by february 2018, the league pushed its start back to the summer of 2019, and signed on adidas as a major sponsor. jamie hemann was hired in december 2018 as ceo, to start on january 1, 2019. also revealed at the time was that the league start had been pushed back to july 2020. on january 7, 2019, it was announced that former nfl player ed mccaffrey would serve as commissioner. the july 2020 date for launch of the league was also reaffirmed. as of january 2019, the league's advisory board consists of mike shanahan, jim steeg, mike pereira, baron flenory, and steve schmidt.