The alliance of American football debuted last night. We were shown the Orlando team, with spurrier as the coach. What did I think? I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it.
He ran a wide open offense and had some trick plays...they scored a lot of points. But the other team didn't. And in the other contest that was on, it was also low scoring. So I'm not sure how exciting it will be over time.
I'm intrigued by the rules: no kickoffs, and no onside kicks - and you must always go for 2, and a 5 man rush is the max.
The players were somewhat recognizable which was also a plus.
Now let's get to the thing that interested me the most: the app.
In theory, you get real time stats, can play little games (like predicting the next play), and can wager on certain things - for real money if you live in a state that allows for it - or just for fun.
So I opened the app and it seemed cool. Players were shown on the field, moving so it was a nice addition to the game - you could find a guy who wasn't in the camera view.
But that's where the fun stopped. I would say that not a single feature worked. Couldn't see stats. Couldn't predict plays. Couldn't wager.
And at some point the screen went blank and there were no players.
When we did see them, it was hard to figure out what was happening.
In the times that it worked, the game clock was between 20-30 seconds ahead of what was broadcast on my tv, using an antenna - so it should have been much closer to correct.
And every once in a while the time remaining in the game in the app said "32:54"
Yeah, it wasn't ready for prime time.
Assuming it was that they didn't plan for usage, shame on them...and they might get one week to correct it before viewers just give up and don't care.
