RIP, AAF: Remembering the 8 best moments from Alliance of American Football

Jordan Heck

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RIP, AAF: Remembering the 8 best moments from Alliance of American Football image

The Alliance of American Football is essentially done as we know it after suspending its football operations Wednesday. There will be a small staff retained to try and start the league back up, but the remainder of its inaugural season is no more and the players in the league are all currently free agents.

So with no more AAF football being played in the immediate future, we thought it'd be good to look back fondly on the enjoyable moments the league gifted us in its eight short weeks. The business side of things didn't work out for a variety of reasons, but the play on the field and the personalities off of it gave us something to remember.

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Let's go through some of those moments together. These are in no particular order.

Mike Bercovici hit

This hit by linebacker Shaan Washington on Mike Bercovici got the AAF off to a great start. The Commanders and Fleet were playing on CBS for the league's opening night, and this hit happened early in the game to to pique the interest of those who may not have known the game was on. 

After complaints all throughout the NFL season of the game getting "soft" due to the new roughing the passer rule, fans were excited to see "real football" again. This hit was kind of a microcosm of everything coming together to help the AAF gain strong ratings during its first week and inspire hope the league may succeed.

Obviously, that didn't work out, but in the moment it was special.

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Overhead completion

The Fleet quarterbacks gave us several great moments. Bercovici was benched after the first game, so in comes backup Philip Nelson, who started the second week of the season. After a busted play, Nelson doesn't know what to do, but he knows he doesn't want to take a sack. So what does he do instead?

HE THROWS IT OVER HIS HEAD WITHOUT LOOKING!

This kind of wacky play is exactly the type of thing that made the AAF worth watching. It even caught the attention of Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.

World-record setting dog

What a good boy.

While this certainly had nothing at all do with the actual football being played, we couldn't not include this. The record was set during an Orlando Apollos game and the video gathered millions of views across different platforms. There's nothing too impressive about a dog catching a frisbee, but when you get world records involved, people sure do get interested.

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Trent Richardson runs 13 yards

This 13-yard run above was Trent Richardson's longest run of the season. It's truly something to marvel.

Richardson had an interesting career in the AAF. He was easily the biggest face in the league for most of the season, as he was the only first-round NFL draft pick (aside from Johnny Manziel, who joined late). Richardson made headlines after his three-touchdown game in Week 3, but many ignored the fact he was barely averaging over two yards per carry.

T-Rich finished the season running a league-high 125 times for 366 yards (2.9 yards per carry) and 11 touchdowns. He scored at least one touchdown in every game.

Johnny Manziel eats nachos

The Manziel Era didn't last long, but it left us with some memorable moments.

After exiting the game with an injury, Manziel was seen on the Express sideline chowing down on some nachos out of a Buffalo Wild Wings container. Where else are you going to find entertainment like this? We're going to miss you, Alliance.

Mic'd up Moments

Warning: Videos in this section contain explicit language.

One of the ways the AAF tried to differentiate itself from the NFL was to mic up the players on the field. The NFL kind of does this, but they mic up the player and then listen for the best soundbites and play those. The AAF just openly played the audio on the broadcast and it led to several hilarious moments.

Perhaps nothing was better than Christian Hackenberg, who would routinely drop F-bombs.

In Week 3 the broadcast announced Hackenberg "did not want" to wear the mic anymore.

But Hackenberg was far from alone in committing mishaps on the microphone. Johnny Manziel provided us with some great commentary as well as some other folks.

Let's listen to some.

It'd be great if the NFL could adopt this, but there's no way it would work.

Steve Spurrier's existence

Speaking of mic'd up moments, the Head Ball Coach provided weekly entertainment to the Apollos' games. His quotes were so great, the AAF held an entire broadcast on its website one week fully dedicated to Spurrier. You got to listen in to what he had to say all throughout the game.

But Spurrier brought more to the league than just his great sound bites. His offense was the best in the league, and he found creative ways to score on two-point conversions. AAF rules forced teams to go for two rather than kick an extra point, and Spurrier had several unique plays, such as his own version of the Philly Special.

And of course Spurrier went out on top by declaring the Apollos champions after the league suspended operations.

The Snow Game

Nothing says spring football like snow.

In Week 4, the Apollos, used to the nice weather in Orlando, traveled to Salt Lake to play the Stallions in 30 degree weather with heavy snowfall. This game ended up being one of lowest-attended games of the season with just over 9,000 tickets sold. But some fans did their best to raise those numbers.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Poor snowman was built just to watch the Stallions lose

A post shared by FOOTBALL MEMES (8.6K) (@aafmemes_ig) on

Also, we need to talk about the zamboni that came out for this game.

Typically when it snows on a football field, such as an NFL game, the grounds crew will come out and clear the field to make it easier for the players. It's not always perfect, because if the snow continues to fall, the ground will just be covered up again. But there's really no explaining why in this game the zamboni made about three rides up and down the field and just gave up.

Those aren't even straight lines.

We're going to miss you, AAF.

Jordan Heck

Jordan Heck Photo

Jordan Heck is a Social Media Producer at Sporting News. Before working here, he was a Digital Content Producer at The Indianapolis Star. He graduated with a degree from Indiana University.