MILWAUKEE, Wis. — When the recently announced Milwaukee Pro Football takes the field for their inaugural season in the Continental Football League next year, they will have a familiar face leading the team with a history of head coaching semi-pro football in Wisconsin.
Former Green Bay Packers nose tackle Gilbert Brown was confirmed as the still unnamed team’s first head coach following an out-of-state meeting, chief operating officer Ameer Hollowell told WTMJ September 22.
“We’re looking to legitimize this thing and make it as high a level of production as possible, so we’re moving forward with [Brown] as our first head coach,” said Hollowell. While declining to detail who he planned to bring on for the team’s coaching staff, Hollowell said Brown could be “bringing in some weight with him”.
The move would be the 2008 Packer Hall of Fame inductee’s second tenure as the head coach of a Milwaukee professional football team, following a brief stint that same year with the CIFL’s Milwaukee Bonecrushers which saw him depart the team just three games into its first season citing “irreconcilable differences”. The team would later be ordered to pay $29,539.29 in unpaid bills to turf provider Challenger Industries in 2009 before relocating to Chicago in 2010.
Brown also held head coach positions with the Indoor Football League’s La Crosse Spartans from 2009 to 2011, then led the then-Lingerie Football League’s Green Bay Chill from 2011 to 2014.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Pro football league planning Milwaukee expansion franchise in 2027
Milwaukee Pro Football would be an 2027 expansion market along with Indianapolis and Cincinnati in the Continental Football League. The league launched in 2025 and has no affiliation with the league of the same name from the 1960s. The new team would be led by Hollowell and his father Ahmed, who is currently a Milwaukee Public Schools administrator and serving as Milwaukee Pro Football’s team president.
Milwaukee has not seen an outdoor professional team since the Packers played their final home game at Milwaukee County Stadium in 1994. A handful of indoor teams played at the Bradley Center and what is now UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena over the years, including the aforementioned Bonecrushers and the Arena Football League’s Milwaukee Mustangs.
In an interview with the Milwaukee Business Journal, the elder Hollowell says the team is hoping to raise funds through memberships currently priced at $99 with the goal of 2,000 total memberships sold.
A team name and venue has not yet been chosen for the Milwaukee franchise, though a community ballot on the team’s website lists American Family Field, The Milwaukee Mile, Hart Park, and a temporary location along the lakefront as venue possibilities. The team website lists an initial working minimum venue capacity near 3,500 seats.
Six games in total including three home games are proposed for the inaugural Milwaukee Pro Football proof-of-concept season between May and July, as part of what the team calls a “controlled market test”. Before announcing a roster
The online community ballot offers fans a chance to suggest a team identity; the organization plans to unveil their official identity on Christmas Day 2026.
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