This Year in the UFL 2024, Schedules & more | UFL Podcast #93 - The UFL Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Twenty twenty four was a big old year for spring football,
and Zach and I are here to talk about it
and this year in the UFL, that and much more
on episode ninety three of d UFL Podcast one killed three.

(00:27):
Welcome back, everybody to another amazing edition of d UFL podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm the representing Pro.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Football newsroom, the leaders in spring football news, and.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Boy oh boy, oh boy oh boy.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Do we got a big week for you, because we're
not even talking about this week, we're talking about this year.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
In the UFL.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
But before we get started, I'm joined as always by
my man.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Zach Colemon. How you doing today, my friend.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I feel so relaxed from a long, much needed cruise
in the Caribbean, got back in the swing of things
at work this past week, feeling good, feeling refreshed and
ready for what is a very fast approaching season upon us,

(01:32):
and plenty of stuff that is making me feel being
very cheery and bright about my Panthers coming up for
twenty twenty five. So I'm loving it right now. I'm
doing fantastic. The holiday cheer is being extended a little
bit forward past the Christmas Day festivities, which, by the way,
I got to ask, what do you do for Christmas?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Man? How was your Christmas on the home front? It
was good. It was good.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
If you get if you all been paying attention to
my x, I put out an ex post bringing a
turntable back from the dead, the techniques SLDL five linear
arm quartz tracking. I mean, I'm signed up and because
of that, I've been going down the Frank Zaba rabbit hole.

(02:18):
I was a fan of Frank Zaba back in the day,
and I forgot how much of a fan of Frank
Zappa I was. He's actually an amazing artist. One of
the things that I appreciate that he does is some
of his albums are a mix of live performances and
in studio post production to where he'll record a version

(02:41):
or multiple versions of a song. And he was crazy
and he recorded all everything, all of his concerts, everything
he did around the house, video everything, So all of
his concerts have.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Minimum twenty four track recording. And so what he would do.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
There's songs where like the drums are from one concert,
the bass is from like another concert, this is from
in the studio, and it mixes all together. It's I mean,
he's a he's a madman and is his career. He
he by the end of his career he was doing
like orchestral productions as a conductor. Right, And so if

(03:19):
you any maybe not any Frank Zappa fan, but most
Frank from.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
What I know of Frank Zappa, that does not sound
like Frank Zappo, but well it is Frank Zappa.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Frank Zampa fans would tell you no, no, no, he's
not a musician.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
He's a composer.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
And he's not in a jam band because jam bands
improvise and he's very meticulous.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
So Frank Zappa is a madman.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
And I, before I get it in the comments, I'm
not saying he's a great person in real life. I'm
not here to discuss that. But I think the same
applies for any rock and roll musician. I don't know
if any of them were class at guys, but he
made amazing music and so I've.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Been jamming out to That was a long way of
me saying I've been listening.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
To music on a on a turntable over here, but
not bad, not bad, by the way.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Before before we move on, happy holidays to all of you,
and if you have any great stories from the holidays
or some great gifts you got that were UFL Spring
football related.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Drop me in the comments.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Want to hear what you guys got for Christmas? You
know we we do that in our discord. By the way,
PFN discord link of the description every year, So yeah,
feel free to share. We want to hear what you
guys got. So I did get treasury, so I was
I'm gonna talk about the positive one. I'm gonna talk
about the positive one. Maybe I'll sayd the negative one
until later in the episode.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yes, I'm waiting.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
You showed me both, so I gotta see I gotta
see it again.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
So for many years, many years on the show, Zach,
what have I been saying I need one thing, one
thing in particular, one thing belongs across my body or
hanging ey on my wall. And we know long fans
of the show have been We'll we'll tell you the
ref needs a USFL ref shirt. And you might say, well,

(05:09):
the USFL's not around anymore.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
I would argue, yes they are. They were.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
The USFL Division won the championship last year. My Dame
might remind you, well, Santa's big old sack came down
my chimney and brought me a gift this year because finally,
and I'm still in the packaging as you'll see, but
we even have the certificate of authenticity. I'm actually I'm

(05:33):
not gonna wear it. I'm not gonna wear it. But
this is from this is also has a little bit
of meaning here too. This is from the twenty twenty
two USFL Championship game.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Wait seriously, yep, so this is from the game.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
So oh no, wait, you held that I didn't hear
that detail when you said that earlier.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I don't think I.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Brought it up, so to me, and so I already
have this picture on the wall that to me, it
means a lot because one, it's James Larsen took it.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
It was his first it was his first.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
On the ground event because I don't think he had
covered the Panthers at least on the field yet.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
But then it's a picture of you know, the coach
Holtz embracing one of the players, and then in the
background is you and me on the field with our
USFL vests on.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
And so now I.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Got the ref shirt from that game as well. So
the plan is to put I have a shadow box
that just suppose it's supposed to be here today. It's
supposed to be here today. So once I get it
set up again, I'll throw it on the Twitter. I'll
throw it on the on the UFL podcast Twitter as
well to see you see it. But I'm gonna get
that set up and that'll be I think my.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Office is again. You might you can't tell behind me,
you can tell a.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Little bit right there.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
There's a mess brewing in here. Yeah, a little bit.
But we're we're slowly but surely getting it back into place.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
I'm probably gonna move these banners around because I.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Oh, man, that probably made a big old noise. I'm sorry, guys.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
I'm probably gonna put that shadow box like right here
so it pokes over my shoulder.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
But we'll get I.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Like how you timed it with mess and then you
mess with your mic yet little in the unintentional sense.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Fish.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
I am happy for you that you have accomplished one
of the few things on this show you have been
saying and trying to manifest yourself for a while now.
But look, I did say that you showed that. I
didn't realize it was from twenty twenty two, and look,
looking back at like us doing this show. You know though,

(07:40):
those first two years really stick out, right now. The
last year was special for no doubt because it was
the merger, and I think just getting one league with
none of the discourse happening again was great. But like
you know, the first those two years with like starting
that out, taking a gamble with the USFL folks and
you know, starting that ride, it's pretty great. You know,

(08:04):
that twenty twenty two and that that championship game is
one of the classics, I think in terms of like
the history of the other side of the football coin, right,
in terms of like North in terms of the US
like spring football scene.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
You know, I'm not.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Gonna I know some I don't want to have any
CFL fans and watch the show go like wait a minute,
CFL is like no, no, no, no. That's why I'm differentiating. Like
that twenty twenty two game is very special. The experiences
from it, the running into the trophy in the hallway
with you and I, you know, and me just being
afraid to even touch the damn thing, you know, me
going up us doing the penthouse thing from that time,

(08:41):
all of that never gonna forget it.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
So that's just a little extra that adds on to it.
Which actually that's a good point.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
I should get the picture of me holding that trophy
put up. You know, that'd be a great channel box
double up right there, you know. So, yeah, it's slowly
but surely coming along in here. And then you add
in we'll get to the best of folks. Sorry, guys.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
The Lions, the Lions.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
And I'm not gonna say they're gonna do anything in
the playoffs because I'm not gonna hex them. I'm not
gonna chink them, I'm not gonna speculate. I'm not gonna
do anything. But I will say we've broken our franchise
record for the most wins in a season.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
And I don't know if you know this about the Lions.
They've been around for a while.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
So the fact that they've done this and they've been
around for a while, I oh, it feels good. With
a lot of injuries. I was telling a friend of
mine who doesn't he's from Michigan. We grew up near
each other. He doesn't really watch a lot of football,
but he pays attention enough, and I was telling him,
I said, look, I'm not the same thing. I'm not
gonna speculate what they're gonna do in the playoffs. The
playoffs different, different thing entirely, But I'll say this, it's

(09:45):
hard to say they're not a good team when they
have the number of injuries they have and they're still winning.
I said the same thing about the Birmingham Stallions. Look
Out things turned.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Out for them. I'm not saying the same will happen
with the Lions.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
But if you can a stain a large amount of
injuries and not just some injuries, you're talking about top players,
top players on your defense.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Out for the season, and unbelie, you're winning.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
You know what you're I'd say you're a good team
and signed Dan Campbell up For all the folks that
said Dan Campbell and even more so, Jared.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Goff wasn't the guy.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Suckers anyway, I think it is about time we get
into the topic. Here we have the best of twenty
twenty four, and the biggest thing about this this isn't
just you, in my opinion, this.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Is the fans.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
This is the UFL fans letting their voices be heard
and for I think the well, this is.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Where the show started too. I always forget that deck.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
This is where is especially we are officially on year
number four.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Four and for the fourth consecutive year, we have broken
our record. More people than ever have filled out the survey.
And the craziest part is, Zach, we broke the record
last year, right, and this year we broke the record
within a day. We have more responses this year in

(11:15):
a day than we did the last year, the previous year,
and the year before, not combined.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
But simply incredible. I love hearing that. I love it
too that.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
I mean, look, you know, we can talk, we can
talk site getting more folks in here, and you know,
got to shut again. Shout out to our folks that
have gotten good writing pieces in and James Larsen, just
our our palent insider, just his work. I can't ever
state enough he does so freaking much to keep this,
to do this site and put things up between you

(11:49):
and him. But like the fact, I think it's a
measure of how much interest we're getting in the sport
itself from our poll every holiday season. That's that's how
I view. It isn't about the site at that point,
It's about, Hey, we're gauging how many people are like
paying attention and noticing this poll. Yeah, you know, well
that's big, that's really big to hear that that voter

(12:12):
count exceeds it again and again and you are broke in.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, people were ready, people were ready to fill out
this survey. They were anticipating it. So that that made
me very happy to see, right.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
And you know we we have that.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
We'll just run down kind of the options here real
quick before we jump into the like the results. So
you know, the typical stuff. Favorite USFL team, favorite XFL team.
It's not best team, but your favorite team because you
know what I as I was just talking about fan
of the Detroit Lions, and you know what, when they
were crappy, they were still my favorite team. So this

(12:50):
gives you a chance to kind of let your fan
them out. I guess yea favorite fan engagement again, events,
so you know, the Springstocks, Summer Stocks, we have community
Legend of the Year. We'll get into the results, but
it seems to be unanimous. Again crazy, which USFL XFL
team would you like to see return? So we know

(13:13):
there's been talk of expansion, not even just talk, official
talk and a nice nugget to this season, you know, yeah,
or at least this year now with that news out, Oh,
they're looking so.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Always actually fun little thing.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
I have people at my job that are more and
more fascinated because I talk about it a lot more, right,
Not that I'm pushing the show. It's more that I
just talk about it out loud and we start discussing, right,
And had a lot of conversation today before coming on here.
They asked me my thoughts on, Hey, what teams are
coming back? What do you think they're like. Someone's like,
I think Seattle. I really want Seattle back. Someone brought

(13:48):
up Oklahoma City in San Diego.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
And this is just me.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
There's just somebody who is like, they're in the stages
of what I was back at like five six years ago.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
It is fun to watch. See. That's awesome. That's awesome. See.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
And that's my hope is every year you pick up
a couple more people, and every year those couple more
people tell a couple more friends, so hopefully it just grows.
It's like the spider web effect.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
It looks like it is working. Yeah, yeah, it's good.
I like to hear it.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
We have the most surprising team to miss the UFL playoffs.
USFL Coach of the Year, XFL Coach of the Year,
Best Moments of twenty twenty four, and then we got
a couple other topics that we're gonna talk about. We
got QBS and speculation zone around schedules, So this is

(14:37):
less of the best U but stick around. So even
after the best up, we got some more stuff to
talk about.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
At the end of the year.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Show a big, bang out, blowout show just for you,
jam packed, just for you.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
So let's kick things off.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
So we have favorite USFL team and again, if you
didn't know what USFL teams there.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Were, I'll run them down for you.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
We got the Birmingham Stallions, the team that if you
didn't know, they're about to go twelve and oh, the
Houston Roughnecks, the Memphis Showboats who have a brand new
head coach and Ken wizen Hunt. And the Michigan Panthers,
Zach and I'll tell you, I was watching these results
as they were coming in and it was really about

(15:17):
up until three or four days ago, the Michigan Panthers
were on top, and early the Michigan Panthers were creaming
all of the other teams, just beating them down in
a bad way. And I was a little bit shocked,
isn't the right word surprised? Maybe Looking I was like, wow,
there's a lot more Panthers fans. I knew there was

(15:39):
a lot of Panthers fans. I knew, especially because you
got ford Field and you did pretty well last season.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
But I was I was a little surprised at the
at the the outcome.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Now, they did get edged out at the end of
the day.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
And I leave this up to you know.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
That's the There's.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Something about those Stallions fans man.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
They are going to get the word out and they did,
and they did, and they edged out the Panthers. You
know what, I'm happy about this pole. The rough Necks
are not in last place.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
If you didn't say something, I was gonna be like,
you know what, I'm happy about this pole. I'm not
that I'm not the rough next third place.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
It wasn't very close, No, I get it.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
I I was actually I'm surprised and somewhat that Michigan
was keeping ahead as much as they were.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
But I do, uh, I do think a lot.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Of this can be contributed to the Jake Bates story
in Detroit. It's a very easy connection. It's right in
the exact same building that he made his presence and
face in.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
The league known.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
And so I think that's helped personally. I really hope
it helps the attention that the team gets for the
spring season. You know, a lot of discussion about how
we felt, like you know, between me and others in
our own fandom, my fandom that is the Panthers, although
you do say you are number one Panthers fans, So
how can I forget you?

