UFL Final Rosters, Showboats Perks, Countdown to Kickoff | UFL Podcast #98

The FINAL COUNTDOWN to the UFL season begins now!

Join The REF & Zach as they dive into the final rosters, Memphis Showboats Perks & more!!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Final rosters are set as we get geared up for
the kickoff of the UFL season, plus much more exciting announcements,
including for some stuff that the Yacht Club might be
happy to see. This is episode ninety eight of the
UFL Podcast and it starts right.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Now, long till three, and welcome back everybody to the

(00:43):
UFL Podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
I am Zach.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Kyleman sitting in this week leading hosting duties, and man
season is right around the corner. We're talking as this
thing drops out. We're talking a week away from another
spring football season, the second UFL and the fourth straight
spring football season of any of these iterations. Once more,

(01:05):
it's a fun time of year. We finally get some
more football Friday night action coming our way soon, and
you know, obviously it'll be hyping up some springstock stuff momentarily.
But before we get into all that and some cool
things coming along for the yacht Club as well. On
and down by Memphis. Got to bring in my co
host on the other side, It is the ref joining

(01:26):
me as always on the show. Good buddy, how you feeling, man, look?
Final rosters are here. We'll kind of talk a little bit,
you know, kind of next this show and atu we're
gonna really be kind of hitting that just because Hey,
things are set, but seasons right around the corner. I mean,
one week after we launch the show, we're gonna be

(01:49):
down in your neck of the woods, my friend.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
Down in h Town. Hopefully we see some swingers. Oh,
it's gonna be a good day. It's gonna be a
good night.

Speaker 5 (02:00):
We're gonna be partying.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
The party's gonna be in the parking lot for spring
Stock four. I got the portable grill, Zachie boy, I'm
so excited about the portable grill. We're gonna get some
portable goodies to go on the portable grill.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
We're gonna have drinks.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
We're gonna have Ducky, We're gonna have James Baker, who
runs the UFL Highlights account.

Speaker 5 (02:24):
Which he should be following as well. H zach you
know I was gonna tell you this before the show.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
I'm just gonna say it on the show because you
know I has Do you follow Los Mysterio.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yes, yes, I do reach out to him.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
He's in Houston. I just couldn't. It won't let me
message him. So it's not he's not blocking me. It's
I've said too much.

Speaker 6 (02:47):
Anyways, reach out to him and because you know what,
I think he would actually be fun to have at
the tailgate and actually to make it appear on the show,
because I know he is one of these guys that
I see in like the Facebook world.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
Right, there's the Facebook world, there's the X world. They're
probably there might even be like an Instagram world of
these Spring football people that.

Speaker 5 (03:14):
I don't even know about that don't post on X.
But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
I think because I've talked to him, I banter with
him at every one of those games at Rice Stadium
last year, and uh, I don't know, I think it'd
be fun to have him one So reach out to
him as well, if anything to tailgate.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Right, Yeah, no, without a doubt, And honestly we'll lead
right into that. By the way, Springstock four is coming
your way for the UFL Kickoff Friday Night showcase if
you will. They're calling it just UFL Kickoff all together
by the way, with the promos, but but I'll call
it the Friday Night Special.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Here's what we're gonna do it.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
So, yeah, Friday Night Special this year for Springstock for
coming your way in the tailgate lots for Houston. We
will have specific details this week for you, so if
you want to find us, you will know where to go.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
We always drop a.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Map or kind of a pinpoint accurate area of where
we're going to be at. We will let you know
where we're at, trust me. And we'll also be getting
a hold of some of those amazing fans down there
that are in the in the Roughnecks fandom, including the
likes of Flow Symbsteria or the Predators couple as well
that did a great job and honestly really were hospitable
last year to us when we were over at Rice Stadium.

(04:26):
So yes, definitely stay tuned to our socials at UFL podcasts, which,
by the way, follow that and you should subscribe to
this channel. If you're new to this channel, click the
button down below. Click the bell builds morale not only
for you but for us to look at him. This
man's already getting jazzed up. He knows when you click
that subscribe button watching this video already, or if you're

(04:47):
on our podcast platforms, you subscribe to our podcast version
on the audio set. But trust me, you know, if
you want a little extra you always check out the
YouTube version. Some stuff you don't get to see on
or so what happens while we're chilling and talking about
this stuff out here. But yes, Springstock Force coming your way.
Stay tuned our socials. We will have all details and

(05:09):
guest lists as always lined up and told very soon
it will be this week, so be ready for that
and be ready to go. Yeah, and then still got
that code for OYL Retros as well USFL podcast ten
percent off your order.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
They are now one.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Of the official UFL distributors of merchandise, so that is
we double checked with that, and yes they are an
official merch apparel company for them that they are third party.
So if you want some official gear or some amazing
alternative choice retro jerseys or older school USFL stuff or
XFL stuff, you name it, they sell a lot of

(05:46):
great stuff on there. Check out Royal Retros at roydretros
dot com and support the show that way too. All right,
full things into the pipeline. Look final rosters as of
today while we're recording, they are are finalized. If you
go on the UFL's website, you will see that all
eight rosters this year, the entirety of them, including ir

(06:09):
listings are posted, which you know, I know to some
of you, maybe your NFL fans coming in, you're going, oh, well, yeah,
I mean, who wouldn't why wouldn't that be only Well,
we didn't get that luxury last year.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
We had. We had to kind of lean on, you know,
the likes of our.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Great James Larson and a few other insiders in the biz,
along with another one of our greats of PFN, Nick Thorne,
helping put together his amazing roster talk to keep things
in the loop this year the league, I think, and
you know, honestly, Stefan, I think it's just them reading
the room and now being out of the merger and
not having to worry about the little details we're here
or there.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
But like you know, look, I prefer this.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
It's fan it. You know, it should be a standard thing.
So like I'm glad they did it because these are
very conveniently. You know, you have them on your page.
They're prs. They got all the listed rosters. It's probably
each team did it their own specific way on an
announced because everyone of these is different a little bit.
But like they all have what we need, and you know,
I kind of like I want that you know, if

(07:09):
I'm a diehard like.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
That, I want to know the rosters right away getting
into week one.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
Well, it's just a nice to have, right And so
you know, we draw back from last year, and one
of the hopes that I wanted to see out of
the merger is, look, I understand year one's tough, there's
a short runway this that the other thing I want
year two to be a little bit more solidified. And
you know what, there's been things that we've critiqued about

(07:33):
season two, or at least the lead into season two rather.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
But this isn't one of them, because this is nice
to have.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
Again. Some people might say who cares, But there's people
like you, me Zach, You and me Zach, there's.

Speaker 5 (07:46):
Other spring football crazies out there.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
They want to see these things, and if anything, it
just makes them look a little bit more legitimate, right,
And so for the people to say, oh, who cares,
they should be doing it. Yes, And this is why
it's a good thing that they did do it, because
you know, like you mentioned, they didn't do it last year.
So boll sign you up, love to see it.

Speaker 5 (08:08):
Box ticked. One less thing to do.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
But we have the final rosters, or seemingly so, I think,
and we've already seen, we'll dive into a little bit.
There's even some names that I think we'll probably see
either some of the guys that may have been released
end up in other teams. There's other names that we'll
talk about that, either from one situation or another, is
still going to land on a team.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
So there's some interesting things to dive into. I think.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
And we were talking about this before the show, so
I don't really think I know, but we're gonna have
like a little conversation about this. But if you really, really,
really really want the roster deep dive, it would be
an injustice for us not to wait till Monday when
we have I mean, this is is this not Nick
Thorns like Christmas.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
Time to shine?

