AAF players left stranded with nowhere to live

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Many of the players who signed on with the Alliance of American Football were in temporary housing arranged by the league, and when the league pulled the plug they had nowhere to go.

Understandably, players who were signing on for a 10-week season at relatively modest salaries didn’t buy houses or sign year-long leases in the cities where they were playing, and some of those players say the hotels and apartments the AAF arranged for them kicked them out just as soon as the AAF canceled its season.

Rich Ohrnberger, a former NFL player who was working as a radio analyst in the AAF, wrote on Twitter that “Players in Memphis came back to their hotels after news came down, and had their personal items waiting in the lobby. Kicked out of their lodgings.”

Memphis fullback Anthony Manzo-Lewis wrote on Twitter that he had already been kicked out of his hotel room and had no idea where to go. Teammate Brandon Silvers replied that he had a few more days at his Airbnb and would let Manzo-Lewis crash with him.

Ohrnberger also wrote that the players who suffered injuries are now on the hook for their own medical expenses going forward. Gionni Paul of the Salt Lake Stallions wrote on Twitter that he’s concerned after breaking his arm in the AAF. Some players indicated that they’re looking into filing workers’ comp claims.

That the AAF is folding so abruptly, with so little consideration for the players, does not speak well for chairman Tom Dundon or founders Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian. The league needed a better plan in place for how to survive — and how to handle it if the league couldn’t survive.

114 responses to “AAF players left stranded with nowhere to live

  1. See why I couldn’t care less about Johnny Manziel? These guys are trying to reach their dream to get to the NFL and this is what they are going through. Manziel had it handed to him and threw it all away.

  2. These players were paid 8 game checks. I’m sure they can find a place to live

  3. Maybe the NFL players making tens of millions per year can help them out.

  4. This isn’t Dundon fault. He didn’t start this league. He just tried to help before they ran themselves into the ground.

  5. crik911 says:
    April 4, 2019 at 5:56 am
    These are the things Dundon didnt think of when he pulled the plug. Not a fan of him.
    ————————————————–
    Its the 1%’er way…..

  6. Real sweet contingency plan their Bill Polian, you’re millionaire little head slept well last night.
    Thanks for nothing!

  7. The NFL Empire crushes another competitor.

    Do we really believe The Shield would let another league try to take focus away from them?

    (insert tyrannical laughter here)

  8. I find it fascinating how the people who put this business together, with all their business experience and capital, ran this operation the way they did. These were not folks inexperienced at starting new business ventures, and large business operations. I wonder what really happened here…

  9. Everyone saying they should have saved their checks, etc. You do realize they weren’t being paid millions per game right?

    This isn’t Ebersol or Polian’s fault. They didn’t want to shut down. Dundon did his corporate raid thing and overruled them.

  10. Don’t blame Dundon. He’s not the maroon who put the original business plan together, without him Ebersol and Polian would have folded up after week 1.

  11. While this is certainly unfortunate, these players received 8 game checks. And although the checks are nowhere near what NFL players make, the amounts are certainly more than what the average working person gets. This is indeed an unfortunate inconvenience for them but let’s not pretend that they will all be homeless now.

  12. I don’t like what happened to these players, especially those with injuries.
    And having to pay for their own airfare back home is bad.
    But what would they be doing if the AAF hadn’t signed them?
    They would still need to find jobs.

    They were out of the workforce for a few months, but made decent wages by a working persons standard, not a pro athletes standard, during that period.

    Look at it this way – if you graduated college and had no job and got a short term consulting job that paid double what you would otherwise make, you would probably be happy to take it. You would be sad if it abruptly ended, but it would still be OK for you.

  13. Not to appear unsympathetic, but these are hotel rooms and Airbnb lodgings. I assume most had a home or apartment prior to the league startup. The contract was for $70,000 for the first 10 week season. That is not really different from common individuals going overseas or to a northern region for short term higher earnings. The players were given a platform to showcase their football talents in hope of securing the equivalent to most of us as winning the lottery. I am guessing we will soon hear some succeeded.