Speaker 2 (17:21):
It's right there behind my back, it's up there somewhere.
I know.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
I see, I see, I see what you're doing. But yeah,
you know, more attention to the team was needed. This
helps a lot. I think that's a I'm putting as
a testament to that personally, because I thought Birmingham is
going to just blow it out of the water. But
to hear you say that they got the early lead
and held on to like zero hour is kind of crazy. So,

(17:46):
like fingers crossed, the word is getting out more because
it's Detroit just good well with football all round, going
out there right now, you know, and not touching you know.
I It's it's a place I like to It's like
another home with my family out there. I think now
slowly but surely grown for me.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
So yeah, yeah, did you see the the new UFL
promo that they debuted last weekend, the Jake Bates promo.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
And smart marketing.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Yeah, like it's like duh, like talk one of the
talks of the league. We gotta you gotta put a
face out there.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
You know. That's good. That's good.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
I'm I'm glad that he's an alliance and I'm so
glad he didn't bungle the opportunity. Like ah, it's all
all my football friends do hate me because it's like
one of the every time he's on the screen, like, hey,
do you know that guy used to play in spring football? Yeah, yes, yes,
ref we know, we heard.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
And then then then they announced her somebody like just
making sure.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
I just want you to be clear, and then the
broadcast booth like two seconds later the last year Jake
Bates played in the United Football League and prior to that,
he didn't.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Kick before high school.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
I'm like yeah, yeah, see seem like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
we know we got.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
It, and we got it.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Like but next time he's up, then the promo come up,
like you see they guesses we got it, dude, they are.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
They are making sure you are are known. Actually fun
thing with the promos, so uh, I think some of
them maybe I just haven't caught them or they're not
on NFL broadcast yet. But this week they've been revving
up the UFL rears because they realize, well, it's gonna
be go time for that pretty soon. And so I've
seen a few more promos on FS one and two

(19:28):
that were not on the Fox broadcast. So you might
see more variety coming up here really soon. There it's
coming the you know, we all we'll talk about one
of the pieces later at the end of the show,
but like it's coming. It's about it's about that time
you see more and more of it starts sneaking out
on the airwaves.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah. So yeah, yeah, Well it's about that time of year.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
We always talk about it, you know, as you kind
of get this slowness after the season. But this year
I'd say they did a pretty good job. We got
the Ken Wiz and Hunt News, we got the schedule footprint,
we got we got a little bit of nuggets throughout
the off season to where I expect January we're gonna
be running and rolling and probably maybe even and we'll
talk about it anyway. Yeah, here's the Yeah, so the

(20:12):
XFL one next is uh, you know, I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
Uh, I was not. I'm not surprised by the first
place outcome. The second place outcome shocked me.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
About you.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, no, I'm I I'm a uh well, well we'll
get into it. Well, we'll talk about the argument.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
So here's so here, here's so the battle Hawks won
for those that were waiting and suspense, they were easily
that vote. And based on what you are putting for
the numbers on the graph, so it looks like they
were the highest voted of any of the teams. Yeah,
both of those charts. Uh, number two is the promise though, Yeah,

(20:52):
not d C. I was surprised by that. I thought
DC would take the two. Just we're talking attendants and
how rowdy that fan base is. And again, you know,
not everyone gets some people are out of your online
and others and you know, depending on the shares and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
But hey, I'm kind of surprised, you know, pre pre
neck Neck and the Brahmas came out second place. I'll
say this my they made it to the championship game.
How did they fare?

Speaker 1 (21:18):
In the maybe not so great, but they made it
to the championship game.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
And they made themselves last year.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
To me, that gives them the edge maybe over DC,
where DC, you know, they floundered a little bit.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
And we'll talk.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
There's another poll later on that I think has a
result that ties into this exact conversation. But that that
would be that would be the the maybe where the edging.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Uh, that's probably not the right way to.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Sing, you know me, Uh, it's a new year, but
it doesn't mean I'm gonna anyway. Maybe that's where they
came out on top. Maybe where the difference was made
is maybe a better.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Way to say it. Okay, okay, that's my take.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
Now, the Renegades, they were at the bottom, and I
think that's expected. I you know, they won the championship
inaugural year of the XFL, but last.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Year they weren't really much.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
They didn't have a huge impact on the league, and
I mean the results show for that. Now, you would hope,
you would hope, though this is maybe a little bit
of concerning news. This is where the hub is at Zach.
You would almost like when you look at let's just
let's let's flip things around. Look at the USFL. Where
was the hub at in the USFL Birmingham. Look at

(22:40):
the love that Birmingham gets because of that not.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
The same in the XFL.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
It's a little bit of interesting tidbit to throw out
there when you when you compare things around, now, a
little bit with Birmingham comes to you know, when you
win every championship game, Yeah, you're gonna have a lot
of fans, right, Yeah, naturally, you're just gonna have a
lot of fans.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
I mean, caveat, you know, I I think people, I
think what we'll talk is the year goes on is
and when we get into more episodes about the lead
up just to tie in is uh. You know, inaugural
game was loaded. It had tons of fandom and yes
there were a good solid stallions contingent, but there were

(23:18):
a lot of Dallas fans of the first game and
it never matched it whatsoever. Like I get it, it's
an inaugural game, it should be considered one of the
top ones of the year, and usually the back end
if it's the last home game of the season. But
I mean it wasn't even close. Like after the first game,
it just was a it fell off a crater for
most of the rest of the year. Credit they weren't
a good team and mostly found ways to lose with

(23:41):
a good quarterback. But eh, you know, maybe things changed
this year. Yeah, so you congratulations BattleHawks fans.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
You did it again.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
I don't think they've ever lost this poll.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
If they have, I mean it's got to have been
like No, I don't think they No, there's no way
they have. I'm trying to be even give no Devil's advocate.
There's no Devils advocate. It's off screen.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
But I should be.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
But more congratulations to the Brahmas. I'd say, you know what,
you maybe came in a distant second, but you came
in a second where I.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Think, zech I'm kind of with you.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
I probably would have expected the Defenders to maybe come
out on top there.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
But the Lemons Championship. Yeah, the Lemons were holstered af
here as they are. They Someone needs to be a
little more liberal with the use of Lemons moving forward,
I guess. So. Yeah, but that's it.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
They pissed off the other fan bases and they voted
against them. Uh.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
The favorite fan engagement event.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
We got a couple of kind of community notes here,
so you know, we had two events last year. We
had Springstock in Arlington and Houston, and then we had
Summer Stock in Saint Louis, And now these events were
a little bit different, right, So Springstock, yeah, three was
they had their mind. Both of them had like such
amazing moments because we had Mark Perry on the show

(25:08):
from news Hub, which I think was uh, I don't
want to say years in the making, but a culmination
of probably interpretations of what our feelings were from other
people on the internet and us just kind of like
meeting each other, well we met each other before, but
really talking. We had our first conversation, you know, which

(25:30):
I wouldn't have had it any other way. I wouldn't
have had it any other way. And I mean I
had fun. We also had dirty from our pals from
the well what is their name anymore? They have a
million names.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
But fuel Fuel Yeah, yeah, fuel.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
But you know, my my favorite moments from that event
I got. I got three of them. Two of them
are fuel Folks related, which, by the way, shout out
the Fuel Network for they're just great stuff with Springstock
last year. But you know, they're doing some awesome things
with coverage with some of their own shows right now.
But two of the two of the things three things

(26:04):
were Fuel related. One of them was Dirty and Mark
and Us having the chaotic three cameras set up and
trying to manage that.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
It was. It was fantastic.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
You had you had Arlington, you had Dirty, you had Us,
and then you had Mark and it was just complete
madness in the best way possible, trying to like talk
these games and talk about the stuff going on.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Love it.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
That's the type of stuff I live for in this
in this space. The other was having representatives from Fuel
help us and go tailgating for us, have basically a
tailgate cam. That that was something that I had been
you know, I remember talking to you about this. We
talked about this in the show. I've been dying to
do this the first two years, and we just didn't
have a.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Good way of doing it. And now we can.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
You know, I think we can confiously we say next
any shows we ever do, now we can just talk
to people and figure that out.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, yeah, you know, now it all worked out. That
was so much fun. And then Summerstock was I mean.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
It was different. We did that.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
We basically did a tailgate show, but to me. There
was the extra specialness because we had our dads there,
which is like a whole time different thing. We were
in Saint Louis at the Dome. It was hotter than hell.
I remember giving uh uh Luke Luke a hard time
on discord because he said he landed in Saint Louis

(27:27):
and he said it was hot. I said, dude, you
live in Texas. Now, how are you going to say
it's hot in Saint Louis. And I got there, I'm like, oh, well, okay,
it is pretty.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Fin I tell people. For those that know, of course,
you know most no I think now. But if you
haven't yet, you know I live in Phoenix. You used
to live in Arizona.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yea.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
And I would say the hottest day of year experience
last year was in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Said, damn humidity. Man, it's the worst summer day last year.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
As much as I enjoyed having drinks with folks, I
enjoyed running into XFL Gym and so many others from
the Saint Louis BattleHawks side of things. I don't get
to talk to Will Freeman out there, shout out to
him and meeting up with him and the folks that
do all all the exit all the Saint Louis BattleHawks items.

