It’s Official: The USFL and XFL Intend on Merging! | USFL Podcast #68

Boy oh boy oh boy, it's the moment we've all been waiting to hear... The USFL and XFL put out a joint statement announcing they intend to merge for the upcoming 2024 season!

What will the new name be? Which teams will be in play? Tune in as The USFL Podcast breaks down all the news!!

Discord: https://discord.gg/QjewyBV
USFL Merch: https://bit.ly/3OsOLwh
USFL Podcast Merch: https://usfl-podcast.creator-spring.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:22):
It's happening. Long killed three Wow. Welcome everybody to the latest edition of

(00:51):
the USFL podcast or maybe soon tobe something else. I'm Zach Kyleman.
It's the REF on the opposite side, And as you heard there, it's
happening. And if you've been,if you've been in the know, you
understand where we are at. Finally, the official official wording of what is

(01:11):
to be a USFL XFL merger hasbeen confirmed today on September twenty eighth of
this year. As we are recording, these two leagues, the two that
have been kind of pitting their sides, their philosophies, their differences, are
combining and joining forces into one leaguein some way, shape or form.

(01:32):
Many of the details are still tobe revealed. Many things are still needed
to happen. But it is happening. That has been stated, and we've
got a lot to discuss even morebeyond that that might be affecting what lies
ahead in the coming weeks. Wearen't even teasing because it's just this big
of a deal. We're just goingto kick it in here. Look Stefan,

(01:53):
the Ref, you guys know himas both. I call him a
both here, but look this isa this is a momentous occasion for what
we've been covering, really honestly sincetwenty nineteen when spring football kind of kicked
back into gear. Is like inthe focus with the af of all things.
And now we've got two of thebigger names combining into forces. Supposedly

(02:15):
we're gonna hopefully see the best ofthe best pieces together. I can't believe
we've gotten here. But now it'sreally it's real, real, Like we're
not just talking about an Axios articlelike we were just the last episode,
just over a week ago. It'shere, it's happening. Took it over
a week, but it's happening now. It's definitely happening. Jazz's signed up.

(02:38):
That's the big rumor mill though ZachieBoy is now that they intent to
merge is out there. It's official. It's been something everybody's been talking about
for the last week. It's allthat anybody's been talking about for the last
week. People love it, somepeople don't love it so much. I'd
say a good majority do. Theone thing, you know, we don't

(02:58):
know the name. We surmise,we puntfacated, we wondered, we questioned,
what the name would be. We'llget into that a little bit later,
but one I'm gonna throw my name, my suggestion into the hat.
Zach, would you like to hearmy suggestion for this coming together, This
this motherload of spring football jamming together. We'll drop it them all. Here's

(03:22):
man. I'm sitting here bl bblBig beautiful league, baby, big beautiful
league. For me to enjoy thisupcoming spring. I could not be happier.
It's taking the two things that Ilove most, the USFL the XFL,
and bringing them together. And thisis the thing. And I mentioned

(03:44):
this on the x Fan Show theother night, which is now a part
of Pro Football Newsroom, which we'llalso talk about here shortly sign them up.
But I talked about this the otherday. You know what I want
to see is I want to seethe fan groups come together. I want
to see the XFL fans. Iwant to see the USFL fans, and
I want to see that rivalry.I want to see the BattleHawks versus the

(04:06):
Stallions and those fans going at it. But more importantly, and this is
you know, I've always felt likea little bit of a community ambassador when
it comes to spring football. Maybejust us Fels. But I am involved
in the XFL. I was involvedin all of these different things. Right,
for any of the content creators thatare thinking about throwing in the hat,

(04:27):
I don't think you should. Ithink this is the beginning of a
big, beautiful relationship, a bigbeautiful family coming together, a spring football
fan, a family coming together.And I get it because I'll tell you
I've been there. When the XFLwent down in twenty twenty due to the
illness we shall not name. Iwas hurt. I was beaten, I

(04:47):
was broken down. I was battered. I probably gained ten decibels in loudness,
and that's what's led us to thewhere we are today. But I
would say, don't don't don't throwin the hat, not right away.
Let's give it that first third season, however, you want to look at
it and then maybe make your decisionsfrom there. If you do, you
do, sign you up. Ithink most content creators are like, oh,

(05:10):
good, get out of here.Less competition and fair enough. But
you know what I think. Imean, people talking about this stuff the
better. Let's be honest, right, I'm I'm on that board. I
don't want to I don't want tosee anyone depart because of this. You
know, I know that there havebeen vocal fans on both sides of this
equation that you know, they've hadeither good takes or some have been very

(05:31):
loud about the their side because that'swhat they wanted. And you know,
we we know this, we've wesee this. We we're in these communities
every day on social media on ourdiscord. By the way, again,
really the perfect time to join Pfen'sdiscord. It is popping off like mad
because of this, and it's gettingmore and more of the community together.
But this is what we've been usedto. But I don't think I agree

(05:54):
this is the time to unify well, and especially content creators like us.
You know, you shouldn't back offlike this is this is to me stabilizing
what you want to talk about,Like this is where and what we're wanting
to get to. If people thatwere talking about the mergers inevitable and it's
like okay, well yeah, ifthat's the case, then the reason was

(06:15):
it's for stability and growing the biggestpossible brand that reaches the widest net and
content creation. If you are especiallywanting to follow spring football, there's no
reason to step away, especially ifyou love spring football. That's the main
thing. And I think I've seenI've seen a few people on that are
great Twitter accounts. Actually a personwho runs u XFL USFL spring football zone,

(06:41):
Brett Tears, great guy in thecommunity, said it perfectly. It
shouldn't matter the league brand most partif you love spring football and like the
concept of spring football, especially likefor content creators, fans like jump on
board, like don't like to me, it's gonna be some there's gonna be
some bumps, Like you're gonna seesome consolidations, like we talked to merger,
but you should jump on board broadness. So definitely stick to it.

(07:04):
I hope. I can't wait tosee all these other guys. And there's
so many more collaboration opportunities. Notsaying they're one before, but you know,
we do kind of stick in oursides of league talk. Now.
I mean, jesus man, I'mthinking of guys I want to have on
this show, like asap, youknow, And I already talked of books
like Michael L. Bring up Manthat was just gonna bring up He's got

(07:27):
to be one of the first guys. And he's in our network. You
know, he's basically our XFL podcastguy and has been up until we now
have put We now have the ofcourse the x X folks with Dirty and
uh and Arlington. But you knowwe need to get him. But that
opens so many possibilities for people,more connections, more collaboration. What's funny.
We were going to use the opportunityof you taking a little high hiatus,

(07:49):
and ever since we've announced that hiatus, I kind of love it,
Zach, Don't get me wrong.I love announcing things. And then it's
just like not business as usual,baby, we got news to talk about.
Let's roll. This is this isthe face aligning. This really is.
I should not be this lucky likefull disclosure because we do the non
curtains thing like once I'm done talkinghere, I have to go to work

(08:11):
like that, I'm I'm basically runningout the door after this to go to
work. I'll be on time,don't Yeah, yeah, but I will
glad. We'll keep the short guysat Fox. Trust. No, I
can't blame tell them to blame theref if you're if you're fro gonna like
I gotta get to it. Well, yeah, I gotta get to work
so I can talk about the mergerwith my coworkers, you know, uh,

