United Football League (2009)

United Football League (2009)

The United Football League (UFL) was a professional American football league based in the United States that began play in October 2009 and played four seasons, the most recent being cut short in October 2012. The small league (the league never had more than five teams playing at one time) played most of its games in markets where the National Football League (NFL) had no current presence. Unlike most alternative professional football leagues since the 1980s, the UFL played all of its games in the traditional fall season, competing directly with the NFL, college football and high school football.

The UFL occupied the second tier of professional football in the United States, behind the National Football League. The UFL primarily consisted of players who have at one time or another played for an NFL team. While the league had no connection with the NFL, and never intended to foster any such connection, some have speculated that it could become a minor or "developmental" league for the NFL. Other reports had speculated on the league becoming a "competitor" to the NFL or that the league intended to be an outlet if (and, as it turned out, when) the league and its players' union reached the end of their collective bargaining agreement in March 2011, giving players who would be locked out an opportunity to play professional football outside the NFL; the lockout was resolved in July 2011, which negated any benefits the UFL attempted to reap from the labor dispute.

The league was beset by frequent operational interruptions, stemming from systemic financial shortfalls, from summer 2011 onward. The United Football League announced on October 20, 2012 that it was ceasing operations immediately, after four weeks of play. The official line from the league was that they intended to resume operations and complete the unfinished 2012 schedule at an unspecified time in spring 2013, then revert to a new fall schedule in fall 2013 without a full offseason. This announcement, however, was met with widespread skepticism from both within and outside the league, and the league did not return as promised.

Over the course of its history, five teams have played in the league: the Las Vegas Locomotives, Hartford Colonials (originally the New York Sentinels), Omaha Nighthawks, Sacramento Mountain Lions (originally the California Redwoods) and Virginia Destroyers (successors to the Florida Tuskers). The Locomotives were historically the best of the five teams, winning two of the three championships, appearing in (but losing) the third, and having a perfect record for the season at the time of the cessation of operations.