Speaker 3 (09:03):
This is what he sets up for.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
You know, I might make him host next week.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
We got to clip that. We gotta make sure that
we keep that honest, So we gotta do that. But
this is this, This is like his spread and butters.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
He loves.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
He loves breaking down analyzing each one of these players
even further than we do, which I mean, that's that's
saying something. I'll admit mant and you know, also just
like for us to I I've been curious, like you know,
I've been asked in the last few days about, uh, you.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Know, what about the draft are they landing guys?

Speaker 1 (09:35):
And like, remember we had a lot of you know
people this year that you know, even more than usual
to get their draft picks that got picked up by teams,
and you know, credit I gotta while we're doing in
the case of the show, I'm kind of double backing
and checking, you know, specifically who is and isn't that
we're draft picks that got you know, completely picked up.
But you know, still like that this is all part

(09:57):
of the puzzle. So uh yeah, but final rosters, it's
it's finally here, you know. Uh, each team had to
cut down to fifty for those that weren't aware or
needing a refresher. You also can have ir spots, so
you know, keep that in mind that some can kind
of be taken over whatnot. Uh two, and also waiver
wires as well become an active thing for many of

(10:20):
these players. If released, you know, you can kind of
you know, make choice, so you can still make moves.
But like again, once you got to fifty, you gotta
readjust to fifty again.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
If you're going to make a move is the issue.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
So you know, and we've seen a few of one
or two of them so far. Nothing crazy with moves
like this. The main one that I think most people
are talking about now that was kind of this change
was kickers in Houston apparently being flip around. So you know,
the you can you can take this away.

Speaker 4 (10:52):
You were talking about the sad news of my man
JJ Molson. You you opened it. It's like, no, this
is the way A whole lot.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
This is actually good news.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
And I think I think it's a bit I mean,
I think I think performance wise, it's a bit of
good news.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Here's my hope. Here's my hope is I have a
similar moment that you get to watch this year where
I'm like, okay, it's coming down to the kicker. This
is a kick that I know, my man JJ Molson,
who probably just knocked down a cold one on the sideline.
Let's be honest here and it's gonna go and just
knock that one. It could be two hundred yards away.

(11:32):
The dude's blasting it in.

Speaker 5 (11:35):
And blew it right. And now here's the thing. Blew
it solid so, but.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
He didn't make the cut in Michigan, so that makes
me worried.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
Now, we did have a little discussion as.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
Maybe he was in there just for competition's sake and
maybe that's to play. And I don't know there's more
to it, but I'm I'm personally sad to see my
man JJ Molson go because the Moulson lineage. I grew
up in Michigan, which borders our friendly neighbors to the north.

(12:07):
Who birthed this wonderful thing. If they've birthed a couple
wonderful things, hockey and Moulson, Canadian beer, those two things,
and and poutine. I almost let poutin out those.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Three things the trifecta.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Anything else in Canada I could do without the maple syrup.
Vermont they got me covered leafs.

Speaker 5 (12:30):
Maple leafs.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
I've seen plenty of those in Michigan. I can't think
of anything else in Canada. Lumber maybe, but.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
We got plenty of that.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Lumber. Uh, go get wheat in the fields over in Saskatchewan.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
We got plenty of wheat here.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
But anyway, and JJ Molson, that is your.

Speaker 5 (12:52):
Mount Rushmore of Canada.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Poutine. Molson Canadian JJ Molson hockey. Anyway back to the topic,
So I am I you know, if we're gonna lose
JJ Molson blew. It's actually a solid pick blew. It
was solid and basically any team that he played for.

(13:18):
Probably the most unfortunate name for a kicker, though he
is a headline in the making. If you're in the
playoffs and it comes down to the final seconds and
you're kicking a field goal in miss for the headlines alone,
I don't like the odds. I just don't like the odds.

(13:38):
And the longer his streak goes, I'm like, uh, the
headline is writing it. After twenty one kicks in a row.
He blew it. La la la, la la la. And
here I am crying like a little baby boy in
Houston in that final game when we're eleven to OZH

(13:58):
going on twelve, all because of me.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
You have little faith for I know, I know, but
you look, I brought him up because you have a
little bit extra kick. You have a little bit extra
It's it's one of the guys that's been around a
little longer, you know. So I get that, I mean,
but also the trade off is you get a championship kicker,
who quite frankly I mean guy to me is one
of the next ones up that I think if the

(14:23):
NFL is going to look at someone who's been very
consistent in this space, Chris Blut's been one of the
top ones that shockingly still hasn't gotten the job in
the NFL. But I think it's because a the kicking
market is really competitive. But also you look who you
were competing against last last several years he's played. I mean,
you know, Brandon Aubrey's of the world that Jake Bates
the world. Like whenever there's someone like a Chris Blud

(14:45):
who's been really good for the UFL, you know you
in a special team sense, you have someone right in
front of him that's even better or has been playing
better as getting the name recognition even more. I mean,
BUTZ hit sixty yarders too, like this isn't like this
isn't new to him as well. Oh, it's just uh,
you know, some other things and other people who have
gotten the headlines for good as well.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
So the first opinion I gave you that was just
my joke opinion.

Speaker 5 (15:11):
Do you want to know my real opinion on the situation?

Speaker 3 (15:14):
Sure, sure, why not that now that you're being real
with me all.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
This time, this is the real opinion, dude, Now that.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
This man's being real, Oh, thank you for being so honest.

Speaker 5 (15:23):
Yeah, well, you always have to clarify.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
It's just like the speculations on I want to know.
I want people to know when I'm being one hundred
percent dead serious.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
I mean, let's be frank here.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
Chris Blewett just became the best kicker in the league,
and he just joined the best team in the league,
and he's about to win a championship. Another championship, mind you,
but this time in beautiful, lovely Houston. Hopefully he gets
to be on the swaying afloat. That's all I say.
I mean, best kicker in the league?

Speaker 5 (15:51):
Name one better?

Speaker 1 (15:53):
You know, there's only one right now off the top
of my head, and I'm kind of scrolling, Well, there's
two I think that could challenge that. Maybe I'll even
throw this one, and I'm being I'll be you know what, No,
there's a lot of names, but I think just looking
through these names, here's the ones that I think he
has to go against. I think that he has a

(16:14):
good debate for number one. But remember you also have
Rodrigo Blankenship in Saint Louis, Donald de la Hey in
San Antonio, though credit we haven't seen him kick field goals,
but everyone says he's pretty damn solid. So I'm gonna
hold it too, and I will be honest with that.
Matt mccrane wasn't too bad as well. Uh so that's

(16:36):
another one I've got on my radar. Two but yeah,
I think And also how can I forget Matt Coughlin
over in Memphis, one of the best ones in the
last several years. Again, a guy much like Blewett who's
kind of been under the radar because he's been good.
But there's some dudes that have been really freaking good.
So like the special teams in this league. I mean,
if there's anything no one can take away from you

(16:58):
is that special teams players in this league have been
fantastic through the years.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
Hands down.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
So yeah, you'll never be able to convince me otherwise
that this is the year.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yeah, this is the year.

Speaker 4 (17:11):
Well this year, do you know who the star special
teams player is going to be?

Speaker 5 (17:15):
Chris Blue for the Roughnecks twelve and zero.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
I mean, I'm not gonna you know, what I was
gonna say something that actually would have been harmful for
his for his percentage.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Say what for a team that I think will be
held back by offensive inefficiency?

Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yes, it'll be fantastic.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
So whoa, Zach.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
Maybe I'm so glad you're gonna be there Week one,
Week one? When's happy Zach at the end of the game,
being like I told you so, I told you so,
jumping with joint vision and now everybody, because just I'm
gonna give you a preview. I told you so. Oh,

(17:58):
I told you all you're gonna be able to in
real life. You gotta give pictures of how happy I'm
gonna be after that game. You know, happy, I'm gonna
be giggling like a little girl. Oh, all of the
situations that's gonna be me. If you personify joy, you
they might erase the dictionary entry and throw me in

(18:20):
after that game, and then they might have to update
it every week until twelve and zero. Nice, you might
have to come out here every week.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
You're done capture it, You're done playing in fantasy land.

Speaker 5 (18:33):
This is reality.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Reality, reality is I I think that we just might
point put the l on the board right now. I mean,
what what's the what's the point of me, what's the
point of just waiting for that to happen When we
know it's going to happen. I feel very confident, honestly.

Speaker 5 (18:51):
Better, and I come down with a damn kicker.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
I'll tell you that about you.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
I will laugh if that is what happens.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
I'll be sorry for bullet, but I will also laugh
after the after the game's sover, just a.

Speaker 5 (19:03):
With the headline will be now you.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Thank you, Adam Standler.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, some other stuff while we're at it, and again
we'll kind of jump around to a few things that
were shocking out of the cuts, or at least pieces
that needed clarification. Was the deal is one Andy Isabella,
who was one of the biggest names coming out of
this space, had played for the Arizona Cardinals, was one

(19:31):
of the I think larger NFL receiving options that came out.
He got cut as well by the Saint Louis Battlewalks,
and I think like that was making a lot of
conversation today in our own discord, by the way, linking
the description for that, just the fact that you know,
big name recognition.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
But let's be clear, this ain't the first time.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
We've seen a big name come out that was an
NFL name, We think he's gonna stick right away and
doesn't work out. These teams have like this is one thing, yeah,
prioritize like just you know, yes, we do talk a
lot on ATU and on this show. The NFL talent
does I think matter in the sense that like you
do have guys with more reps and then maybe it

(20:14):
helps once you get on that roster, but that doesn't
guarantee you make a roster. That's something we've seen over
the years, like just because you've had an NFL position
or you've had some minor success, which Andy Isabella has
had his moments, he's been he's been a starter or
a third receiver or a fourth receiver with the Cardinals
in the past and through the NFL. That doesn't mean
you're going to outperform or be the right guy for

(20:37):
a coaching staff. And you know, Anthony beckt is uh
I also think, you know, again, I'm not gonna fully
say this is the case, but I think he's also
shown more of a tendency of I'm going to lean
on guys I feel I need that need to get
to that spot, not saying Isabella couldn't. And I'm not
going to say that's the case. In fact, I'll call
it speculation just to play it safe. But that's something

(20:59):
I wonder if it was a factor is like we've
seen it, you know with Aj mccarroon, remember McCarran, they
were locker room talk.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Be damned.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
The main thing that was discussed about from Anthony Beck's
perspective on a public sphere was that, you know, AJ's
had his years. We felt it was time to get
some new guys in. To me, that screams will not
wait a minute. If that's the case there, can it
not play the same everywhere else? Because I mean if
you feel like you have a younger guy or a
guy that's close that hasn't gotten up to that space too.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
You know, it makes me wonder.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
But you know, uh, I think BattleHawks fans will also
say that it was a very competitive roster anyhow, and
especially at the offensive ends. So I mean your thoughts,
like we've seen Robert Robert Mdemchi's one that comes up
to me, former defensive lineman for the Panthers just the
previous year that was supposed to make it and like
I and like Jake Ball were stoked he got signed

(21:55):
former cardinal didn't stick. This isn't the first time we've
seen the name of.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
The game in swinging football. It's almost the bigger name
you are.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
You're almost like you and I have seen it.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
We've seen time and time again, whether it's the AAF,
the XFL. The perfect example, Zach if we maybe we
talk about this for our one hundred episode, but if
you look back at our quarterback rankings for season one
of the USFL, there was not one quarterback on that list.
I'm fairly certain that played in the last week of

(22:32):
the season, and I think that perfectly encapsulates this situation.
Whatever you think you know in spring football, you have
to realize that you don't. Anything is possible, anything can happen.
People are at different points in their careers. People you know,

(22:53):
I've even fallen into it where you look at highlights
and then you know, but that was maybe six seven
years ago. Things have changed and competition right now when
we talk about spring football, is that an all time
high yees. You know, people might not remember, but it's
hard to forget. Not too long ago, there was sixteen

(23:16):
spring football.

Speaker 5 (23:17):
Teams, not to mention.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
You also have the CFL, a litany of arena leagues,
the ELF. There's options for these guys to be playing,
and everybody's trying to kind of go through the same funnel.
So your competition is fast and furious, because I mean
there's dudes that are in IFA right now that are

(23:42):
actively trying to get into the UFL by week ten.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, I mean so, I mean, shoot, man, some of
those guys are great guys in the arena space that
I know are taking that chance over there. I mean,
even even if we want to go farther. And I'll
bring this up because you and I we talked about
YLF once in a while on here, because it's it's
kind of growing. I mean for those who don't know,
like like maybe you're like, well wait a minute, some

(24:08):
of these people are like there's like Channing stribbling, reed Senet.
You know, they're playing in Europe this year. You know,
rees Hoorn's been playing in Europe for like three seasons now.
Like that's another avenue that's becoming a legitimate American football avenue.
Credit it's harder to get into because you have to
do releg you have to relegate a certain amount of
people that are not nationally based in those teams. But

(24:30):
like seeing like a Channing stribbling.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Go over there.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
You know, credit he didn't make you know, he did
not make a roster last year, but like still that's
a big name in the space to go over there.
You know again, Reedzet was just starting for your Roughnecks
last season and instead of taking and getting a chance
or looking at this space, he went, you know what,
I'm gonna go to Europe and.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
Take a look.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
So like there's tons of options as well. But like
the UFL in particular, the competition, we keep hearing it
and we keep talking about it on our shows. Is
it feels like this is the year we might actually
eclipse twenty twenty and if in the XFL in terms
of like people like viewing as like the golden like
Boy or the Golden Child of like spring football seasons

(25:13):
in the twenty first century, mind you of just good play,
high quality talents coming over and it's you're gonna get
that good viewership and people like talking about it more
and more, and I think we're close, you know, but yeah,
like we circle back story, long story short, just because
you're a bigger name or a name of the NFL

(25:33):
space that's recognizable does not mean you are guaranteed a
spot once you get into this spot. And just to
reind to clarify, Kim Dechi was with in twenty twenty
three of the Panthers. I just had to make sure,
But I digress, same deal. We thought he was gonna
make it, and that was with sixteen spring football teams.
We thought he was gonna make it easy. With Michigan,
he didn't make it. And that was someone we felt

(25:54):
was perfect for this space that was maybe like an
older vet, but like someone that still had enough in
the tank to compete at this level and do a
good job and be like say, like a Breelin speaks,
But that didn't happen. So you know, it's all it's
all part of how these these teams evaluate, but you know,
they're gonna look for the best, and it kind of
I think tests people to say, hey, you know, you know,

(26:17):
there's great there is to reiterate, as we always say,
there's great talent in like lower levels of college football
or teams that you know, maybe you didn't make the NFL,
but like you were just close and you missed. You know,
it's One of the beauties of this sport that we
enjoy so much is we get to see those folks
that did not get picked up, and some teams or
scouts might have went, oh shit, we might have missed

(26:38):
this guy.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
A hudd percent. Well again, that's the beauty of spring football.
You know, every season is its own season. Anybody that
anybody could be a star in any given game and
in any given season, Guys that maybe didn't even perform
last year can come out and be like, Wow, look
at this guy this year.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
Alternatively, you kind of have the reverse too.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
You have some of these guys that maybe they showed
out their first couple of years. Things change, right, injuries happened,
and you know, it takes its toll.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
I mean, football is not an easy game.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
We sit here, it's so easy for people like us
Zach to sit here and talk about this, right, but
I mean, at the end of the day, this is
a tough damn sport and so I get it, right,
I completely understand, and I mean that's kind of the
beauty of the sport of seeing, Okay, who's going to

(27:33):
be the guy to fill that spot? What's the next step,
what's the next step?

