UFL 2025 Championship Preview + UFL 2025 Playoffs Reactions!!!

We are going LIVE to recap the 2025 UFL playoffs and preview the big UFL Championship game on Tuesday, June 10th!! Join John Lewis and me for your weekly UFL 2025 recap show with results from the weekend's United Football League games, including our reactions and analysis!!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, here we are back again Tuesday. Here, welcome John
back to the Marcast here with John Lewis Sports. We
could continue our off air conversation about storage solutions and
ltotape backups, or would you like to talk alternative football here?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
John, Well, I mean it's up to you. You are
the host.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
But I would say the people tuned in right now
would probably love to hear about analog tape, but probably
more about spring football.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
This is good. So we're here today talking to UFL
previewing the championship game playoffs on here. You had John,
like laptop went into the corner of the desk or
wall or something. John's got this big boom pull up here,
we're here today, the sun is shining. The Stallions are
not in the championship game. NOI they're the ballot. I
mean this is really like the Marcast Bowl. Here. I've

(01:24):
got I won an auction for a new domain. I
was very excited for that. I DMed a couple of people.
I always you know, I always keep my eye on.
I'm always sneaking behind the scenes. Here John picking up
good demands all that.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (01:36):
How was your weekend? And how was football? Because I
just caught up on everything. This was excited, it was good.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
I think the conference games may have been a little
bit of a letdown for yeah, I mean certainly for
the Stallions and BattleHawks fans, but they were you know,
by the time you get to the fourth quarter, it
was both of them felt like it was just kind
of out of control. But you know, to me, I
think these are going to be I think this is

(02:04):
going to be a really good UFL championship. I love
the matchup. We've seen it once already. It'll be interesting
to see it on a neutral field. But I will
say that I think this might be the UFL's worst nightmare.
We were talking about it before. It's like, if you
don't have Birmingham, which you can kind of sell that
storyline of they're going for four straight and it hasn't
really happened in outdoor football, I think since the Great

(02:25):
Cup and then the like seventies or eighties maybe, and
then you know you would have Saint Louis at home.
But if you don't have either one of those stories,
then you know what happens. Again, that's for us, the
people watching here. I think for the for the casual
fans who might tune into the game on Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
It won't really matter.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
I just hope it's a really good game because these
are two of the best quarterbacks that we have seen
in a long time.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah. No, I think gameplay wise, this is going to
be great. League wise, this is a not great. I
don't want to call it a disaster, but I mean
it's certainly not an ideal. Since said this, see each
day we'll be doing that, John and I previewing the
championship game. We'll talk through the playoffs and then we'll see.
We'll do a championship recap next week and then we'll
see John that might be it for me. We'll we'll

(03:11):
kind of see I put online. Uh, we're taking the
CFL season off work, scheduling all of that, but we'll see.
We're gonna ride out the UFL season. I know John's
continuing his channel. Please like and subscribe over there. John
Lillis Sports. I don't know if it's goodbye, but it's
certainly goodbye for right now. And so we'll do this week,
we'll do next week. So thumbs up, and we've you know,
people have dropped off, and if you were a CFL

(03:32):
person only and certainly get all of that. But I
really appreciate everyone sticking around. We'll see how we do.
But you know, I I want we're at least going
through the whole season here, John I watched everything. I
was gone. We've been. I mean, that's like the thing
is I'm spending you know, and it's fine. I'm happy, like,
but it's all day today to catch up, you know,
because we're gone all weekend in these games and it
just gets into a really horrible time of year for

(03:53):
me for that. How how concerned do you think Darryl
Johnston and the rest of UFL ownership feels right now
about Saint Louis hosting the championship game again without Saint
Louis in it.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
I think there's probably some trepidation. I mean, and there
should be.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
I mean, you were at last year's championship game when
Saint Louis wasn't in it, and you know, Lower Bowls
certainly wasn't full, and thank you, King Williams three D.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I appreciate that, but I do hope that there is
a you know, a good crowd. You know.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Jordan Tomu he was trying to kind of get people
to come out because he said, you know, there were
people at that Saint Louis game who were wearing they
were BattleHawks fans who were wearing Jordan tam Who's BattleHawks
jersey from twenty twenty. So he said, man, you know
that was great. It's nice to see. And I hope
that a lot of those fans who were fans of
what you know, we tried to do here in twenty

(04:47):
twenty before the season got canceled. I hope they show
up next week and show up for this. And also
Mike Nolan said, hey, man, you know we had sixteen
thousand strong at Ford Field. It would be great if
you know, those fans could make that short trip to
Saint Louis so we'll see, you know, it would be
I mean, how great that would be to see like
some fan bases come together with you know, the DC