(08:33):
well speak of that. Let's divea little more into that merger.
So we've had press we had pressreleases from both leagues, but they reflect
the same thing. I double checkedthis. They're the same statement, it's
a merger, So that kind ofjoined it with a cautionary bit on saying
details can change, situations can change, you know. But here's the full
press release that was released, andI'm using the one from the USFL's post

(08:56):
in particular on the graphic, uhtoday, quote quote this is quote today,
the USFL and XFL announced their intentionto merge, subject to customary regulatory
approvals, and if the transaction isconsummated, the new league will establish best
in class operations based on the mostrecent seasons of both leagues. This historic

(09:16):
combination will anchor professional spring football withthe substantial capabilities and resources to ensure future
growth and continue to enhance the developmentof the collective players, coaches, staff
and staff that are coming together.More details regarding the league will be announced
at a later date. And againfor both of these press releases, you

(09:37):
you have explaining what how the leaguesare for each other like kind of some
structure set up, and you alsohave kind of cautionary notes saying, hey,
this is subject to regulatory approval.Not everything is guaranteed to Not everything
is in stone or guaranteed to beset that way, So we do have
to kind of sit back and waitfor things to settle behind the scenes.

(09:58):
But they this is putting out sayinglike, hey, Axios was right,
we are talking, this is goingto happen. Just stay put and wait
for the details to drop when weget them ready to go. And that's
been again more trickling. We'll getinto another section here on tickets, because
that's another big one that season ticketholders have been holding. But I mean,
anything you catch from the pr Imean it's pretty pretty straightforward. I

(10:22):
think it tells everybody what we allkind of expected, but at least makes
it official, at least takes thepart of it out of the speculation zone
and into the confirmation zone of yes, we're talking, we intend to merge.
Any other details, you're gonna haveto keep on waiting, right,
So you'll notice there's nothing about thename, there's nothing about the locations,

(10:43):
and that's those are the two thingsthat everybody is flailing about trying to figure
out where are these teams? Isgonna be played or all the teams that
are in the stadiums currently are theystill gonna be there? What is the
name of this league gonna be?Is it going to be the USFL?
Are they going to adopt a newname? Is it gonna be the ex
FL? Is it gonna be somethingcompletely different? Well, on that note,

(11:03):
I guess here's I think there's agood time to kind of like deviate.
So yesterday the USFL fox trademark NationalSpring Football League. Now, if
you're thinking yourself because the name soundsfamiliar, well it was the same entity
that they used back when they onloadedthe USFL properties from the purchase over from

(11:24):
Brian Woods. They had National SpringFootball League LLC. They didn't have the
trademark, but now they do,and they not only have the National Spring
Football League trademark, they have theNSFW trademark and or NSF. Just say,
this is what that was my problem, NFL, NSFL. Sorry,
well, okay, okay, justfor full hilarity of this. This isn't

(11:48):
like the first time I've heard this, because some the one other news source
has tried talking about this on Redditand has claimed that he's getting flagged for
so w content because it's closed tothe said naming. Now that is hilarious,
but like, yes, I've hadpeople say that, but it's NSFL,

(12:09):
which I get because it has youa little bit of the familiarity of
the NFL, right, so youkind of have have that piece in there.
Now. There are some out therethat worry that the NFL might have
a problem with it. I don'tthink they will, though, because the
NFL has a working relationship with theUSFL USFL already. They have a working
relationship sort of kind of with theXFL, like they're already adopting part like

(12:35):
working together to look at the rulesand work with the officials. So I
don't know if there's gonna be somuch of a problem there. I mean,
only time will tell. Only timewill tell. And then it's just
kind of the case in point thatnothing is official until it's official. But
I would hope and I think,and we'll see, and maybe this is
a speculation zone for another day,that if they do change the name to

(12:58):
the National Spring Football League, thatthe divisions would then be USFL and XFL.
Otherwise, I think they should justkeep the USFL name, change it
to the United Spring Football League ifyou must change it at all. But
you know what, there's still somany things coming down the pipeline. But
it's another one of those things thatwe do have confirmation of that they're at

(13:22):
least locking down these names. Nowi'll play devil's advocate. Does that mean
that they're going to use the name? I could say maybe not. We
saw the USFL trademark things just tomake sure that they own them. Case
in point, the Dallas Stallions,the one that made everybody shiver earlier this
year. Right, do they havea plan on moving to Dallas? I

(13:43):
don't think so, but they wantto make sure that nobody else does either,
you know what I'm saying, andso you know it'll be a fun
ride. We have the confirmation.I think a lot of people were hoping
that we would get the announcement thatthe deal was closed. But there's a
lot of there's a lot of thingsthat need to muck around with. But
once that trademark drop yesterday, that'swhen I knew, Okay, some news

(14:07):
is coming soon, whether it's justa statement or the deal's closing because generally,
generally businesses will try to line upthose trademarks going live with whatever news
is coming out, just so there'syou're either not tipping off the news with
the trademark or you're covered by thenews coming out one way or the other.
Right, So I'm curious, Zach, what are your thoughts on NSFL

(14:31):
name good, bad, and differentgrow on you? Maybe I don't know.
Well, I mean, if I'mgonna be frank, I just see
some of the challenges because you are, it's a new it's gonna be a
new brand like that. I iffrom all the reporting credit, I'm still
it's speculative. Still I'm not gonnafully say like yes, it's all said
and done, but like mostly thereporting from our guys, James from our

(14:54):
guy James Larson from you know,we even heard Axios and others that have
talked about this story that it's leaninglike it's going a new name, like
like they're trying to be you know, the fifty fifty equals. Let's not
lean one side or another. Thechallenges of rebranding or what My only thing
that comes up when I talk aboutthis with people, because you have to

(15:16):
get it out there that this isyou know, you're you're representing both these
fan bases. This is a newyou know, better collaboration, and I
just wonder what the brand looks like, you know. I mean it's very
much feeling like it leans more intothe USFL's look if that is the true
case, you know, because allyou're doing, I mean joking aside for

(15:37):
us flip that you put an endboom, yeah, the NFL, but
which I am not, by theway, No matter what that new logo
looks like, I'm not totally opposedto just saying effort. That is the
news, at least in the interim, because I think it's funny. I
think the fact that I'm I'm like, Bob's your uncle, Sid's up,
Well, shoot man, we hada great response from from that too on

(15:58):
our socials. So I'm not topost. I just think the challenge of
rebranding is what's gonna be the questionis it worth it? You know?
And if not? I mean that'swhere I think you you also step into
the side of do I tip offone side of the fan base that's merging
and saying this is we're taking over, you know, And I think that's

(16:18):
part of the other equations. Theydon't want to the fans, they don't
want to mess with either. Youknow, I agree. I talked about
the we talk about the diehard folkson either side of this community, on
these communities, and you know,there's been some die hard people that you
know, I'm not saying they willbut like that are claiming, Man,
I don't know if I can dothis. The ufls us All brand is
set up, and then the thirdangle of this, maybe it's a reset

(16:41):
for both for casual audiences to bringthem in just to move away from what
they might be known for. Look, the XFL has had three tries.
People do look, do remember OHone? They remember twenty twenty very well,
but casual fans do point to OHone as one thing that they look
and remember the XFL for, notsaying it's always there. But that's the

(17:03):
reason why Danny and Dwayne decided whenthey branded this that they didn't want to
be associated anyway with Vince McMahon.So keep that in mind on the USFL
side. As much as it killsme to say this, and we've had
this talk so many times on tryingto you know, make people and have
people understand hubs are for the bettermentof survival and betterment for money and stability,

