It's Business 101 at the minor league sports level that to attract attention, you have to go a step beyond what the major leagues are willing or able to do. Lord knows, the NFL minor leagues have tried.
The Alliance of American Football eliminated the kickoff and the extra point. The XFL invented the 9-point touchdown. The USFL has a soccer-style shootout for its overtimes.
While plenty of those innovations merit further consideration, here's the real innovation that the audience wants to see in the NFL and college football.
As the New Orleans Breakers mounted a game-winning drive against the Houston Gamblers, the USFL -- thanks to our friends at CoachComm -- took us inside the inside. We get to hear everything head coach Larry Fedora and offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said as quarterback Kyle Sloter guided the New Orleans offense 56 yards in 32 seconds to secure the 23-16 win.
You've never had all-access audio to a game-winning drive like this before 👀🔥
— USFL (@USFL) May 10, 2022
Listen in as Head Coach @CoachFedora, OC Noel Mazzone and QB @KyleSloter communicate on the @USFLBreakers' game-winning drive in the first edition of "Inside the Drive" ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/015L4FhPrO
What we see here is live NBC audio interspersed with images and audio collected that didn't make the broadcast. It's similar to what Showtime gives us on Inside the NFL, but I can't recall ever hearing a play call as it rolls off the coordinator's lips.
If the NFL or a college conference ever peel back the curtain to this degree -- especially to a point where it's shown live or semi-live on the TV broadcast -- football will reach a level beyond must-see TV.