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Former Rams head coach Jeff Fisher will serve as interim commissioner of the Arena Football League

The new Arena Football League turns to Jeff Fisher as it faces significant headwinds. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

Needing a new commissioner amid a tumultuous debut, the new Arena Football League did something often seen in spring football leagues: It went looking for faded NFL talent.

In this case, Jeff Fisher.

The former Los Angeles Rams head coach confirmed to reporters on Tuesday that he is taking over as interim commissioner of the recently reconfigured AFL. according to WSMV's Lauren Walsh. Fisher will reportedly replace current commissioner Lee Hutton III at the behest of a group of league owners.

Fisher has been involved in spring football for years, first as head coach of the USFL's Michigan Panthers and more recently as a member of the ownership group of the Nashville Kats in the AFL.

“This league is good. We look forward to continuing and finishing the season,” Fisher said via WSMV.

While Fisher exudes optimism, the nature of his mid-season tenure reflects the AFL's dire situation in its third life. The AFL's second incarnation ended in bankruptcy in 2019 as new investors restarted the league with 16 teams for that season.

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After three weeks of play, the number of teams has now fallen to 12. The Minnesota Myth, Philadelphia Soul, Iowa Rampage and Georgia Force have all called it quits, with Myth and Soul calling it quits last week. Judging by this Philadelphia Inquirer story, the exits weren't particularly graceful:

Tristen Burnett, a certified sports agent based in Fredericksburg, Va., who represents Joe Mancuso, the Soul's projected starting quarterback, said in a telephone interview Friday that his client had a demoralizing experience at the Super 8. Burnett said the Soul players were kicked out of the motel early Friday morning, that the motel bill had not been paid and that the players had their luggage taken away and locked in a motel room.

“Law enforcement got their stuff from Super 8,” Burnett said. “Joe is down right now. He left a good situation in the IFL [Indoor Football League] with the Vegas Knight Hawks. He took a bet on himself in a new league. He had a nice apartment for his young son and his wife in Henderson [Nev.], and he comes to it? The [Soul] The players were promised apartments. Drugs and prostitution came and went in this motel. It was a shame. Joe said, 'I haven't gotten a W-2 yet to get paid.' Without a players' association, no one's going to stand up for these guys.”

Without the NFL's help, which the AFL was supposed to receive by broadcasting its games on NFL Network, the economic situation surrounding spring football is tough. Those plans fell apart before the season, and we're seeing the consequences here.

It's hard to imagine Fisher making much of a difference to the numbers at play here, but at this point the league might just want a stabilizing presence while it figures out how to bounce back for a second season or preparing for another bankruptcy.

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