Marketing - Football Visionary Kurt Bryan Looks to Launch New Pro League

Photo of Kurt Bryan co-creater of the A-11 offense

During his first 21 years as a head football coach and offensive coordinator, Kurt Bryan ran exactly one play out of the shotgun formation. Then in 2006, on the heels of a playoff loss to a school twice the size of his, Bryan, then the head coach at Piedmont (Calif.) High School, in collaboration with his offensive coordinator Steve Humphries, created the A-11 offense based on the concept that any of their 11 players on the field — including two quarterbacks — could be eligible to catch a pass on any given down. Once The New York Times, ESPN The Magazine and National Public Radio profiled the offense, and Bryan and Humphries launched an A-11 website to answer frequently asked questions, hundreds of high schools nationwide adopted the system. Following the 2008 season, however, the National Federation of State High School Associations changed its rules to effectively ban the A-11, but its architects have since shifted focus to the pro ranks and the prospect of a 10-team spring-summer league launching as soon as 2013. Paul Steinbach asked Bryan, who now sells insurance while trying to sell investors on his $100 million venture, to draw up the vision.

Q: You're used to playing the role of David against Goliath, but what makes you think you can survive in a market ruled by the NFL after so many pro leagues have tried and failed?
A: For about 30 years, football fans in America have spoken with their wallets, and they don't want to support long term a watered-down, subpar version of the NFL in the off-season. However, we think there's a market for a faster, more dynamic, more athletic, more random 11-man pro game featuring thousands upon thousands of options for the coaches and players to use — and fans to watch.

Q: In 2008, Scientific American magazine calculated that the A-11 offense allowed for 16,632 possibilities in terms of who might receive the snap and who might end up with the ball on any given play, compared to 36 in a conventional offense. Had you done the math?
A: That blew us away. We knew there were a lot more permutations possible after the snap, but we had no idea it was that exponential. So now what we're trying to help potential investors visualize is full-time professional coaches and players tinkering and developing A-11 systems on a year-round basis. It's going to be unbelievable what they come up with.

Q: Entertainment value aside, is it a safer way to play football?
A: By far. We operated the A-11 offense in 22 games and didn't have a single major injury on offense. And other A-11 coaches started reporting the same thing, that athletes weren't getting the blown-out knees and ankles, because they weren't piling up inadvertently. As for the concussion element, when players are more spread out, they're not banging heads as much. As a coach, I like it that the players can see oncoming traffic a lot easier and avoid the big hit.

Q: Will the A-11 live, even if your venture dies?
A: Even if it doesn't happen in the next couple of years, do I still think this is where football is headed? Absolutely. Those two years gave us enough of a crystal ball. The game is not going to become slower and more condensed. It's going to become faster and more spread out. So with each year, the game is becoming more and more like A-11 football, not less like it.

football coaching

Comments:

Every spring pro football league has failed. If any of them have a crack at sticking around longer than 5 years, it would be this one. The variables are big enough but its 11 vs. 11 football on the same size field. Good luck. CH

Captain Ex-player 5/15/2012 5:25:39 PM

Is this out of the same A-11 manual I saw at the Branson Missouri "As Seen On TV" store???

Joe 5/13/2012 8:15:50 AM

Best of Luck with the League Concept! It's good to have more options available, for the sports dollar. www.bleacherfeature.com FLETCH

Randy Fletcher BleacherFeature.Com 3/30/2012 2:06:45 PM

A gaggle of younger athletic directors more in sync with the times are clamoring for the NCAA to change the rules to bend into the A-11 game immediately, in large part to make the structure of the game as safe as possible for the student-athletes. A-11 is going to occur at every rung on the ladder reaching the football landscape from the valleys to the peaks of the mountain tops. Personally, I am for it, especially if the design of the A-11 game is more beneficial for the student-athletes health and wellness. Lyle

Lyle V. AD (retired) 3/29/2012 4:56:07 PM

good idea and i will catch the games

derrick 3/28/2012 1:08:53 AM

Anybody who underestimates Bryan or how A-11 will transform pro football does so at their own misgiving. This league is aptly timed. Trent M.

trent observer 3/23/2012 3:12:42 PM

if any alternate football league will be successful it will be this one. lc

luke coach 3/22/2012 6:34:32 PM

These guys are very wise to think outside the norm to not compete with the NFL by playing in the spring and cutting the game loose with a differentiating style that is still pro football. I would like to know what cities are wanting a team in their neck of the woods. I hope they are a big success. Poe

Poe fanatic for football 3/19/2012 2:29:38 PM

AFL - gone USFL - gone World Football League - gone XFL - gone NFL Europe - gone there's really only 1 game in town, and it's the NFL good luck, though

skeptical skeptic 3/19/2012 12:50:22 PM

First note: I follow Athletic Business regularly, and this article has the most consistent feedback, so that states that there's serious interest in this community. My input: This will be like Google+ was to Facebook. This league will come along, NFL will borrow/implement the best, most accessible rules, and then the A-11 league will likely flop.

