Burrell coach Shawn Liotta, brother Jeremy key cogs of innovative Fan Controlled Football League

By: Michael Love
Friday, June 3, 2022 | 12:01 AM

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Shawn Liotta’s passion for coaching football and striving for success has no downtime.

It’s a year-round venture. It’s his job.

And he wouldn’t want it any other way.

A veteran mentor in the sport for more than two decades at the high school, collegiate and professional levels, including work in arena football for a decade and currently as the head coach at Burrell, Liotta got on board with a league project six years ago that now is bearing much fruit.

He is a main cog in the machine known as the Fan Controlled Football League, an indoor league which features some well-known professional talent and experienced coaching minds in an atmosphere where fans make their presence felt.

“When this was all being put together a couple of years ago, they wanted someone to come on board to help shape the football side of it,” Liotta said. “I am so excited with what we’ve done and the fun things we are adding for the future.”

Liotta serves as the league’s “main head coach” for the eight teams and is responsible for an 18-member coaching staff that includes his brother, Jeremy, who also coaches with Shawn at Burrell.

“We’ve probably got over 300 years of NFL and major college coaching experience,” Shawn Liotta said. “They came in with a lot of energy and ideas and were ready to make this league the best it can be.”

Fans of the league are able to download an app that enables them to call the plays. They vote in real time for what offensive plays they would like to see run.

A system is set up where the results of the vote and the play selected are relayed to the players.

“The fans are what this league is all about,” Liotta said. “Myself and others as coaches, we go in there and coach, install the plays during the week and all those kinds of things, but the fans are making the decisions on game day. It’s kind of like fantasy football combined with video games that is live action with really good players.”

A number of special game rules, Liotta said, make for entertaining game play. Rock, paper, scissors is used instead of a traditional coin toss.

With the intention of faster game play, each half is 20 minutes with a continuously running clock except for the final 30 seconds of each half and also overtime.

There are seven players per team on the field with three on the offensive line.

There is no kicking or punting.

Each team has access to one timeout and three power-ups, a fifth down giving a team an extra play to avoid a turnover on downs.

Teams also can utilize a power play, which forces the opposing team to play the next play with only six players.

Two-point conversions are one-on-one with a receiver and a defender from the 5-yard line, and the quarterback has just three and a half seconds to release the football.

Each week, the teams are reset by way of a draft, and the fans are involved in that as well.

Two players are given what amounts to a franchise tag, kind of like keepers in fantasy football, Liotta said, and they remain with the team throughout the season. Defensive and offensive lines are drafted as groups to keep a consistent quality of play.

All other players could play for multiple teams throughout the season.

The eight teams and a practice squad train, workout and play at the same location, a state-of-the-art production facility with a 1,500-seat arena at Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Ga.

The league playbook, Liotta said, is the same one used when coaching at Burrell in terms of terminology and teaching but with some variations to fit the indoor game.

“It’s quite a big operation. When I am holding a practice, I am planning for 165 players on the eight teams,” Liotta said. “To my knowledge, that has never really been done before. A major college football team might only have as many as 100 players, or even less than that, on its rosters. But we have a great staff, and everything is done in a professional manner. We’re able to put a pretty good product on the field.”

Liotta said interest in the league and viewership on platforms such as Twitch, NBCLX and Peacock are growing every week. It also has courted interest and involvement from well-known names such as Ryan Shazier, Antonio Brown, Marshawn Lynch, Marcus Peters, Todd Gurley, Najee Harris and Julio Jones.

They, along with other big names in the music and entertainment industry, serve as team owners or weekly celebrity coaches.

“We have between two and three million people watch these games every week,” Liotta said. “The games themselves are great, and there is a pretty cool celebrity atmosphere. That all together really draws a lot of people to it. It’s great football, but it’s not just football. It’s the total environment.”

Former NFL players Terrell Owens, Johnny Manziel, Martavis Bryant, Terrence Williams and Rashad Jennings are just some of the league standouts Shawn Liotta has gotten to work with and know.

“If you told me I would be the head coach of a team with Terrell Owens and Johnny Manziel, and others like that, it’s quite a collection of talent,” Liotta said.

“There’s at least 20 guys in the league now who will sign NFL contracts or get in NFL camps at the end of the season. That’s the level of talent we have.”

The current season, dubbed ‘Season v2.0’, is now in the playoffs with the eight-teams finishing up the seven-week regular season last Saturday.

8OKI FC faces Bored Ape FC in one semifinal Saturday at 6 p.m., while the Zappers and Shoulda Been Stars will play at 8:30 p.m. Other creative team names in the league include Beasts, Glacier Boyz, Knights of Degen and Kingpins.

The championship game is June 11.

Jeremy Liotta coaches the Glacier Boyz, owned by a group that includes NFL cornerback Richard Sherman and rapper Quavo.

He was promoted from an offensive assistant role to the helm of the Glacier Boyz during the regular season and earned his first victory, 34-18, over Beasts on May 14.

“This season has been so much fun,” Jeremy Liotta said. “I’ve been able to meet all these celebrities who are just great people. And to be able to coach such great talent like Terrell Owens and Johnny Manziel, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

“There is so much to the games and the media stuff the players do, but we as coaches hope to get a lot of the players ready for the next stage in their football careers. I’ve had a lot of guys on my roster who are NFL ready. There’s a nice mix of players who have been in the NFL for a number of years and others who hope to make it there soon. This is such a cool experience for me, and to share this with my brother like we do coaching at Burrell, it’s pretty special.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Burrell