 Right guys, how are we welcome back to another video? My name is Jacob McDonald. This is my YouTube channel and today I bring you a Video as a rugby player reacting to the most disastrous and That's in capital letters Football League ever the most disastrous football league ever and that's interesting. You know this video is were created by a Guy called KTO Carlston the Oracle I'm assuming his first names Carlston. I wouldn't know Either way this video was created in 2017. I started following the league in 2018 and since then there's been a couple of there's been you know that the the AAF There's been the XFL. There's been the NFL of course And I you know I I tend to I tend to think that there's been another one too either way guys. This is the strangest League ever aka the most Disastrous football league ever at seven minutes and 27 seconds long. I have Absolutely, no idea what we're gonna see here and that's that's what makes reaction videos, you know Reaction videos, you know at the end of the day if you've seen it before Doesn't doesn't mean as much so meet the most disastrous football league ever. Let's get into it disastrous Over 40 years ago All right of Gary Davidson announced on October 7th, 1973 creation of the 1974 I don't know. It was gonna be that far back for God's sake It was going to be a 12 team format that was set to kick off in July of 1974 honestly, this seemed like the perfect time to compete with the NFL in the spring of 1974 players were threatened to go in strikes due to disagreements with those chops Even if it seems small this startup league had a fighting chance Well, it seems likely I mean This league claimed it was going to take American football onto a worldwide stage with their championship game being called I'm gonna say one thing right here right here right now. I am so very interested in seeing how far the rock AKA Dwayne Johnson can take the XFL this year, right? So there's been training camps all over the world all over the country Sorry all over the US and Dwayne Johnson has been at every single one. Can you imagine going to an XFL? Try out and actually seeing Dwayne Johnson in the flesh I mean he's six foot four He's 270 pounds and that doesn't really mean anything because at the end of the day He's 50 years old and probably couldn't run a fucking five five second 40-yard dash But at the end of the day he is bringing Another he's bringing some, you know, he's bringing something different to the world of American football. He's bringing the XFL Back in 2023, but we're not talking about 2023 We're talking about the 1970s and we're talking about the world ball world ball yet The furthest the WFL ever reached was placing a team in Hawaii get this they were called the Hawaiians I just thought some of these team names were odd the Birmingham Americans the Detroit wheels the Philadelphia Bell and a variety of others Keepers creepers. Oh look, that's that's What the Houston Texans Houston Texans? I did see that. Yeah, I did see that interesting names I mean, this is the 1970s. Let's be honest. The internet hadn't even been fucking invented Why is it the most disastrous football league ever? Well, yeah, the modern NFL expansion team would later adopt Chicago fire I don't mind that others that have stuck on that at all the Charlotte Hornets the Memphis Grizzlies and the Chicago fire There was quite a bit of differences in the world football league in NFL Here are some of the differences over time was divided into two halves of seven and a half minutes each starting with There's never really this look if it's an overtime game. I mean that's That's an anomaly. There's not really that many overtime games But if it was it was divided into two halves of seven and a half minutes each starting with a kickoff But one of the teams the completed the complete overtime was always played Okay, so that doesn't mean that The first score wins the game. It's gonna be 15 minutes of of the best. I Don't mind that Off by one of the teams which I personally think this is a better system Yeah, I think so has today on the field the WFL went with yellow footballs and flashy uniforms The league also wanted to experiment with color-coded pants based on player positions This never really took off, but that would have been something at the end of the season They presented the MVP with a cash prize of $10,000. They actually placed it on center field in one dollar bills But my 1970 $10,000 that could have got you a fucking house Great thing has to be what they use to measure first downs instead of sticks and chains They used a device called a dicker rod Apparently designed for convenience. The device was two and a half yards long It only needed one person to run it instead of a full chain crew Imagine a ball carrier gets tackled closer to the first down and the announcer's got to be like It looks to be real close. Here comes out the dicker rod because finding three people to run a chain crew isn't all that Sadly What is my life come to what am I doing? I've never caught on Two and a half yards build up a two and a half yard measuring stick I'm not quite sure how that works, but either way the teams in the beginning the league held a college draft The first six rounds were held on January 22nd 1974 with the remaining 30 rounds two weeks later for a startup league The WFL actually had excellent talent. A lot of dudes spent time Nanna fell whether it was before or after this league just to name a few sounds like the AIF really Alfred Jenkins became an all-pro receiver for The Falcons Jack Dolbin started in a Super Bowl for the Broncos in my last video I mentioned Hall of Famer and reigning Super Bowl MVP Larry Zonka And a few of his teammates played in the WFL Zonka said he was getting paid 50k a year to play for the Dolphins and when the WFL offered him 3.5 million over two years. He couldn't