Rob C Project Manager 3/19/2012 12:05:35 PM

This guy is a dope of the highest order. He couldn't succeed within the rules of the game so he tried to cheat. When they stopped letting him cheat he quit. Part of the brilliance of great football coaches is that they work within the rules. This dude wasn't able to do that so he's making his own game with his own rules. This is a ridiculous idea and anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves. Thanks for nothing Kurt. You're not a visionary, you're not an innovator. You're just a spoiled little brat who took his ball and went home when he didn't get his way.

Football Coach Football Coach 3/19/2012 2:35:19 AM

Like clockwork every couple of decades in football some type of innovation or discovery by a coach searching for a better way to do things comes along to radically alter how the game is played, coached, perceived and reviewed by everyone in football. Tom Landry, Knute Rockne, Pop Warner, Homer Smith, Bill Walsh, Bill Belichick, Sid Gilman, Chip Kelly, Joe Gibbs, Urban Meyer, Barry Switzer, Paul Brown, Alonzo Stagg, to recognize some football stalwarts in the coaching profession who dared to invent something new. The A-11 Offense created by Kurt Bryan and Steve Hunphries has been earmarked by more than a few sports historians as a giant step forward to advance the game in terms of what is possible and what can be done. Taking the A-11 Offense up to the professional ranks might seem like a crazy move to some, but we are in the crosshairs of the game's history right now, and it's a credit to Bryan and Humphries that they are brave enough and smart enough to pull the trigger.

Robinson C. Educator 3/15/2012 3:44:59 PM

The A-11 game will definitely change professional football - for the better. More play possibilities, more excitement, more athleticism, and a chance to see some really great college athletes that don't fit into the NFL "position box". And as the system moves into high school and recreational leagues - maybe we can move away from the "bigger is better" mode for young players. Healthier kids - more excitement - a safer game. Let's get going!

Will 3/14/2012 4:53:46 PM

G E N I U S

Chaz Banker 3/14/2012 1:29:56 PM

The A-11 Professional Football League has rewritten the script for American football sports entertainment and wants to place team ownership in the hands of the cities and the fans much like the very successful Green Bay Packers model. The innovation continues through out the A-11 football league business model with 12 month player contracts and 24/7 year round www streaming video on every aspect of team/city/fan interactions. This is a major Paradigm shift in sports entertainment.

Michael 3/14/2012 11:27:06 AM

Intelligent idea for the A-11 league to position itself as something within the framework of eleven man tackle football at the pro level but different enough than everybody else. Good intelligent move.

rg 3/13/2012 6:28:55 PM

these teams should be put in ohio, california, texas, florida, pennsylvania, washington, new york, north carolina, georgia, missouri, alabama, oregon and michigan

Jacob 3/12/2012 1:31:01 PM

A-11 originally was spurned and laughed at when these coaches first had the hutzpah to test its mettle on the field. Now however, the table has been completely turned. Our coaching staff saw how devastating the A-11 is when a football team has the weapons to operate this A-11 system. We scouted them as a possible playoff opponent about midway through the 2008 campaign and they were a force. Not a big team but fast as the wind. No team is unbeatable but Bryan is definitely right, the game has become something different and changed in unexpected ways and it will never stop churning ahead. Will the A-11 football league be a success? I hope it is. It's a bold great idea. Oliver

Oliver football coach 3/12/2012 10:47:56 AM

The eyebrow raising news about the A-11 football league is that nobody thought of this idea before or came to the same conclusion as these coaches, or should they be decreed as football scientists? During the first year or two or possibly the first round of its football games the A-11 league will make strides into the future revealing truths to the most skeptical die-hard football traditionalists. The space age futuristic A-11 league will shine an unflattering beam of light on its competitors to make them appear to be cousins of the football dinosaurs. As for the location of the A-11 franchises? Americans desire football, the A-11 league should put them in as many destinations as they can muster, Florida and Louisiana are easy choices.

