RE: AAFL Team Texas Newsletter: November 21, 2007

 

If you missed the first tryout of Team Texas in Houston, you missed some great football. On and off the field.

On the field, we had hundreds of the finest college football players who went to school at the University of Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, SMU, and other places. Lots of Texas fans got a lot of autographs that day.

We also had more than 100 NFL veterans showing what they got.

Off the field, everywhere you turned there was a Hall of Famer.

Detroit Lion great Lomas Brown, former Cowboy Pro Bowler Eugene Lockhart and NFL Hall of Famers Elvin Bethea and Joe DeLamielleure held court at the center of the field. Hearing Brown and Lockhart recount some of their epic battles during their Cowboy-Lions rivalry was worth the price of the trip alone.

Lockhart inspired the players with a talk reminding them of the love and passion they would have to bring to the game if they wanted to be successful. "There's a lot of excitement among fans," Lockhart said. "This is a great situation."

Lomas Brown told DeLamielleure he "thought the AAFL was a great idea. Great for the fans. Great for the players. Great for the city. I'm happy to be in on the ground floor of it. It's real football."

You can see Lockhart, Brown and DeLamielleure talking about their games and the AAFL at YouTube.com. Just type in their names and the term AAFL.

While Lockhart and Brown reminisced, former Tennessee Titan Pro Bowl defensive back Blaine Bishop was clocking defensive backs in the forty yard sprints.

"The talent is pretty impressive," Bishop said. "There are some good players out here."

The Houston media greeted the announcement of our coach with pleasant surprise. Just days before the workout, the Houston paper reminded its readers on the front of the sports pages that AAFL Team Texas coach John Jenkins is still remembered as one of the most prolific offensive coaches in the history of the Lone Star State.

We Longhorns remember some of those games all too well.

Since the workout, coach Jenkins has been beating the bushes for Texas football stars. Team president Mike Pede has been following Jenkins on his blog. An excerpt:

"Team Texas Head Coach John Jenkins spent the week making his way around the state of Texas meeting will administrators and coaches at Texas, Baylor, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech, Abilene Christian, and many others. Coach met with Baylor great Grant Teaff of the American Football Coaches Association and reported back that Coach Teaff was excited to be a part of what is happening with the AAFL, especially the requirement that players be college graduates. Coach Jenkins will make his way around West Texas this weekend, before returning to Houston on November 19 to begin breaking down film on the over 500 players that have participated in AAFL Combines and Workouts."

In the meantime, lots of interest from fans and media in the new team. I was part of a group signing autographs before the Texas-Texas Tech game. Long lines. Lots of questions. Here's the answer to the most popular questions:

Soon.

That of course, is "when are tickets on sale?"

Everybody has their own favorite who they want to see play. I heard a lot of people talk about the great University of Houston running back Jackie Battle – and this was from Longhorn fans!

We will know a lot more about who will be playing for Team Texas in the next few days.

Around the rest of the league, Team Arkansas selected former Razorback quarterback Ron Calcagni as coach.

And good news for those of you who remember former Gator Quarterback Chris Leak dismantling the mighty Buckeyes on national TV for the national championship a few months ago. Leak is playing for Team Florida.

Leak joins another high profile quarterback, Heisman trophy winner Eric Crouch, who also recently signed with the AAFL.

More later.

 

James Brown
Team Texas
All American Football League