(28:16):
That was hot as hell, and I it makes me
realize how brutal I'm forgetting how brutal the Midwest can
be when you add moisture into the air. Nice seven
degrees out by the way in the Midwest.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
The one day flipping hot and it was.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
But it was chaotically fun, I think, you know, And
I think as for folks that are wondering that that
we've been talking about how we can improve on that
this year, because like I think that was a fun
alternative to what we do with springstock, you know, as
that case. So, yeah, well we have so much equipment
now that we've just collected over the years.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
We have like well, now you got those DGI mics,
which is it'll be a killer.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, these these things I'm got for more stuff And
right now they're hopefully crossing fingers and I can spoil
it because we talked to offscreen on this cross fingers.
Hopefully there's some goodies I can use for resources for
uh this springs. Yeah, so we'll see how that goes.
Holding my breath. Details coming by, details coming soon. Well,
hopefully we'll talk about it. I'm actually curious what your

(29:23):
thought on this is. You know, community always, community is
right to me no matter what, and we're both great events.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Summers Stock one out. I was actually surprised. I guess
I'm only gonna say maybe because it was in Saint Louis.
That's sort of got it. That would be it too,
wouldn't it. That might be that might be.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
The thing that's there's some people that came here, Like
I don't really care how Saint Louis.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Okay, that might that might be, but it was. It
was still close.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
It wasn't like the other one trounced the other.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
There were two just different types of events. And maybe
there's a little a recency bias to it because Summerstock
happened more recently.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Uh. Either way, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
I don't know if I have a favorite when it
comes to either one, just because they both had they
both had different things that were equally neat about them.
Like I said, the family element was cool because I
don't know, I've.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Maybe talked about it.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
But in the good old days I was in a band.
My dad never came to any of my concerts. Came
to one of my podcasts, you know, so that was
kind of neat. We got the picture in front of
the banner, but then the news hub and the fuel.
Thing from the first one was just and the fact
we got the setup and the the the The thing

(30:42):
that I love about the first one was it was
classic ref when they said there's no tailgating, and it's
the we'll see about that, and.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
We just do. It's me.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
I get up in the morning, I find a way in,
I get a spot, I camp down, and nobody kicks
us out. There was there was an opportunity very much
like Springstock one where halfway through the show, somebody came
and said, hey, you can't be here.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
We stole the whole bench, Zach. We still we just
put our tent over a.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Picnic table area if you want to go farther. I mean,
I think what's funnier is Lee got set up. They
close it off and and people were We had people
that did find us, that did come to the show
and they're like, hey, uh so they're saying we can't.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Park here because this is an employee parking.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
We somehow beat the employee security, got closed in and
they just like it's too busy.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
We we you guys do what ever the hell you
want back there.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
It's like the man like in the Madness though we
ended backing up into tailgaters for the Renegades.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, on the opposite side of the lot.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
So it made it even better, like meeting new fans
from that fan base, meeting old faces, meeting folks at
track by the way out from like a out from
like the Midwest, like we Philadelphia Stars fan remember we
had that stopped by our our show from California.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yes, who is still.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
One of our top fans that keeps up with us
all the time and apparently road trips around the country
all the damn time.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Fun stuff, you know. But that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
Every one of these events we do, it's like something
new happens.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
It's never the same. They're all different. Yep. So so
I love it.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Sign up Summerstock three. It was one for the ages.
If you haven't watched it, watch it.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
It's there to be watched. We also have to watch
spring Stock three.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Well, we have a whole thing, you know. I need
to do what all these other YouTubers are doing. I'm
just too lazy. But what I need to do is
make seasons of the show and make like one long video,
you know, like.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
We could do that. Yeah, I think that. I think
that could be in the cards. You and I can
talk more. But that that wouldn't be too hard. You
just gotta get some bumpers together and you know, and honestly, that.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Wouldn't you know.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
I'll have like a scene get you caught up to
speed before season four kicks off, which I mean, to
be fair, this is kind of tailing.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
This is the last bit of Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
This is actually the last episode of season three of
the UFL podcast Holy Ship.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Where's the Dump? So community Legend of the Year.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Zach, unanimous, unanimous, And I even put another option in
there because other people were worried.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
People were worried, Zach that people might not fill out
the survey.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
With a one option required question for community legend of
the Year. So I said, you know what, I'll give
them another option. We'll see who are the other ones. Nobody,
Nobody filled out another. It was unanimous for the I
think the third year in a row here, fourth year
in a row. I don't know when we added this question, Yeah, easily,

(34:09):
third year in a row. Congratulations to the community Legend,
Ducky for being Community Legend of the Year. I mean,
it's in his name, so it felt natural that the
community legend would be Community the Legend of the Year.
And you know what integral show of integral piece of
the around the UFL show always has something insightful to add,

(34:32):
always wondering what flavor popcorn is in the bucket? Sign
him up and you know what, Honestly, he's one of
the I'm glad to have him around.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Some people love him, some people hate him, but.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
I appreciate the genius that is Ducky. I mean, he knows,
he knows social media and I like I work at marketing,
so I appreciate people that have a good understanding of
social media.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah, he is the that guy. He is that guy. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Look, he's another one of those through this show we've
met that you know, without the show, we would have
never met up with him and have had the relationship
with him. We've had to get to know him and
you know, get to have him as part of the
crew with PFN, so you know, and to shout him
out even more. He's an integral part of what makes
the Discord Server run. That him and Jake Ball and

(35:25):
you and you are like the trifecta that helped keep
that thing and that ship running. The you three, especially
the two ladder or former, do a lot of the
heavy lifting moderator wise, so you know, there's community legend,
but also like discord like badass, that's how I put it.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, and that's a good good time to slide in.
If you're not in the discord, click the link down
below join the party. It's actually not as insane he
used to be. So if you were looking for football talk,
you actually might find a little bit more of that
in there. Then let's say, maybe a year and a
half ago or so, which I miss, I miss a

(36:11):
little bit of the madness of the Discord. I anticipate
as the season gets closer, it will.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
You know.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
What happened was we had such a big influx of
new people and then we just kind of had to
like so we just kind of had to bob and
weave through and see who is going to be the
people that stuck around to be.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Part of the new crew.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
And now we have our regular like contingent of like
I would say upwards of like easily fifteen to twenty
regulars oh at this point, Like it's a very active server.
Like if you haven't been on the PFN server, or
like if you have someone that you know and you're
a fan of this show and you've had him talk
to you about it, like, no, trust me if you
want to like talk football, like we're goofy, but like

(36:52):
we talk UFL on a regular basis near every day.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
So yeah, if you put in a chat, you're probably
gonna get a respond within a couple of minutes, unless
it's like overnight. There's usually and I'm looking at it now,
there's usually about one hundred people online, whether they're active
or not, there's usually about one hundred.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
That's a pretty healthy discord server for a niche right
now sector of the sport.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, let's see how many members are we up to now.
We're over fifteen hundred members, almost sixteen hundred at this point.
So I'd say, you know, if you're looking to hang
out with some spring football folks, come and join the party.
Come and join the party, and you know what we'll
get back to. Probably we used to do like streaming
nights and game nights and all sorts of things too.
The game nights were fun like the golf and we

(37:38):
got to get back to doing that again.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Man, Yeah, that was gonna be a this year's thing
to start up again.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
So again, and that was another Ducky thing. Ducky was
kind of running point on that. So sign him up again.
Another reason, he's that community legend. So let's move it
back into league stuff. So we have which USFL XFL
team would you like to see return? So you know,
the big talk right now is expansion earlier this year,

(38:05):
not not too a little bit.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Was not last month, maybe the month before recently?

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Yeah, yeah, in November. So yeah, so they're they're looking
at expanding. They have they put out kind of their
process around that, not really a lot of details other
than they're looking at it. And so it at least
confirms the speculation that the league is trying to kind
of build.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Back, right.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
And so we asked, you know, what teams of all
the teams that got cut, and you know, I'm sure
we could have probably added a f in there, but
I'm talking about what are the realistic teams at least
that they own the ips too, that we we might
see return. Now there's I'd say there's three in this
list that stand out. I'm gonna throw four in there

(38:49):
selfishly for me, Zach, I guess I announced I think
the last two here. Do you want to to do
the do the honors of the TI?

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (39:01):
Yeah, I mean, let's do this here, so I mean
I'll run through all of them. We'll do that. So,
I mean, you know our options we had and actually
before I even says do we have a rite an
option for this one?

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Or was this okay?

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Just want to double check, But for your options, you had,
ye had the game. Ye had the Houston Gamblers, New
Jersey Generals, New Orleans Breakers, the Orlando Slash, New York Guardians,
So I mean, you know Guardians brand toss up on
where it goes h the Philadelphia Stars, Pittsburgh Mallers, Seattle
Sea Dragons, and the Vegas Vipers, and uh well, the

(39:36):
Seattle contingency was very prominent in this answer.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
I get it. It's the most.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Talked about one right now. People want it back. It's
a West Coast team, so very prominent. Number two though
New Orleans, but right behind it Pittsburgh. Yeah, a lot
of Mahlers fans wanted their team back.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Again, rightfully.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
So you're in the championship game and then your team
gets cut, I would I'm glad that they're at least
in that top three. Now, Breakers make sense. There was
a lot of Breakers fans that were upset when that
team got cut.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
There's several active people that want that team. They're sing
our discord that still want the team back.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
So and I mean, there was even speculation that, you know,
going into that merger, prior to the merger happening, that
the Breakers might be one of those new hub cities
however you want to call it in the USFL.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Then it didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
So now when we're looking at expansion, I think there's
maybe hope that whether those conversations continued or whatever it
might be. My hope is this is there's people from
the UFL that watch this show.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
I know that at least as much.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
I hope there's people that are looking though and listening
to this and this helps them. Right, So we can
say resoundingly people want the Seattle Sea Dragons back, but
don't discount the Breakers, the Mallers, and I'll even throw
in a special consideration for the Generals. They're you know,
maybe not in the top, they're not in the top three.
They're maybe not really even close to the Mallers, but

(41:12):
all things considered, they're solid number four when you look
at the rest of the rest of the results. Here,
the one I'm sad about here, Zach, how dare you
people fill out this survey and leave the Houston Gamblers
all the way at the stinking bottom? Yeah, you're My
argument might be, well, if Houston.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Already has a team, and.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
I don't know, I might be the only one that
voted for the Gamblers on this list because I did
fill out this pole, but we got beat out by
the Vegas Vipers. I mean, you're telling me you'd rather
have the Vegas Vipers back than the illustrious, beautiful, shining
all in Houston Gamblers.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
How dare you? How? How dare you? How upsetting? I
am setting?

Speaker 1 (42:01):
The one I'm actually surprised, no joking about here is
the Philadelphia Stars. The blob must have been on arrest.
He must be on vacation.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Yeah, because if what happened to our blob contingent I
did not show up, that's a team that also finished
runner up in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah, you know, I'm a little shocked.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Generals, were we I know we've talked about this with
like conferences with like the merger and like the XFL
and USFL. But like we had the joke when the
USFL years that the generals were just the freaking cowboys
of the USFL, right, you know, which in the history
of the USFL before this, that's kind of what they
were too, by the way, you know, so not just

(42:46):
not a first time, but uh yeah, Philadelphia came over.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
The bottom four were the gamblers and again, I know,
I like the brand personally, the UFL. They were smart,
they'd be selling merch for the brands they all. Yeah,
like the gamblers again that they we have license for,
you know, bottom four in order of lowest the highest

(43:11):
of it were Gamblers, Vipers, and a tie between the
Stars and the Guardians.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yep, yeah, yeah, damn shame. Well, now you guys know
where everybody sits. The next year's poll, when we're hopefully
closer to the expansion, You guys, you Houston Gamblers fans
will wake up out of your slumber, get us out
of last place.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
At the time. Times now another you know what is up?
But I need to stop doing this poll, man. These
results are upsetting me. Look at the next one.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Most surprising team to miss the UFL playoffs.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
How dare you, guys, you took the l on this?
Oh dare you.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
The Houston Roughnecks, the least surprising team to not make
the I'm done, the show's over.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
Upset you are for the fact that back when we
did like the first few episodes of ATU last year,
near everyone unanimously said at the same time, oh, this
team's definitely finishing last.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
And that's exactly when they freaking did.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
With it.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
And we didn't even get the past. We didn't even
get to pick on it either. We got bamboozled. Oh
my god. Anyway, the results, not the results, but the option.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
I respect the commitment I have to I have to
put this is our year twelve and oh TDC baby
our list off the rest and who was was the top?