  14. No matter if a guy banked a lot of dough playing in the NFL years ago, that doesn’t mean you treat these guys like human trash. Not a good look for that league. Good riddance. The NFL and college football is all I need.

  15. Yea cause 70k salary on the road and if you have families at home will last you very long they made pedestrian salary without benefits , it’s not as much as you think especially the ones that are left paying for medical bills

  16. I get that Florio and his cast want to paint Dundon as the villain, but this fallout rests solely on Ebersol and Polian. It should have been Polian’s job to determine what the impact to players would be, especially those that are currently injured. Dundon was just the money behind the curtain, Ebersol and Polian were pulling the strings.

  17. Welcome to real life players of the AAF (now former). Yes it sucks and it shouldn’t have happened, but now you have to put your big boy pants on and figure some stuff out. Most of the players that were in AAF probably warranted atleast a try-out for teams possibly coming after the draft, but those who do no warrant a try out well then it looks like their going back to their hometown to find a job. It’s admirable to go after your dreams but sometimes you have to face reality.

  18. There are people every day who have no place to live, no place to go and didn’t have the luxury of 8 game checks. Let’s not make this out to somehow be a tragedy just because these are football players. Sucks what happened but deal with it. If you don;t have enough money to get home, that’s a YOU issue.

  19. Bill Polian has always been lauded for things he should not have been and Charlie Ebersol rode his father Dick’s coat tails. If it weren’t for Dundon, the AAF would have folded weeks ago.

  20. The guys on the hook for medical bills have a legit grievance.

  21. Bill Polish will be back on ESPN in a few weeks just like nothing happened.A man I wouldn’t trust.Gift of gab,full of it.Retire and stare at your bank accounts.

  22. “Maybe the NFL players making tens of millions per year can help them out”

    I dunno, maybe their billionaire ex-boss could chip in a few bucks

  23. These guys were set to make 250k a year.. I understand they weren’t paid a lot by NFL standards but that is still a very healthy income. They didn’t make all $250k either but they did make a few very large paychecks that they should have been able to catch an Uber to another Hotel where they could shop for flights to go back home (the place they were living 2 months ago)

  24. I wasn’t surprised at all when the league folded when it did. But to not pay the players medical bills and at least take care of another week or two of lodgings is pretty low!

  25. Would love to see the NFL give each player and now unemployed coach $2,000 “in support of those that love and sacrifice for the game of professional football.” It would only cost well under a million dollars and be a great gesture that would help many of them get home and get accommodation.

  26. Spare me.
    Cry me a river.
    The players KNEW that they were taking a risk when they signed. In this case they got burned. Such is life.
    As usual, the media portrays the employer as the villain. I disagree with that because EVERYONE involved knew the risks, rolled the dice, and took a chance.
    I blame the NFLPA myself, because they prevented lower tier NFL players from signing with the AAF. Why did they do this? Simple, these players wouldn’t have to pay NFLPA union dues. If you don’t pay union dues, the union doesn’t care about you.
    So blame the NFLPA, not Polian or other AAF execs.

  27. What a setup! The league paying by the day at hotels, and since the items were removed from the rooms, they must have directed the hotels to do as such. It’s hard to believe that the hotel, had the bill been being paid timely, would go in, and in a short amount of time, cleaned out the rooms. In most states, at least, there are rules regarding that type of thing.

  28. Anyone else feel like the real conman here is Ebersole? Remember when the league was supposed to be built around. “Those thousands of players who never got a shot.” Then suddenly they “had to have” NFL practice players to survive. So much for the thousands who never got a shot….

  29. This is sad for these players. Hopes and $$ gone.
    But for the investors – who looked at other leagues in the past and thought, “But OURS will work!”? THEY NEVER WORK.

  30. exinsidetrader says:
    April 4, 2019 at 8:15 am

    Would love to see the NFL give each player and now unemployed coach $2,000 “in support of those that love and sacrifice for the game of professional football.” It would only cost well under a million dollars and be a great gesture that would help many of them get home and get accommodation.
    ————————————————————————————
    This was a competing league. The NFL wasn’t trying to help it succeed and they aren’t giving away money to strangers just cause they happen to play the same sport.

