When people think of professional football, there is really only one thing that comes to mind, the NFL. The National Football League has been around in America for almost 100 years and has been the face of professional football since, but there is a new player in the game looking to take that title and that is the AAF or the Alliance of American Football.

The alliance was established in 2018 and the first regular season for the league started only three weeks ago. So far, the AAF has received a lot of attention and is expected to have a much better chance of taking the main stage of football compared to other established professional football leagues.

Although the first two weeks of the AAF have been successful and so have received positive feedback from football fans thus far, people still don’t think it will ever be as big as the NFL.

“I don’t think the AAF will ever be as big as the NFL because the more skilled players will always go to them rather than the AAF,” junior Jake Shimanski said. “The season also begins in the middle of winter when many other people are watching other leagues such as the NBA or NHL but I will continue to watch when I can and can already predict that the San Antonio Commanders will win the first championship.”

Some think that the AAF will never live up to the NFL.

“I really just don’t think the AAF will ever be as big as the NFL due to the fact that they don’t have anywhere near as many skilled players compared to the NFL,” senior Austin Kessem said.

The AAF and the NFL are very similar in terms of games and rule with some slight differences in the rules. The biggest difference though being the AAF just started and has a little number of teams competing against one another.

“The biggest difference between the two is the NFL season begins in the fall where the AAF begins mid-winter, another big difference in the two is that the AAF only has 8 teams which means a lot fewer games played compared to the NFL,” Shimanski said.

There are still people, however, who don’t care about new leagues being added or professional sports in general.

“I really don’t watch professional sports, especially football, so this really isn’t something that means a whole lot to me or impact me in any big way,” junior Alyssa Solorio said.

Creator of the AAF, Charlie Ebersol believes that his league will make a difference in the football world and won’t just die out after a few years like other professional league attempts.

Week three of the season begins on Sat, Feb. 23, at 2:00 P.M. and should be entertaining enough to hold you over until the NFL season begins again in the fall.