(05:08):
fans who who who have traveled to other games who
might be there. But you know, Saint Louis in general,
you know, they've got to be so disappointed because it
just feels like Saint Louis has been so close every
time and it just never comes to fruition. But you
would hope that a lot of people you know in
the city there would would come out and but but

(05:29):
to answer your question, yeah, I think there's probably a
lot of trepidation. They want they want this to look
good on television because this is a television product.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Well, we'll do uh, we'll do a full breakdown in
both games. Uh, and we'll talk through we I have
an Abdula here already talking about locking off seats for
the championship game. We'll talk all about and ratings and
everything else.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
I guess, uh, where do we want to start today?
What I want to make sure I pull up Abdul's
tweet I shared yesterday as well. Do you want to
do you want to talk through the TV ratings that
just came out, and then we can kind of go
backwards from that. I think I have Mike Mitchell's up here.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, let's we'll talk about that because there was you know,
there were some interesting numbers there for the weekend.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
All right, so let's do that first. Actually, now I
do have it pulled up, So let's do this and
this will go into all of that stuff. Can I
share this here and do all that? So this was
the first first piece of news I shared yesterday before
we got Mike Mitchell's TV ratings today that he posted
for both the xflur excuse yeah, the XFL Conference Championship
game and the USFL Conference Championship Game. One thing that

(06:30):
was interesting to me that a duel shared from the
Friday night we had our first Friday night without you know,
the UFL, going back to you know whatever, that would
have been March thirtieth. And you see here we had
Gordon Ramsey a two hour block and then you had
a what we here you have Master's shout just like
the two hour Gordon Ramsey, but the master chef in
the Gordon Ramsey averaging seven hundred and sixty two thousand

(06:51):
viewers on there and then six ninety both basically around
or a little bit higher than what the UFL was
drawing and that I had tweeted out. It makes sure
wonder what costs that Fox Moore residuals to Gordon Ramsey
or paying for the UFL. But this was interesting because
this is like they just have this in the cant right.
These are just like you just throw these on. And

(07:14):
when the UFL exists as a you know, really a
TV only product, I mean, we'll talk attendance here in
the minute and then you see will shoot, we can
just put it. What was your reaction to this, because
I thought this is not a good sign in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
This is something that we talked about before. When we
started to see those low numbers. How we said, they've
already got this. As you see the RP there by
where it says Master Chef Friday RP that means repeat.
That means that these are things that have already aired.
And that was one of the things that I was
really concerned about, was that when we started to see
those low ratings, I said, you know, you could show
a rerun of Masks Singer or something and maybe get

(07:49):
more viewers. I felt like Fox fumbled it a little
bit this year. I thought they could make Friday Night
a thing and you know, like really kind of do
it up and make it special. But it felt like
I just really thought that ABC and ESPN did such
a good job and presentation and it was so much better,
and they added a little more to it. Sure, they had,

(08:09):
you know, the betting segments, which I think a lot
of people might get tired of, but it did make
it different than you know, an NFL broadcast or any
kind of other football broadcast. So I was that was
a little disappointing out of Fox, because I even we
talked about it before the season. I even did a
video about before the season started, like here's here are
like three things that Fox can do to like really

(08:30):
dress this up and make this something interesting, interesting to
the casual viewer. And I just I really didn't see that.
And that was and I think it it started to
you know, kind of bear out on what we saw
here in these numbers.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, I did. I just have to think it's discouraging.
I mean it is, and obviously and they and funny enough,
I actually interviewed Gordon Ramsey back in I mean I
was still in news, so this would have been twenty
four deep.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
And I and they did a one of those where
they I never watched grown Ramsey, but they did the
Kitchen Night Me or whatever, the one where that you know,
they tear the restaurant. You know, he goes in the
John Taffor and kind of yells at everyone and he's
a weird dude. Because I had, you know how it
goes in news like go and I had to sit
there like you know, two hours waiting for him to
like Okay, now we're gonna break and then you can
interview him, and he is just a really weird It

(09:19):
was almost like he couldn't even talk to the camera
like you were and he just oh yeah. I just
think it's just really interesting. But you know here, I
mean like it's like Gordon Ramsay because we I guess
the last thing on this is we hypothesize a lot
about this all season what would that look like? And
here we look and now we know the answer. And
if I if you know the hundreds and hundreds of
people that put together a football league over the last

