DOUG Talks to DARYL JOHNSTON Head of UFL Football Operations about the Merger and Tickets for The Upcoming Spring Season

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Yeah, hello there, Detroit Wheels. Oh hey, all right, Daryl
Johnston, thank you so much forchecking in with us here today. The
UH well they head of football operationsfor the UFL. Congratulations on that,
sir. Did they thank you?Do they do? They call you moose
around the corporate offices there at theUFL, Darryl from time to time?

(00:26):
Okay, all right, Well,people should remember that you were a big
part of the UH, the NationalFootball League and the Cowboys for many years,
but now heading up the operations forthe the UFL. And you've got
a good fan base here in Michigan. I'm I've been a Michigan Panthers fan

(00:46):
since they first started and UH andlast year was great seeing them, uh
not only with the best attendance Ithink in the UFL, but they also
made the playoffs, so it wasa nice little run. But what did
you think of that merger? Becauseyou were already with the USFL, so

(01:06):
that that happened rather quickly and herecomes spring football in just a couple of
weeks with the UFL. So whatwhat was your first take on that?
Darryl? You know, it's funnynegotiations start way ahead of when when people
within the company know or or thepublic is going to find out. So

(01:26):
actually the process was started, youknow, about halfway through twenty twenty three,
so you know, right as wewere getting ready to wrap up our
season. You know, I thinkthat there was some some introductions that were
underway. Okay, if this wassomething that was appealing to both sides and

(01:47):
then something that would be beneficial toboth sides moving forwards. So I think
that that was the big thing.There. There's things that that we did
in the USFL well, there wasthings that the XFL did well. And
our charge from the beginning has alwaysbeen let's keep our egos at the door.
Everybody check your ego, and whenwe walk into these meetings, let's

(02:09):
make sure we're talking about best practices, you know, And I think throughout
this entire process, that's what we'vedone. We've been able to accomplish that
goal and it's really resulted. Andwe seed a training camp, you know,
we go out to the practices andwe just had our cutdowns from seventy
five to fifty eight on Saturday,and you know, our coaching staffs were

(02:32):
concerned about cutdown day because they're like, listen, this is different than it's
been in the past during spring footballbecause we went from eight teams in the
USFL and eight teams in the XFLto eight teams in the UFL. We
were really condensing all that talent intoeight teams. We were condensing all those
staffs as we built our staffs out, our support staffs out, as we

(02:53):
built everything. When we talk aboutfootball, you were going from sixteen to
eight. So there was a tonof talent across the board in all the
different departments and then on the fieldand on the coaching staffs. So that
was that was the area that wereally kind of saw that over the course
of the weekend because it was verychallenging for our coaches to get down to

(03:13):
that fifty eight number. Their conversationswith the teams that hey, stay in
shape because if anything happens from aninjury standpoint, you know, we were
really impressed with you, and wewe've still got to pair it down eight
more guys on March twenty third,so you know, I think that that's
going to be even more challenging forour coaching staffs. So I think that

(03:34):
that was the biggest thing for usgoing through this whole process. Knowing there
was a great opportunity here as longas we took advantage of everything that was
there sitting on the table. AndI've been very impressed how we've been able
to kind of stay true to ourvision at the very beginning of this and
really kind of walk that path anddo a really good job of executing.
Yeah, there should be and couldbe some great advantages for the players who

(03:57):
make it too, because they're goingto be more talented and maybe you know,
I mean, is that kind ofthe goal to have a great UFL
team so that you know, ifif need be, the NFL can pick
up on these guys or are yougoing to try and hang on to what
you got? No, I mean, we're always here, you know.

(04:18):
We we talk about the developmental component. We don't want to be considered a
G league or a developmental league.You know, we consider ourselves a standalone
professional football league that plays its gamesin the springtime, a non traditional route
to get back to the NFL.So you know that that's the most important
thing. And we understand if we'redoing our job right, we should be

(04:41):
losing our roster every year as wecycle in new players that are you know,
coming out of the NFL and noware in that two three four year
window where they've got to get backand get some good film back out.
Or you know, the preferred freeagents or rafted free agents that that never
were able to stick on to somebodyand went to a practice squad roster and

(05:04):
and that didn't work out for himand kind of absorbed those guys into our
league. You know, those arethe areas that we're looking for, and
we just feel you know, theamount of opportunity and the pressure that's on
guys going into the NFL. Thenumbers are are are large now, you
know that the rosters are much larger. There's a lot more bodies going into

(05:25):
training camp since COVID. You know, they're never they're never going to give
up the extras that they got inCOVID because everybody's always been fighting for those
big training those big training camp rosters. So it's harder for the younger guys
to kind of get that. Look. You know, you go to the
to the rookie OTAs, and yougo into training camp and or you sign
a futures after the season's over with, and you're expecting all these opportunities during