Speaker 5 (27:37):
Where do we go from here?

Speaker 1 (27:38):
So absolutely, yeah, that's that's kind of a deal and
I'll go through. I'll do one more that needed some
clarification because I think we were surprised by this one too.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
But before I do that, something we've reiterated more and more.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
We kind of hinted at that with Atu and when
we talked with Christian runs on there. You know, like
this is a weird time for a lot of players,
Like you got to kind of start figuring, like, hey,
what do I do next? Do I start looking for
a league other elsewhere? How do I talk to my
coaches about what I did wrong? Or if I did
anything wrong? How do I get better? Am I contemplating

(28:16):
not playing anymore because of like this might have been
my last shot?

Speaker 3 (28:19):
You know?

Speaker 1 (28:21):
And I haven't seen much of this today, But if
for some reason you're wanting to think this is funny
that they're like go or couldn't make a spring league.
I haven't seen this day, but like, just chill out.
Let these guys have their moment of figuring some stuff out.
You know, I can't stress any level of these football leagues.
It doesn't matter NFL, UFL, CFL, going down to arena.

(28:45):
These dudes put put there and work and body on
the line year round. This is not some part time thing.
These guys work and keep themselves physically fit and active
for an opportunity all year round. Let them have a
moment to kind of chill out, and you know they
are athletes. You know, it just means that unfortunately, competition,
it's a very competitive space. You know, you're not guaranteed

(29:07):
a spot. That's how it is in this industry. Even
with more league options, you're not guaranteed a spot one hunder.

Speaker 4 (29:16):
But you know what else is just a you know,
it's such a down or to talk about cuts and people,
this is like the worst day of the year when
it comes to Certain people love it because they love
to break down the rosters. But you know, as someone
that covers this league and has covered this league for
a long time, I'll piggyback off of what you said,
is it really is the worst day because there's a

(29:38):
lot of names out there where I'm like, man, I've
been covering that guy for like, wow, a couple of
years now, and does he land a spot?

Speaker 5 (29:45):
Does he not land a spot?

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Right?

Speaker 4 (29:46):
And there's been some names, there's been some names in
the past where we've been maybe even shocked that they
didn't make a roster going into the season, So this
is kind of just.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
A continuation of that.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
So yeah, like Zach, for all the people online, be
nice and hope that they land in some of these
other options, because I'll tell you the Zach I'm watching.

Speaker 5 (30:08):
I watched a little bit of Elf last year. I'm
probably gonna watch a little bit more of this summer,
all right. To me, it was fun.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
And they're bringing in more coaches the teams that they
always have one little issue in the offseason where a
team doesn't survive, but they usually supplement that with either
another team or a big name coach. And they're getting
some pretty I mean, they're building something pretty.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
Good over there.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Oh yeah, so you know, go Bart Andris is over
there coaching the Frankfurt Galaxy, which by the way, that's
who picked up chanting stribbling. Funny enough, see the stars
connection a little bit. Someone someone's catching it. So see
someone I like it.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
I like it exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (30:52):
So you know what I'm i I kind of wish
we had Zach is what the show boats are getting,
and that is like the red carpet treatment. We talked
about on the last episode doing like thirty events or
something like that.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Right, dude, they're getting everything, And honestly, this is what
if I was a if I had any poll in
the league, every market would be treated just like what
Memphis is being treated, right like, right now, everything and anything.
You're telling people precisely where you're gonna be at, You're
getting deals done in the city, you're being engaging twenty

(31:28):
four to seven, and we're not. And I think, honestly
we're just not fully there yet. But boy, it's nice
to see what could be sooner rather than later if
you just get a few more of the pieces together.
Memphis is definitely the test market about how far can
we go with doing local marketing that makes a true impact,
I think, and they need it too personally. Just buy tickets,

(31:50):
sales numbers. I know there's great yacht club fans. Yeah,
but we know there's a reason why as well. They're
emphasizing that market this year over everyone else.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
I'll just tell you this, sec and I mean, I
just I don't know the last time I've seen a
five dollars beer at a sporting event. It's not just
beer but just let's just focus on the beer real quick.
A five dollars beer at a sporting.

Speaker 5 (32:16):
Event, I can ease.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
I'll tell you, if you went to an NFL game,
it's easily over ten dollars. Probably over fifteen dollars, is
my guess.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
I haven't been in a while, but I've been to.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
Other sporting events between and I think the last sporting
event I went to, beers were eighteen dollars each eighteen, Zach,
almost a quarter of that A five dollar beer, I think, honestly, Zach,
that might put butts, not a lot, maybe, but that

(32:48):
might put a few butts in seats. That's probably cheaper
than some bars in the neighborhood. And you're getting a
football game too, you know, live and maybe a pop
Minnesota or a water in a candy or a hot
dog and chip combo.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Five dollars all friendly space.

Speaker 5 (33:09):
Gets you the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, pretty bucks, you're eating like a king. I'm glad
you said it. I was going to if you didn't
that up.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Because I I definitely would if I'm out there, and
in of course, uh Western Tennessee for a show Boats game,
Uh Memfinians are going to be having quite a quite
a spot to stop in, you know, and look we're
we're like we're talking this might be a dark horse
team to have improved this year. But also, like fan

(33:38):
friendly pricing is always great I think for sports period.
You know, we're seeing the c NFL too. Atlanta has
been leading the way. The Falcons that is, have been
leading the way with this fan friendly model now for
about I believe two three seasons at this point. But like,
you know, it does help with fans kind of you know,
easing and kind of getting select I think demographics of

(33:58):
fans in you know, like, look, you got someone that
maybe wants to go to an.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Event, but look, prices are tight.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
You're already paying for the ticket, you know, and credit
UFL tickets are pretty damn.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Affordable for professional football.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
But still, you know you're bringing like say you're bringing
a family out and you're trying to find something that's
reasonable for you. It doesn't break the bank for you
as well. You know, kids want to go do something
in the summer. I mean that in the spring, you know,
That's what's cool. Like I think is like, you know,
this doesn't break the bank for someone out that way
to come out to a game, and much like you're saying,
it's incentive, you know, again, what can we do that

(34:32):
we maybe could bring more people out and be more
up and available to you. And uh, you know that
stadium not only you're going to get great renovations as well,
so again next year they want that crowd to be
in a beautiful, newly renovated Liberty Bowl. But also, you know,
getting people to sit down and go to a game
and have friendly stuff.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
Like this is nice. It's nice.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
It's not consistently in sports right now, but like that's
becoming a trend across I think the sports bit industry landscape.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
I love it, you know, yeah, no, I want to
see more of this in every sport. I'll tell you. You know,
it's I don't know if it's still the same way.
But the Phoenix Suns used to be pretty. They used
to have like two dollars hot dogs most games.