Speaker 2 (44:42):
So we have here.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Here were the options we had, the Renegades, the the
DC Defenders, the Houston Roughnecks, and the Memphis Showboats. Now
the most the one that won the pole the most
surprising team by a good margin too. And I and
I do not doubt this. Actually this actually resonates with me.
The DC Defenders they won by a resounding amount of

(45:04):
the most surprising team to miss the UFL playoffs. Now,
second place is actually a good point here. That came
in a distant second was the Arlington Renegades. Now, it
is hard to remember they did win the XFL Championship
the year prior, so it is kind of crazy that
they didn't make it to the playoffs. Now, it's funny

(45:26):
because it was against the DC Defenders and the Defenders.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
But it is okay.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
They at least were one and two, okay, so that
kind of sits sits right, The flipping Roughnecks coming in
dead last, it hurts my god. The show Boats were
in second.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
I actually thought the Showboats should have been higher because
there was a lot of preseason hype around Memphis before
we went in, and then once they took on the
Brahmas and like basically collapsed a double digit lead in
less than a few minutes. Yeah, that was the That
was basically the downfall right there. The rest of their season.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
I put down d C, but if I had multiple picks,
it would have been. Memphis is my number two right away.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
I'm shocked to finish third though, because there was no
I I mean, unless we unless there, just everyone else
was different, Like I know our shows. There was no
hype around Arlington for us, no, like even though it
wasn't like as bad as what we were talking with Houston. Again,
not throwing under the gutter, but like got to reference
the shows here, but like Arlington was one of those
where it's like, I don't know about this squad, and

(46:37):
you know they didn't finish last but I mean they
also played a lot better than I think. Uh, at
least they played close most weeks.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
I'll tell you who beat the Arlington Renegades though, Is
that scrappy Houston Roughnecks team. Yes, I mean we did
the XFL champions I'll just let you know.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
That's what the difference I'm thinking of it still in
XTFL terms. Yeah, yeah, you got the one off on
them for the year in the Texas Texas Showdown, which,
by the way, glad it's at least a one off.
You can make it a rivalry like that every year,
but hopefully they both get better so that you're not
having a late season where it's like, I mean, hey,

(47:19):
it's a Texas game.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
I guess well this I'm telling you things are gonna
be different this year. Things are gonna be way different.
They're gonna be so different. They're gonna be twelve and
so different. For the Roughnecks, we're gonna be so good.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
We're gonna be surprised. Put money on it, now, money
they get a shirt purchase incoming. Man, what am I doing?
All right?

Speaker 1 (47:39):
You read off these stupid I'm done with, done with
this survey.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Next one up here, we're in the home stretch of
the polls.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
So uh USFL Coach of the Year vote.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
So you know, we already had our own Coach of
the Years and all that for the awards, but that
was between all four. If you'd wanted to remember the coaches,
and some have moved changed, that was Skip Polts, Mike Nolan,
John d. Felipo, and Curris Johnson. Now I remember Mike Nolan
won the award this year, which I still feel is

(48:12):
very deserving given what Michigan was the season prior. But
I understand the votes because let's be honest, Skip Poltz
is the king of spring football, the man him and
Zach Potter.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
We can't.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
We are retreading what we keep saying for three years now,
and it's to the point now where we're all just
when we discuss it in communities, is is Skip Polts
the greatest spring football coach in the history of this
part of the sport. And I think we are very
much in that territory now when you consider there's really

(48:45):
no other good comparison, and he's kind of in his
own pedestal right now. So yeah, the vote makes a
lot of sense. Easily blew out Mike Nolan out the water. Honestly,
beyond Mike Nolan, John D. Felippo and Curtis Johnson got
Jack nothing. And I think it's just because the seasons
they had.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
You know, so put a little bit more respect on c. J.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Johnson's name. I'll just say, uh, dead last, dead last again.
My feelings here.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
If you want me to be honest, A lot of
a lot of freeach retooling thanks to some of our
front office changes. Hope on the horizon possibly, I'm.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Telling you personal note.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
I like what I'm seeing, but who's the who's the
guy throwing the ball?

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Well, victories in the air, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Well, we'll talk deeper as we go. I'm just saying,
you know, there's hope on the horizon. Yeah, TDC is
going to change it all too. I'm telling you it's
gonna make everything, dude. I cannot wait to come down
and visit. Whether we're doing it for Springstock or just
a one off game this year, I am making it.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Down and Houston. It's going to be what I'm telling you.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
That club section you cannot be beat, Zach.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
They make one.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
The club section is great because you don't have there's
no bathroom line in there. You have to have a
club seat to get in the club section, and it
has its own bathroom, so one, there's never a line
in the bathrooms. They have their own drink like their
own bar in there, so there's rarely a line for drinks,
and if it is, it's like one or two people.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
They have their own merch.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Boot sack, so you don't ever have to stand in
line for merch. But the best part about it is
so they have stadium food out in the regular stadium,
which one TDECU has a flip in Chick fil A,
a Chick fil A that's in the stadium in the
club section. Though every week they have specials and so

(50:40):
it'll range from like barbecue plates that are like legit
sausage ribs, pulled pork, all of it, and it is legit,
and it's like fifteen.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
To twenty bucks.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
But when you consider you're at a stadium and you're
getting a legit platter of barbecue for like fifteen bucks,
fifteen to twenty bucks, I spent fifteen twenty bucks at legit.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Barbecue all day. Yes right, I'm telling.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
You, Oh God, I cannot wait to be back at TDECU.
And the tailgating lot is amazing.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
There we'll be talking. I really like the tailgating scene.
We did a rice and I know that's not the
full potential of all.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
So just wait.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Can't wait to get back down that your way this spring.
It's gonna be fun and it's just you and I.
We shoot the shoot you are I said to shoot
the shit like yeah, getting together it's just always great.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
So I can't wait to see you.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
And I got my old seats back in my old section,
so I'm hoping all the people that were sitting in
that section the private previous year got them back because
we had a nice section. We actually one of the
I met one of our writers, Matt from Houston out there, yeah,
who was doing like gambling odds pieces and stuff like
that story goes. So I'm sitting there and I'm on

(51:54):
Twitter at the time, and I see a picture and
somebody's like, hey, ref, this looks a lot like you,
and I'm like, that is me, and so I'm like,
look at I'm like, who the flip is taking pictures
of me at the game? And fat forward like fifteen minutes,
dude taps on my back.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
He's like, that was you. I'm like, that is me.
Horrible picture of me, don't look it up.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
I'm like Barbara Streisand in that way, I got a
good side and a bad side. Neither of them are good.
But my front profile's fine. The side profile, I'm not
even gonna do it. But I got a big nose.
I got a big nose. You get from the front
you can't really tell, but from you know what, I'll
do it. I don't even know how to show off

(52:35):
the nose, so it's it probably doesn't look that bad
on video, but on picture.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Maybe I'll find the picture. On this picture, I'm like, oh.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
My god, why is there's this picture of me floating
on I'm like slouched over, so my guts hanging out,
my nose is flopped over.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
I'm like, oh my god, I look audio monster. Audio
listeners are gonna want to tune in for this excuse. Yeah. Yeah,
So anyway, I hope got seats there. I can't. Yeah,
go to TDCU. It's all he's saying. He knows I've
been hyped for it since he's told me about it,

(53:11):
and uh no disrespect to Rice, but I know it's
an upgrade over Rice. Everything about everything about it. Anyway,
XFL Coach of the Year.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
This one much closer, and I think, I think decent
ish debate. Part of it's also fan base related, I think,
but I agree with the final vote. Wade Phillips wins
out here. Other options were Anthony backed, Bob Stoops and
Reggie Barlow. Anthony becked very much was closer to Wade

(53:40):
Phillips than Mike Nolan was to Skip Holtz and I
And look, you can argue, yeah, I know, another good season,
you know, consistently getting in quality talent, you know, not
a bad run organization. But and this is you know,
and maybe Battle. I know we got battlewks fans of
comment on the show, but like, come on, Wade Phillips.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Came over A J.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Smith came over, they set things up, put this team
in wonderful position to start. We're to talk to the
town by many of our colleagues here on PFN for
how well that offense ran and the defense my god,
up until the championship game, I mean, there was no doubt.

(54:22):
I mean, there was no doubt that this was going
to be a dominating force. They just ran into a
into an immovable or sorry, the immobile object got moved
by the unstoppable force with Birmingham in the championship this year.
But that immobile object in the Bramas is pretty damn good.
So Waite Phillips, I get it. Yeah, definitely Coach of
the Year XFL wise for the vote, Stoops finishes last

(54:45):
by the way, Barlow third in this voting, so yeah,
and that would be Frank. We had a lot of
critiques on Bob Stoobs last year, so not surprising now.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
It was you know, I'll tell you this too.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
So there was a point in this poll similar to
the Panthers, where Anthony Beck was in a pretty good lead,
pretty good lead, and I almost wonder if him cutting
Aj mccheron had any impact on the voting for him.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
I don't know, I don't know, but I throw it
out there as an option.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
So I'm going through just to.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Make sure here, because there wasn't. I was actually surprised.
So I put another option for the best moment of
the year, because best moment of the year is such a.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Hard like.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
When you get down to the play level. I try
not to get down to.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
The play level.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
When I talk about best moments of the year, I'm
talking about biggest news.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Really, the way you equate this is you're talking best
for like what the league and it's like whatever it
is for moving forward or what stands out as a
league them that you know, highlighted the season. So you know,
like all many of these options are about the future
of what the league's doing.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
And I think it again, I think that's good.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
You know, we can talk about top plays or whatever,
but I think like that definitely is reserved for like
what moves the needle forward or what was a piece
that makes the league stand out.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
So now, so I'll run through the options, and there
is one on here that I didn't add that actually
got a good amount of other votes, So it worked
out and it was it was along the sign. It
wasn't a play, it was a moment. It was a
news moment. So anyway, we have the options that we
gave was the us and XFL merge to become the

(56:43):
United Football League.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Clearly that was a big flip a moment.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Birmingham Stallions shut not only win their third straight championship,
but shut out, completely shut out the Bramas to win
the third straight championship. UH the UFL ex announce his
plans to expand into new markets. We have Ken wizen
Hunt being named head coach of the Memphis show Boats
and the USL, the UFL USFL UFL announces International Showcase.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
Now I'm not gonna start with the winners.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
I'm actually gonna start with the It wouldn't be a winner,
but it was the most amount of other options that
I saw kind of dispersed in.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
So, actually, do you have a guess?

Speaker 3 (57:28):
Well, I wasn't gonna have a guess. I was gonna
ask if it quite out of curiosity. Does it beat
the option ones?

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Any of them? Do you know?

Speaker 1 (57:38):
It probably beats out maybe the bottom two, Okay, probably
the bottom two.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
I I don't have a guest raft the top of
my head. I blame being tired.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
I'm knowing after a shift and for those that don't remember,
I worked night shifts, so sometimes the brain don't work.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
So good at this. But I do want to what
is the right and I want to let's see.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Friday night games, the announcement Friday night games. And you
know what, when I was making this list, I didn't
even think to put that on there, and sure enough
that you know it wouldn't It wouldn't have been in
the top three, but I think it would probably be
in the fourth position here. I think it would beat
out the bottom two options that we're looking at now
that when we look at the top three here in
our list, there's basically a top two that are pretty close,

(58:25):
a third that's.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
A solid third, and then you have fourth and fifth.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Ye this might you know, this would be maybe a
more solid fourth. When we come to the I guess
we'll do the number two option. Well, actually, let's do
the top start at three.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
We'll do three the top three votes.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Yeah, so the third options, so not the first, the second,
but the third option. Birmingham Stallion's winning their third championship.
Solid third, solid third, but maybe a little bit distant
compared to first and second. The second is the merger.
I was actually a little bit surprised. I thought that
this was gonna be out the beat everything out. I

(59:10):
think that was what won last year, was the announcement
of the merger, even though it was late, late news
into the year. But it's still a solid two close
number two, Zach, you want to reveal the number one.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah, So that means number one was the expansion plans. Yep.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
And you can you can talk about recency bias. I
think is it plays into it a lot. Again, wasn't
that long ago. I still believe we're a month right
now that I'm aware of. So uh but I mean, hey,
you know again, when we talk about this poll being
how we just described as almost like a what is

(59:49):
big for the for this for the business of the
league almost it feels like, you know, that makes a
lot of sense because it does signal that there it's
a double down of sorts. You know, even if you
want to argue that it's putting out to the world,
hey we're letting you know we're businesses open, I don't know.

