No matter what Bud Selig says, or how high Major League Baseball?s newest revenue totals are, baseball is no longer the sport of choice in the United States of America. Over the last decade football has gradually, but not quietly, caught up with and surpassed baseball in terms of national popularity. The sport?s biggest game and grandest stage, the Super Bowl, has morphed into a national holiday of sorts, with the rest of the world taking notice with both their eyes and checkbooks. Millions of children, teenagers and grown men participate in organized football throughout the fifty states, and abroad, but where do they play when the National Football League is maxed out? The NFL is football?s version of a prestigious country club in the Caribbean. There are tons of people who are dying just to join the party, but only a select few will get to rub elbows with the club?s millionaire members. Let?s break down the numbers. An NFL team is allowed to keep 53 players on its active roster, which means that the entire league employs fewer than 1,700 players at any given time. You can add perennial free agents, practice squad and injured players to that number, and it?s still going to fall well short of even a couple thousand. Talk about good work if you can get it. It?s one thing to wonder what happens to tremendously talented Division II and III college football players, but what about all those Division I scholarship athletes that never make the jump to ?The Big Show?? There are several options ? none of them too exciting. You can?t go overseas to play in the NFL?s European league anymore, it folded this June after sixteen seasons, so that?s out of the question. There?s always the Arena Football League, but the game play is substantially different. That leaves the Canadian Football League as the only other real professional option comparable to the NFL. Sure, you can play in amateur flag football leagues, which are prevalent throughout the country, but typically their only requirement is that you have a pulse seconds before each game. With the popularity of guys like Kurt Warner, Priest Holmes, Antonio Gates and Willie Parker, all undrafted NFL stars, hitting an all-time high more and more alternative professional leagues are popping up. On Wednesday Nov. 28, the United National Football League (based out of New Haven, CT) announced that they are looking for prospective franchise owners and players, with the intent of kicking off their inaugural season in January of 2009. What separates the UNFL from their competition is that it?s the first truly developmental league in the sport. Their main goal is to create professional opportunities for collegiate football players who have the desire to make pigskin their ultimate career path. Whether that leads to a roster spot in the NFL, or a few years of play in the UNFL, is up to each individual player. ?Due to reasons ranging from inequities in media exposure and scouting methods of football players among various college divisions and conferences, to inadequate statistical measurements and arbitrary benchmarks, the current system to evaluate aspiring professional football athletes is seriously flawed. The UNFL can fill this gap by providing a truly competitive landscape to evaluate talent, enhance the player selection process, and enable professional football teams to provide the highest quality product to their loyal fan base,? states Marvin Tomlin, league Co-Founder. The league will also consist of a ?Player Development? department that will aim to help players give themselves a better chance of succeeding throughout their career. Subjects like rookie life, media relations, personal conduct and sports nutrition will be huge focuses for the men involved. While exchanging e-mails with Nick Saraceni, another one of the league?s co-founders, it was stressed that the UNFL was not created to compete with the NFL, but rather help supplement it. One of the first sentences you?ll see on the UNFL homepage states, ?It is important to note that every aspect of the United National Football League is geared towards supporting the NFL and aiding them in their efforts to put only the best talent on the field. We will provide an atmosphere that will increase the prosperity of the National Football League while elevating the integrity of the game.? America has embraced baseball?s minor league system whole-heartily since its inception, so why wouldn?t we do the same with the nation?s new national pastime? Heck, even the NBA, which stands a distant third behind the NFL and MLB in terms of popularity and revenues, has introduced their own successful developmental league recently. Look out for news on the UNFL in your area and keep checking back here for more developments on what could, and should, turn out to be the next big thing in professional football. For more information on the United National Football League please visit their website at UNFLF.com. Please direct feedback on this piece to Andrew?s e-mail: Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com