American Gridiron Football League

The American Gridiron Football League (AGFL) is a national gridiron football league established in the United Republics. Though the sport remained popular to some degree across college campuses in the United Republics, no formal professional league was ever established during the early 20th century. An attempt in 1923 called the APFL collapsed due to the perceived disorganized nature of the sport, and subsequent safety concerns preventing any widespread adoption of the sport afterwards or during the early Revolutionary era.

Despite this, the AGFL was established in 1959 with the founding of four original teams, the Metropolis Titans, Philadelphia Yellow Jackets, San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Gunners. The league, in order to expand appeal to populations and draw crowds during the baseball off-season, arranged agreements with amateur football squads to induct them into the AGFL Players' and Coaches Association and formally register them as teams of the league. The first two squads to sign-on with the AGFL after the initial four were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Diego Thunderbolts in 1961 - both teams had been playing impressive exhibition matches against college teams during the off-season periods.

The expansion agreements set the stage for the growth of the league. In 1967, seeking to expand their presence yet again, the AGFL actually beat baseball to a new city - the Seattle Seahawks were created in 1967, nine years before their baseball counterparts, the Seattle Mariners, took the field. To balance the league, the Eastern Conference got a new team in the form of the Pittsburgh Steelworkers FC "Steelers", under a very similar model to baseball's Green Bay Packers - a union team, associated closely with the steel mill workers in Pittsburgh proper who contracted through the American Steelworkers' Collective.

After some conflict with authorities through the 1970s due to health concerns, the league did not expand again until 1980, which saw the establishment of two teams in the South - the Birmingham Vulcans took to the field in the heavy football-favored Birmingham commune of New Afrika, and Houston - another major football city in the college sphere - received a team in the form of the Houston Oilers.

In 1989, football penetrated into the former Canadian territories as two new squads were assembled - the Winnipeg Giants, and Ontario Rough Riders. These players primarily, in their first seasons, consisted of former "Canadian Football League" players who had not fled in the wake of the Red Turn, supplemented by Americans who decided to join the new squads that sought talent. These two teams continue the "CFL" tradition of the Grey Cup every year-- playing three exhibition games during the year against each other, in which the winner of the series receives the Grey Cup.

In 1995, the league expanded again, finally entering arriving in Los Angeles and Boston, two major cities on the west and eastern coast of the United Republics - the Boston Gaels and Los Angeles Magic.

In 2010, the Chicago Defenders and Arizona Phoenix were added to the league.

In 2020, the league expanded again, adding the Cleveland Commanders in the ECI, Carolina Apollos in the ECA, Portland Snowhawks in the WCP, and Denver Broncos in the WCC.

AGFL Championship (1959 - 1999)
During the first forty years of the league, the champion of the AGFL was usually decided by a combination of wins/losses and points for/against; it typically did not involve a championship game except in certain pilot years.

Unitas Trophy-era (2000 - present)
After the 1999 season - in which the fearsome Tampa 2 defense and the high-flying "Smoke and Mirrors" offense finished the season in a close race for the Championship but did not directly play each other due to the scheduling of the season, the AGFL's players and coaches voted in January 2000 to move to a tournament-style of play, similar to that of college sports and baseball. Effective with the 2000 season, a new playoff system was introduced - the top teams of each division plus two wildcards per conference would play each other in an elimination-style bracket, culminating in the AGFL Championship Game, the victor of which would receive the "Unitas Trophy", named for St. Louis Gunners inaugural player-manager way back in 1959, Johnny Unitas.

The very first playoff game took place on December 30th, 2000 - the Eastern Conference Wildcard round in which the Metropolis Titans defeated the Ontario Rough Riders 47-41.

The first official recipient of the Unitas Trophy was crowned on January 28th, 2001, in which the Philadelphia Yellow Jackets defeated the St. Louis Gunners, 31 to 17.

League-Sanctioned Exhibition Series
As part of many AGFL agreements, and as part of an attempt to increase appeal among the public to draw more people to AGFL games, the AGFL will periodically sanction "Exhibition Series" games each year, allowing teams to play each other outside of the usual schedule arrangement. These teams typically will have something in common - such as a geographical region, commonwealth, or some other facet.

AGFL Hall of Fame members
The "AGFL Hall of Fame", currently located in Canton, Ohio is a location in which famous football players of the AGFL are enshrined for their career efforts. Players can typically become inducted into the Hall of Fame once they have been out of the league for five years. Some players who are retired but do not yet have AGFL HOF eligibility include the likes of Eli Manning (three-time Unitas Trophy winning QB, four-time AGFL Championship MVP), Rob Gronkowski (multiple All-Pro tight-end) and Richard Sherman (multiple All-Pro cornerback).