When watching football do you often catch yourself saying that’s a horrible play call by a coach? Do you think you could have chosen a better play for your team to run? Until Thursday, May 3, 2018, the only way a fan could choose a play for his or her team to execute was on video games like Madden. All of that changed when 92 football players stepped on to a football field at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach, FL to compete in the inaugural game of the new football league, Your Call Football.
On May 3, 2018, football players executed plays that were selected by fans who were attending or watching the YCF game live. The play calls were selected by cell phones or tablets through YCF’s app.
YCF is the first league to allow fans to watch and help create the outcome of a football game via an app. According to YCF’s President Julie Meringer, YCF represents “the first time anyone has integrated football, gaming, and fantasy.” The three businesses YCF has integrated has caused the newly established league to be one like no other.
The new league which only had three games this season (May 3rd, May 10th, and May 17th) gives fans the ability to watch, contribute to the selection of play calls chosen, and win over $50,000.00 in cash prizes. Before YCF, this type of football league was unchartered. Platforms like Madden, Fan Duel, and Draft Kings cannot do all three things (watch a game, select a play call, and gamble) at once. From the outside looking in some people may consider George Colony’s (the founder and funder of Your Call Football) vision for his league to be compared to finding a goldmine.
A goldmine because of the potential the league has. In its first season, YCF had former college players (who still had aspirations to play professionally) and professional football players (who were free agents) playing in their league. Some notable names include former Super Bowl champions Bernard Pierce Sr., Robert Meachem, and B.J. Daniels. YCF used Optimum Scouting (a football scouting consulting service) to get the majority of its players.
The players received coaching from individuals who were well-known in the football realm and coached at the professional and collegiate level. Leading the coaching staff was former NFL Running Back & ESPN NFL analyst Merril Hoge and former Green Bay Packers Head Coach and General Manager Mike Sherman.
Sutherland interviewed former Montreal Alouettes Canadian Football League player Vincent Brown, about his thoughts on YCF and how he benefitted from playing in the league. Here is their conversation:
SUTHERLAND: How did you hear about Your Call Football?
BROWN: I learned about YCF through my agent James Paul. I played for the Montreal Alouettes up in the Canadian league last year and I had been released this offseason. While training and waiting for another opportunity, my agent recommended it. He assured me that it would be a great opportunity after doing his research.
SUTHERLAND: What made you want to play in the YCF league?
BROWN: What made me want to play in the YCF league was the opportunity for one, but also the uniqueness of it. In football or sports period, the fans are such important people. If you think about it from a player’s perspective it always gets the blood flowing a little better when you run out of the tunnel and see a crowded stadium. Therefore, when I heard of how the fans would get to call the plays in the games I was all for it. It’s such a unique and realistic way to play the game we all love as players and have fun. And it’s also awesome for the fans, being a fan kind of makes you feel like you know the answers in certain situations as well so I’m sure it was worth their time to be involved with the play calling.
SUTHERLAND: How did you benefit from it?
BROWN: I benefitted from YCF tremendously. I was coached hard by coach Mike Sherman who we all know, but my favorite coach on the entire staff besides Merril Hoge was Chris Mosley. He coached me hard and I saw the improvement over the 6 weeks of being there. Every coach on staff had professional experience and you could tell based on how they expected things to be done and how they treated us as players and men. The professional structure was unquestionable and it benefitted me a great deal.
SUTHERLAND: Would you recommend other players to participate in this league?
BROWN: Of course, I would without a doubt. While I was there, I would stop into the office and tell the scouting staff about players that I knew who wanted to play for YCF at least once a week. Even now after the season I have former teammates from different places I’ve been that have asked me about it and I recommend it to them to this day.
SUTHERLAND: What is the best thing you can take from your experience with YCF?
BROWN: Wow! I’m taken back by this answer because as I reflect on my experience there, what I care about the most are the people. Julie is a great leader and so is Collin Vataha. Every time I saw them they always seemed so happy to see me and I appreciated every second of it — also the relationships that were built with the coaching staff — to be able to have Mike Sherman and Merril Hoge in your face every day coaching you was a blessing — always there to give the proper instructions on how things should be done and also give words of encouragement — also the staff itself. There wasn’t a game day that I walked into feeling unprepared. This is a difficult business to be a part of, but it was worth every second that I committed myself to Your Call Football.
During and after YCF’s first season several players signed contracts and earned tryouts with NFL and CFL teams. These players include B.J. Daniels, Ashaad Mabry, Wes Saxton, Mitchell Bell, Bryan Bennett, Quinton Bradley, Ruben Carter, C.J. Moore, Khalid Wooten, Kareem Are, Jojo Mathis, K.J. Maye, Michael Rector, and Ian Seau.
With one season under its belt, YCF is already working on what can be done to improve their league and app. Meringer, a former managing director for Forrester Research, has taken the new start-up [YCF] by its reins and is working on guiding the league in a direction that creates growth. Besides having the moral and financial backing of Colony, Meringer also has the help from her management team. A team comprised of women: Susan Maffei, Esq. (Chief Financial Officer) and Sue Develin (Vice President Marketing).
Sutherland was able to get in contact with Meringer; the president provided him insight on how the concept of YCF was created plus more:
SUTHERLAND: How did YCF come into existence?
MERINGER: George Colony, Chairman, and CEO of Forrester Research had the idea back in early 2002 after being on a panel with Paul Tagliabue. His idea was simple yet innovative and he summed it up in four words — Fans Call The Plays. Flash forward to 2013 when he asked Me to operationalize it.
SUTHERLAND: Why did you want to create such a platform?
MERINGER: We saw the opportunity to provide the next generation sports and gamer the ability to do what they love — call the plays for a live game versus play Madden or Fantasy.
SUTHERLAND: How does the new gambling rules affect YCF?
MERINGER: This is a great opportunity for YCF because it would allow our fans to up their competitions of Head to Heads and Leagues within the YCF game and wager cash versus YCF virtual currency.
SUTHERLAND: How did you find the players?
MERINGER: YCF has a contract with Optimum Scouting to source and secure our players. They did an excellent job. Over 95% of our players had been in an NFL camp and we had three Super Bowl Champions in our ranks.
SUTHERLAND: How do players benefit from playing in this league?
MERINGER: Not only did the players benefit by being coached by some of the finest NFL minds in Mike Sherman, Merril Hoge, Kurt Schottenheimer, Don Clemons, Cris Dishpan and Robert Ford (to name a few), but YCF had over 20 NFL teams viewing our film from practices, scrimmages, and games.
SUTHERLAND: Why did the season have only 3 games?
MERINGER: The purpose of our inaugural season was to actually prove if we could integrate the business of football, with gaming and a live-streamed broadcast. We set out to do that and we succeeded. No one has ever done that before. We were confident, but we were taking a risk and we succeeded.
SUTHERLAND: When will the next season occur?
MERINGER: We are in talks right now with our funder about securing our future dates. Stay tuned.
SUTHERLAND: Will YCF continue to host its league at Historic Dodgertown?
MERINGER: That is a definite consideration for many reasons and once we finalize the future dates, we will confirm our location.
SUTHERLAND: What are your goals for this league?
MERINGER: Our goal is still the same — offer quality football with innovative technology and to the lead the industry in offering fan control and interaction of a live sporting event.
SUTHERLAND: Since this was YCF’s inaugural season, what are things that YCF wants to improve on or correct?
MERINGER: We want to continue to improve on the product on the field and the product for the fan (the app).
To learn more about Your Call Football, click here.
To read more stories like this, visit shaheemsutherland.com