Speaker 5 (35:17):
I doubt they do that anymore, but they used to.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
And I think I could be wrong about the Cardinals,
but Arizona used to at least be on that train
before it was cool to do so, mind you, so
sign them up?

Speaker 1 (35:30):
You know, yeah, I mean I know for a fact,
Arizona's the Cardinals are not that. I went to a
Bears game last year, and trust me, I do think
they were okay stadium prices.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
But now they didn't do that.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
However, you are onto something with the Suns, by the way,
so they actually have a They have affordable fan friendly
pricing as well for games, although this one is even
more extreme. Actually, I just was looking this up really quick.
Five items that were last year introduced as fan friendly
value items. Two Dour hot dogs, two Dour sixteen ounce waters,

(36:07):
two Dour Chips popcorn as well, and two dollars Fountain
soda for sixteen ounces.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
That's NBA, by the way.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
That's really great.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
That's like stupid good. So and that gets you for
ten dollars.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
You get the entire assortment to walk home less because
you're probably not gonna buy it. Let's be honest, you
I could buy a water and soda likely, But you
know again, fan friendly pricing is becoming more of an
industry norm.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
I think people.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
I think a lot of these teams realize, you know what,
if we can sell the ticket and like get them in,
you know, the more the merrier that way, you know,
for the UFL maybe a little bit different because it's
more about the you're more getting about the tickets getting
in and less about like the money's on TV driving
like how the NBA did it. But you know, for

(36:51):
the show Boats, like this market, they definitely it's insteadive.
They need it, and they've been engaging. You know, we're
seeing community event lists happening as well. That again, they
laid out every place they're going to be in Memphis
or in western Tennessee for the next month, which they've
been doing so far. And then and you, I want
you to lead this one in. We haven't seen this.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Local beer deal. They're gonna have a beer named after
him and.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
A dedicated place for five games that they will show
the Showboats season.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Again, it's just good stuff that's happening.

Speaker 5 (37:23):
You take this, No, I love this again.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
This is one I'm a little bit jealous stuff.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
I want a rough next beer.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
So the Showboats and Ghost River Brewing Company they're announcing
they got a production the Memphis Showboats Touchdown Light Lagger, and.

Speaker 5 (37:39):
So they're debuting this.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
So what I love about this, Zach is this kind
of goes into the list of things we were talking
about last week. Now It's not only a beer, right, Zach.

Speaker 5 (37:49):
Is not only a beer.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
It's also a kickoff party for the team and the
league on March twenty ninth from four to six. So
there's gonna be you know, hey, you get a chance
to be the first person to try the Memphis Showboats touchdown, Lagger,
get ready for kickoff, and then when the show Boats
are away, they're hosting all of the watch parties.

Speaker 5 (38:12):
And so, I mean, this is kind of.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
A cool partnership all up. So one the brewery they
get a little bit more notoriety. I'll be honest with you, Zach, I,
as a person that doesn't live in Memphis, would have
never known of the Ghost River Brewing Company.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
There's no chance in hell other than maybe I was
in Memphis.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
Again for a game and I drove by it and
maybe went in.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
That's it. Those are the chances never heard of it now.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
Here I am look at them with this partnership. The
advertising alone doesn't do a lot of great for me
to know, they probably don't sell it locally.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
But if I know about it and I live.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
States away, to me, it pays a little bit of dividends.

Speaker 5 (38:57):
And then you host the watch parties.

Speaker 4 (38:59):
Hopefully that's a way to get people not only into
their establishment, but for people that are in Ghosts River
already that might not know about the UFL on a Saturday, Sunday,
whatever day that they're playing, that's just randomly in there
looks throughout, well, what's this going on here? That's how
a new UFL fan is born.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah, so I think I think those are the moments
like again you're out and about, you get a stumble on,
you learn about this, and again it's about engaging the community.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
I will keep.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Championing championing saying that you know one thing I one
skew of football that I really like that does really good.
When it's good, it's good marketing is arena and indoor
football do a great job. The best teams of the
best do such a good job at getting into and
down on the ground with marketing and deals in the communities.

(39:52):
You know, social media only carries you so far that
covers for sports and promotion.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
If you really want to do extra work.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
You really need to be out and about in places
that people are at, not everyone's online. That's the thing
that I think is a narrative that I'm glad is
starting to change with like marketing this sport or other
exkews of it is that not everyone's online. You can't
just throw a post out and assume instant success. You
should also be doing stuff down and where people are at.

(40:24):
And that's what I think Memphis is there truly are emphasizing.
Michigan's doing this too to a degree. You know, they
got Pablo the Panther out there to try at different
various sporting events in the metro area and Detroit. I
know that they're planning on a few more things out
that way to be done, and I'm glad for it because,
you know, my team, I want to see that obviously.
You want to see Houston get more and more back

(40:46):
to what they used to do, you know, with maybe
twenty twenty three XFL or even the twenty twenty XFL
where they were down and about, you know, And I
think that this is what this is is. I almost
feel like Memphis is and I'm going to do a
mini speculation zone on this. I feel it's a test
to say how much can we do and how much
can we spend on marketing here to where we can

(41:06):
effectively take it to other markets and do it so
that we're not just throwing money at the problem. And
miss I would say maybe not misusing, but more not
efficiently using the funds that we are allocating for this,
because no other market's really doing this, maybe Saint Louis,
but Saint Louis is. I want to stress this and
I'll throw it to you here. Saint Louis is an anomaly.

(41:28):
It is a complete anomaly in the rest of the league.
You know, DC's not kind of there but not really
like the rest of these teams kind of have a
very very closer together I think interest Saint Louis is
a completely different thing and a beast of its own.
You can't even really include it in there because they
kind of have established stuff. They're almost viewed as a
major League property in that market because of how much

(41:51):
they've attached to it. These other teams, it's it's a
different ballgame, you know. And I think that's what Memphis
is being used for. Is Okay, Saint Louis, it's his
own thing. We're using a little bit from Michigan with
like some stuff. Now, Memphis, we're gonna go all in
because we need to, and then let's see what we
got and what we learned from this experience to then
add into future years when we start adding more personnel

(42:14):
local market wise, because we want it to happen.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
And clearly they did.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
For the smaller markets in terms of attendance wise size,
and I'm hoping it brings in dividends because they've done
a lot in Memphis. That's really what I think a
lot of fans, especially in those markets, want to see
implemented everywhere in the UFL's kind of ecosystem.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
Right right, yeah, again, I hope to see it continue.
I want to see the trend hit Houston. Give us,
give us some swang it themed something, you know what
I want to see, Zach. Actually, this more than even
a cheap concession. Give me like a football helmet filled
with something.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Yes, please name it.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
French fries with cheese, French fries with gravy, okay, stuff
in a helmet.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
I want it. That's what I want.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Hey, that's like Baseball does this on regular and it
feels like it's a spring thing, you know, the helmet
with the ice cream or something like that.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
I've been forever jealous of somebody who was it. I
feel bad for not remembering, but somebody we know from
the Spring football community posted at a CFL game with
a helmet full of poutine and.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yes that was a Montreal the did that. It looked incredible.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
I need that. That's what I need. So it charged
me fifty dollars for that. I'll buy it.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
I do need to get a CFL game under my hat.
Montreal is one of those I would love to go to.
Total side skew because the venue it's weird. It's it's
any university, but like if you've ever seen a game,
and maybe I don't know how many much of CFL
you've watched here Stefan, but like Montreal games, it's almost
like they built it the stadium into like the side