  31. I love all of these self righteous fools can’t show empathy for guys in a terrible situation. These aren’t big name professional athletes. These were guys who all most likely quit their “real” jobs for one more shot at making it big. These “game checks” everyone is referring to were likely not much, and I’d love to hear how many of these guys would have a plan in place financially if they were fired on the spot. So little humanity left in people today. It’s sickening.

  32. took the words right out, Roger
    totally agree, what if that was your son trying to make it?

  33. 35 players per team get cut every September and must face the same choices
    This is an ongoing problem with the game it’s cruel ant everyone gets cut at some time

  34. This is Polians brain child. He was so proud of himself when the season opened up. Where is he now? I’ll bet he didn’t get thrown out of his hotel.

  35. RogerThat! says:
    April 4, 2019 at 7:52 am
    Hate Vince McMahon all you want, I don’t think he would treat these guys this way.
    __________________________________________

    Are you kidding me? Where have you been for the past 40 years? Vince uses people up and tosses them out the instant he THINKS he can no longer make a buck off of them.

  36. I applied for a communications job with Salt Lake before the season started… Glad I didn’t get it now!

  37. Dundon is a terrible operator. The AAF should have started smaller and taken more care to develop a wider/better investor base.

    The second Dundon got bored and didn’t want to be involved anymore, it was possible for him to come up with some ridiculous plan that could never be accomplished. “We need to land on the moon next week or we’re going to close”. Etc. Since he owned the league by himself he could decide at any time that he had gotten disinterested and close it.

  38. nyneal says:
    April 4, 2019 at 6:02 am
    See why I couldn’t care less about Johnny Manziel? These guys are trying to reach their dream to get to the NFL and this is what they are going through. Manziel had it handed to him and threw it all away.
    ———————–
    Why inject absurdity and take a shot at a guy that has struggled? Kick a guy when he’s down? Is that how you roll? The story here is the greedy owners of this league and how porrly they planned their business model and has nothing to do with Manziel. Good Lord, some people are just clueless.

  39. This will either be good or bad for the XFL. They can leverage these events by stressing how not to run a league…or people may not believe them and tell players it’s not worth the risk of injury or folding. If I’m a player, I want a contract that details that I would be covered for injury even if the league folds.

  40. Is anyone surprised? This thing was thrown together haphazardly in 11 months! A professional football league, thrown together in 11 months! Does anyone actually think they had any plan aside from getting a partnership with the NFL as a development league?

    I hope Polian, Ebersol, and Dundon get sued into the stone ages.

  41. carloswlassiter says:
    April 4, 2019 at 8:28 am

    ————————————————————————————
    This was a competing league. The NFL wasn’t trying to help it succeed and they aren’t giving away money to strangers just cause they happen to play the same sport.

    ——————————-

    You’re right that the NFL won’t give money away, but dead wrong that the NFL wasn’t trying to help it succeed. They put the crappy games on the NFL Network! They wanted this to work as a development league before the XFL launched, to stifle competition. What they didn’t consider was how atrociously it would be organized, the lack of interest, and the lack of willingness of the NFLPA to have any part in it.

  42. starfan79 says:
    April 4, 2019 at 8:07 am
    These guys were set to make 250k a year.. I understand they weren’t paid a lot by NFL standards but that is still a very healthy income. They didn’t make all $250k either but they did make a few very large paychecks that they should have been able to catch an Uber to another Hotel where they could shop for flights to go back home (the place they were living 2 months ago)
    ———————————–

    It was 250k for 3 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  43. voiceofrealism says:
    April 4, 2019 at 6:20 am
    Maybe the NFL players making tens of millions per year can help them out.

    —–

    Explain why players of one league would be responsible for helping out players of another league financially.

