#ProTops: Five Former Toppers Find AAF Homes
Remember like a month ago when we told you that there’d be a new spring pro football league, the Alliance of American Football, and their…
Remember like a month ago when we told you that there’d be a new spring pro football league, the Alliance of American Football, and their eight member clubs all had agreements with schools in their region for player allocations, and that WKU was excluded from that list?
Well, as we said in the article, that meant for the possibility of ProTops to be scattered all across the league.
Five former Chrome Domes inked deals with the soon-to-be-launhced league, including former NFL standout Andrew Jackson and former tight end Steve Donatell.
Three former Toppers are headed to Memphis.
Jackson will suit up for the Memphis squad, playing his first pro ball since 2017 when he played for the Spokane Empire of the Indoor Football League. Prior to that, Old Hickory played for the Indianapolis Colts for one season after being drafted by them in the 2014 NFL Draft.
He’ll be joined by former Topper defensive back, Brett Harrington, who was a part of the Tops’ 2012 signing class as a JUCO transfer. Harrington recorded 35 total tackles in 2012, and I cannot find a history of him playing past The Hill.
The duo will also be joined by former WKU quarterback Tyler Ferguson, who had the distinction of backing up Mike White for a year in 2016 after transferring from Louisville via Penn State.
Although he lists the Nittany Lions as his school, Ferguson played in more games, completed more passes and threw more touchdowns with the Red Towels. Not sure why he didn’t list WKU as his squad, but we’re going to count him.
After his year on the Hill, Ferguson has a couple of preseason/practice squad stints with the Tennessee Titans.
Former Hilltopper defensive lineman Chris Johnson signed with the Phoenix club, per Breech’s tweet, after totaling 43 tackles in 2016, 13 of which went for a loss, which was the seventh-best in C-USA that year. In 2017, he totaled 46 tackles.
Steve Donatell rounds out the first four AAF Toppers, signing with the Salt Lake City club. Donatell became a quiet but lethal threat for the Tops in 2016, catching 13 balls for 125 yards and two touchdowns.
He, along with George Fant, received invites into rookie camp for the Seattle Seahawks.
As we said in our first article last month, if the AAF is to succeed and have any sort of shelf life, it’ll be a great breeding ground for former Toppers to flourish in a professional environment (think guys who didn’t get NFL chances but should have; Ace Wales, Nicholas Norris, etc.) to, hopefully one day, be scooped up by an NFL side.
I’m sure this is far from the only names we’ll see as the first week of the AAF approaches.
Also, unless I’m counting incorrectly, I do believe WKU has the most amount of representatives of any other school in the first 100 signees.