(44:03):
of a small, like downtown city portion right Like it's
like because it looks like you have like small skyscrapers
on one of the end zones, but it's really just
university buildings that look and kind of have that kind
of esthetic to it.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
Montreal had a free ticket to Canada for something dumb
or is that someone.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Else I used to full full disclosure.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
I used to because I got trapped in Canada at
the Toronto airport. I will never forget this story and
you can take this with me. Me and my mother
were doing a trip to Ireland, wonderful country. Had a
glorious like week and a half two week trip out there,
kind of doing most of the island that was the
Independent Ireland, not the Northern Ireland UK for portion. And

(44:50):
we got backed and we had to fly to Toronto
and then fly out of Toronto. Got on our plane
in Toronto. Plane sits there for forty five minutes. We
get booted out Toronto airport. At this time, it's like
twenty twenty one, twenty two. It's a freaking mess, like
bags upon bags upon bags in this lobby of just

(45:12):
like misplaced luggage, and my stuff got misplaced along with it.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
I had to call and wait for And here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Not only did I call in, I had to miss
a day of work coming out of a vacation. So
like great, look there, you know, but like I get back,
you know, I'm missing my luggage.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
Two days later, Oh, I test positive for COVID.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
God, and then I have to go back to the
Indianapolis airport to pick up the bag and get it
back home. Like I want to visit Toronto in my life,
but I am so scared to play or go to
the Toronto airport anymore because of how garbage that experience
was coming back from an international flight. So any folks

(46:00):
that are watching, so maybe you're like know of the
Toronto airport or I've been through that. Hopefully it's changed,
let us know in the comments, because I'll be honest
with you, No, I want no business going through there
right now. And I actually gave my so they gave
us free ticket money air Canada, and I gave it
to my parents, like here, use it for a trip.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
I'm not going I'm not going to Toronto anytime soon,
and I wasn't.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
I want to go visit Vancouver, but I'm not in
the space to do it right now, so like I'm just.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Like just take it. So, yeah, a man, good time.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
Why were we even talking about airports again?

Speaker 5 (46:41):
How did we get on that?

Speaker 3 (46:43):
You go? You in into poutine?

Speaker 1 (46:44):
I talked, Oh, I'm just trying to I.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Was like, wait, hell are we did we start doing?

Speaker 1 (46:51):
And to be honest, you, I've told you this story
on the side, So like as soon as you're like
someone's mentioned this, I'm like, it's me. Let me just
do this right now. And get it out of the
way because it's it's always good. I actually love telling
it was like I was trapped in Canada for a
night and I lost my luggage in Toronto.

Speaker 5 (47:10):
But that's the worst part is losing the luggage.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
Part is always like when are you're gonna get it?

Speaker 5 (47:16):
Are they gonna find it?

Speaker 3 (47:18):
Oh my goodness, I'm glad they did.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
I mean, I didn't have crazy stuff in there, but
I'm like, yeah, you know, I would have been a
little ticked off if like it just disappears. I had
an air tag on it actually, and I and what
was even more infuriating at the time is I could
see it's like, yes, it's at the airport. I don't
know where it's at in this airport, but.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
It's definitely at the air.

Speaker 5 (47:41):
Why somewhere it was.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
It was so funny. I had a great time with it,
or had a great time tracking it. At least I
got it back. I was happy I got it back.
The air tag's happy to be home.

Speaker 5 (47:52):
That was worked out in the end.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
Yeah, it was a time, uh move me final thing
with the Memphis to circle back with the Memphis showboat
stuff again. For I hope that this is something that's
more like a test bed thing for next year. I
also should say if you are going out for this,
you know, if you're if you know of Got, if
you know of Ghosts River Brewing, if you haven't heard,

(48:17):
or maybe you're catching this, let your folk your friends know.
It's at the South Main Street tap Room, not the
Beal Street one. So I've just was checking out on
their website and that tap room. Both of them are
really nice, by the way, but this one's it should
be a fun event. They got an open air like
section area where you can like go and play like
large connect four or cornhole. You know, it's it's a

(48:41):
good looking like outdoor tap room. You know, you should
definitely go check out. Be a good place to watch
the game. So and they'll be there all season.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
So that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
You you have a guaranteed spot where, yes, you can
watch at home, but if you want to get your
buddies together and they're out of town, like all five
of those games, you can go and check out and
enjoy it. And they're gonna have people from the league
and with the Memphis show Botes there too to help
partner up for that. So that'll be a good time.

Speaker 5 (49:07):
That's all I was gonna say.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Too.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
There's probably like some swag to be one and some
things like that, so hey, you know what, it's just
and it's an opportunity to get out of your house.
Who wants to spend every day inside their house? Go
meet with the spring football community.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
But what we got, we got like at least one
more storyline.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
Yes we do.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
And this one here, this one didn't get talked about,
I think as much because it's look, I think the
position involved isn't sexy by any means. I you know,
in high school I played, I played offensive defensive and
and uh long snapper for the lineman's side of this.
But I think for the football people in the audience,

(49:47):
and I think we'll even go farther when we talk
about signings and whatnot, and I want to hear what
thoughts about like from Nick, especially when we do this
on ATU. This I think is a great ad and
it's that they added a Pete Kendall. He was named
this week on March seventeenth as the United Football League's
offensive line specialist and I really.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Love this move.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
We'll go through the details of kind of his background
and whatnot. And some of these responsibilities. But look, I
love this move for the fact that when it comes
to I think the maybe the potentially weakest part of
spring football is going to be your offensive line. It
is gonna be the guys protecting your quarterback. You know,

(50:30):
the fact of the matter is, linemen are not a
diamond dozen. There's at least quality linemen or not a
dime a dozen NFL caliber ones. That is, if the
NFL is looking for you, they're gonna go and get you.
Because any good old lineman or anyone you can add
to a roster and stash away for reserve, they're gonna
do it. That is like the NFL playbook Bread and

(50:52):
Butter is they want good starters, but they want good
reserves on the end too, So like they're always gonna
be looking for lineman. And a lot of times, you know,
spring football, you do have good guys that I think
are consistently returning now, but there's also there is turnover
and these guys do you know, get cycled in and
out sometimes, And I think that the idea is, you know, one,

(51:16):
how can we make these how can we look to
make maybe strategists better to make these guys maybe are
more raw or just below the NFL's grasp, you know,
better quality for us to use for quarterback play and
for other elements of offense to be generated better, but
also developing guys that you can hopefully get seeing signed

(51:37):
on and kept on NFL rosters too. You know it's
not it's we see signings a lot of times in
the offseason, but you know it's a competitive space too,
you know, So I like this move. We're going to
more details, but I mean, look, thoughts on this, Stefan.
I cannot recall that they've had a position like this
in the past and either one of the leagues that merged,

(51:58):
and I know they didn't have this position last year.
So this kind of feels like they're another step in
towards the whole development angle side of the UFL that
they push and quite frankly again a position that I
think does need this, So, you know, besides just coaches
doing their thing, of.