(01:00:09):
I think it kind of signals that they want to
get growth and move and build quickly, and that they
have some level of confidence that this is going to
be growing and they're going to get people wanting to
look at them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
So yeah, well, as I said, it adds a little
bit of a legitimacy to the league. It shows that
they're looking forward for people that maybe aren't the crazies
like you and I. They're going to look at that
and say, oh, look they're not folding, they're looking at expanding.
Maybe I'll tune in this year. You know, like there's
always those skeptical people. We still run into them where
they're like, oh, spring football is never going to work. Well, yeah,

(01:00:46):
maybe they have different league names, but you can make
an argument that spring football works at least for the
last five years, even starting with the AF. It's hard
because they folded before this season ended, but it's set
the groundwork for what was the XFL in twenty twenty,
where had it not been for the illness we shall
not name, probably might still be around, let into the

(01:01:07):
Spring League, the USFL, the reemergence of the XFL now
the UFL. I mean, it's been a pretty solid five
years discounting you know, the illness we shall not name,
and then the AF everything else has been, you know,
kind of part of the plan moving forward. You could say, well,
the Spring League's not around, but had it not been
for the Spring League, we wouldn't have the USFL. They're

(01:01:28):
almost one in the same. Have we not had the
USFL or the XFL come back, it wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Have been the UFL.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
So it's all kind of like one big blob, just
with a couple different names.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
If you ask me. If you ask me, maybe I'm
pretty sure. But that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
That's our this year in the UFL twenty twenty four.
Thank you again for filling out the poll. Thank you
for breaking the record for the fourth consecutive year. Hopefully
you guys break the record next year for the fifth
consecutive year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
When we do this year in.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
The UFL twenty twenty five, that I mean, it's crazy.
We're going full circle here. We still have got a
couple other topics to stick around. The show's not over
end in your show, we got a lot of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
To talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Big year, fun year. I'm looking forward to this next year.
Any any final thoughts before we move into the next topic.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
I'm my My final thing is is that you know,
I don't know, just again, keep growing in the right direction.
You know, we're seeing a lot of that, I think
in football and just outside of what the NFL is,
you know, and it's all positively moving the right way,
so you know. But otherwise, you know, I wish for
my own persons, is talking to you and the audience.

(01:02:39):
I wish all of you a very prosperous, prosperous and
healthy next year.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
For you and your.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
Family or whoever you care about. Same extents to you,
by the way, my friend, you know, we all deal
with different things, and you know, I always hope that
the audience out there, if you're needing a little bit
of a distraction, that maybe we're something to Heaven to scape.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Away from it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
No, always hoping you were all doing well. And thank
you for helping us enjoy a little bit of this
uh slice of the sports pie that we get to
have every year.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Hell yeah, yes uh QB zach QB QB.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Palooza q.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
I'm gonna take let you take the lead on this one.
I'll be honest, before we jump into it, I've had
a it was a Christmas miracle.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
I'll start with that Christmas miracle. Real action.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
If you ever were a wonder? Is it Christmas? Miracles?

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Real? They are?

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Here's how I know. I've had an ear infection that
has been just the bane of my existence for maybe
two three weeks, maybe a little bit longer that I
didn't even know about. And it started with this year,
and it was bad, and then it spread to the
other ear, and then it spread all throughout my son.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
I was like Jesus Man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
I was not good for the last couple of weeks,
in a bad, bad way. I had to work through
it too, which was no fun. But I'll tell you this,
I learned. We'll not learn. But I used teledoc for
the first time. Okay, and people, because I don't like heat, Zach,
you might know this about me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
I might curmudgeon. I don't like leaving my house. I'm weird.
I don't like going anywhere. I don't like waiting.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Yeah, well that's the other thing. I I got important
things to do, people to talk to, stuff to get done.
So I finally said, you know what, I'll try this
teledoc thing, even though I'm like, how are they gonna
diagnose my ears through a webcam?

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
Fine? Whatever, whatever, I'm sure they hear it enough. Do
the teledoct.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
I was amazed. It took me like ten fifteen minutes.
I said, this is amazing. Why have I not been
using teledoc? Well I learned. I learned why I haven't
because then when it came to get in my prescription,
turns out the person on teledoc was not a licensed doctor.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Oh goody, So that was a that was fun to
deal with. How does that happen?

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
So now I'm torn because teledoc was the easiest thing
to deal with until it wasn't until it wasn't a
license doctor.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Very nice, So sign them up. They got it taken
care of.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
But in the meantime, I'm like trying to get this
prescription to like have my ears stop.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
It's spreading.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
Like I'm all I'm thinking about, is this infection gonna
spread to my brain and I'm gonna die because I
got some doctor there's not even a doctor on telehealth,
and anyway, let's take care. And then in Christmas morning
was the first day I woke up and I didn't
have like a thing going on.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Christmas miracle.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
I'm very happy for you. That sounds me too. I've
had my I've had a history of ear infection and
swimmers ear that I could go a whole episode discussing
and I'm not not gonna touch it. It's it is
a thing that I'm just glad I am through.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Yeah, it's horrible. Growing out of stuff is all I
can tell you. I thought I had it's it's not pleasant.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
I thought I had a tooth infection at first, and
hell how bad it was because my jaw was like
it was pressing down onto my.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
Jaw And if you listen you might know. I mean
that thing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
That thing goes down and it starts affecting other stuff
down here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
I know. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
Anyway, I'm glad. I'm worried about me recording a podcast
there there may be a scenario where I'm like I
can't even turn.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
The lights on because I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Like, I can't function right now. I Meanwhile, I'm in
like meetings at work and everyone's like you okay. I'm
like I'm fine, I'm feeling great, totally like and then
they're talking, I'm like, oh, they just see me in
the corner because it's like, I don't know you've had it, Zachly.
There's like every sow and then it's just start reverberating
and you're like, oh, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
About to come, and it's like you're getting this stuff
that I hate so much about.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
Oh God.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
So anyway, Christmas miracle. I'm happy that happened.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
So that's where i've been.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
I'm glad you're here to I'm glad you're here to
discuss that. And now promptly get the hell out of
that part of this discussion.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Yes, look, transition into quarterbacks that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
Yes, I am dubbing this this segment QB Palooza. And uh,
for anyone that's been in the know as of the
last week and a half or so, it's been a
it's been almost like a like a Christmas, like a
Christmas Now you know what the better comparisons like Hankika.
It's been like presents every day. There we go, you know,
got happy holidays, there we go. See we're more than

(01:07:31):
Christmas show in here. And so you know, it's been
a little bit of Honika type of like drop a
present one day or so of just some transaction goodies.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
And it's not just one team.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
We got three teams that are making some waves with
some pickups all across the board for quarterbacks for different
reasons right now. Uh, the big one in the top story,
and we're just gonna, you know, write and bite into
it because it's the latest in the whole thing is
the Battle Hawks.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
It was the big It's the one.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
I think everyone really wants to know what the hell
is Anthony Bex's plan with this quarterback room AJ McCarron
messy divorce, well maybe more from AJ's perspective, but you know,
a divorce it seems, or at least a parting of
ways that maybe got a little rougher than it should have.

(01:08:18):
And so you have Manny Wilkins that people think comes back.
You aren't sure about what's happening with Brandon Silvers. They
have apparently maybe Schevon Corderio, maybe they bring their draft
pick in. Finally, all was revealed on the twenty ninth
of this month, eight days ago as of us recording
this show, and twenty ninth or the nineteenth, sorry the nineteenth,

(01:08:40):
thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
I am not.

Speaker 3 (01:08:43):
Yeah, not in the future. I reside in the present,
which is now the past on this video. Uh No,
they finally got their whole room down, and two of
those names did show up, but of course one of
them was I think the crown jewel that a lot
of us in our discord and in our own shows
were wondering, is this a name that shows up a

(01:09:05):
guy that you know needs I think the spotlight. And
so yeah, the quarterback. Remember for the battle Hawks, some
of you may know Manny Wilkins returned. They did pick
up their fifth overall pick from this year's UFL draft
in Chevan Corderio from San Jose State and formerly Hawaii.
But they also got former TCU horned Frog, former runner

(01:09:27):
up to the National Championship QB, and former Heisman candidate.
Let's not forget Max Dugan.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Yeah, they landed.

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
So talk about if we're talking prolific names, remember Kellen
Mond got picked up already this cycle and is heading
the UFL as well this year. One of the names
a lot of people wanted to see com too. Max Dugan, Yeah,
shows up big time stuff. Anthony beck answering the call
a lot of pressure on it. And keep in mind

(01:09:58):
the BattleHawks market. This isn't like, okay, you know, you
got like you've got a busy sports market like say, well,
compare Detroit where you know the Lions are dominating a
ton you know, and Michigan has the finance Way.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
The BattleHawks are like considered a big time property sports radio.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
They take this drama.

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
Seriously and they ask who's the guy going to come
in to try and get us a championship. Dougan's presence,
big fricking deal. But what's even bigger than me Stefan
is there to me is a legitimate quarterback competition. And
I think what we've been talking in the at least
on our PFN discord is I think there is claims

(01:10:38):
for each one of these three. I have two that
I think are more realistic, but still all three of
them have a case in this training camp to be like, hey,
I could come out with this at the end of
training camp and start.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
That's why we've learned.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
Anything can happen in spring football, right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
And sometimes it's sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
It's funny, right, especially when you're forming the leagues. Maybe
less so now, but when these leagues are forming, I
always think back to like, you're one of the XFL,
you're one of the af you're one of the Spring League,
you're one of the USFL, And especially I think you
and I had did like a quarterback ranking. The quarterbacks
and by the end of the season, not one of
those court maybe one of the quarterbacks is still playing, right,

(01:11:21):
you know, like, so you're right, it's Anyboddy's game. Anthony
beck is playing a smart game. Though he's playing a
smart game, he has a good, good rotation of guys
that can compete with each other where no matter what,
at the end of it, he's probably gonna have a
good result and a good backup to fall back on, because,
as you know, anything happens in spring football. Just because

(01:11:43):
what you saw in training camp doesn't mean you're going
to see it out on the field to where Okay,
you have a good amount of notes around these guys,
and you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
I know you hate it, Zach, but spring football.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Sometimes they throw a couple of these guys in, they
rotate them in and out.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
I don't think.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
I don't think we'll see that necessarily with Saint Louis,
but we could.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
And I say this, and yet here Birmingham is only
only last year losing one game, and.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
They did split games.

Speaker 3 (01:12:11):
So you know, but to my credit, they did pick
the one that I thought they were gonna pick at
the end of the day who became the UFL by
the way the UFL MVP and the League MVP by
the end of the year. So just saying, you know,
do have that feather in my cap. But it does
bring up that conversation again about you know, reps, because

(01:12:34):
one of the big talk of town when AJ was
let go, we talked about this and said, what do
you want?

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
What is the philosophy is it? Do you get a new.

Speaker 3 (01:12:42):
Guy in that needs the reps or are you getting
the flashy you know, like maybe somewhat NFL vet you
want to get wins or are you trying to find
a mix, which personally, I think you want to find
a mix, and I think I think Anthony Beck sent
a message to say, hey, I'm getting the best of
like all three facets. I brought the vet that's been
on my roster, that knows Bruce greg Kowski's system.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
I brought in a NFL guy in Max Dugan, who's
been a practice squad guy for several years for a
few years now, but I think is ready to see
what his other options are and try to put himself
out there to maybe get another step up, maybe become
a backup QB or something like you know we've seen
with Adrian Martinez, where he's now like fighting actively to

(01:13:25):
be the backup in New York. We've seen he's been
getting some action and getting more up on the roster
I've noticed this year. And then you picked up the
guy that I think you know was looking for that opportunity.
But I think also has a lot of potential that
didn't get seen by NFL as as much in at
Chavan Corderio, who now was drafted by the battle Hawks

(01:13:47):
but was originally scheduled to be with the Sea Dragons
before they did the merger. But all three piece, all
three pieces different aspects of how they do this, But
I think it definitely it spreads out well to where
you will find your right guy at the end of
the day. Like I completely shuts down. I think any

(01:14:08):
of the anxieties that BattleHawks fans had about letting aj
go is because all three of them had either had
flashes or have high potential to fill that void, and
they're still bringing back a lot of their amazing specialty
players that let's be honest, as long as you get
someone that's a decent arm talent, they're gonna do some damage.