  44. Boo how it’s like the last day of minor league baseball season. The players go back to there homes and have to buy their own plane tickets or bus ride. If you can’t afford a hotel room after making 60k in 8 weeks that’s on you. Minor league baseball players make 40-70k for a lot longer season. March through September. These aaf players have another place to stay. This wasn’t permanent housing it was 10 week housing. So they had to go home two weeks early. What’s the big deal. The league that losses 70 million should have spent 500,000 more to get players flights. They all made more money than the league did.

  45. “I blame the NFLPA myself, because they prevented lower tier NFL players from signing with the AAF.”
    ___________________

    just spitballing, but maybe the NFLPA wanted to avoid putting their membership in a situation where they would be left high and dry by a shady organization who couldn’t afford to cover their obligations. Practice squad players make about $200,000. Why would you assume they would even have WANTED to play in the AAF? The AAF didn’t even want to pay them–they wanted the NFL to make AAF participation a part of being on a practice squad so they could save all that money. (And even if they would have paid the NFL guys their standard salary that was still less than HALF what they were already making from the NFL so this wasn’t a life-changing sort of opportunity.)

  46. Just an incredible twist considering how it all started. Multiple networks broadcasting the games, favorable ratings, increasingly compelling action..and now…poof!

    Considering all of the above and to not even complete a single regular season, this may be the greatest failure of any sports league in history! There is no coming back from this.

    Not so sure that this bodes badly for the XFL. Their competitor is gone and they now have the AAF’s mistakes to learn from. And McMahon has more guts than anyone when it comes to entertainment.

  47. graphicwolf1art says:
    April 4, 2019 at 6:49 am
    I see some lawsuits coming out of this.
    ______________________
    And they’ll get thrown out.
    Nothing was guaranteed in any contract.

  48. People blaming Dundon are simply clueless. He bailed the league out. It was Ebersole, Polian et al that put together the business plan. They literally wrote checks that they couldn’t cash. Had it not been for Dundon this league would have folded after week 1. People mad at him because he realized that this venture is a failure and simply didn’t want to lose more of his money? Laughable.

    The same fate is in store for the XFL, should they be foolish enough to actually launch. One of the BIG reasons that the USFL lasted as long as it did was that they drafted top college talent. Yes, they overpaid in a lot of cases (and with a startup league, that isn’t very smart), but they got people interested.

    The AAF and the first version of XFL was mediocre football, at best with lousy QB play. Once the newness wore off, no one cared.

    Part of me wonders if Ebersole and Polian actually were banking on the NFL’s assistance? If so, that was a terrible assumption.

  49. Unless the NFL itself creates the league…probably never will happen/last. NBA did – and it took a lot of teams a good 10 years before they realized the value of it. Player development. Coaching development. Front office development. Sales/marketing/ticketing development. Extending their brand. It’s about developing the organization.

  50. i noticed all of those players went to college, i guess they now must utilize those degrees!

  51. Not a lot different than a high-tech startup. The founders have their escape plan in place and dangle the possibility of vesting for the rank and file.

    My company bought a software database package and I spent about 6 months at the software package creators company learning the ropes. Lots of former co-workers ended up at this outfit. A few years later, that company got a billion dollars in debt and a big fish bought the remains. They wanted the software package. They didn’t want any of the employees. The founders of the billion dollars in debt company all made out pretty well.

    If it succeeds we get rich, if it doesn’t we still get a good pay check. Sucks to be you, but not for me.

  52. Maybe they could do what millions of people do when they get laid off: Apply for unemployment, go home and look for a job?

  53. It’s hard to determine who to blame in this. On the one hand you have Dundon as what seems to be the obvious villain after pulling the plug on the money, but why did he do it? Was he made promises about player availability from the nfl that never came to fruition? If so, who made those promises? Could be Dundon is just a rich jerk who got bored and pulled the plug, but I need more info to make that assessment. There’s too much that doesn’t make sense here. Also, if the AAF gets to raid practice squads, how does that benefit the nfl? Practice squads are the nfl equivalent of an insurance policy against injury of players on the active roster. Why would a team risk that for n return. Also, practice squad players can be signed to ANY team’s active roster at any time with no compensation to the team that had him, so again, how does it benefit the nfl to allow their players to be used like this? If this is the premise the league was built on, why net get guarantees before getting started from the NFL and the NFLPA?

