UFL Tryouts Draw 1,000-Plus: Sign of Viable League or Glut of Desperate Football Players?

With five teams each carrying final rosters of 50 players, simple math tells us that only 250 players can make the final roster of a United Football League team. Securing that precious roster spot doesn’t exactly mean reaping riches, either. In fact, there are plenty of regular day jobs that could earn you more money without posing the risk of debilitating injury.↵↵Yet more than 1,000 aspiring players showed up over the weekend to try out for the UFL’s five current franchises and impress coaches like Jeff Jagodzinski (right). What does this mean? That the league is perceived as a legitimate route to professional football? That a lot of burly guys are out of work and willing to take a last-ditch shot at a paycheck?↵

↵↵After the end of the first UFL season last year, 11 players were signed by NFL teams. Some of them had previous NFL experience. A slight majority (6) only made practice squads, but for the player in question, that’s quite the promotion when you consider that in the UFL players who aren’t quarterbacks can earn a base pay of $35,000 per season. The minimum practice squad salary, assuming a player can stay on for the entire 17 weeks, is nearly three times what a UFL player would make.↵

↵↵Assuming that these 1,000 aspirants were the only ones who could possibly suit up for the UFL next year, that means they can expect to stand only slightly better than an one percent chance of making it beyond the UFL. That is, if they can even keep a job in the league. So if the plan is to go through the UFL to try to find a comfortable lifestyle, perhaps a trip back to the drawing board is advised.↵

↵↵Minuscule hopes for the players, of course, don’t mean that the UFL isn’t doing its intended job, which is to help the NFL discover and polish talent. Or simply to be an entertaining diversion in markets where the NFL isn’t present. Still, the verdict on whether it’s a viable path for players with unorthodox backgrounds may still be a few years away. At least for now, however, it’s got the players’ attention.↵

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