The Spring Football League (SFL) was a short lived professional

american football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in N ...

that existed for only one season in 2000.

Spring football

Founded by several ex-NFL players such as

Eric Dickerson Eric Demetric Dickerson (born September 2, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Dickerson played college football for the Mustangs of Southern ...

, Drew Pearson,

Bo Jackson Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson (born November 30, 1962) is an American former professional baseball and American football player. He is the only professional athlete in history to be named an All-Star in both baseball and football. Jackson's el ...

, and

Tony Dorsett Anthony Drew Dorsett Sr. (born April 7, 1954) is a former American football running back who played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos. From Western Pennsylvania, Dorsett attended the ...

, the SFL planned to use the four-game mini-season (dubbed "Festival 2000") to test cities, fans, stadiums, the media, entertainment, and springtime

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

as a product. The year before, the

Regional Football League The Regional Football League (RFL) was an american football minor league formed to be the self-styled "major league of spring football." Established in 1997, the league played a single season, 1999, and then ceased operations. History The RFL se ...

staggered through a spring season, then announced it would not return for 2000. In late 1999, the SFL announced an inaugural season of 2000, with ten individually-owned teams playing a 12-week schedule, followed by a championship game during Memorial Day weekend. Mark Rice, chairman of the SFL board of governors, placed eight of the franchises in

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;

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes ...

;

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

;

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

;

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

;

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

;

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and

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On March 1, 2000, the SFL announced the league had scaled down to four teams that would play four-game schedules on Saturdays from April 29, followed by a championship game in Miami on May 27.Associated Press story on SFL
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Teams

SFL teams consisted of 38 players, each of whom would receive $1,200 per game with a $200 winners bonus. The league's games included pre-game and half-time shows featuring national musical acts (such as

The O'Jays The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1958 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert, Walter Lee Williams, William Powell, Bobby Massey, and Bill Isles. The O'Jays made their first chart appearance with the minor h ...

, Mark Wills, and Poncho Sanchez), a pronounced effort to attract both African-Americans and Latino fans, and innovative use of wireless communication. SFL coaches of note: *

Lew Carpenter Lewis Glen Carpenter (January 12, 1932 – November 14, 2010) was an American football player and coach. He played college football for the University of Arkansas and professionally for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL) as a ...

–

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...

* Guy McIntyre –

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

Doug Cosbie Douglas Durant Cosbie (born March 27, 1956) is a former American football tight end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Santa Clara University. Cosbie has been a football coach for seve ...

–

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

* Keith Millard –

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansio ...

* Jim Jensen –

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pl ...

* Hugh Green –

* David Little –

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Stee ...

Neal Colzie Cornelius Connie Colzie, better known as Neal Colzie, (February 28, 1953 – August 20, 2001) was an American football cornerback for the Oakland Raiders (1975–1978), Miami Dolphins (1979), and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1980–1983). He also p ...

–

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

* Donald Hollas –

* Don Narcisse –

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded i ...

Mini-season cut short

Despite modest media coverage and live games broadcast on the internet and radio, the SFL cut their season short to focus on the 2001 season. Houston and San Antonio were declared league co-champions. With funding for the league having been provided by tech-stock entrepreneurs, any chance that the SFL would return was scotched by the tech-market crash of 2000 and the subsequent announcement of the XFL by the WWF. The last professional football game played at the

Miami Orange Bowl The Miami Orange Bowl was an outdoor athletic stadium in Miami, Florida from 1937 until 2008. The stadium was located in the Little Havana neighborhood west of Greater Downtown Miami, Downtown Miami. The Miami Orange Bowl was considered a landm ...

was an SFL game: an estimated 3,650 fans watched on April 29, 2000 as the

San Antonio Matadors The San Antonio Matadors were a professional football team that played in the Spring Football League (SFL) in 2000. The Matadors were undefeated before the league decided to cease operations. The Matadors were named co-SFL Champions along with ...

defeated the Miami Tropics, 16-14.

References

External links

CBS highlight of Houston Marshals vs Miami Tropics
via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

"Remember the SFL"
{{Professional gridiron football leagues in North America Defunct American football leagues in the United States