(01:14:29):
They'll still be a threat in the XFL next year
of barring injury or something. So yeah, big, big time
swing and also big time PR move for the team
in the league because announcing all three kind of genius
when you have the biggest team by fan base in
the league, making that news right in the sports world
kind of resonate, big deal. That was a really smart

(01:14:53):
PR move. Bravo to whoever constructed that. I really I
thought that was genius for a gut for now, for
someone that's starting to do so social media more that side,
I thought there was a kind of genius play. So bravo.
I gotta give collapse And yeah, I know you appreciate
that too. You you've taught me some tools of the
trade since we've started partnering.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
So saying earlier, I always appreciate a good marketing person
or a good marketing technique, So yeah, you can't be
mad at it. They and it's just nice to see
the league continue to bring news throughout the off season,
right because there's been years. I mean even just last year.
Last year was a little bit different. There was a
merger going on, but do you remember there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
Was nothing there. It was dead nothing coming out at
this time.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
People were trying to get the information people were and
there was bits and pieces that would come out and
this and that and the other thing. And even in
the years prior, this is always the dead zone, whereas
I think this year is the year that they did
it pretty well. You know, USFL going from season one
to season two did a pretty good job as well.
But this, I mean with the Ken wizen Hunt drop

(01:15:57):
and the schedule footprint and now in decent kind of
getting QB news and you know, teasing that schedule, teasing
it which you know we'll we'll talk about here in
a little bit. I think that things are all moving
in the right direction. I'm looking forward to another year
spring football, like just not even having to worry about, Oh,

(01:16:19):
is it gonna play?

Speaker 2 (01:16:20):
Is it not going to play? Are they going to
make it through the season? I don't have those worries anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
Now at the end of the season, we'll see, right,
see how do I feel at the end of the season.
But going into the season, I mean with the AF
I don't know, it's fifty to fifty Are they going
to make it through the season? Even with the XFL
twenty twenty until they played I was like, it's fifty
to fifty fifty to fifty if they make it. But
once they start playing, I mean, the XFL twenty twenty
was on such a different level from the AF and

(01:16:47):
even some of the other guys that had tried in
between the XFL two thousand and one. So things are
all moving in the right direction. You love to see it.
We have some more quarterback news though, too.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
We have two more names.

Speaker 3 (01:17:03):
Yeah, actually one of them is mine because I think
this this one's just fascinating because it's the room is
insane right now. So the Michigan Panthers, they already had
three on the roster.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
They brought E. J. Perry got signed back on Danny
Etling's back, and so and.

Speaker 3 (01:17:21):
So his Perkins as well. But and pardon me as
I'm trying to video messiness there. I don't know why
I did that with the I got an itch. Anyway, whatever,
watch the video you'll understand.

Speaker 2 (01:17:36):
Get over.

Speaker 3 (01:17:37):
The Panthers decided we need all of them, we need
all the quarterbacks. They picked up their fourth quarterback, their
fifth round pick in this year's draft, Rocky Lombardi, former
Michigan State, former n i U quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
He's now signed on to the Panthers.

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
So you have all three of the quarterback from the
last three years combined, whether it's Ettling, Perry or Perkins,
and you bring in Rocky Lombardi and pick him up
training camp for the Panthers is gonna be stupid fun
to see how this gets sorted out because one of

(01:18:19):
them's got to be let go. Oh sure, And you
know it's funny. I don't know enough of I know
Rocky's basically been a guy that's been looking to, I think,
find more film or something more professional, because you know
he had potential in Michigan State, jumped down IU good
program in the MAC and okay and try to get

(01:18:40):
an NFL stint in Cincinnati for a little bit before
getting let go real quick in training camp. Seems like
a guy that needs this league. But it's funny. All
three of the people he's coming in with signing You
definitely tell him there's no guarantee he's making this roster,
like you're gonna have to work for it, like all

(01:19:00):
three of those quarterbacks. You know, a lot of people
love Perkins. I like Perkins a lot for the mobility
and that people feel like if he was in maybe
who knows maybe we finished a job against Birmingham. Not
saying that would have happened, but a lot of people
in the Panthers fandom do feel that way. Daniy Atlings
had some solid moments too.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
EJ.

Speaker 3 (01:19:17):
Perry when he's calmed down, has shown he can be
that guy. So fascinating offseason for the Panthers and what
they've got to decide, what Steve Kaser has to decide.
Clearly there's a plan because he wouldn't have signed him
on if he doesn't know. But like I mean, four quarterbacks, it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
Tells me they're in it to win it, right. They
want they don't want to leave any chips on the table.
They were close last year, but close isn't good enough, right,
And so you know what, if anything, it's gonna add
a little bit more competition to that quarterback to that
quarterback room in training camp where you know what, like
you said, one of these guys is gonna make it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Is it gonna be.

Speaker 1 (01:19:55):
Somebody that's there already or is it gonna be the
new guy? Well, nobody knows until the end of that
training camp. So if anything, I think we'll see some
positive results. I'm not gonna speculate on who is going
to get the job. But like you said, training camp
for the Panthers should be fun, and my hope is
we can get a little bit of insight either through

(01:20:17):
James Larsen or Jake Balls up in Michigan, or you
know what, We'll have to see where they do their
training camp, because maybe it's not even gonna be out there.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
I don't know. We'll have to see h question.

Speaker 1 (01:20:27):
So either way, either way, I'm sure we'll hear news
via one avenue of another. But this is gonna be
one to watch.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:20:39):
I'm still waiting for that Houston Roughnecks bang, big, huge
signing to come through any day now, any day now,
it's gonna happen, Zach.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
And it's gonna blow your mind. I mean, here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
I wouldn't be shocked if one of these quarterbacks is
going to be a guy that, even though they get immediately,
gets signed from waiver wires off of training camp, fight
either final cuts or like one of those first few
waves that then sticks on a different roster. I just
the Panthers have several arguments for who could be that
person next year is what's nuts? So fun times ahead

(01:21:19):
I don't mind it. I got plenty of great options.
I would say either either workable too great options is
how I should put it. Yeah, so I could I
go into debate on this. I'm gonna save it for
a training camp debate later. And also personally, I still
want to do a little more video video watching of
Rocky Lombardi to see what I think about his game.

Speaker 2 (01:21:41):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:21:42):
Curious, Yeah, interesting pick up because it's a familiar college face,
that's what.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
And I know him well enough. I'm a big ten
mac guy, so Rocky's very familiar to me in that regard. Well,
I kind of like too.

Speaker 1 (01:21:54):
It's a little bit of a local flare, you know,
Michigan State, Michigan playing in Michigan.

Speaker 2 (01:21:59):
You know, I wonder if that plays into it.

Speaker 3 (01:22:01):
A little bit too familiar face, you know, could be
a case too, I could see that, definitely see that finally,
and I think, you know, this one, I would say, has.

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
Made you know a lot of people just happy again.

Speaker 3 (01:22:15):
It wasn't maybe not as much as like the BattleHawks
with relief, but you know, when you're the king, you
want to see that your spot at behind center is stabilized,
that you don't have to worry about losing your crown.
And it's funny, you know, Matt, Matt Corral was last

(01:22:37):
year kind of take he kind of had to take
in a way. That backup role that we've seen in
the past, where you know you're you're playing as a
team player under Skip Holtz is the deal.

Speaker 2 (01:22:49):
But as we've seen with.

Speaker 3 (01:22:50):
The case Malex Magoo, you're rewarded handsomely when you get
your turn and Matt. When they signed Matt Corral and
that's what they did this this week, it was almost
like a like a Christmas present for those Birmingham and
Horsemen faithful out there. I'll be honest with you, this
is his Alex Magoo moment. Is this season he's been sitting.

(01:23:13):
He sat back there. He lost the competition Adrian Martinez.
But much like how the ARC has gone in previous seasons,
we go back to twenty twenty two, crucial plays and
crucial contributions from your backup quarterback gets you the spot
where you get another ring. And I think they know
that he can do it. It's another year under the
system with Skip. He knows Skip now more. Being on

(01:23:36):
the sideline. I really like they got him back year
two Matt Corral, I'm saying, watch out man, yeah, because
it was already kind of close between those two, like
give him another year.

Speaker 1 (01:23:51):
Well, now he's not the system even more. He's been
to a championship, won a championship, right, he's kind of
got all the pieces under his belt, and you still
have Skip Holtz leading the way, which I mean until
he isn't he He is the king of Spring, right,
he is the guy that seemingly knows the formula to

(01:24:14):
put together a winning team.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
And I mean they good on them, good on them.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
So you know what Stallions fans going into the new
year was something to be happy about.

Speaker 2 (01:24:26):
At leasta should be. There's a big signing.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
It's a big signing, I mean, and we'll see there's
probably gonna be some new pieces they continue to pick
up because that's.

Speaker 2 (01:24:34):
Just what the Stallions do.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
Training camp is coming up soon, so we'll see kind
of who's who's some more supporting cast here for him.

Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
In that regards.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
But yeah, I mean, if you thought the Stallions were
gonna cool cool down going into this year, it doesn't
look like they're taking their foot off the gas at all.

Speaker 3 (01:24:53):
Not one freaking bit. I mean they've been busy too.
They've been doing a good job getting guys in and
do it and things to get that roster built. But
look in this league, I mean, I think we've seen it.
The line play is huge. It's always in every league,
but even more so in this one. But man having
a versatile athletic quarterback, that's been a Birmingham I mean,

(01:25:18):
that's been Birmingham specialty.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
I mean Jamar Chase.

Speaker 3 (01:25:21):
I also feel like is that you know has been
in that and he was in twenty twenty two. I
know it was a little different they had it split up.
McGoo did come in and save their championship season. But
Alex McGoo Adrian Martinez being basically the prototype of what
McGoo was the year prior, and.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Corral has shown that as well. He is a mobile guy.
He doesn't mind running, he doesn't mind throwing on the run.
It just felt like he wasn't as ready to throw
or pull the trigger on deep plays. And I think
if it's like Alex where we saw a similar deal,
I think he's gonna take it and run with it
now that he's comfortable, yeah, and buys it even more so.

(01:26:01):
Like I said, watch out, I am, this is Skip
Holtz and Zach Potter doing their thing again.

Speaker 3 (01:26:07):
Yep, I just it doesn't surprise me anymore. But it's
because it's just so consistently good. They just know how
to do this every single time.

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
Ye Now, hopefully it won't impact my mission this year
of going twelve and oh we'll see, we'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:26:22):
Yeah, I mean that'll be hard now, credit though, Hey,
you do have one feather in your cap. Houston teams
they always seem to be the tricky one. Not last
year though, but you know, throw.

Speaker 2 (01:26:32):
A g on that helmet. That's what they need to do.
We just need to go all in.

Speaker 1 (01:26:38):
Anyway, Well, I'll have that conversation once I get to TDC.

Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
You. I'll just say, those gamblers stickers everywhere, be like, hey,
can we can we like have like a brand night,
just like roll the.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
See what happens, Yeah, just see what happens. Throw the
gamblers on the field and just see what happens, and
all of a sudden, twelve and oh all in all in,
just like the rock next this year anyway, it doesn't matter,
really doesn't matter. We don't even need a ball in
the game to win. We're gonna win.

Speaker 3 (01:27:05):
QB Palooza is currently in this state. There is probably
gonna be more as we as I think.

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
I will say.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
Pat Raffino in our discord brought up the best guys
got to figure out what their jobs are next year,
and uh, it's only gonna get more chaotic training camps coming.
It's a lot closer than you think. Guys are gonna
make some decisions here soon. Yep, so a lot more
as on the table. It's gonna be fun. Yeah, Oh,
it's gonna be good. Transactions are already getting better. It's

(01:27:34):
gonna be it's gonna just keep being that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
It's just bounds on bounds on bounds on bounds all.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
You know what would be the perfect way to end
the year, Zach, what is that one?

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
Am?

Speaker 1 (01:27:46):
I and I think the people that listen slash watch
this show's favorite segment.

Speaker 2 (01:27:53):
We like to going on vacation, Zach.