(05:46):
the course of the football calendar,and they never show up because once you
get the training camp right, you'reyou're focused on your starting group and your
second tier. You know, yougot you're building depth. There's a there's
a small window for these guys toreally kind of capture the eye and really
get that long, hard look inan NFL training camp. You know,
what would would we provide is comingdown to the UFL and you know,

(06:10):
putting ten games a regular season tapeon to change the way that the NFL
looked at you as a player atyour position. You know, it's going
to allow you to show your skillsand game speed instead of practice speed or
preseason game speed. So we justwe feel that there's a developmental component to
what we provide, but we don'tconsider ourselves to be a developmental league,

(06:32):
Okay, And if we do ourjob correctly, you know, we should
have a tremendous amount of roster turnover. And I think one of the things
that we've seen this season is there'sa trust now because you know, we
did two years in the USFL wecrowned a champion each year finished a regular
season. The XFL did the samething last year, finished the regular season,

(06:54):
crowned a champion. So the springfootball leagues have kind of eliminated,
you know, what happened back inthe in the late teams in the early
twenties when you talked about spring football. So there's more trust from the agent
groups and the players themselves and actuallysome of the coaches. You know,
the phone calls that we get aboutpeople inquiring about opportunities in our league when

(07:15):
we talk about what's happening today towhat was happening three years ago, is
is unbelievable growth for this league.Yeah. Well, I talked to our
coach, the Michigan Panthers coach MikeNolan, not too long ago. He
was pretty happy with the idea ofyou know, all of these additional players

(07:36):
that he had to choose from,and some of them were coming from the
NFL, others were coming back intothe u FL from the USFL, and
then you know, you've got theXFL players. So he was pretty excited
and thought it was really going tobe something that would keep spring football going,

(07:57):
you know, in the future aswell because of the rank to the
players. Yeah. Yeah, andMichigan fans should be excited. They're big.
I mean, they are it's youknow, there's two teams that kind
of stand out when you when theycame through onboarding, when we go out
to the practices and watch practice.You know, Michigan is a is a
big, physical, good looking team. You know DC is a big,

(08:22):
physical, good looking team. SaintLouis, you know, really all of
them. I mean, they dida great job. And exactly to Mike
Nolan's point, you know, youhad your players left over from last year's
team, You're going to be ableto absorb the other four teams that didn't
make the merger from the USFL.Then you were going to be able to
absorb all the players from the XFLthat in our first dispersal component didn't get

(08:46):
picked up. So you're you're you'regoing through and your your strengthening positions of
weakness because the talent was there tobe able to do that. I think
if you look back in our firsttwo seasons in the USFL and the first
season in the XFL, every teamwas going to have an area where they
weren't really strong and you could attackthat area and the defense, or you
could exploit it on the offense.So I don't know if we're going to

(09:09):
have that glaring a weakness across oureight teams. This year, I think
we've really shored up the depth.I mean, obviously the starters are going
to be better, but I thinkwhere you're really going to see the big
jump is in the depth of theroster and the backup player. If we
do get hit with an injury bugof the team all of a sudden,
it takes a couple of injuries,they're going to be able to weather that

(09:31):
storm because the depth of the talentis very impressive, much better than we've
had over the last two years.And listen, there's no doubt about it.
It's going to make just those gamesthat much better. I mean,
I love spring football. I've beena fan of the Panthers since they started
back in the eighties. I wasexcited to see him come back. But

(09:54):
yeah, some of the games gota little weak in the middle. But
now this could be you know,the strength of the team and the players.
I think everything is falling into lineand we're really excited here to get
going in Michigan. And by theway, tickets go on sale tomorrow for
individual games and even some season tickets. It's three to one three day here

(10:15):
tomorrow three one three the area codeand three thirteen and tickets will be available
for the twenty twenty four UFL season, So people should get their tickets,
you know, in advance. Andwhat I love, Darryl, is that
it's so family friendly and affordable too. It really is. Yeah, yeah,
and that's that's something that's important tous too. You know, I

(10:39):
think for a while there, youknow, tickets got very expensive to the
NFL. It was expensive back whenI grew up. We know, we
just went to the playoffs for thefirst time and those tickets were the eyes
priced in America, right, youknow, yeah, And that's what happens.
When your team does well, theticket prices go up. And for
a long time, NFL Detroit fanshave been able to look at the ticket

(11:03):
price and you know, I cando it. Doesn't it's going to make
me a little uncomfortable for a familyto go, but we can do it.
And you know, my dad usedto take us to one Bills game
every year growing up in Buffalo,and we just kind of looked at the
schedule and you know, when youtalk about tickets and contessions and parking and
everything, it's an expensive day fora family, and you know that that's
going to be challenging for the familiesin the Detroit area with the Lions playing

