Birmingham's AAF team signs first 15 players

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Birmingham's Alliance of American Football team signs first 15 players

Updated Aug 6, 2:01 PM; Posted Aug 6, 1:36 PM

Alabama wide receiver Chris Black runs after making a reception against Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 26, 2015, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

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By Mark Inabinett

minabinett@al.com

The Alliance of American Football announced the signings of its first 100 players on Monday, and 15 are coming to the Birmingham franchise.

The AAF is an eight-team football league that plans to begin play in February.

Birmingham's initial group of players includes wide receiver Chris Black and running back Marquell Beckwith.

Black played three seasons at Alabama before transferring to Missouri for his senior season. A former Lee-Montgomery prep standout, Beckwith played at Troy and Alabama State.

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.

Brown was a prep standout at Florence.

The AAF does not have a player draft. Each AAF team controls players from a set of assigned colleges.

Along with Black and Beckwith, Adams, Boyd and Brown of Mississippi State, Novak of Maryland and Sawyer of South Carolina came from colleges in Birmingham's feeder system.

For players from unaffiliated colleges, the allocation process moves to Phase 2, which assigns players based on their most recent NFL or Canadian Football League team.

Only two of Birmingham's new players have appeared in NFL regular-season games, and both came from colleges assigned to the team.

Novak has kicked in 118 NFL games, including seven for the Los Angeles Chargers last season. Boyd played in 26 games for the Green Bay Packers from 2013 through 2015.

After players have passed through the first two two claiming phases, they become free agents. For Birmingham's other players, Coprich comes from Illinois State, Cox from Grand Valley State, Gibbs from Alcorn State, Isaac from Michigan, Johnson from Coastal Carolina, Lee from Augustana, Seither from Georgetown (Kentucky) and Wright from Minnesota.

The other players signed by the AAF on Monday included former Vigor High School standout JaMichael Winston, who played defensive end at Arkansas and was one of the nine SEC players signed by Memphis.

The signings came after the AAF held its first combine on Saturday in Los Angeles. The league also has combines schedule for Houston on Aug. 18 and Atlanta on Aug. 25-26.

"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," said Bill Polian, AAF co-founder and head of football for the league. "These athletes will now have an opportunity to begin, extend or revitalize their professional football careers and continue playing the game we all love. ...

"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."

AAF players sign non-guaranteed contracts worth $250,000 over three years. They'll have the opportunity to earn more through a variety of bonuses tied to performance, statistics and fan engagement. Players who complete one season in the league will earn an educational stipend.

The Birmingham franchise is led by general manager Joe Pendry and coach Tim Lewis.

Before the AAF, USFL's Stallions played at Legion Field

The new Alliance of American Football announced last week that one of its eight franchises will play in Birmingham in 2019. But the AAF's Alabama entry won't be the first professional football team to call Legion Field home.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.