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
You and I were about to get pack up the bags,
get in the car, keep it down back there. I'll
turn this thing around because right now we're heading to
the speculation zone.

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
Welcome to the speculation zone.

Speaker 1 (01:28:14):
And here we are, we're talking about something big, something
that everybody's been asking about, something that everybody's been talking about.
People have been pondering, people have been wondering, where the
heck is the UFL schedule. Well, we're gonna speculate on
where it is, when it's coming, why it's not here,
all that stuff involved, and you know, not to steal

(01:28:34):
your thunder, but there are reports out there that we're
gonna get the schedule before the end of the year.
I'll let you kind of go into more details. You
probably know more.

Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
On all that. I agree.

Speaker 1 (01:28:46):
I think we'll probably see it before the end of
the year, depending on when this releases. Maybe I'll release
this episode sooner because I was going to release it
on Well, anyway, we'll get into that. So what do
we know about when this scud was released? And let's
start there and then.

Speaker 2 (01:29:01):
Yeah, we'll go from Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:29:02):
So a long time report reporter in this space and
insider for the uf UF inside for SI, Mike Mitchell.
So he's already been reporting that the game plan is
to release the schedule on the twenty ninth of December,
during Week seventeen of the NFL season. So that's part

(01:29:25):
of it, and then they'll be on Fox and then
on ESPN. They'll do it during one of the bowl games.
The report he has given is that it's during the
Michigan Alabama Relia Quest Bowl on New Year's Eve. So
if you haven't read that report or if you missed it,
here's us catching up again on it. And you know,
I think the bigger question we were having here is why

(01:29:47):
has this thing taken so long? Because you know, we
went through this last year with the merger where a
lot of us, I think felt like and hypothesized that
the merger taking so along and then having it delayed
where they were getting all the infrastructure together hurt the
ticket sales. And to me, I'm surprised they didn't try

(01:30:10):
and drop the schedule before Christmas to capitalize on the
holiday season. However, and uh, I want to hear your
your thoughts on what you think might be going on.
But I have some theories why they waited this long,
Okay is all. I'll wait until you have your thoughts
before I put it out there.

Speaker 2 (01:30:29):
Well, no, I say, go into your thoughts. I don't wanna,
I don't wanna.

Speaker 3 (01:30:34):
Don't want, I don't want to talk off, talk away,
talk away, no, no, no, yeah, go on, I'll riff off
of you So.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
Here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:30:42):
Networks control so much of the schedule, and you know,
we already know about the Friday night stuff going on. Uh,
you've seen in the teasers that Fox has already referenced
f S one, So expect FS one broadcast to be
more up and up at EYA on the docket. I
think this year is what I would guess. But if
you read any sports media stuff, Fox is kind of

(01:31:05):
busy with a lot of Spring content. And I've already
brought up on the We brought up on the show
before IndyCar, how it's a big deal. They are heavy
invested in IndyCar. It's not every week, but they're big events.
They are right now prioritizing IndyCar as a top dollar item,

(01:31:25):
and so you have to schedule around that. Well, this
is a curveball I found out before, like during the
Christmas week that I also think is hurting and what
maybe is delayed a bit more.

Speaker 2 (01:31:39):
So, Uh, it's the fun Have you heard of Live Golf?

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know the Saudi Arabian
backed big money golf tournament that kinda I would say
shake and rattled the golf industry. Yeah, And as the
PGA had it scared, supposedly as trying to merge with them. Well,
the big talk on the town in all the media

(01:32:05):
spaces for the industry, and that you can look this up.
It's already been talked about on some of the bigger
ones like Deadline and I believe variety at minimum. Front
Office Sports is where I read and read the analysis.
They Fox are currently in the final stages of finalizing
with Live Golf their TV contract. And why do I

(01:32:28):
bring this up? So if you go to Live Golf's
website right now and you know, I'll go through this,
you can check it on your ends the stefan while
we do this, but you know, do this with us
while we're talking. You'll you'll see what I'm meaning now.
Unlike IndyCar, where their season is much more spread out,
and I think it's more for remember IndyCar schedule starts

(01:32:50):
in May.

Speaker 2 (01:32:51):
They don't.

Speaker 3 (01:32:52):
They are like, well, yeah, it's it's it's got their
more presence in May. I would say, Live Golf has
a lot more going on in May, June, March.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
It's all over the place. So it's not finalized.

Speaker 3 (01:33:12):
But my thought was they have to balance this stuff
out and they have to figure out what they're doing
with these weeks, is my thing. Indy Car is one thing,
adding an entire golf tournament where by the way, I
did double check this. They are putting main events on Fox,
so you have to consider the weekend dates when you're

(01:33:33):
doing this. That's what I think is holding it held
it back more. Is not only IndyCar being the big
money ticket, but you added another property. Fox has ever
since they've gotten the USFL they have been cramming stuff
into Spring like mad and it just is another example.

(01:33:55):
So I think it's just another broadcast deal thing that
has just pushed some stuff back they didn't maybe for
c and I will put my two cents in. I
really want them to not next year do the same
thing again. They really need to sell tickets by December.

Speaker 2 (01:34:12):
Yeah, Like this isn't.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
Just me like like especially for that Christmas market, like
you're saying you're given you're leaving free money on the
table by not having tickets available.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
And look, you know, I know this isn't complete apples
to apples, but like you know how you guys know this,
and you know this. I follow the arena schedules a lot,
and you know.

Speaker 3 (01:34:30):
One thing that I am appreciating they do is they
they know that they got to People want to buy
these tickets and they want to get them out. And
you know, if you wait past a certain holiday date,
you know, people expend funds, they reset this stuff, they
have to hold back cash. Season ticket holders want to buy,

(01:34:51):
you know, and get their stuff out of the way.
A lot of times, you know, it can be deposits.
You can pay as you go. I've seen, but you
know you don't want to Like are you?

Speaker 2 (01:35:00):
Are you really?

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
And I know that UFL tickets are cheaper, but do
you really think it's easier after Christmas to then tell
your spouse or your girlfriend or your parents or whatever,
or if you're I mean, if you're doing by yourself whatever,
but like whoever you're with to be like, hey, no
mind if I drop a few hundred bucks on season tickets,
like ye come on, That's where I'm like, you got

(01:35:24):
to get these out earlier to me? Yeah, Like do Like,
here's how I do it, much like the uh the
XFL did in twenty twenty. Do the schedule first, then
do the broadcast schedule yeap. That way you spread out
the announcements you aren't just doing one shot. You can
save the networks to be a completely different conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:35:45):
Yeah, I guess where there might be a difference is
for what you just brought up is that this is
the problem that they have is the broadcast schedule, is
even having a spot that they can put it on,
because I you know, again I don't know the ins
and outs of the relationship with the ESPN, but we'll
assume ESPN says, Okay, here are the spots we have
open for you, versus what spots do you need? Right,

(01:36:08):
And so if they know that, and then now they
got to kind of cross that with Okay, well we
have Indie, we have live golf, potentially, we have X
Y Z.

Speaker 2 (01:36:18):
Okay, where can we fit this thing in?

Speaker 1 (01:36:21):
All while making sure that the venues are available at
that time too, which we've already seen has become an
issue with at least one game with San Antonio. With
San Antonio, right, we've seen that they're going to play
one of their home games away in Saint Louis, which
we've talked about that on the show. That's just mean,
especially because the last time they played there they got

(01:36:42):
shut out in the championship anyway, I'm not gonna die.

Speaker 3 (01:36:45):
Well, yeah, I mean if we want to again, you know,
you guys know and we know we're going to rehash
that for next year.

Speaker 2 (01:36:51):
Is like, what to do better next year? Yep, don't
don't play less.

Speaker 3 (01:36:56):
Home games than away games that if we want to
talk professional you just don't do it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:01):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:37:02):
At least we're past that we did in the USFL
for reasonings and now we shouldn't be there at all.
But yeah, you know, it is what it is for
this year only, is what I'm saying. Yeah, please, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:37:17):
But anyway, schedules, I think I think we will get
them before the end of the year. I'm not gonna
speculate on the exact timing or the game or the
whenever it's gonna come out, but I think we'll get
it by the end of the year. I thought we
would get it by the end of the year for
a while, hopeful that we would.

Speaker 2 (01:37:34):
Get it by Christmas is maybe the right word.

Speaker 1 (01:37:36):
But I don't know if there was ever a point
where I'm like, Yep, we're gonna get it by Christmas.
But I think we'll probably get in in the next
week and probably what we'll do and you know, no
curtains on this show will probably drop this episode Saturday,
so then at least we're not talking about something that
happened in the past. Yeah, you know, I feel that

(01:37:57):
for the potential that it does happen on Sunday we
drop it. It's speculation zone, by the way, speculation zone.
This will be out prior to but I mean, if
it does drop, we have a whole new episode for
next week for the debut. It'll be a great episode
for debut episode of season four of the UFL podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:38:16):
I'll give you that much.

Speaker 1 (01:38:17):
So always something to stay tuned for. And one thing,
you know, and again is the end of the year
for the folks to say, why aren't you guys on
all the time? Well, as the news picks up, we're
gonna be on more often. And if you guys are
you know, have been in the spring football space for
you know, more than a year, you'll know January is
generally when those things start kicking off around the A

(01:38:42):
tu We'll.

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
Probably be doing some around the A tou soon.

Speaker 1 (01:38:44):
There's just a duckies out because it's and I'll mention
his his father passed away, So you know, if you
want to say anything nice to Ducky. This is your chance,
this is your opportunity.

Speaker 3 (01:38:55):
Definitely extend thoughts, prayers and condolence is his way. It's
you know, that's a hard thing to go through, really,
I mean not everyone has experienced that. Not everyone can
say that they've had X that they have had to
go through that, and those that have, you know, that's rough.

Speaker 2 (01:39:11):
I can't relate. I can't relate to that.

Speaker 1 (01:39:13):
So and then James is gone since he had a
death in his family as well, and so we were
originally going to do the best stuff as like an
l ive a tu but this is why we're doing
it this way.

Speaker 2 (01:39:23):
And so get over it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
Don't be made happen.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
You know, we're going to get together and have some
laughs later, but that's it's not the time or place
right now for that. So you know, but you and
I it's good to catch up for this. By the way,
last thing, if for any of the scheduling stuff, while
I was looking through the IndyCar schedule, fingers crossed that
I can get a double up weekend in Birmingham, May fourth,

(01:39:49):
Barbara Motorsports Park, Sunday afternoon. IndyCar Main Series NTT is
going there. Now, Hey, maybe I'm maybe I'm the scheduling
guy in the UFL and they schedule away game, but
say the schedule a Saturday game.

Speaker 2 (01:40:05):
Yeah, that'd be fun.

Speaker 3 (01:40:06):
I'm doing a whole weekend, and that's my weekend. I'm
going to Birmingham this year because I missed last year.
I'm going this year, so that would be my weekend
May fourth. I am crossing my fingers that weekend that
I can just double up on sports events.

Speaker 2 (01:40:19):
It would be nice.

Speaker 1 (01:40:20):
And then you get to celebrate Sinco de Mayo in Birmingham.

Speaker 2 (01:40:25):
I'm done with that.

Speaker 1 (01:40:27):
See this is why I don't know if you know this, Zach. I,
I made my life real easy. So I got married
on Sinco de Mayo. So I never I never forget
my wedding anniversary. So Sinko de Mayo the day after
the day after Star Wars Day too. So see I
got all sorts.

Speaker 2 (01:40:44):
Of reminders in my head.

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
I'll never forget my my anniversary.

Speaker 2 (01:40:49):
It's great, it's amazing you you two just skill skill
levels right there.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
Yeah, well I didn't know you as well. I don't
know if I even knew you at No, I definitely
didn't know you at the time. But when we got married,
our invitations were I don't know if I have one
around here, but it's a it was. It was an
invitation to an open bar and then will small in
the bottom it said, and a wedding. And I'm thinking

(01:41:15):
on a all right, you get people get drunk. I
don't drink as much anymore, but I did then.

Speaker 2 (01:41:19):
I did freaking love that. Man, that's good. Oh man,
what a year, what a fun year.

