The Fan Controlled Football League first stepped on the scene in 2017, as a way to give the fans more control over their sport. The league has given the fans the ability to create logos, vote on rules, decide uniform designs, and call plays.
Some have said the league seems a bit like a gimmick, but let me assure you, it is not. Look no further than the ownership, which is comprised of top athletes and celebrities.
The list includes NFL’s Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch and Austin Ekeler, MLB’s Trevor May, boxing’s Mike Tyson, WNBA’s Renee Montgomery, AEW’s Miro, and celebs like Greg Miller, Bob Menery, Deestroying, and rapper Quavo.
Serious players and serious money support this league. Verizon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Correlation Ventures, Basecamp 2, Next10 Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Basecamp 2, Next10 Ventures, Bleacher Report co-founder Dave Finnocchio, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
Under the name FANchise, the league operated 2 teams in the Indoor Football League in 2017: Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, and the Colorado Rush.
The group folded those teams, and began the push to establish its own independent league.
Team names and owners for the 2021 season:
Beasts – Lynch, Miro, and Montgomery
Zappers – Menery and May
Glacier Boyz – Quavo, Sherman, and Deestroying
Wild Aces – Miller and Ekeler
FCF recently began a partnership with Progressive Insurance, a big move, as the league will be able to enhance their already fan-controlled experience.
With Progressive, the league will be able to give fans the ability to deploy a Progressive 5th Down, which will give teams 1 more shot to keep their drive alive.
This also allows fans to get to know their teams’ offensive lineman. Often forgotten, this group of players protect the ball carriers, and deserve recognition. Through the partnership, there will be weekly highlights on the units, to help fans get to know their players.
With plans to play in the spring of 2021, players have already been signed, and will head to camp in Atlanta around the end of January.
Among those players are former FSU QB Deondre Francois, and former Texas A&M Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.
The teams will draft on a weekly basis from a pool of active players, but they are able to “tag” at least 1 player to have on their team the entire season.
The league is set to begin in February, and last for 6 weeks. All games will be streamed on Twitch, to appeal to the gamer audience, as well as football lovers.
Fans will be able to call the plays through an interactive overlay for web-based and mobile Twitch app.
Played on an indoor 35-yard x 50-yard field, the league will be a fast-paced, high-scoring 7-on-7 league, but without the kicking game.
Co-founder Sohrob Farudi had this to say in a recent interview
“We are pushing boundaries and pioneering a new category of immersive sports that will be a seismic shift in the worlds of sport and entertainment. Fan Controlled Football is IRL meets URL. For the first time in sports history, fans get to call the shots for their team, everything from team branding, player selection, and real-time play calling is decided by the fans. This is the future of sports and we’re excited to co-create history with the fans.”
The league is poised to take the the football and gaming world by storm. With the power of the owners, and high-level athletes on the field, we’re looking forward to seeing the fan-controlled product.
Power to the Fans
Minh Dang
January 6, 2021 at 12:44 pm
Who is Bob Menery and why is he a celebrity?
Football Realist
January 9, 2021 at 9:54 pm
I’ll still be amazed if they ever play a down. This was a gimmick from the start, it’ll be seen as a gimmick, and it’ll be completely ignored by potential fans.