  54. I wanted to watch these games every week but had no idea when they were on or where. Maybe first they should have advertised outside of PFT, which is literally the only place I’ve ever heard any mention of the AAF.

    How these guys intend to avoid getting sued by players with injuries directly-related to AAF games is beyond me. I would be expecting a lot of different lawsuits to arise from this. I still don’t even get why they pulled the plug – because they hadn’t YET secured a contract to get low-level NFL players? Why worry about that when you have a nation of college-level players only months away from finishing the school-year and nothing stopping you from signing them. Also I never actually saw anywhere that the NFL or players union actually refused to have contracts with the AAF, only that they just hadn’t gotten any yet. Doesn’t really seem like a reason to pull out so abruptly and so short of the amount you pledged.

  55. If memory serves me…these guys each made about 10k per week to play a game. That’s a lot of money to me. Why do athletes think they’re poor if they aren’t getting $50 million in guarantees?

  56. “I see some lawsuits coming out of this.
    ______________________
    And they’ll get thrown out.
    Nothing was guaranteed in any contract.
    ______________

    That would cover lawsuits from players. But guaranteed there will be fraud lawsuits from investors. They somehow ran out of money by their second week. That speaks to either incredible ineptitude or outright theft.

  57. NFL and College is plenty…
    USFL-fail
    AAF-fail
    XFL-1 fail going on second

  58. So unethical and wrong on so many levels. These coaches and players made the necessary sacrifices collectively to continue to play the game they love and try to advance themselves. To be hung out to dry like this is wrong. I enjoyed watching them. But as they say on game shows, “A Roger Goodell Production.”

  59. pnut2380 says:
    April 4, 2019 at 9:23 am
    Boo how it’s like the last day of minor league baseball season. The players go back to there homes and have to buy their own plane tickets or bus ride. If you can’t afford a hotel room after making 60k in 8 weeks that’s on you. Minor league baseball players make 40-70k for a lot longer season. March through September. These aaf players have another place to stay. This wasn’t permanent housing it was 10 week housing. So they had to go home two weeks early. What’s the big deal. The league that losses 70 million should have spent 500,000 more to get players flights. They all made more money than the league did.

    4 0 Rate This
    ______________________________________________________________________________________________

    Minor league baseball fits the bill for most expenses and most importantly like NFL players have guaranteed money with pay advances and signing bonuses.

    The AAF do not and are paid weekly and we aren’t even sure if they got paid for the full 8 weeks considering the reported payroll issues that started weeks ago. With that and 0 promise of anymore money there are people at warehouses that will have made more in 2019 than a starting player in the AAF. A full season would have netted them $75,000 which is modest money in some of those cities and barely breaking even in others based on cost of living so based on that, at best these players will end this season with $60,000 before taxes. Now lets add in the fact that this was only temporary living so some people are still paying rent and/or mortgages in their actual place of residence while also living where they play. For some of these guys whatever is left of this $60,000 will have to last them the rest of the year until they can find employment and unlike sports if they decide to go to the private sector they’re starting with entry level salaries.

    In other words they might have made more money if they hadn’t even signed on to the AAF.

  60. “This is indeed an unfortunate inconvenience for them but let’s not pretend that they will all be homeless now.”

    Actually, when you are suddenly kicked out of the place where you live you are literally homeless.

  61. How detached from reality are athletes. The fact they all went to college also. Doesn’t speak well for a college education. Welcome to what happens when average Joe loses his job. I worked commercial construction. When I traveled. My company provided a per diem, lodging and mileage. If you lost your job. You lost your place to stay. If a company folded mid job. You lost your lodging. I never had those things happen to me. But I did witness it happen to others.

