Background

The NFL has come crashing down in a sports scandal of unprecedented magnitude.  Accused of criminal connections with major betting interests in Las Vegas, all NFL owners have had their teams seized by a special Federal Prosecutor following a Grand Jury indictment.  Hundreds of professional football players suddenly find themselves without jobs, their contracts voided by draconian bills passed in haste by the House of Representatives and confirmed by the Senate.  The NFL itself can no longer operate as all their assets have been frozen or seized.

Across the continent and even in Europe and Asia, big business interests,  wealthy entrepreneurs, municipal and state governments, citizen’s committees, charlatans, and even the Sultan of Brunei, are scrambling to fill the entertainment void suddenly and dramatically created by the collapse of the world’s most lucrative sports league.  It is a heady and chaotic time fueled by the promise of great riches and rewards from the major television networks for the group that can assemble the league with the greatest talent and chance of success. Everyone in the sports industry is watching and waiting to see who will build the next Elite Football League.

Scenario

You have been appointed General Manager and Operations Director of a newly established professional football franchise owned by a powerful financial backer.  As a known and respected football genius, unconnected to the betting scandal that brought down the old NFL, you have been given complete control over all football operations and football decisions, down to the name and colors of your team.  Your team is one of twelve teams hastily assembled to form a league that aims to grab the attention of the world and the most lucrative television contract in sports.  Your league is the Elite Football League (EFL).

All former NFL players are looking for work. Recently drafted College players are also in the hunt – suddenly devastated by unpaid signing bonuses and worthless contracts.  But all of these players have agents, and they have certain minimum demands that must be met, or they will be happy to sign elsewhere. 

Your first order of business is to sign as many good former NFL players as possible with the money you have been given.  The league owners have agreed that an entry draft will determine which team has the rights to negotiate with a given player.  They have also agreed to a hard salary cap which cannot be exceeded.

The recently drafted college players are desperate. Without professional experience, only the most promising can expect to be offered big money to sign with the new professional teams.  The rest will take what they are given, in their first year, to get on board.

The Elite Football League has many supporters in the media industry.  It is viewed as the odds-on favorite to grab the hearts of America’s football fanatics.  However, there are other leagues – rivals in hot pursuit of the EFL who are willing to do anything to reach the pinnacle of success.  The Superior Football League (SFL), based in the Great Lakes Region of the US, is an aggressive rival with the ability to sign top NFL stars. Former NFL standouts bypassed by the EFL will likely find their way there.  The Canadian Football League (CFL) continues, as always, to be a safe haven for those who were good, but not good enough, for the NFL.  The Tex-Mex Football League (TMFL) is the wildly popular organization with teams in the American Southwest and Mexico which uses radically modified rules such as two downs to gain five years or else a mandatory punt on third down (implemented during the loop’s inaugural season to increase the interest of futbol crazy fans in Mexico) have purist up in arms.  Players looking for any kind of work will find their way to the TMFL.