Speaker 5 (52:15):
Course, no, I agree, I agree.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
You know who would be really happy about this is
Case Cooks, Like every other season of his career, just
getting beat up and battered and broken down and every
other thing in between. So no, I agree, I think
this is actually a really good pickup for the league
to have. I think this is going to be pretty
solid for them to create, like just more quality of game, right,

(52:39):
quality players, build up the future of guys that continue
another funnel into the NFL. We've seen it work with
special teams, and so maybe you can build in from
another angle, because, like you said, Zach, the NFL is
well willing and ready to pick these guys up if
you could build the guys right. Yeah, and then by
building the guys, you're creating even better quarterback because you're

(53:00):
keeping them protected, and then because of that, you're potentially
scoring more points and so on and so forth.

Speaker 5 (53:05):
I mean, this is.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
Only a good thing, and it's just one of those
other things that just to me, it adds a little
bit of legitimacy to the league. It's just another little
thing in their cap.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Yeah, that's so, this is something It's just it adds
on to what the mid part of one of the
main core missions of the UFL is, you know, developing
player talent as well as providing a professional place to
go and play and somewhere that football fans can watch
in the spring. So Kendall actually his history, you know,
I think that's something we should bring up real quick.

(53:37):
Thirteen seasons he played in the NFL all over the place.
He was actually a first round draft pick for the
Seattle Seahawks, but he also played elsewhere with the Cardinals,
the Jets, and at the time, well now it's called
the Commanders, used to be called the Redskins. But he
had a very long standing career in the NFL and

(53:58):
also has had, you know, I think other experiences as
well outside of that that have been leading to like
more coaching and whatnot that I think have just led
people and have led people.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
To kind of gravitate towards him.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
So, you know, the league's definitely grabbing someone that has
been around the block quite frankly, and I think will
provide essentially a good person for them just to lean
on for some things they want to do, which, according
to the press release, if some of those responsibilities are
going to be including implementing techniques and kind of talking

(54:36):
and discussing the coaching personnels across the league on how
to better grow and adapt lineman skill sets. So it's
going to be something to keep an eye on. But
he's basically going to be trying to standardize how we
can make that position better is his core job at
the end of the day to quick summarize that's what
he's doing. How do we make this position and standardize

(54:58):
to make it a better position and implement stuff that
has worked for that position.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
Absolutely, again, things you love to see good news coming
into the final stretches leading into the season. More legitimacy,
more legitimacy for the league, hopefully create some more opportunities
for players within the league. And at the end of
the day, I think what we're all really hoping for
is good quality gameplay. And I think you teed this

(55:29):
up earlier, Zach.

Speaker 5 (55:30):
This is the year. This is the year that that
could finally trump the twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
XFL season because we're coming into seasons now, the Stallions,
this is their fourth season in a row.

Speaker 5 (55:42):
We have seasons that have had that time to gel.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
Whereas we've covered so many year seasons whereas first week
first season and oh it's gonna take them about two
three weeks to gel and the whole thing.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
We've been through that all and all in all, this.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
Is the first time that maybe on every team, but
there's gonna be a good solid amount of teams that
are gonna go right into the season, maybe not even
one hundred.

Speaker 5 (56:08):
But ready to go, you know.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
So yeah, it feels it feels like we are on
the cusp of that. I do believe that that is
what will be the year, is we could finally eclipse that.
You know, maybe maybe we have discussions on you know,
fan attendance and whatnot, blah blah blah, but like I
think performance wise, this is the year it does that

(56:31):
in particular, and they're setting they're setting themselves up that
way to be that.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
So I'm stoked. Uh, we're one week out.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
It's really it's once again that feeling is coming back
of just that special time of year where we're gonna
get to see these guys hit the field again, less hypotheticals,
more actuality coming up next week of all things.

Speaker 4 (56:54):
It's so close.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
You get to kick off with us Friday night before
you go in and watch the kickoff game at Saint
Louis where they will probably beat down the Roughnecks in
my honest opinion, in TDCU or sorry, Space City Credit Union.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
And I'm telling you, Zach, I'm telling you.

Speaker 5 (57:11):
I'm telling you, I'm telling you, and I'm.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
Telling the whole world. The BattleHawks are not winning that game.
They're just not You wait till the end of the game.
Oh the joy. I told you so.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
That is all you're going to see.

Speaker 3 (57:29):
For me, I just can't see it.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
But you're gonna see it with your own two eyes
in real life, in person, Zach.

Speaker 5 (57:37):
Oh, I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
You just imagine you me, Ducky, James Baker, mad Mill
throw a lost mysterio in the mix, all sitting there,
everyone except for me and lost mysterio crying lost mysterio.

Speaker 5 (57:55):
Also, I told you so.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
I'm telling you Him and I we're gonna be there
celebrating at the end of the night. It's gonna be
such a It might not be a beatdown, but we're gonna.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
Win a beat down.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
We're gonna win. We are gonna win, win, win.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
Confidence is off the charts here. I'll tell you, gonna.

Speaker 4 (58:18):
Win so much.

Speaker 5 (58:19):
Our heads are gonna spin, Zach. We're gonna win so much.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
Swing is it gonna put themselves on our cars, win
so much that they're the League's just gonna give us
three wins.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
A reminder, I am still so confident that if I lose, that,
if I win I'm not penalizing you. Your penalty enough
is being stuck with that with that coaching staff as
it is.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
So you know, I sticked. I stick to that remark.

Speaker 4 (58:47):
Another matter twelve and oh, so I know, man, it's
gonna be such a good season.

Speaker 5 (58:51):
Just wait, just wait.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Till after week one. You know, you know what I
mean after week one.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
But I realize what part of this bet will be
or what I will reward you if I can find
it on the on their shop. Please tell me they
have this and they're selling this on the UFL shop
because I saw it for other teams. Really they don't
have it, Okay, Well, I was planning on getting you
one of those if you if you somehow win, by
the way.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Because they sell the freaking chains with the logo.

Speaker 4 (59:19):
That's the only one that's sold out, I think because
everybody knows what's coming.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
Twelve and oh, that's funny, that's funny.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
You know what.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
You know what I'll get you, I'll get if they
don't have that one. Because you claim you're the you're
the best, you're the top Panthers fan.

Speaker 3 (59:35):
I will get you a Panther number.

Speaker 4 (59:36):
One Panthers fan, not top number one Panthers fans not
what top is.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
Well, that's not the I'm very specific, Zach. Top can
mean a lot of things. I'm the number one.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
Okay, the top.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
I don't want to be the bottom fan either. Just
in case anyone wants to know.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
You, might as well the hand signals and just finish
it off.

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Here we go, guys UFL podcast after Dark.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
The show on the show is officially off the rails
and we're gonna discuss, well, we will discuss further on
what it is that we're gonna do. Oh my god,
never mind, stop, I'm on the shop. While we're at it,
might as well just talk about this. If you go
to the exclusive section, I need you to look this up.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Okay, well I'm looking at this. So they got.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Exclusive specific T shirts and whatnot that are not on
like third party sites. If you go to the first
scroll down, they have a way. They have Wade's World
instead of Wayne's World as a T shirt.

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
You know what, sign them up? What we got for CJ. Johnson? Here?
Come on, give me something good. Give me.

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
Got some Saint Louis ones. Come on, come on that
Birmingham one. Oh they got skull ones.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Oh yeah, that one's more uh like a hairdage, like
a span heritage type of thing. They got to feed
the Snake. I've seen that one as well. They got
the Rocks jacket.

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
Which I won't talk about. The Rocks jacket. James Baker,
I think, had some comments about it. He's always wondering
what nothing, never mind, never mind.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
The rest.