  62. Before you blame Dundon, ask yourself if you’d be willing to fund living expenses for 100’s of people out of the good of your heart.

    Shutting down a business is an ugly thing but this is what it looks like. You minimize losses and move on.

  63. Good thing a team didn’t sign Kaepernick for 20M….can you imagine the headlines, outrage and lawsuits had this happened to our favorite SJW???

  64. dont let Bill Polian off the hook. Bill showed what he is really all about. hes hell on wheels when things are good.
    when they start to go downhill, ole Bill cant be found. He and Charlie started this and
    they killed it deader than a door nail. neither should be excused

  65. That sucks this happened. But not unique. This is the risk you take when you decide to work for a start up.
    Happens to Americans all the time. It’s not fun…and we can have empathy….but let’s not act like real people don’t go thru this every month.

    They knew what they’re were getting into.

  66. crik911 says:
    April 4, 2019 at 5:56 am
    These are the things Dundon didnt think of when he pulled the plug. Not a fan of him

    livenbreathefootball says:
    April 4, 2019 at 7:15 am

    This isn’t Ebersol or Polian’s fault. They didn’t want to shut down. Dundon did his corporate raid thing and overruled them.
    —————————————————–

    Ebersol and Polian started a league without securing solid financial backing. They were fortunate enough to get Dundon to conditionally pick up the tab. Once Dundon was able to fairly evaluate where things stood from an insider’s perspective and withdrew HIS money Ebersol & Polian’s poor plan became his fault? Why is it nothing ever sticks to Polian?

  67. These are the things Dundon didnt think of when he pulled the plug. Not a fan of him.

    ——————-

    Didn’t think of? Pretty sure he just doesn’t care.

  68. The same thing happened in the 80s when Trump killed off the USFL. Players were left stranded with nowhere to go.

  69. I wonder what rule Bill Polian will champion to make this absolute fraud of an organization successful in retrospect?

  70. packers291 says:
    April 4, 2019 at 10:43 am
    Before you blame Dundon, ask yourself if you’d be willing to fund living expenses for 100’s of people out of the good of your heart.

    Shutting down a business is an ugly thing but this is what it looks like. You minimize losses and move on.
    —————————

    Since you aren’t going to pay them I would have given them two weeks to find a new place. Of course you cutting loses but have some responisbility there. Maybe that is why my businesses succeed and this one didn’t

  71. I don’t think that anyone is going to end up homeless from this situation, but the league should have given players a week or two to sort out their living situations before stopping payment on wherever they were staying. The injured players do have a huge grievance and I hope they get workers comp.

  72. This was a boring League and deserved to die. I feel bad for the players. But Vince McMahon will get it right this time and hopefully some of the players here can hook up with his league.

  73. packers291 says:
    April 4, 2019 at 10:43 am

    Before you blame Dundon, ask yourself if you’d be willing to fund living expenses for 100’s of people out of the good of your heart.

    ==============

    If I was a billionaire, you better believe I’d pay to make sure those guys had transportation home and/or weren’t thrown out of wherever they were living until they got where they needed to go.

    That’s a drop in the bucket for a billionaire, and modest enough gratitude to those “100’s of people” who put their bodies on the line so Dundon could make a buck.

    Be really careful about what you accept as “normal” behavior or ways of treating others. You’re just enabling the worst aspects of our greed-focused society when you do that.

  74. mogogo1 says:
    April 4, 2019 at 10:22 am
    “I see some lawsuits coming out of this.
    ______________________
    And they’ll get thrown out.
    Nothing was guaranteed in any contract.
    ______________

    That would cover lawsuits from players. But guaranteed there will be fraud lawsuits from investors. They somehow ran out of money by their second week. That speaks to either incredible ineptitude or outright theft.
    ______________
    So if I invest in a fly by night outfit and it fails, I have a right to get my money back because I made a stupid decision? Not in this life time.
    Still……..thrown out.