(11:26):
as well as they are, andthis is just number one. It continues
the football calendar, right you know, is gung ho and as passionate as
everybody is in Detroit right now forthe Lions and you're a little bit disappointed.
You can get a little bit,you know of taste from the Michigan
Panthers here through the course of thespring and really kind of get ready to
ramp up again to see if theLions can can improve on what they did

(11:52):
last season. But you're going tobe able to do that for a very
fair price. It gets all thefamilies in and that's the one big thing
that I am. I'm really proudof of what what we're doing as a
league, because for a while there, it just kind of priced out the
family. And when you price outthe family, the kids aren't in the
stands, right and you can watchfootball at home on television, but to

(12:16):
go to the stadium. As ayoung boy, I remember those moments vividly,
and so the the ability for usto create those opportunities for families is
always very important for us. Soyeah, it's it's it's going to be
it's going to be family friendly.Price tomorrow's first day, we've got to
the individual tickets going on sales,so you know, we would we would

(12:37):
just encourage all the families, youknow, pick a pick a date,
pick a pick a game you want, pick a date that's open, and
get the whole family and bring themout to a Michigan Panthers game. Yeah.
We got five home games at FordField, and uh tickets are as
low as just twenty two dollars.For individual tickets, you can get them
at the UFL dot Com slash tickets, or you can also get them from

(13:01):
the Panthers as well by going toUFL Panthers dot Com and getting your tickets
that way too. And I alreadyknow what I'm going to be up there.
I'm coming up on April seventh forthe Birmingham Michigan game. All right,
I'm coming so I expect to seeeverybody out there for that Birmingham game.
All right, Well, we'll beready for you, that's for sure.
I think the Panthers are going tobe ready to And it's great hearing
you talk about the fact that we'vegot, you know, one of the

(13:24):
good looking teams out there so farfor practices. Do you think, Darryl,
that you'll see the day here,maybe a year or two from now,
where a player like a Justin Fieldsor Jimmy Garoppolo who kind of get
you know, washed out in theNFL get a chance to play in the
UFL. I think we still haveto continue to build that trust and to

(13:46):
show the opportunity to come down hereand do that, you know, having
an AJ mccheron kind of believe inwhat we're doing in coming down here.
He's probably you know, one ofour bigger quarterbacks from Saint Louis US.
I think everybody remembers AJ from Alabama. Yes, you know, he's been
in the NFL for a while,done some good stuff. You know,

(14:07):
it'd be great to be able tohave those guys, but it's hard because
with that third quarterback rule in theNFL and the expanded rosters in the off
season, the NFL is gobbling upoffensive linemen and gobbling up quarterbacks. So
we really feel it would be betterfor the guys in those situations that are
on that third fourth quarterback. We'renot talking about two and three. We're

(14:30):
talking about three and four. Butfor those guys to be able to come
down and play in the UFL andand play at game speed, We've got
great coaches down here. You know, you're going to get challenged defensively.
You know, you're you're going tohave to be able to you know,
be able to progress quickly, youknow, decipher through your hots, get
the ball out on time. Youknow, we've got Greg Williams. Greg

(14:52):
We're practice you know this week withDC and Greg's got ten guys lined up
across the line of scrimage with onewith one safety and so you're going to
get all out pressures from time totime. So you're going to see you
got Wade Phillips down here. Imean you're going, yeah, you got
some NFL. You got Mike Nolan. I mean, we've got we've got
great defensive minded coaches in this leaguethat are going to challenge you. So

(15:16):
quarterbacks coming into our league, itis not a walk in the park.
You're you're going to have to You'regoing to have to prepare, You're going
to have to recognize, and you'regoing to have to execute on game day.
No more truth than that. Imean, we got some great coaches
in this league, so congratulations toyou on that too. Once again,
five big games here in the MotorCity at Ford Field, and you can

(15:37):
get your tickets at tickets at Uflpanthersdot com. All Michigan Panthers fans should
grab up their tickets in and reallyexperience this spring football and this could be
the best year of them all.So congratulations Darryl, and thank you so
much for checking in with us herein Detroit. And uh, we hope
to do you proud and bring youa championship. Absolutely. Yeah, you

(16:02):
got close last season. Yeah,so we expect that, we expect that
next step forward. So yeah,and I tell you one of the great
things that that I love is ourplayers and our coaches get to play at
Ford f It's and the people thereare fantastic, just first class all the
way around. And to watch ourplayers and our coaches walk on to a

(16:22):
true NFL stadium and you know,to have that respect and to have that
opportunity, blessed, blessed to callFord Field part of the us UFL family.
Yeah. Yeah, we had abig we had some big crowds out
there, so I think it's evengoing to be better this year. People
are excited about the merger and Ithink it's just going to be good for
the game all the way around.We love football in the Motor City.

(16:45):
So Daryl Johnson, thank you somuch, Head of Operations UFL. Best
of luck to you all season.Thank you very much. I appreciate it
all right, thank you now.