1957 League Meetings and Rule Changes

1957 League Meetings and Rule Changes

Following the McCallister Cup in November the league meets with all the owners of the teams as well as player representatives from each team. However, this year brings the newly formed NAAF Players Committee. The NPC is made up of retired players that work with the league throughout the season to help make proposals for rule changes and other league decisions. Currently, the group is made up of 5 players with more to join over the coming years. Former Boston QB Larry Larson is the leader and creator of the committee. Ryan Jameson has been working with Larson to form the group. Throughout this season 3 other players joined Larson in the NPC. Former Buffalo DB Oscar Patterson, former Gold Stars/Royals WR Eugene Burns, and former Blue Wing/Tiger/Royal QB Evan Morrow. They will introduce the 5th member for this upcoming meeting session with WR Allen Atkins who is retiring and participating prior to the official announcement later this offseason. 

All the representatives that attend the league meetings will have a vote on what rules or proposals. 24 of 28 votes are needed to pass a change without revision, while 20 is needed for a pass with minor revision.  

League Structure
A majority of the rules about the structure were agreed upon in the last offseason, but the league wanted to give Sammy Kirkdale and Vince Forsyth opportunities to have a say about the decisions. The decided upon changes remained intact with the league going to an East-West division alignment. The West having Buffalo, Indiana, Long Island, Louisville, and Ontario, and the East having, Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, Providence, and Worcester. 

The playoffs would be getting an expansion allowing for 6 of the 10 teams to make it. The top team in each division would get a bye week into the Division Finals. The second-place finisher in each division would host the Division Semi-Final games. The 3rd place in each would then be the visitors in the Division Semi-Finals. The crossover rule will still remain if the 4th best team in one division has a better record than the 3rd place team in the other.  

The schedule will be expanded to 12 games for the new season with each team playing their division opponents twice and 4 of the other 5 teams once. There will be one matchup that won’t happen each season which will rotate year to year.  

Expansion Draft
With the new teams, the expansion draft is a huge debate for the league. The goal this time around is to make the new teams competitive while also making sure the established teams wouldn’t be robbed. The protection rules ended up with two parts. The first was an auto protection for players aged 24 and under. It would cover any players from the past two draft years. The players that are auto protected will not count towards the team’s selected protection. The selected protection allows teams to protect 12 players on their roster from last season.  Teams will have a chance to protect more players during the draft. Once two players from their team have been picked, they will have the option to protect an additional player with every player taken after that.   The 2 new teams will have 20 selections for the draft. They are not required to use all 20 picks if they don’t want to. They will be picked in a serpentine draft starting with one team. The team that picks second in the expansion draft will get the 1st pick in the entry draft.  

Once players have been selected, the two teams will be able to use what will be known as the “Expansion Tag”. If the team uses an Expansion Tag the player tagged will have to play at least one year with the team at a salary of $15,000. The Tag will only last one season and the teams will only be able to use it for this season. The tag can only be used on 4 players. This is to try and not have players be picked and then leave and allow the new teams to have competitive teams. 

Roster Rule Changes
Injuries became a major issue this past season, and some teams were having issues with the limitations of the active roster rules. For this season the maximum capacity for the active roster will move from 32 to 40. Allowing for an extra backup in almost every position. The reserve rosters will remain at 12 players (a move to 10 got heavily rejected). The big change will be, any players on the roster at 25 years of age will be available for any team to pick up for their active roster (much like the NFL’s practice rosters).  

Team Captains
With Ryan Jameson being a former hockey player, he wanted to bring the captaincy system that hockey teams use to the NAAF. Each team will now have a designated captain with a “C” on the left side of their jersey (except Worcester who will still have the Heart Patch on that side). The teams will also select 2 Assistant Captains designated with “A”. They will be announced alongside the season preview.  

Ontario’s Struggles
Outside of the major rule changes, the other focus was on the Tigers’ future. Additional money saved from the team’s trades of RB Laurent Brazeau and DB Louie White was invested in a new stadium project in London, ON. The city has been trying to get a team in the OFU, but it has now attracted Tigers’ owner Garry Duran.  

Duran has realized the city of Kitchener is not sustainable long term and a new home is going to be needed. He wants to remain in Ontario so London has become the best option for the team. Ottawa owner Laura McNeil has been helping Duran since the process began during the regular season. McNeil and Duran brought the issue forward and the league and other owners were willing to help out. Blue Wings Owner Milton Charles and Boston Owner Benjamin Harris, were big players stepping up with additional funding. The remaining owners pitched in little amounts.  

The city of London is still looking to accept the new stadium, but they are more likely to accept it with a team behind the project. The leaders of the OFU London project have also thrown in their support for Duran and have been working with the Tigers to possibly bring the team to the city.