will programmer 3/10/2012 9:55:31 AM

Arizona, New Mexico, Los Angeles, Arkansas, Louisiana, Seattle, and the Atlantic Seaboard can get behind A-11 pro ball. I would steer away from Minnesota and Wisconsin too cold. BumpnRun

BumpnRun Coverman DB 3/8/2012 2:25:39 PM

Texas can support two or maybe three A-11 pro football teams. There is little doubt that Texas, not Florida, or Ohio, or Cali or Penn, but TEXAS is king of football. Texas lives and breathes football. MG

monroe fan 3/7/2012 3:50:00 PM

football is king in alabama, roll tide and give us the A-11

avery 3/7/2012 2:29:42 PM

Ohio and Pennsylvania would serve as some good locations for these teams, maybe Missouri and Iowa and Nebraska. LT

Lance 3/6/2012 5:00:33 PM

Louisville been working on trying to land a pro football franchise or NBA team for years. People think Louisville just a basketball city, we have lots of football fans too. Louisville loves football

howard 3/5/2012 8:46:03 PM

Los Angeles needs pro football, a legit pro team so give us some luv and bring LA some of dat A-11 baby!

nate 3/5/2012 4:42:45 PM

Put a franchise is San Jose, we can support a pro football team and our city is close to the birthplace of the A-11 offense. San Jose wants pro football, bring us an A-11 team! SJSU alum

sparta sjsu alum 3/3/2012 10:52:21 AM

Does anybody know which cities the A-11 league is talking to? Sounds killa pd

paydirt player 3/2/2012 3:27:59 PM

Is A11 the future of the game? Good question, but it probably is. This move is a cunning pre-emptive strike by the A11 league. I like it and I get it, and I'm in. Tarik

Tarik Associate SID 3/1/2012 3:18:05 PM

I attended one of Bryan's A-11 clinics a couple years ago and I entered that ballroom full of doubt as his leading skeptic. I was wrong. Bryan explained every detail of A-11 and answered the bevy of questions that the coaches in that room were asking of him that day. He even spent thirty minutes with me afterward talking about my ideas and his for the future of football. His reasons for adapting the A-11 to his players and the how's and the why's the A-11 not only turned me around, but I have installed some A-11 plays into our own scheme and they work very well. Long live A-11 and a pro league offering A-11 pro football is going to be great. Coach Rick

Coach Rick football coach 2/29/2012 5:23:04 PM

Would I tune the the tv watch one of these A-11 pro football team games instead of soccer, hockey, basketball or baseball? For sure. Nice.

christopher 2/28/2012 6:08:21 PM

Sweet Idea!

vance 2/22/2012 2:47:40 PM

I cant see the A-11 league overtaking the NFL but for a spring football league? I would watch the A-11 league on television around the clock football fan

football fan 2/21/2012 2:44:03 PM

This is one brilliant idea, and I am eagerly looking forward to becoming a fan of A-11. I can see many enticing reasons why the A-11 league will prosper, genius idea if it's examined from an objective pov.

Bernard attorney 2/17/2012 3:44:37 PM

The thing that pops out at me about this A-11 league is the sheer fact they are looking over the Horizon. Very impressive. Chris

chris Harvard Consultant 2/9/2012 4:48:02 PM

If this A-11 is safer for the players it will become the new style of pro football without a doubt, great point.

anthony 2/3/2012 11:57:05 AM

My take if this "solution" allows the NFL to mitigate their concussion risk, then Gooden & Co. will look into.. Entertaining maybe, but refer to this link: A quote from Russell Crowe in Gladiator "are you /we not entertained..is this not why you are here"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs&sns=em Man is just seeking the outer limits of what we can do w/ his time, dedication, work, technology upon the walk for greatness, money....... As i /we are not satisfied w/ being average. Though, Man is truly insatiable for more of what?! My father was drafted & played for Vince Lombardi, and feels the pain of yester year! I leave you w/ a Dub step mix version from Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard, originally a song from Gladiator. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_hqQhtYBt4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Jay Breen 2/3/2012 11:27:37 AM

there are quite a few spring leagues trying to begin, and this one differentiates itself from every other league. Novel idea and it will be entertaining for sure. Mike

michael 2/2/2012 4:17:24 PM

I like it a lot!

rw 1/31/2012 4:40:39 PM

Football Visionary Kurt Bryan Looks to Launch New Pro League

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