  75. The quick demise is even crazier given how the league came to be: Charlie Ebersol met with McMahon doing an XFL documentary and supposedly studied everything they’d done wrong so it could be a success this time around. And after all that they were out of money by their second game and dead after 8 total games, making the original XFL look like a well-run operation by comparison. It’s like studying the Titanic and then having your new ship sink before it’d even left the dock.

  76. Doesn’t this shutdown qualify under the federal and state W.A.R.N. Acts as mass layoffs or closures of workplaces? That would require lengthy notice. Otherwise, the owners of an enterprise can be personally liable for payments to the employees — in some cases, quite large.

  77. This sucks. The AAF wasn’t spectacular, but it was a league where these guys could continue to chase their dreams and earn a little money, and now that has ended. I hope some of these guys make an NFL roster and for the guys that sustained injuries, I hope Polian, Dundon, and Ebersol find a way to help out.

  78. Seems some people misfortune gives other people glee.

    Unfortunate for the future of civilization.

  79. Actually, when you are suddenly kicked out of the place where you live you are literally homeless.

    —-

    They got kicked out of their hotel rooms. Again, as I said before, it’s an unfortunate situation. However, considering they were making $70K for a 10-game schedule, I’m sure they can find another hotel room until they head back to their previous residences.

    As others have pointed out, this happens to people every day. It’s not right but this isn’t a unique situation and they certainly won’t be living on the streets.

  80. RogerThat! says:
    April 4, 2019 at 7:52 am
    Hate Vince McMahon all you want, I don’t think he would treat these guys this way.
    ———————————————————————————–

    No, McMahon treats his people much worse. There was just a long segment on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver this past week. I suggest you watch it. All the wrestlers are signed as independent contractors which removes any liability for McMahon. Before you say ‘who cares’ I suggest you watch it and find out why they aren’t exactly ‘independent’.

  81. That’s a pretty crappy way to treat the players.
    Whoever put up the money was obviously only thinking of one thing.
    I guess he didn’t care. What did Steve Spurrier get paid, I’ll bet
    it wasnt peanuts.

  82. To the moron saying he’s not going to feel sorry for professional athletes, you realize they are people too, right? With families. Even if they aren’t broke, that really sucks having all their stuff removed from where they thought they were staying without much notice. One way or the other, regardless of financial situation, this happening to them isn’t right

  83. 3 yr contract at $250k. 10 games per year so 30 total games divided by $250k is $8333.33 per game X the 8 games that they played is $66666.66. $67k this year they have been paid and they have no where to go?

  84. To the knucklehead posters who are suggesting that these players made enough money to pay for their own lodging, perhaps you’ve missed or do not understand the very first sentence of this article which reads “Many of the players who signed on with the Alliance of American Football were in temporary housing arranged by the league”. If the league agreed to take care of their lodging, why are you commenting that the players should have taken care of it?

  85. they have to hand fed like babies. kicked out of my hotel oh where do I go? damn go HOME!!! get a plane ticket and go home. the AAF is gone who shy sit in Memphis or Orlando or Salt Lake go HOME!!!

  86. Unless they made less than $10k total for the 8 weeks of work, they can afford a hotel and plane ticket home. I don’t agree with what happened to them, or how it happened, but they aren’t helpless or homeless or broke. 90% of the population works for less than $1500 a week.

  87. There are a lot of people on here who know nothing about normal business practices. If a company or organization asks me to leave the place where I live and interview for a job, they ALWAYS pay for my hotel and for a way home. If I am out of town on a project or a contract and it gets cut short unexpectedly, they ALWAYS pay for lodging until I can find a way home, which they also ALWAYS pay for.

    The amount of money these players were paid have nothing to do with this issue. The AAF should have done what any legitimate business would have done and made sure that their employees were not left hanging with no way home and their crap sitting in a hotel lobby.

    And not covering the medical expenses of those who were injured while they were employed by the AAF is inexcusable.

  88. Wait…Bill Polian was involved in something unsavory?

    I’m shocked, shocked I say.

  89. “These players were paid 8 game checks. I’m sure they can find a place to live”

    That’s assuming that the checks didn’t bounce.

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