Some AAF Players Left Homeless After Abrupt Shutdown

After the Alliance of American Football abruptly pulled the plug on the league’s inaugural season earlier this week, many players who were living in AAF-arranged temporary housing were left homeless.

Many players were living in hotels and apartments provided by the league and were kicked out as soon as the AAF announced it was shutting down.

Since that happened Tuesday afternoon, some players arrived back at their housing on Tuesday night to find their bags and belongings greeting them.

“It was like, ‘Damn, really? Like, tonight?’ ” cornerback Charles James II of the Memphis Express told USA Today. “I mean, that was a first. What kind of (expletive) is that? So then I was like, well, ‘I’m sure you’re going to figure out transportation and have flights scheduled, or you’re going to compensate guys for gas and stuff like that.’ Well we got another message saying that’s not happening at all.”

Rich Ohrnberger, a former NFL player who was working as a radio analyst in the AAF, shared more of the details on Twitter.

More on the #AAF collapse:

+Players in Memphis came back to their hotels after news came down, and had their personal items waiting in the lobby. Kicked out of their lodgings.

+Amount of money owed to vendors, venues, etc. in San Antonio for training camp is over $4 Million

— Rich Ohrnberger (@ohrnberger) April 4, 2019

Unorganized is an understatement…kicked out of our rooms (that weren’t paid apparently) 17 hours away from home with a car full of my belongings and nowhere to go…#JoinTheAlliance @TheAAF @CharlieEbersol @TDCanes @espn @BleacherReport @aafexpress

— Anthony Manzo-Lewis (@amanzolewis) April 2, 2019

As Ohrnberger points out, players who were injured while playing in the AAF are on the hook for their medical expenses.

https://twitter.com/JoshuaFrazier69/status/1113792662245711874

Play game
Break arm
League ends all within 24-48 hours
Now looking for an apartment
Need help finding an apartment
You can’t make this shit up

— Gionni Paul (@GionniPaul) April 3, 2019

“That the AAF is folding so abruptly, with so little consideration for the players, does not speak well for chairman Tom Dundon or founders Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian,” according to ProFootballTalk. “The league needed a better plan in place for how to survive — and how to handle it if the league couldn’t survive.”