Green, Fassel, Haslett to coach in new league

Former NFL coaches Dennis Green, Jim Fassel and Jim Haslett will lead teams in the new United Football League.

The league plans to debut in October with four teams in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Orlando and New York.

"This will be awesome," Fassel said on a conference call Wednesday. "It's pure coaching — players that want to get better, players that want to develop. A lot less of the other stuff that's always involved when you're an NFL coach."

Ted Cottrell, a former defensive coordinator for the Chargers, Vikings, Jets and Bills, will coach the New York franchise.

Fassel, who led the Giants to the Super Bowl after the 2000 season, will coach Las Vegas. Green, the former Vikings and Cardinals coach, will be in San Francisco. Haslett, the ex-Saints coach who served as the Rams' interim coach this past season, will be in Orlando.

UFL games will be played outdoors using NFL rules. The goal is to sign players who just missed making NFL rosters. Players will be able to sign with NFL teams after the short season, which is scheduled to end Thanksgiving weekend, but not during it.

"So much of what we do is about developing players and developing coaches," Green said.

Teams are scheduled to play games in Hartford and Los Angeles along with the home markets. The league also announced that the San Francisco franchise will play games at AT&T Park.

The four coaches insisted they weren't looking to use the new league as a launching pad to return to the NFL. UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue, a former Jaguars and Lions executive and agent, said the league plans to eventually offer competitive coaching salaries to the NFL.

"This league, in general what attracted me to it was the people running it," Haslett said.