say no another Hall of Famer who joined the league Sorry, who sorry. Okay. Yeah, the contracts are one thing, but who's putting up the money And you ever heard of Vince Pauly from the movie indencible He actually got a star in the WFL and made the first catch in league history to kick off the inaugural season The WFL showed major promise. Early attendance numbers were actually very impressive Celebrities were even showing up to games names like Bert Reynolds and Elvis Presley. The Philadelphia Bell Elvis Presley Tell you well, that's the first time I've ever heard the likes of Elvis Presley being involved with the game of football But this is the 70s. Well, then 55,000 probably eating a peanut butter sandwich, right? And over 64,000 for their second home game This turned out to be pseudo success the league found out later. The team had been lying about how many tickets they had sold It turned out the team had only sold 13,000 in their first game and just over 5,000 in the second Okay, well, how can you get away with telling people you've sold 64,000 seats? They had just let thousands of people pour into the game for free Investors and sponsors that were completely ruining the league's credibility. This was probably the turning point of this league There was a game later for the bell that season or they only had 750 fans show up. Here's the truth about teams in the WFL Several of the 12 teams paid way less than the original franchise fee required This resulted in teams being completely underfunded and not being able to meet the most basic necessities Here are some sad and harsh realities of some of these teams Only three teams could even pay their players every week. The Florida Blazers lived off of McDonald's mill vouchers after not being paid for three months Well, hey, I don't mind McDonald's but Well, that must have been the early days of McDonald's to be honest back in the 70s I mean, there's a guy who's who's who's eating a Big Mac every single day for 40 years And he hadn't even started back then the Portland storm were reportedly being fed by sympathetic fans When the Hornets couldn't pay their laundry bill, they had their jerseys impounded So this is pretty disastrous that he tried wheels didn't have enough money to buy it Is it as disastrous as the AIF? Yeah, it is. Yeah, athletic tape They ran out in the middle of a game and luckily for them There was a guy who donated enough for them to finish the game No, I thought there were multiple teams who relocated mid-season one of them being Jacksonville Which was the team that was supposed to host the world sharks due to this They had to try and relocate the championship game and the start look at those names much better The Hornets the second-place team in the east only sold a thousand tickets for their first game and new to not reach in That is out of the postseason. How the hell can you only sell us thousand tickets for a game? Doesn't matter where you are in the States Surely Surely There's gonna be over a thousand people that want to want to see a football game live I mean really Entirely in what's supposed to be the climax of the season was truly mediocre at best the world bowl between the Americans and the Blazers both teams hadn't been paid in weeks The Americans almost didn't show up to the game until they were promised rings if they won the stadium wasn't even half full It was just not the most hyped up of games the Americans ended up winning and while they were celebrating on the field with their trophy the sheriff's department was going through their locker Room confiscating everything they could find and literally right after their celebration They had their uniforms repossessed to help pay off team debts. Oh my god Somehow the league came back the next season and didn't show kidding me It came back the next season improvement even though they had more NFL talent They had less teams and the league was just less relevant and the WFL folded before the look man at the end of the day You know, I don't even know if it was the AFL or the NFL back then But to come up against the juggernaut That is known as you know the NFL these days It's it's I mean Why why would you why would you is it to make money? Is it to give other players more opportunity? You know the lesser players to you know an opportunity to sort of make make a name of themselves to then get back into the NFL Why would you why actually would you and lo and behold? This is the most disastrous football league ever years later with old stadiums left in ruins in a last desperate attempt at merger The Memphis owner filed a lawsuit against the NFL arguing. They had violated anti-trust laws and should be allowed to be in the NFL They didn't win the case Ironically with a league that wanted to be known for more than football in America and expand worldwide Their only champion ever would be a team with the nickname Americans the last five games we didn't get paid for We continue to play With reservations after some of the kids and my guys played for free I guess a tough game to play for free Certainly is it's a tough game and it was a tough there's a tough game today And it's a fucking tough game back then and if you're playing it for free and I look I've made this famous quote saying look, I wouldn't take that hit for a million dollars You know, that's that's the straight-up truth I wouldn't I wouldn't take the hits that these guys do for a million dollars And that's why they take it for a five million or ten million and to take it for free That's not right Either way guys that is the most disastrous football league ever and I hope you guys enjoyed Thank you for watching. I'm going to get out of here because I've got plenty more videos to watch In fact the next one is going to be titled The game the NFL wants you to forget and I'll see you then cheers guys and peace out