(17:25):
which has been proven in the USFL'snumbers. Mind you, it's also
been a hurt towards the casual fan. Casual fans when you hear USFL,
now what do they a lot ofthem. I see what when they talk
about on Twitter they think hub hubhas a bad context to it and it's
associated with the XFL or the USFLin some ways. So I think that's
the third skew is they're almost justhitting a button where it's like, look,

(17:47):
let's change the pr perception and say, hey, this is different.
And I don't know what the differentlooks like. You know, we talked
about it. T l's had beenreporting that it's going to be hub in
some ways of social again kind ofstill yeah, rumors, speculations still,
but like con but solidified and insiderindustry talk. And so that's where I'm

(18:08):
thinking. I think it's a reset, Like I think that's really what it
is is to get both those brandsor old brands. Let's make a new
one that gets a clean slate ina way, and you're trying to get
both you already have two dedicaid fanbases. They know what's going on.
Now it's about collect them together andshow new fans ones that are say the
NFL casual guys, Hey, thisis good stuff. We're not going away.

(18:30):
We decided to do this to makethe best of both worlds and to
make this where we have the bestminds of what this has already been accomplished.
So I think that's why they're doingit. I don't fully agree.
I think like the US of Ballsgonna have a third season no matter what,
and that's talked about funny enough inthe season tickets. But if you're
doing a pure merger, that's kindof what I'm getting and I'm accepting that.

(18:52):
Just putting it out there. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see where
these teams land. Because we talkedabout it last time. It looks like
it looks like my suggestion may becoming true. It looks like the Gamblers
may stick here and Houston all inon that. I'm all in on that
idea. If anybody wants to know, I did, I have great so

(19:15):
I did funny you talk that.I'm glad you brought that up. So
for those that check caught me onXFL Insider podcast. I talked with guys.
With the guys that run that show, we decided to run a collective
poll associated with their show, andI we tagged ours in that saying,
Hey, will you support a teamin Houston no matter what? And I
think this is a big conversation piecebecause of the rumors swirling that the Gamblers

(19:38):
brand might be the one they leanon. And sure enough, come collect
the data. Three fourths of theentire votes. We got upwards of four
hundred votes on this combined from Facebookand x or Twitter, whoever you want
to call it. I still callit Twitter, and seventy five percent voted
they would support a Houston team nomatter what. You have a vocal minority

(20:00):
the audience that says that well,and that's just twenty five percent of the
people that haven't realized that they're allin yet. Because once we go want
to oh, they're gonna want tobe around for the rest of the eleven
and oh, let alone twenty fourthirty six and maybe even forty eight.
No, when we scoop up atminimum three championships, sign us up back
to back to back. Everybody hatesthe stallions because they went back to back.

(20:23):
We're gonna add another back to thatand maybe two maybe two. So
get ready for the dynasty, baby. And I'll tell you this, no
matter what the team name is,no matter what the team logo is,
can we make sure that A.J. Smith finds himself a spot with
this organization in Houston, because notonly is he a madman and gets it

(20:47):
done on the field, he's funas hell to watch in the broadcast when
that was one of my favorite partsof the XFL broadcast A J. Smith
that alone, because he's played basicallyplay adding up there, buddy, dude.
You know another one of the granderquestions, right because like if you
do a Houston squad and and justpart of the whole merger, talk like

(21:08):
what happens with some of the rostersand you know, some of the players.
Now, we did get an emailsent out the USFL did to its
player base that I will read offto you because it does address some of
the concerns players are having. Youknow, there are some talks out there
that you know, I imagine andI imagine that some players are you know,
they want to feel out how thisis going to play out. You

(21:29):
know right now, and obviously theUSFLPA is going to they're very involved with
this merger, has stated previously.But here's what the USFL sent to its
players as reported here, so i'llread off quote, Dear USFL players.
Today the United States Football League andXFOL announced the intent to merge. The
new league will establish best in classoperations atop the foundation built over the USFL

(21:52):
and XFL's most recent seasons, cementingthe future of professional spring football and further
enhancing the development of its players,coaches, and staff. We are extremely
proud of what we have built overthe past two seasons. We have shown
that the professional spring football model canwork, and in many ways have done
what many football and business model businessminds thought was impossible. The USFL became
the first spring football, the firstspring league at scale and approximately forty years

(22:17):
to come back and play a secondseason, and it happened because of you
in caps, by the way.Meanwhile, the XVEL defined its own success
this past season, cementing that thetime is right to combine the USFL and
XVEL into a joint entity. Assuch, the USVEL agreed to terms with
the xvel's ownership group and recently submittedthe necessary filings for a proposed merger.
The regulatory review process is underway anddoes not come with any guaranteed outcomes.

(22:41):
We remain focused and as committed asever to deliver the heightened level of excitement
for US Fall's third season. Werealize this news creates many questions, and
we will continue to communicate with allof you as new information becomes available throughout
this process. We're excited about thefuture and hope and hope be able to
add that was a mess up onthe type of they did that, by

(23:03):
the way, and hope to beable to share more details regarding the new
league at a later So again it'smore of look, everything's good business as
usual, we're moving apart. Nota lot of details to share, but
at least confirming because I can imagine. You know, it's one thing.
We're the fans, we're the craziest. We're sitting online, we hear the
rumor they might be merging. Everybody'srunning off. Everybody has this story,

(23:26):
that story, another story. There'ssome things that we hear, some things
that we don't hear. Imagine beinga player, Imagine being on one of
these teams. To be like,well, well, okay, I don't
I play for the New Orleans Breakers. These things come together. Is that
hub going away? Are we playing? Are we moving into our city?
So I can understand there's probably alittle bit of antiness on both sides,
DXFL and USFL. These letters goout to hopefully minimize that, put everybody

(23:51):
at ease. Look, it's allgoing to figure itself out. Now.
It'll be interesting to see. Iwas actually talking to James Larson about this
earlier, like, Okay, let'ssay a team does go away. We'll
use the Vegas Vipers as an example. We already knew they weren't going to
play in Cashman. There's rumors maybethey were going to move to Tempe,
maybe Portland, maybe even Tennessee.Right, there's all sorts of thoughts on

(24:11):
there. But let's say now thatthis happens, they say, look,
we're merging together. This is oneof the teams that's gonna go away.
Well, let's say there's multiple teams, What like, what do you do
with those players? Because I feellike the other teams are going to have
openings. Now, let me throwan idea out there, and I will
admit it would be a little interestingto see how it plays out. But

(24:32):
what if they had, Okay,all the teams that dissolve take those players,
put them in like an extra,like a supplementary, a supplementary draft
pool or something, right, andso then you have the rest of the
teams pick up these guys. Now, this was to James's point earlier,
was well that works, But thenit does it mean it takes away the

(24:53):
chemistry that any of these existing teamshad built up over the last year or
maybe even seasons, depending on youknow, if it's a USFL team.
But it'll be interesting to see howthis plays out. I think, you
know, there's a lot of concernon well, we don't want to see
players and coaches lose their opportunities.I think that there's still going to be

(25:14):
space even if there's less teams justfrom turnover alone. You know, not
every player goes on too. Thatwas in season one, went on to
play a season two, whether theygot picked up by the NFL, whether
they moved to the CFL. Someof them playing just retired, right.
Some of the coaches didn't come back, they retired, they moved on to
new opportunities, things like that.So I think there is going to be

