communities.

A few years back the AFA anticipated the misunderstanding between those promoting their leagues as minor league and those not afraid to continue the semi-pro football tradition. So much so that the AFA adopted our national association slogan as Semi-Pro and Proud and encouraged our member teams to use it in promoting their football organizations to their local press.

In my 25 years as president of the American Football Association I have seen more than a handful of professional and minor professional football leagues come and go leaving in their wake millions of dollars in debts to local (and national) sporting goods companies, community businesses and the newspaper industries as well. Not to mention the number of players whose lives were turned upside down by those start-up pro leagues with their promises of big time money contracts . . . that never materialized, or in some cases took legal action to satisfy. If this is true, and we all know it is, why then isn t professional football saddled with the fear of the carrying around the same black eye syndrome that semi-pro football is made to wear every time something goes a little out of whack on our level

It has been brought to my attention that some internet message board postings say that the National Football League does not like the term semi-pro football (although I ve never heard that from them) because of the negative vibes it normally carries with it and that the concept of promoting a true development league would be something they could warm up to if it was structured properly. Structured by whom Believe me, when (and if) the NFL wants a minor league development system for football it will have one. And, you can bet they won t ask the permission of any of our current day minor league football promoters first either. For the time being the NFL will just have to struggle along with beating the bushes of those leagues they already have a financial interest in - like NFL Europe, the Canadian League and of course the Arena Football League (AFL)and Arenafootball 2 (af2)to find their future hopefuls. Oh, did I forget the college draft Silly of me not to mention that annual windfall of potential professional gridiron stars that the NFL spends millions of dollars researching each year - called college football. Many insiders consider it a free development league. Nothing free about it - and it s the NFL s prime talent pool.

While it is unlikely that the American Football Association s level of the game (semi-pro) will ever mean anything to the NFL other than a place where football history traces the NFL s early roots back to more than three/quarters of a century ago - it is likely that you will see the AFA working hard in the near future to bring more meaning to the term Semi-Pro and Proud . . . to the teams and leagues in the local football communities it serves.

Whether or not a true minor league football development system will ever become a reality in this country - remains to be seen. The one thing that does remain constant in the wonderful world of American rules football is - there will always be Pro-Football, thanks to the NFL . . . and there will always be Semi-Pro Football, thanks to the AFA and the thousands of dedicated volunteers across the country that continue to keep the tradition alive.


NEXT MONTH'S FEATURE STORY:
IF YOU WERE SUDDENLY CONVICTED OF PROMOTING
SEMI-PRO FOOTBALL IN YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY . . .
Would There Be Enough Evidence





AFA Responds To The SemiPro Vs. Minor League Terminology Confusion Running Rampant In Football Cyberspace