Speaker 1 (01:41:25):
I can't believe this is the last episode of season
three of the UFL podcast. I can't believe it's our
fourth year doing the best of mo Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:41:35):
Yeah, this would be the this would be the fourth.
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:41:38):
And I think this is actually the fifth year I've
done the best of It's just the fourth year I
did it with you.

Speaker 3 (01:41:42):
The first year again, I remember, our original best of
was a test was basically the pilot episode of this show.

Speaker 2 (01:41:48):
That was to see if we could even do this
and or we would do this. Well.

Speaker 1 (01:41:53):
Well, the first best of I did was such a
monster shit show if you go back and watch it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:59):
But I was.

Speaker 1 (01:42:01):
Using uh x split, which is kind of like obs right, yeah,
and it just did not like so many cams on
the stream at the same time, so it was like
instantly everybody froze but me. It was with me Jim Monier,

(01:42:22):
which if you know Jim, Jim, Jim's the fifty to
fifty when you go live with him.

Speaker 2 (01:42:27):
And so his he's like it's all dark. He's leaned
back in a chair holding up his phone.

Speaker 1 (01:42:32):
Right Tron Hawkins, who like got on and like instantly
his cam froze for the rest of the episode. So
he's like, oh man, like one of those things. And
do you remember the XFL delivery guy.

Speaker 2 (01:42:47):
Yes, he was on.

Speaker 3 (01:42:48):
It, Yeah, because I used to love interacting with him
on uh back when it was XFL twenty twenty and
aaf days that was he was so fun as like
the persona and then just completely disappeared.

Speaker 1 (01:43:01):
He's up in Dallas. I need to try to reach
out to him. Maybe we can. I'll try to connect
with that. I should have reached out to him last
year because we did springstock there. I didn't even think
about it. Uh. But no, he's got you know what,
He's got a family.

Speaker 2 (01:43:13):
And so that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:43:16):
Spring football you really got to dedicate time to do
like the extra stuff and at certain point.

Speaker 2 (01:43:22):
There's a lot of people that do it and we're.

Speaker 1 (01:43:23):
Like, well, I got like kids, I gotta take care
of I gotta this, and I gotta that because exac,
you know, there is a certain amount of sacrifice that
you make to do something like we're doing. It takes
hours a week, and then if you're crazy like us,
you add a website into it, and another live show.

Speaker 2 (01:43:43):
And of this and another thing.

Speaker 1 (01:43:45):
It. I mean, by the end of the season, it'll it'll,
it'll take its toll on you. So I mean, this
is why I tell people, if you want to do
a podcast, you should do it. If you're doing a podcast,
continue to do it because I want to give as much
and much of what's the right word, not emphicism, but enthusiasm,
whatever the right word is their encouragement. Encouragement because I

(01:44:09):
do know it's a hard thing to do, and it's
a hard thing to.

Speaker 2 (01:44:12):
Continue to do.

Speaker 1 (01:44:13):
That's why, like the Mark Perry's for as much as
you know we've bantered online, I have a great respect
for him. Why because he's still doing the damn thing.
Same thing with the Fuel Network guys A train and
Dirty Dude. There's few guys that have been doing this
since twenty nineteen, and I think they might be the

(01:44:35):
only other ones besides myself. They're trying to think twenty
nineteen days because the XFL podcast or the XFL Show,
whatever they were, they're gone.

Speaker 2 (01:44:49):
All of those.

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
Team podcasts from twenty nineteen are gone, like the Guardian
Post and the Wild Talking. So I'm trying to think,
like who there's some bigger names that have been around
for a while. I'm not going to discount the but
I'm like, okay, who has been around? And it's really
Mark Perry, dirty and a Tran.

Speaker 2 (01:45:06):
That's it. That's it. And so I mean I love hatem.
You got G O G the O G s. That's
that's really it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:45:16):
So I mean you can like people, you can hate
people online, but you should respect them. You should respect
them because I mean from firsthand, and Zach you'll agree.

Speaker 2 (01:45:23):
This isn't easy. It's not fun. That's fun. It's fun.
It's not I'm gonna shut you down.

Speaker 1 (01:45:32):
Consuming it's yeah, it will, it'll take its toll on you.

Speaker 2 (01:45:35):
It is fun though I didn't mean that.

Speaker 3 (01:45:37):
But anyway, No, I mean it's funny because like if
we're gonna talk podcasting. So, like I talked with I
get people from timetime and you probably do the same.

Speaker 2 (01:45:48):
They ask like, hey, you know what do I gotta do?
What do I gotta get? I mean, like, you know,
as long I always tell.

Speaker 3 (01:45:56):
People first like, as long as you treated, you know,
you enjoy it, you're having fun with it. First, it's
a hobby to you. You know, you know, don't if
you don't, I mean, if you can drive, be damn
of course.

Speaker 2 (01:46:09):
But like.

Speaker 3 (01:46:11):
Always put it in the frame to me of having
fun before anything else, and you're always going to be golden.
I tell people that straight up. I'm like, look, have fun.
If you're having fun, then you're still to me doing
all right.

Speaker 2 (01:46:26):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:46:26):
It's when it doesn't become fun anymore that you should question, Hey,
should I be doing this? Is it something that is
that I'm okay with? You know, that's always my gauge
with this. I've always had fun with podcasting. It's it
goes back to like with radio when I did in college.
So plus football, Yeah, it's the only place. It's the

(01:46:47):
only platform I get to talk football and feel and
you know, feel like I can share it with a
bunch of other folks.

Speaker 2 (01:46:53):
You know. Well, I'll say this too.

Speaker 1 (01:46:55):
If you're gonna do a podcast and you decide to
get a host, you can only be so lucky to
get someone like Zach too, because I'll tell you, and
Zach you will you'll know, and I'm the way I'm
gonna mention names. But not everybody is this dependable. You
can't always hope that somebody's gonna be there and actually
record with you on a week to week basis, or
that you're gonna like them.

Speaker 2 (01:47:15):
So there's like two aspecs, you know, you know, so
like there's.

Speaker 1 (01:47:19):
All sorts of like things that go into this to where.

Speaker 2 (01:47:22):
I feel like I got we got lucky. Yeah, right,
you were one of these guys.

Speaker 1 (01:47:28):
I think I told you this before, but you were
one of these guys. I remember when I around the
time that I reached.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
Out to you.

Speaker 1 (01:47:34):
You were doing shows for a while, and I was
always surprised that you didn't get the amount of attention
that I felt you deserved. Not that you didn't get
a lot of us, but you didn't get as much
as I think you should have. So I'm you know,
this show helps I think I hope.

Speaker 2 (01:47:49):
I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:47:50):
But oh no, well, another another tip, you know again,
you know, put in the frame of you know, you're
enjoying it, you're doing it for the sake of you know,
if you're having fun with it. The extra mile is
where you really test yourself on how much you want
to make your show work, you know, because there's some
people that do way more than even use with the

(01:48:12):
advertising angle of it.

Speaker 2 (01:48:13):
And I just go, I.

Speaker 3 (01:48:15):
Bravo to you, because I do not have that mental
capacity to just go.

Speaker 2 (01:48:20):
I go up and down. Sometimes I'm like you, I.

Speaker 3 (01:48:23):
Get I'm impressed, but it's like your professional career when
I talk with you, if you For those that ever
have met this man, this man, this man's professional career
is nuts, but he loves all the same.

Speaker 2 (01:48:37):
I wouldn't have it any other way.

Speaker 1 (01:48:38):
I say this, And I said this to people I
work for. If I went and work somewhere else, I
think I'd be bored, and I think they think they
would think I'm crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:48:46):
I have like this weird.

Speaker 1 (01:48:48):
I grew up in a blue collar household, but I
have a white collar job, right, and so I treat
it like a blue collar job though, And so I
don't know, there's for people people ever had a blue
collar Jobb'll probably understand what that means. But there's like
a certain like weird work ethic thing that goes into it.
And also I'm just dead set on retiring early. Sometimes

(01:49:11):
it looks better than others. Sometimes it's a great goal
to have.

Speaker 2 (01:49:14):
I mean, if you don't.

Speaker 1 (01:49:15):
Have it, you'll never made it right. And if you
do have it, you might not meet it, but at
least you tried. Same with doing the show. You know,
if we didn't do this show, we'd never be able
to do any of the things that we have been
able to do by doing the show. It was no
guarantee that we get to do them, but we would
have never done them if we never did it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:34):
For wonderful life experiences, you know, all of those things.

Speaker 1 (01:49:38):
The Springstock two is still one of the craziest things
to me, right that will.

Speaker 3 (01:49:43):
Be that's gonna be a highlight of my life right there,
just all the stuff that you know, I think the
trust that was given to us is what still impresses me.
And the fact that we executed it damn near to
a perfect yeah, is what will impress me.

Speaker 1 (01:50:02):
With like zero planning, oh I say zero planning, but
there is plenty of planning that go involved, but Zach,
you know, more than anybody, I'm the master of no notes, nothing,
being tired, being grumpy, cameras.

Speaker 2 (01:50:17):
On, let's roll, and all of a sudden I'm good.

Speaker 1 (01:50:21):
So you know, I wouldn't have it any other way.
But uh, another fun year.

Speaker 3 (01:50:27):
Funny enough, The calmest lead up we've ever had to
his show was last year. Yeah, with no technical issues
or one of us deciding to do a freak out.

Speaker 2 (01:50:36):
For five seconds. I know, I like freaking out. Though.

Speaker 1 (01:50:38):
It's always funny because there's always somebody in the crowd
that gets to see the the before the camera, the
madness of me where I'm like son of a bitch
and I'm going and all of a sudden it works.
I'm like, all right, we're good.

Speaker 2 (01:50:53):
Oh my god, oh man?

Speaker 1 (01:50:55):
Any uh any final and we're like two hours into
this bad Boy big one head of your episode.

Speaker 2 (01:51:02):
It's a good way to cap things off.

Speaker 1 (01:51:03):
Any final thoughts though, before we head into the sunset
for our final show of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
Nah, I'm my only My only thing is you know, hey,
let's keep let's let the good times roll, everybody. Let's
just keep letting the good times freaking roll and come
join the ride. Yere four starts next episode. We're glad
you're with us.

Speaker 1 (01:51:26):
I'm getting I'm feeling good, and you know what, one
final thing before we go, make sure you follow us
on social media at UFL podcast at Zach Kyleman at
the ref says, we're on all the things.

Speaker 2 (01:51:36):
The Facebook, the tiktoks.

Speaker 1 (01:51:38):
Of all of them, we're over there, Twitter, x, whatever
you want to call it. That's where we're probably the
most active. Get signed up. Well, you can find all
the links. Click the discord, click the discounts. There's a
whole bunch of links down in the description.

Speaker 2 (01:51:49):
Click them in.

Speaker 1 (01:51:50):
If you want to get ready for season four of
the UFL, go watch all of season or season four.

Speaker 2 (01:51:55):
Of the UFL podcast. Let me add that extra word
on there. Go watch all of season.

Speaker 3 (01:52:00):
Three and I think we'll work on that super cut
for season three.

Speaker 2 (01:52:03):
That's that's something we can do. You and I will talk.
I'm doing you know how it is. I'm doing. I'm
doing more editing, you're due editing. We'll get it together.
We'll get there. We'll get there.

Speaker 1 (01:52:12):
So something else to look forward to. And also, if
you haven't checked it out. Go check we we played
maximum football.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
That was fun. That was a blast. We need to
do another one of those.

Speaker 3 (01:52:20):
It's gonna we need to do another one of those
for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:52:23):
So all right, guys, Well, thanks for joining us for
another fantastic gear of the UFL podcast. Looking forward to
season I would couldn't end it without another bump to
the microphone, looking forward to another fine season of the UFL,
another fine season of doing the UFL podcast, another year
of PFN. So until next time, guys, sign you up.

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This Year in the UFL 2024, Schedules & more | UFL Podcast #93

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}This Year in the UFL 2024, Schedules & more | UFL Podcast #93