(25:34):
enough room to fit these guys in. I think, for the most part
at least have minimal minimal damage outthere. But then you know the other
piece of it that we don't know, and we touched on this in our
Speculation episode. If you will,you know, how does this impact the
players association? You know, sonow that we have more players that are
available, like, does that maybethat ends up building out the practice squads

(25:59):
right? And maybe not optimal,but there's still an opportunity for you there.
You're still playing, you're still earningan income, and you know,
and maybe even like a team ninesituation like we had in the in the
original XFL that was gonna be mylead in for if you didn't say it
was. I wonder if like youdo a team nine in some way,
like you can't save all them,all the players. I don't think that's

(26:22):
possible. I do think a supplementaldraft wouldn't be a bad idea if say,
you know, you have these guysunder contract and you know, I
don't want to you know, Idon't want to know the showcases like if
say the XFL's got coming up,but if you're if you're the PA and
you're saying, Okay, I'm I'mtaking under the umbrella these XFL rosters like

(26:42):
they're joining our Players Association. Iwould think that's what you would argue for
is give them a shot to havethem represented to where they get at least
signed on so that you go intoa camp and you at least get the
option to try for a spot likewithout like if you like, that's I
think the most fair way of doingit. It's not going to be complete.

(27:03):
Save your saving grace, because ina subimental draft, you still lose
out some a good chunk of spots. You're still gonna have roster spots left
that are people that didn't get filled. But it does at least give you
the option to try and fill upthe roster with those existing players, and
then you can reset next year andyou can then go back to the open
market a little more or during theseason. We've seen it in both leagues.

(27:26):
They both openly will exchange just likeany other football franchise. They will
look at the free agent market,what's available. People come in, people
go out, but for now thatmight be the best option. And then
seeing if you can expand the practicesquad one thing that I don't know enough
about and I would love to actuallywould love to pick the brain of Ryan
Cave or you know, Kenneth Farrellon this is you know, what is

(27:48):
how does this affect a collective bargainagreement in the sense that you're adding more
of these players and like can youcollectively bargain for a team nine or a
extended practic squad Because these numbers weredebit were dictated, remember last summer,
and it's kind of in a way, you would have to go back to
negotiating table, I would think tokind of add on these pieces. You

(28:12):
know. It was kind of likehow when we talk about the AAF back
in the day, like with theiryou know, NFL, like trying to
talk to get in the NFL waslike, well, you're gonna have to
go back to the bargaining table becausethe PA has got to be involved and
they got to make a new CBAwith these designations in it in a way,
and so that's fascinating. I wantto see what happens with the USW

(28:33):
and the UFLPA, like how dothey how do they manage this, you
know, because I think the submittaldraft makes the most sense, but I
almost wonder, like I want teamnine, but can you even accomplish team
nine in a reasonable amount of timeto fit with the collective bargaining agreement that's
implanted, and what is it?Because it probably won't be team nine.
We don't know the number of teamswe've heard. I've heard ten, i've

(28:53):
heard twelve, I've heard fourteen,and i've even heard sixteen. I don't
think it's gonna be sixteen. Ijust don't, right, And the one
thing that's I guess the straight linepart is that you know, and it's
to me it was unfortunate because Ireally thought they should have got this done.
But like, it's only one union. The X well didn't have one
yet. They were talking about tryingto get one with the nfl PA and
that it wasn't dead, but theone that the USW tried to start didn't

(29:17):
work. So at least you haveone party that's going to be most likely
managing in if I had to takea stab at it, and from what
it looks like on the outside,is managing the brunt force of the new
PA base. But that part ofwhere some of the extras go on the
wayside you're gonna have collateral damage eitherway. It sucks, but like their

(29:37):
job is to mitigate the clatter atthe Yeah, it'll be I mean,
it's crazy to think of how muchstuff that needs to be sorted before the
deal gets closed, after the dealgets closed, and we really don't even
know when this is gonna get kickoff. I know the rumor out there
is it's probably gonna be April.It's gonna follow similar to the USFL's traditional

(30:03):
schedule, which there's there's pros tothat too, because now you don't have
to compete with March Madness, youdon't have to compete with a few other
big sporting events early on the year. The USFL or Fox would probably make
the point if it gives fans achance to miss football a little bit coming
off of the NFL. The alternativethought is, you know, you could
roll right into football, so Ikind of get both ways. That you

(30:26):
get marketing lead up, so you'renot having the NFL drown you out a
little bit. That's the other thing, you know, because I mean NBC
and ABC, like if the rumorsit's all over the year, channels like
your TV promo space is going tobe filled up, like even when Fox
was doing NFL content, like theywere better off post super Bowl for having

(30:47):
just NASCAR is their main focus andthe USFL to promote it. So that's
probably the argument too, is like, well, for trying to build this
and branded and add on concrete fanbases and new fans, wouldn't you want
a little bit more of a beatup? And I think that's another thing
you're considering. But again this isall rumored, like they're still they aren't

(31:07):
gonna They're definitely saying like we're notdropping details until we have them set up,
you know, just like the USBLand really the US and the x
wel been saying this, but likethe US well specifically, I know we
know has been saying this and hasbeen doing this since day one, Like
we do it our way, it'sour word. You're gonna hear from us
first. That's how we'd be madat him about that. I know there's
a lot of people that are like, wow, everybody's being so tight lipped

(31:30):
right now. I'm like, no, that's like that's just a merger.
That's just how they That's how mergerswork, because it's not like, okay,
if you leak something when it's justregular business stuff, you'll probably get
in trouble. You get a slapon the risk, maybe even get fired.
If you leak something out about amerger, there's like legal implications that
could come into play, right,So I don't blame anybody for being tight

(31:53):
lipped. I'm actually amazed that welearned as much as we have during this
time. Now, when the dealcloses, I don't even think we'll get
all the details then. I mean, case in point, you brought up
the TV market or the broadcast partnersagain, that's one of the things that's
been floating around. It sounds likeagain, best of both worlds, big

(32:14):
beautiful league BBL there there, youknow they both saw. Hey, when
we when we were aired on Foxor NBC or ABC, we did pretty
flipping good. When we aired iton cable, we didn't do bad,
but we didn't do nearly as good. What would you think happens if we
put all our games on over theair television. Well, the hope is

(32:37):
they all do really good and bythe end of the season you can ramp
up that viewership and top out withyour championship game. I mean, we
saw some amazing ratings out of theUSFL last year, even the XFL.
I mean they kind of about averagedout. But you know that lead in
from the Kentucky Derby, what didit bring it? Two point three two

(32:58):
point six million people to the USFLgame. That's something that's allowed harder to
get with that earlier schedule, right, M Yeah, I mean it gets
great drops for ratings. And againyou're if the focus is over the air,
it's a smart decision because they seethat hey, the more free the
access the better because again cable,it's it's a different viewing environment than three

(33:21):
years ago. Like like we likewe talked in our last episode, I
am amazed anymore looking back at XFLtwo point zero ratings that FS one of
all channels had a one and ahalf million viewership game, Like just think
about that. How that that is? That is an insane dropping viewership to
the USFL. And it still bogglesme. You know that that has taken
a witch shout out. You know, I was gonna say the reason that

