SAN ANTONIO — Cross another first off the list.
On Thursday afternoon, the San Antonio Commanders took the field at Benson Stadium to begin its week-long minicamp.
This will be the first of many evaluations for head coach Mike Riley as he will eventually need to take his 75-man roster and knock it down to 50 by opening night.
"The biggest initial hurdle is there is no history," former San Diego Chargers head coach Riley said. "You don't have any carry-over with players--guys from last year who can step out here and know everything right from the very start. You're starting on page one of your offensive and defensive notebooks."
All eight teams in the Alliance of American Football League have to deal with the same sort of adversity, but the players are not worried about that kind of adversity. The interesting thing about the AAF is most of the talent dispersed to each organization has a slew of professional experience.
"It feels good to be a part of the first-ever Alliance team of San Antonio," former Saints and Jets running back Khiry Robinson said. "I think everything with a fresh start is good for everybody. We're able to erase everything that happened before whether it was college or NFL or injuries or anything like that. It's good to have a clean slate."
Minicamp will progress all week until the team heads home for the holidays. San Antonio will reconvene for training camp in early January preparing for its first game in the Alamodome on February 9 against San Diego.