Speaker 5 (01:01:42):
The other thing I'm looking forward to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
I want to rest from last year. But no, the
Wades World T shirt caught me off guard. I haven't
seen that one before.

Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
Yeah, I hope they have some new stuff at the stadium.
That's what I want.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
I want that a well you think, I mean we.
I think they'll probably debut some new things. They seem
to do that. They'll do it the games for so
then they'll throw it up on the shop.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Second, like opening weekend shirts last year.

Speaker 5 (01:02:05):
That was cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Sure that it's almost the a tradition. Man, Try and
see if you can get some new swag in a game.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
You know, here's an idea for anybody that's working for
the UFL, maybe the Roughnecks. Here's an opportunity. You can
release a new shirt every week. So week one beginning
of the streak week two, and then it's got like
a one with like eleven other spots ready to fill out.
The streak continues and then you know two, and then

(01:02:33):
just all the way until the championship, when it's like
destiny awaits and there's eleven strikes in a row and
one spot in the shape of the UFL Championship just
awaiting to be crossed out, very nice by the Houston Roughnecks.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
By the way, just in case anybody I do you.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
Have like one checked off and.

Speaker 4 (01:02:55):
That would be funny too. It's like week six, they're
like the streak will start soon, and it's like one
in and like four losses and maybe a tie.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
Any any day now, any day now, we're gonna we're
gonna pop off.

Speaker 4 (01:03:09):
But no, that's not gonna happen though it's going twelve
and oh twelve and oh twelve, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
Sure, sure, sure, just wait until after week one. After
week have to wait long.

Speaker 4 (01:03:20):
You're gonna hear me halftime when we're up like fifty
to nothing, like I told you so, that's all I'm
gonna say. I'm gonna forget every other word other than
I told you, so that's all I'm gonna know.

Speaker 5 (01:03:33):
Maybe twelve and h will be in there as well.
I told you so.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Twelve and oh all right, final final thoughts before we leave.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
Besides trying to live in fantasyland.

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
I mean, all I can think about is what's the
inevitable going to happen? I just I feel I feel bad. Well,
I feel good and bad. One. I'm glad that battle
Hawks fans are coming out to Houston. I do appreciate that.
I hope they enjoyed the city. Maybe check out NASA
have about too, m.

Speaker 5 (01:04:01):
But bring some kleenex.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
Just bring some kleenex along with you, because you're gonna
have some tears. You're gonna have some little cook eyeing
tears coming out of your little eyeballs.

Speaker 5 (01:04:11):
And I'm sorry, and I apologize for that, but I'll
be there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:13):
You can lean on my shoulder during the game.

Speaker 5 (01:04:16):
I might say some things.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
You shoulder, That's that's funny.

Speaker 5 (01:04:21):
I'm nice like that. You know, we're very neighborly here.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
I'm nice too, except I'm I'm living in reality, which
is I'm here for you, pal. I understand it's gonna
be rough.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
That's what I'm gonna say to them. That's that's exactly
what I'm gonna say them.

Speaker 4 (01:04:36):
I'm like, dude, I know it's rough here, put your
head on your shoulder, and then I might like, in
my other pocket the phone and start playing the rough
Nex theme song.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
You're doing You're doing a play by play, except it's
me and I'm not gonna play the rough Next theme song.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
Stay tuned, folks, because this is good. This is something
that's gonna be on social media. I mean, I remember
when we had the bet in Memphis and there was
some good back and forth, and for the first half
of the game, I thought I had it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:02):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Honestly, knowing me, right now, I'm probably be the most
hated man of that tailgate.

Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
I'm already like, oh, this one's in the bag.

Speaker 4 (01:05:15):
I don't know how many Rough Necks fans are gonna
be at this game, Zach.

Speaker 5 (01:05:18):
I'm gonna be frank with you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
There.

Speaker 4 (01:05:22):
I'm gonna show them the way, and I'm gonna get
them on board beforehand, because I'm gonna say, nobody likes
a tale like a fan that jumps around and like, hey,
the team's good.

Speaker 5 (01:05:32):
Now I'm their fan. Now, nobody likes that.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
I'm gonna get them on board behind before it even
James Baker. I know you're watching this, James, come to
the real Texas team. You might live in Artlington, but
you know what, you you can help us in other ways.
You can be our spy.

Speaker 5 (01:05:49):
We're gonna send you out. We're just gonna put you in.

Speaker 4 (01:05:52):
I don't know, like a hot hot dog costume and
just send them into the stadium. No, We're going to
get him to dress like a janitor and go into
the UFL media headquarters. And I'm sure there's something he
can help our team with there. One day, Zach, you're

(01:06:14):
all gonna be rough necks fans one day.

Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
One day, I'm gonna go to.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
The the church. You're gonna go to the Church of
the uh Church of the rig.

Speaker 5 (01:06:26):
Tell yeah, Pastor Johnson, C J. Johnson, sign me up.

Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
We only have our sermons on a podcast or on
an iPad.

Speaker 5 (01:06:35):
Sorry, you know what?

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
This fits the twelve and oh this fits the twelve
and oh mantra, this is perfect, this is this.

Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
It all makes.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Sense now, Oh man, I understand though, you're about to
be in a cult.

Speaker 5 (01:06:50):
Zach.

Speaker 4 (01:06:50):
You watch you watch Once it gets to eleven games,
everybody's gonna want to be fan.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
Man, all right, well, that's gonna wrap us up for
episode ninety eight of the UFO Podcast. By the way,
I want to hint before we leave, we are planning
something special for the one hundredth episode, so I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Just gonna lay that out there. That week of UFL kickoff,
you should definitely keep.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
An eye or at least around that time, keep an
eye on us, because yeah, one hundred episode's going to
come out sooner rather than later than you think, so
stay tuned with us.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
We'll also be back next week as well.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
Before we jump in and get out to or before
I get out there to Houston and we get set up,
So expect an episode probably out, you know, a day
earlier to beat the game so that you guys can
get ready and you're not behind the curve ball. So
and that will probably follow the rest of the season.
By the way, after today's episode, we will start releasing

(01:07:46):
episodes on Thursday afternoons is probably the idea, Thursday evening
whatever works best, so that we can at least give
you a day to get ready since now there's Friday
night football showcases for the UFL. But yes, Thursdays in
the season for the UFL podcast will be the day
moving forward, just so you know, we can give you
some time to get ready for action. Yeah, Thursday, Thursday,

(01:08:11):
grab a beer, grab a grab aisode. Wherever you need
chill out, listen to us, watch us have a good time,
and kick your week off right with the UFO podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Monday is still for eight to you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
That's not changing, no reason to because well the schedule's
not going to change for Monday Night football, so unless
they were to add it next year, which okay and
we have to really talk. But anyway, besides that, follow
us again at UFL podcast on your favorite social platforms
at around the UFL for this coming Monday's episode six
pm Eastern, where we will discuss even further in detail

(01:08:43):
about roster cuts and what's coming up from other extracurricular
transaction activity for the next few days. And be sure
for following both of those To subscribe right now, click
the bell. It builds the mo araut only for you,
but for us too over here at the A podcast
and ATU.

Speaker 3 (01:09:01):
I try and rhyme.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
It's not always perfect. I give it my best, my
best shot. Uh, he's he's the ref. I'm Zach Kyle.
When we're saying so long episode ninety nine on the
other side of next week, and Springstock for coming your
way with details coming out soon, stay tuned, see you
very soon, and some of you in Houston will see
even very soon too.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
Have a good one, everybody,