(33:44):
is cord cutting is going through theroof, and well that I mean shout
out to cord Cutters News because theythey sourced us in one of their articles
and I'm actually a fan of cordCutter News. I just clicked the article.
I was like, hey, lookthat's my name, that's my name,
and they walk I read them allthe time for my for part of
my TV industry get set up forlike just reading in That was one of

(34:07):
that was an awesome part of myday. Like last week was they referenced
Proofball. Yes, Profittball newsroom.By the way, we didn't even talk
about this. We went through amerger of our own. Actually, I
would wouldn't call it a merger.I wouldn't call it a rebrand. It's
ultimately the culmination of everything that we'vebeen working on the last five plus years,
the natural evolution of the newsroom brand. We started out actually as XFL

(34:31):
two k God and that's that wasmy first foray into lawyers with the XFL
and they said, no, no, we might want to use that one
later. So that's when we changedthe XFL newsroom like in the first year.
Then you know, the illness thatshall not be named happened. The
Spring League came around, and thenwe kicked off TSL newsroom that turned out

(34:52):
into the USFL newsroom. We've hadArena Newsroom, and sooner or later,
I think everybody's seeing the meme ofme, like of the Lime guy holding
all the logos and with another potentialrebrand on the way. You know,
if it goes from USFL to NSFL, we could easily do that, and
we are going to secure down whateverthe new league name is, podcast,

(35:14):
website, all of that. ButI think it's just the perfect time to
we are Pro Football Newsroom. Wehave a brand new logo. It's nice
and damn clean. Yes, I'mthe sooner I can get a hat with
that logo on at the better Ineed to order mine as well. But
the beautiful thing about the site foranybody out there that's curious, No longer

(35:37):
you can still go to XFL Newsroomdot com and get the XFL news.
You can still go to USFL dotcom get the USFL news, same with
Arena Newsroom dot com. But ifyou go to Pro Football Newsroom dot com
or just PF Newsroom dot com,you're gonna get all of the news aggregated
over three thousand pieces of content inone spot, all of the draft information

(35:58):
from all the leagues, all ofour podcast, the x Fan Show podcast,
the Player fifty four podcasts and allof the same great news from me,
our friends James Larson, Luke Miller, all of them over at Pro
Football Newsroom dot com. You know, I had to slide it in there
somewhere, Zachie boy. But I'min that merger mindset. I can't help

(36:20):
myself. But just to get back, get us back on track, we
went over the release, the pressrelease on the intent to merge. We
went over the release to the players. You know you read the first two.
I'm gonna take on the season ticketone for me because naturally they want
to reach out to the people thathave put their hard earned money on the

(36:40):
line, like me, like me, because you know, as much people
say that I don't like the XFL, I put my money on the line
for those Roughnecks tickets, and itlooks like I may have put the money
on the line for those gamblers tickets. All in, but let's see what
kind of message they had for yourboy over here. USFL season ticket member,

(37:01):
our loyal fan bases are the cornerstoneof our success, and as a
season ticket member, your support ofthe USFL is appreciated. I love it.
Sign me up. Following today's historicannouncement of the USFL and xfls intend
to merge. We're reaching out toshare what we know at this time.
Recently, you placed a deposit forseason three season tickets, and you likely

(37:24):
have some questions on how today's announcementmight impact your investment. There are several
details still to be determined, andit's uncertain that the merger will be finalized.
So again, that's the big thing. I you know what, there's
some people probably hoping for it,but I don't think I think you should
be careful what you wish for.I think it's a good thing that these
leagues are coming together. Make surethat they both survived. The us FULL

(37:47):
gets to season three, the XFLgets to season two. Because what I
don't want to happen is something happensin the mix. The merger doesn't get
finalized. The USFL moves on toseason three, but the XFL gets lost
in the dust. That I don'twant to see that happen. But it
is a reality. So if themerger is finalized, your deposit for season
tickets will remain valid for the inauguralseason of the new league. So interesting

(38:10):
wording there, Zachie Boy No longer. Are we talking about a season three?
This it seems like could be consideredyear one of a new league,
So that's interesting. Should a refundneed to be issued, you'll receive a
communication directly from your season ticket representative. Also seemingly leaving on the table that

(38:34):
maybe some of these some of theselocations might not stick. I think that
might be more of a cya commentcover your ass than I wouldn't read into
it too much. So it's foranybody that's worrying out there. If the
merger does not close, we intendto proceed with season three of the USFL,
and your deposit for season tickets willremain valid. So one of the

(38:54):
things that was basically the only thingwe could for sure confirm last week,
the us Fells play in the seasonthree They're gonna be on the field one
way or another, merger or not, So this seems to confirm that either
way, we will continue to provideyou the same high quality game day experience
you've come to expect from the USFL. Your season ticket representative will connect you

(39:16):
with more information as it becomes available, And I love the last line.
The future is bright for spring footballand we are grateful for your ongoing support,
and I'm grateful for you sending theletter sign us up. Yeah,
no, exactly, exactly right.So all in all, I think we

(39:37):
have more questions than ever. Someof them have been answered. Yes,
the leagues are looking at merging.Yes, it seems like they're looking at
a new name. Yes, there'sa possibility, and that not all sixteen
teams make the cut, at leastin this inaugural year. You know,
the doors always open for the Bandits. Which wouldn't it be interesting if one

(39:58):
team goes away in the bandit?Uh, wouldn't it be interested of the
guard the Guardians become the Bandits nowlike the twist? Who could you image
twist? I know a couple offans down to Florida that would be ecstatic
of that happening. I think wetalked about him and as like a couple
of weeks ago, and they allthat we had. We had a joke
in the discord recently that you sawthat some folks like, let's bring bring

(40:22):
the Orlando Renig back. And I'mlike, well, I mean you could
in theory, they do own that. And then I think I joked and
we put this Others like, uh, Oh yeah, we'll just get Leak
Corso back. It's fun fact weCorso coached the Orlando Renegades back in the
eighties for those that didn't know.So bring him from college game days.
Slap him in there with the headsetperfect, give him a give him a

(40:44):
mascot head. I don't know exactlysigned up. Just let him do his
thing. Let's just let him beout there on the sidelines, even if
he's doing nothing at all. I'llwatch. I'll get signed up. Yeah
I did, I did see andI got this just before we jumped on.
Someone graciously shared the ex fell sideof the ticket announcement as well,
or at least to their assurance.On here, I'll read this one up.

(41:07):
I know I'm taking all the greeds, but here we go. There.
This is from their ticket department,from specifically signed by Jason gannella suit
senior vice president. Too. Goodguy by the way, shout out to
Jason, he's a good guy.Yeah, and I was gonna say this
can acts more to uh you becauseyou do have Roughnecks season tickets. So

(41:30):
you know, here's their angle ortheir side of the story on this good
morning or afternoon. I'm writing toyou with some important news. This is
probably in your inbox too, butbasically you're going to read this today.
We are announcing the XFL and USFLhave announced their intention to merge. The
combination of these two leagues will anchorprofessional spring football with sustainable capabilities and resources
to ensure future growth with continuing toenhance the development of our players. Well,

(41:53):
this is big news until details.Until the detail deal closes, the
XFL will continue to run business andfootball operations as usual. We look forward
to sharing more information with you aboutthe deal when we can and then in
bold. Most importantly, your moneyand season tickets are safe. Similar message
from both sides. As we continueto discuss and finalized d tails about what

(42:15):
the combined leagues look like, wewill uphold and honor any decision you make
regarding your season tickets. We haveto thank you you are loyal fans for
the ongoing support and a medium braceof the XFL. We are incredibly excited
for the future of our league andfor the growth of spring football. We
look forward to sharing more details tothe later date. In the meantime,
we encourage you to reach out forany questions via email at Jason Dog and

(42:37):
Ella at x F com so similara little bit more paraphrased, which is
interesting because I mean, like I'mnot going to read too much into the
weeds, but like I did findat night, I thought it was really
reassuring, like USFL and this iswhat we've heard as a message too,
that no matter what happens, USFLseason three is happening. So, like

(42:57):
you know, I'm not reading toofar into the sales tickets here for Ganilla,
like I assume exmall two point,it was happening no matter what.
But it was nice to see inthe USFL section that they're like, don't
worry if this falls through. Weare here, your deposit is here,
no matter what. And it's goodto hear both of them. This is
what you expect from both the course, but I do find it fascinating just
the wording I guess on both sidesand how they phrase this setup if anything.

