Former Tide WR Among First To Sign With Birmingham AAF Team

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Birmingham's Alliance of American Football team has signed its first 15 players, part of the first wave of AAF signings that included 100 players across the new league's eight teams. Among those signed by the Birmingham team is former University of Alabama wide receiver Chris Black.

Black, a highly-recruited athlete out of high school, played three seasons at Alabama before transferring to Missouri for his senior season. A native of Jacksonville, Fla., Black caught 25 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns in his Alabama career.

Former Alabama running back Trent Richardson indicated last month he intends to sign with Birmimgham as well.

Related story: Former Bama RB To Sign With Birmingham's AAF Team

Joining Black on the Birmingham roster also is former Troy and Alabama State running back Marquell Beckwith. Beckwith played high school football at Lee-Montgomery.

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“Today marks an exciting step in our journey to providing fans and players with top-flight football in the spring, as we begin to establish a competitive foundation and base of talent that will keep expanding throughout this fall and winter,” explained Bill Polian, co-founder and head of football, The Alliance. “These athletes will now have an opportunity to begin, extend or revitalize their professional football careers and continue playing the game we all love."

He added, “Our personnel staff, general managers and coaches will continue to recruit aggressively in the days and months to come. Team-building is a never ending task and we are excited to attack that challenge and to build on this very positive start.”

Also joining Birmingham are defensive end Nelson Adams, defensive tackle Josh Boyd, linebacker Beniquez Brown, running back Marshaun Coprich, center Aaron Cox, quarterback John Gibbs, running back Ty Isaac, linebacker Shane Johnson, guard Sam Lee, kicker Nick Novak, defensive end Dante Sawyer, defensive end Nick Seither and guard Garrison Wright.

The AAF does not have a player draft. Each AAF team controls the rights to players from at least 13 college programs. For Birmingham, the colleges include 13 state schools as well as South Carolina, Mississippi State, Louisiana Tech, North Carolina State, Maryland and Missouri. In addition to Alabama and Auburn, the state colleges on Birmingham's assignment list include UAB, South Alabama, Troy, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, Samford, Miles, North Alabama, Tuskegee and West Alabama.

The standard Alliance player contract offers players a base salary of $250,000 over three years with a comprehensive bonus system which will award financial compensation based on a variety of metrics such as performance, win, and fan engagement. Additionally, players who make final rosters will be offered post-secondary education assistance and health and wellness benefits.

Players are allocated to Alliance teams based on where they competed in college. If a player’s college is outside The Alliance footprint, he will be allocated based on his most recent NFL/CFL team. If a player’s college is outside The Alliance allocation footprint AND he did not play in the NFL or CFL, then he is unallocated and available to be tendered a contract by any Alliance team. If a player signs with The Alliance and is then offered a contract to play in the National Football League, the player will be granted permission to pursue that opportunity.

The league will kick off its 12-game season February 9, and Birmingham's team will play at Legion Field for its inaugural season before possibly moving to the new downtown stadium scheduled to be completed by 2020.

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