(43:22):
So my full disclosure to those listening, you read into that as you
wish. I'm just telling you Ifound that a little bit. It is
well, it is interesting, andthat's the thing. And this is again,
I know people get mad at meabout what I say and how I
say it, but this is thetruth. This is the truth. There's
no spin, no nothing. Ihave been able to confirm that the USFL

(43:42):
will be playing season three merger ornot. I have not been able to
do the same on the XFL.That does not mean that they are not,
but it is interesting that it isnot in that letter as you as
you pointed out. Now we'll see, we'll see what this what the merger
looks like, before, during,and after. Clearly we're we're in the
in the thick of it, inthe mud. I you know, if

(44:06):
they change the name to NSFL,well, then hey, sign us up.
We hope you join us for becauseI'm not, you know what,
unlike them, I'm not starting atseason one. It's gonna be episode sixty
nine or seventy, or it's gonnabe the first episode of the NSFL podcast
because I'm not starting over. There'sno reset here, like we'll stick flipping
that end upside down. I mean, it couldn't work out more perfect,

(44:28):
at least for a little bit,maybe until the season starts, or maybe
we'll debut a new logo at thebeginning for like season three of the show.
Who knows, but I kind ofliked the idea, and you,
like you said, we got somegood traction out there and we don't have
to overhaul the brand. Now.What I would love to see is watch
the USFL do the same thing.Just flip that bad boy upside out.

(44:49):
Hey, I know some of youguys got to be watching the show.
You can have the idea for freeze. I stole it from you. How
about that? You know they havethe funt so like, yeah, you
could be that cheesy, like thewouldn't be that hard to just slap it
home with the freaking red, whiteand blue flag onto it and say this
is what we're doing. You know, it would look weird because people like
that's just the USFL, but withone extra label that the us logo gets

(45:15):
me up at ever. You know, it's a it's a it's a it's
a classic. I like I likeit a lot. It's it speaks retro,
but like in a good nostalgic way. That's why they used it for
crying out loud. One final pieceand this is how just to wrap things
up before we close out. Idid find this tweet interesting. Josh Gerbin
some of you may know he's veryactive on the kind of like ust you

(45:38):
the United Sates Suppostal Trademark Office orPatton and Trademark Office kind of lingo,
and he works in that field.He had a nice he had a very
fascinating tweet about the NSFL trademark andat least his at least if his take
on it comes for tuition, that'ssomething to keep an eye on down the

(45:59):
road. Is he mentions in thisand this tweet on X the usfls filed
new trademark application twenty two in totalfour National Spring Football League and NSFL.
This could potentially be the name ofcourse the merger. Here's the piece you
should listen to that I do thinkis something to keep an eye on,
because some people brought this up aswell. Is if so, I think

(46:20):
it's likely the NFL will object toboth trademarks. And look the full name.
Will you read the full name andyou read the I think the full
name is what speaks more than saythe acronym, because I don't know.
I can see the NFL doing thisbecause they did this over like you know
the freaking Roughnecks secondary logo or youknow the Houston oil the Houston Oilers and

(46:42):
Houston roughnecks logo things where it's like, oh, it's just close enough where
the naming is. Oh, Isee you just slaps Spring in the middle
of National Football League all right,time to go to court. And I'm
like, I hate it, butthat's I'm not I see that actually happening.
And that's what kills me is becausethe NFL is that petty and would
do it. I think you're fine, just I'm watching out for it.

(47:02):
I don't know, I'm watching outfor it because I've I've seen them be
petty like this. That's always myhope is My hope is because beyond Fox
working with the NFL in regards tothe USFL, Fox is a very strong
broadcast partner for the NFL during theirregular season, and I would hope that

(47:23):
their partnership is so strong and thatthey have such an open discussion and dialogue
that maybe they've had some of theseconversations going into this. Because something to
keep in mind, although the trademarkis knew, the name is not new
at all. This is a namewe've seen over a year ago. When
they're on the right. It's theend, we'll see, we'll see,

(47:46):
Uh, could they be petty onehundred percent one hundred percent. We'll have
to see, uh, And Iwould hope that by the time because there's
still the things that need to happenregulatory from the deal, but by the
time that it closes, you wouldhope that whatever conversations that need to happen,
if they haven't happened, already happenedto ensure that. What you don't

(48:07):
want is you start the season inthree weeks in they're like, hey,
wait a second air stop that.You don't want that because that was the
worry season one with the USFL name. You don't want that situation again.
You know, did someone saying injectionright? You know? No. So
here's what I think. If I'mbeing a little bit more like what how
I feel that would work? Solike say, say this really is the
name, Like trademarks are being filedlike this, it's feeling like it's very

(48:30):
much going to be that name.What I think will happen is, you
know you're first going to come inand go, Okay, well, the
brand's important not only to show offto people, but if the NFL even
thinks about talking to us and saying, hey, you want to have a
court date or at least we're gonnafile something with a patent office and trademark

(48:50):
office and make you like sweat aboutit. They're going to try their best
to differentiate and say, look,this logo is different. It says spring
in the tight it's a football league, you know, but it's not.
We aren't competing with you. Wearen't trying to steal your image. You
know they're NSFL, doesn't does Imean to me putting spring in the full
name. That's the argument where it'slike, guys, we're differentiating ourselves right

(49:15):
away from you. You know,we're saying we're in the spring. You
know, every it is common knowledgeof the NFL and football is played in
the fall. We are specifically stayingin our name. We're a spring variant
or version of football. So that'swhat we'll probably lean it, and the
brand style will be big two.However, they lean into it, like
they'll be like, look this logo, these icons are completely different. Like

(49:37):
a consumer can look at this andsay this is not the NFL, right,
you know, just don't use ashield, like don't be that guy
and make a shield logo and go, oh the shield I see. Let's
chat about this. You know,I don't think they're gonna do that.
They're smarter than that. I mean, the USFL forquying a lot went through
this with the us I think theyrealize Fox knows. I don't want to

(50:00):
go to court, especially with theNFL. I don't want to deal with
that. Now we can even jumpinto a speculation zone on a further a
future episode on is this a signthat maybe there is talks about working together
with the NFL in an official capacity, Because one thing that struck out to
me and I think it's struck outstuck out to a lot of other people,

(50:22):
was well, this reminds me ofthe G League and the way that
the you know, their logo,their structure is and it's kind of a
variation of the existing like professional leaguefor a lack of better terms, if
you will, the big boy,if you will, Uh you know.
So maybe maybe I don't know ifthat's necessarily the case, but maybe maybe
a topic for a future speculation zonefor sure. Either way, I'm fine

(50:45):
with this name. I'm fine withthem keeping the USFL. The one thing
and I know some XFL fans aregonna hate with me to say this,
but I think this is a reallygood opportunity for the collective league to the
X. Shed the X because itdoesn't mean anything. It didn't mean anything
in two thousand and one, eventhough some people wanted it to be mean

(51:07):
extreme. And let's say it didmean extreme. It doesn't fit the mold
of what the XFL was in twentytwenty or twenty twenty two. It's not
really an extreme league where they're inthe girls locker rooms with cameras like they
were in two thousand and one.It's more of a this is a like
this is another professional football league.Now. You could argue the X stands

(51:30):
for the cross section between blah blahblah, fine whatever. It doesn't really
it can in theory, but thecross section of whatever you want to say,
it doesn't start with the letter X. So I hate to break it
to you to me get it outof the main name. And so I'm
fine because I think you brought upthe big point earlier. I think what
both sides would probably be worried aboutis jilting one fan base over another because

(51:52):
you don't want to merge and thenjust lose the people that were coming over,
right, So you kind of havea little bit of a compromise.
Isn't that what every great relationship isall about, is compromised. Well,
this is like no difference. Imean, mergers are basically compromises for corporations
anyway. It's the collective greater goodcan bring in more profit and more growth

(52:16):
than capital, YadA YadA YadA.That it's really that's really what merger stands
for. It's corporate compromise. That'show I look at right. So you
know, we're we're officially here thoughuh to you know, I guess to
put it towards the end of this, we are we've officially arrived the mergers.
Here we are. We are seeingwhere it goes now, but it

(52:37):
is upon us. It is outin the open, no hiding things anymore.
This is uh. And even ESPNreconfirmed that they are trying to go
next year with whatever the name iswhatever. This looks like two is becoming
one for twenty twenty four. Andand well it's crazy too because at the
timing, I know, there's stillsome folks out there trying to read into
the press release and saying, well, this deal wouldn't happen until money twenty

(53:00):
four, so they're thinking both ofthese leagues are gonna play a season next
year and then do the merger.Maybe maybe I don't think so. I
think it's wishful thinking, and youknow what, sign them up. But
yeah, I think both of theseleagues want to get this deal done.
The USFL we know confirm playing seasonthree. We don't know the same about
the XFL. Again, not tosay that they weren't or aren't, but

(53:22):
you know what, I haven't heardit, and to be that that goes
a long way, right, SoI, you know what, I want
to see both of these things survive, and if it's through a merger,
let's get it done. Let's getit done as fast as we can.
Let's get the growing pains out ofthe way. Because even season three,

(53:43):
season two, or season one ofa collective new league, let's get on
the field. You kind of gottago back to that game plan. Get
on the field, let's make ithappen. Season two. Let's maybe get
some of those markets back into play. Right, Maybe Seattle gets lost in
the mix, because again, Seattlemight have a stage medium, but man,
when you look at this geographically,Seattle's a whole new world of hurt.

(54:05):
When you consider the USFL is basicallyeverything is east of the Mississippi other
than Houston, h Town, allright, Uh, West Coast travels brutal
for the travel costs, man,I mean that's that's the thing, so
that I mean, this is allpart of the discussion course because I mean,
you know, you aren't you aresaying national. If you're staying with
an NSFL name, it is national. But again, if we're trying to

(54:29):
make it where it's the most stablething, like you know, I don't
know, everything's up for discussion,is how I view it. It's just
like you know, that is partof it. Like West Coast traveled.
Like I said, going cross countryis expensive, especially for entire rosters of
teams that might have to do it. Keep that in mind when you were
considering what they gotta pay, noteven paid for, but think about being

(54:51):
a player that's a long plane ride, you know, compared to that he's
over Birmingham to Memphis, was thatprobably a forty five minute plane ride even
to Detroit an hour or two hoursSeattle. Praise praise the guys that did,
especially the XBOL players for those praisethe XBEL players that had to do
travel like that all last year thatweren't in Arlington. That's one thing,

(55:15):
because that's a brutal Yeah. Again, imagine, if you play in Arlington,
it's great. You don't have togo anywhere. If you play in
Houston, not too bad. You'replay in San Antonio, not too bad.
But the Sea Dragons any home game, they're flying to the top north
and west of the country every time. And then if they're yeah, that

(55:35):
to me, that's gonna be atough one. I don't want to see
them go though I don't I wouldlove I want as many as these.
That one is gonna be a toughone, and I would say I wouldn't
be surprised if they do get cutout of the mix, at least for
season one of whatever this is.That's not based on anything I heard.
That's just logistics alone. Because youhave a majority of your teams in the
Southeast and one team because you don'teven have Vegas anymore. You don't even

(56:00):
have that hop skip in the middle, so you have Seattle and then Texas
and then everything else kind of overin the East coast in the southeast,
right man, that's it depends onhow they do the hub situation though,
too. Are they going to doit like they did in the XFL where
they're Arlington. Are they going todo it like the USFL where those teams
are based in those actual hub cities. This is the beauty of it,

(56:24):
Zackie boy. We have content forweeks. Yeah, I mean, here's
a speculative one that I had pitchedto me was and I kind of shared
this with you, and again I'mI'm feeling it out. There's a lot
of stuff flying around right now likeit's it's it's kind of a madhouse.
But you know the IL article referencedsix hubs. Well, I had it

(56:46):
mentioned to me and suggested to me, well, what if the other six
cities use the XFL side of thisequation they fly six teams out every week.
Thus you have six hubs that youhave less travel because you're going to
have more teams that are still goingto play in the same city and they're

(57:07):
housed in the same city. Youcut down on the travel costs that the
XFL was doing, and you don'thave the stigma of no fans in the
stands as much because I went toa home market and then you institute the
usfls measures of we're engaging with thecommunities we're in. We're you know,
being part of those communities more sothan you know, than not. Even

(57:30):
though we're only in certain cities ashubs, we are making damn sure that
we're making an impact and that we'rethere. You know. Again, it's
a speculation zone thing to me thatput out, but it's been passed along
to me in some capacity, andI'm like, that kind of isn't too
crazy, especially if you're talking thatthe projections are six six each side.

(57:52):
I don't know. That's something.I'm kind of like, it's not too
wild, but I have to waitand see. I know that's the beauty
of this. I'll tell you thisbecause you got me really excited for the
idea of a Houston Gambler's fan engagementevent like Bretzelski, you know who else
lives out in Houston. Come andlet me help you rock this show.

(58:12):
I will bring some I don't knowif they're good people, but they'll be
there. We're gonna be having fun. I will help you. Got a
card house? Is that what theyhave in Texas? Like I get like
the poker rooms. Yeah, it'sperfect, dude, freaking charity event right
there, charity, you already haveone thing there and and you know what,
if you come to the event,you'll all have a chance to see

(58:36):
the ref La in real life,the Ref's Tesla with the vanity license plates.
Dude, Well, I'm gonna getsome swangers for that, bad boy,
Zach. Have I ever told youwhat swangs are? They're Houston exclusive.
They're rims that like jut out.They have like big cones that come
out with like spikes on the end. I'm getting sign me up Swang as

(59:01):
swang and every day. But no, I'm super excited. And you know
what we might you mentioned a charityevent. I don't even know if I
brought this up to you, butour friends at the x Fan Show I
always want to call them the XFLSTL Show because that's what they were originally
back in the day. But thex Fan Show members of the newsroom crew,

(59:22):
they were planning on doing a charityevent come this February for the Houston's
Women's Shelter. So it looks likeI might help get involved with them.
So a train and I might bedoing some Well, that's right, because
a train's down there by you thatwould be a great we are always We
talked about it last week, sohopefully we'll have more details on that soon,

(59:42):
so we might be doing You know, I think the idea was doing
in February because the season was goingto start. But depending on what this
merger looks like, maybe we doit early is a fan engagement event to
get people excited about the upcoming season, or maybe we wrap it into Springstock.
Baby Springstock three, the coming together, the beautiful we are one family
Springstock three. I know we're somany months away, but if you were

(01:00:07):
worried that this merger was gonna makesure that Springstock didn't happen, I hate
to break it to you. Springstockthree. I knew it was gonna be
bigger and better than ever before.But little did I know now this is
gonna be to me, the communitycoming together party the best. Come on,
bring us those XFL fans, bringus the USFL fans, and as

(01:00:28):
a potential NSFL community. Let's cometogether, Baby Springstock three, and I
have ideas on what I want todo. If anybody knows the old Woodstock,
what was it? It was thecoming together people coming from all parts
of the country. That's kind ofwhy we named it, but the other
part of it, it was allthe big bands that you can imagine,
and we've kind of done that throughoutthe other two Springstocks and Summer Stocks where

(01:00:52):
we've had guests on. But Ithink it could be really neat to have
like, okay, the X fansshow. Here's thirty minutes or an hour
or whatever. I don't know whatthe time. It would look like,
this is your show for thirty minutes, almost like a band whatever say at
Woodstock. So early thoughts, earlythoughts, and hopefully we can revolve it
around charity because the Human the HoustonWomen's Shelter is actually one of the better,

(01:01:19):
more respective, respectable charities out herein the Houston market. So I'm
really looking forward to that. Soas we get more details, we'll let
you know. Will it be atSpringstock three, will it be something else,
We'll keep you posted. We'll keepyou posted, but some more news.
But like I said, Springstock three, Summer Stock three, I challenge
everybody out there to make sure youcan fit it and make and if you

(01:01:42):
can't come to Springstock, we getit, but you should definitely try to
make it out to that home.The home opener for whatever team you're nearby.
Let's show this league. Let's showthese two companies coming together that we're
here to support them. We lovespring football. This isn't about names anymore.
This isn't about no I like thisleague, and I like this league.

(01:02:02):
They're one league, one company,one beautiful league coming together to give
us, hopefully the best product thatwe've seen, the most sustainable spring football
league that we've seen in Nerve nearlyforty years, because the last one is
still around, and that's the USFL. Baby, And I'm feeling damn good.

(01:02:23):
I'm feeling it. Let's get atbest chance, best most stable chance
we have for the spring football tolast forever. It is right here,
right now. We have that choiceto help make it that way. I
mean, hey, man, I'mexcited. Panthers, I hope you're here.
BattleHawks, I'm sticking and I'm knowingYou've got a tough one to figure

(01:02:45):
out. Now, you know itis. It's a good point. It's
hard for me to say. I'llthink about this. I got a whole
offseason to debate. I got gear. I got gear from Bowl like in
equal numbers, So I really can'ttell you which one I'm gonna choose,
and I'm not close to either oneof them, So this is an location

(01:03:05):
thing. It really, it reallycomes down to preferences and thinking back.
But you'll see, you'll see.Luckily, my fandom doesn't waiver all in.
Even if they do name them theRoughnecks, I'm calling them the gamblers.
I think, I don't know,we'll see hwang the Houston swanga is.
Let's go or make me. Youdon't even need a mascot. I'll

(01:03:30):
run around the field, you know. And speaking of which, come on,
guys, let me just throw thisone out there. If the league
is rebranding, this is your opportunity, no more excuses. Sign your boy
the ref up with the USFL REFshirt. If they're not ever gonna be
used, and they're not gonna beon the field to where you have to
worry about me doing the thing thatI joke about, running on the field

(01:03:52):
and throwing a flag, you don'thave to worry. If the league has
a new name, Sign your boyref up with a REF shirt. Come
on, sign us up, Signus up in Zach, I don't know
what do you want from the league, but you want like a Gatorade want
like one of those big Gatorade jugsfrom the side of the sidelines. I
mean, we might as well getour asks and what we can. You

(01:04:12):
know, what do I want?Want to go for my set? That's
what I want. So hey,you guys got some extra cash, let
me set something up. I gotplug right here. I'll I'll pop this
bad boy right in the corner.Something's going here eventually, Like I know,
I mean, we're I would notmind it being a knee on the
grassroots leaders. I mean, weneed some stuff hanging out over here.

(01:04:32):
Give us a REP shirt, giveus a sign, give us give us
a something, give us a wink. I don't care, even if it's
a smile. I'll be happy.No, I can't. I can't because
let's be honest here, the USFELLA and even at the XFLA has always
treated me with They've always treated uswell. So just for anybody out there
that doesn't get that I joke abouteverything, this is. I love both

(01:04:55):
of these leagues because they both treatedme well. But I ain't gonna be
mad if he it over a REFshirt my way. Sign you up?
You know, oh man? Youknow well, well, I think we're
gonna cut it off for now.We're gonna keep posting to this podcast,
USFL podcast and NFL Live Ay timeonly maybe who knows. Yeah, yeah,

(01:05:16):
I think moving forward, you'll probablysee that our retrofit at NSFL logo.
Until said otherwise, but that's Imean, that's what the vibees going
towards. So you know, stickwith us. We'll be we'll we'll jump
on for shows as news comes out. You know us, we're right in
the thick of this with all ofyou, So stick with a stick with

(01:05:36):
Pro Football Newsroom. By the way, if newsroom, baby, make sure
you're following it over there, makesure you're following at USFL podcast, at
XFL Newsroom, at USFL Newsroom.But like I said, the culmination of
five years, the evolution of everythingwe've been working on Pro Football Newsroom,
make sure you're following us at PFNewsroom, Facebook, Twitter, all the
good places, because that's where you'regetting all the news from all the eggs.

(01:06:00):
You're never gonna miss it. Andmake sure you subscribe. Click the
bell at Bilt's Morrell. Are youwent at Old Morrell? Like my team,
my league's going away, We'll joinus because we are gonna make you
feel good. You're gonna get alittle bit of Morrell out of pressing that
bell, and you'll always know whennew videos are dropping and when we go
live, because hey, if you'vebeen only paying paying attention to the XFL

(01:06:21):
stuff, you may have missed outon all the awesome content that we've been
putting out for the last two flippingyears. Zachy boy, what a ride,
What a ride. I'm looking forwardto this exciting times ahead, but
definitely some stuff to figure out.Just stay tuned us guys, enjoy the

(01:06:45):
ride, come along for the ride. We welcome all of you in and
we'll have some more fun episodes ahead, So collaborayones I think too on the
horizon, so stick to stay tunedfor that. For the rep I'm Zach
Common saying so long, catch younext time for episode sixty nine line of
the USBOL podcast for whatever happens next. Thanks everybody,