(09:41):
you know, three years, and then you find out that
this is hard. So it just puts everything in perspective,
I guess more than anything else.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Well, and this is something that I've said here before.
It was it was encouraging to read an article where
where Darryl Johnston said, you know, this is just year
two like like so there was there there he opened
the window there for we are starting to learn things.
I know you don't trust Daryl Johnson maybe in what
he says or think you know, but to me, I
thought that was encouraging. He didn't give he didn't try

(10:08):
to gaslight with ratings aren't down, or he didn't try
to gaslight and say everything's going great. I mean he
understands and said it publicly because we can all see it.
I mean, you know that's the thing. It's like we
can see it in black and white. Like there are
things that they need to work on. The gameplay has
been it's been outstanding, especially after about week three. We've

(10:31):
seen some really good games, even from teams that were
out of it. We saw good games from Houston, We
saw good games from San Antonio, you know, we saw
good games from from Memphis. We saw a good games
from from a lot of teams that were out of it.
We saw Luis Perez agen So there were a lot
of positives, but there are some things they can work
on as they move to now year three of the UFL.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
I like hearing that it's only year two gives me
a stock in my domain here.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
And that's good.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Edit my stock is gone.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Are you going to reveal the doname?

Speaker 1 (10:58):
I don't years, but and what we're gonna move to
the to the conference tv rads here because like you said,
great games and even the Saint Louis game that you
kind of got out of hand. I thought had a
lot of intrigue of God, is Saint Louis gonna blow
this again? And you had the Brandon Silver disappearance and
then Doug and like, you know, we had talked all
season about Dugan's throwing motion and he's dropping the ball

(11:20):
over you know, he kept getting out. I mean it
was I thought that was interesting and he know, and
you had the whole story line with DC and all that.
Obviously the Birmingham game was was closer on paper. I thought,
tremendous games across the board. We've always said this, the
games is not the problem, it's everything else with that.
Let's go so the XFL Conference game, because this was
on Fox, right, and we will do that, and we'll

(11:42):
do the ABC, which is better on here. Uh, DC
Defender Saint Louis. So this was the later game. We're
going back six PM Eastern, eight hundred and seventy three
thousand viewers, peaked at one point forty six. Uh you know,
so that was kind of the mid game, right. This
was going up I believe against the NBA Finals as well.
I think was Mike was saying on the this time

(12:02):
period in the Saturday night as well. Uh, Fox, you know,
along with the Friday nights have been you know, trending
below ABC and ESPN on that thoughts on that, and
did I say anything out of incorrect there?

Speaker 2 (12:15):
When I did?

Speaker 3 (12:15):
My analyst, Uh no, and I, you know, I really
have been paying attention to what the NBA ratings are.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
But you know that I said.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Eight point seven. I think it was the lowest. I
just saw the article, and I'm not like, because I
get the front office sports newsletter. I just got like
it too. They must end it out like I'm like, oh,
I get it like every day.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
They must.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
It's a newsletter. I just learned how the newsletter works.
But they were, yeah, it's down like twenty the worst
since COVID and twenty. It's like eight point sixty seven million.
Because it's what Indianapolis and Oklahoma you know.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Former former Sonics, right, It's right, it's Indiana and Oklahoma City,
which I thought that was another thing that I talked
to with some friends is like, now you want to
talk about the worst nightmare for the NBA. Oh God, listen,
it's like you've got those two more markets, you know,
playing It's like that, like who else is going to
be interested? Now, I can tell you here in Louisville

(13:06):
there are a lot of Pacers fans, so it's I
would think that the ratings are probably really good here,
even though that Louisville just so happened, was one of
the higher rated markets, uh for the UFL. So I
don't know how that shaped out. I don't have access
to Nielsen anymore. I'm sure Mike could break it down
for us. But yeah, but no, I think I think,
you know, when you look at it, people are still
going to watch the NBA, especially when it's the finals.

(13:29):
Maybe not as much when it's not La or you know,
Boston or whatever. But you know, I thought that was
pretty good and certainly comparatively speaking to what we have
seen before. I was really hope, in hope of hopes
it might top a million on you know, because it
was a conference championship game that they might have promoted
a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
It was funny when WAWE came here years ago and
the Miz I think it was no, it was Alias
and when did the rest of when did the heal
wrestlers came out? I mean it was Alias and made
a joke about the Sonics and the you know, Leving
and Oklahoma and we booed. I mean it went and
I might've been a little intoxicated, but like they went
to commercial, came back and like we were still I

(14:07):
mean it was like six or seven minutes at Climate
flights like the whole way around, and I was like, oh,
this is really good. He yeah, so we can't have
the thunder wind just by proxy of the Sonics have
to be on that. But no, was it?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
It was?

Speaker 1 (14:21):
It was the early game, right with Joe Tests where
he was yelling about having the stuff on there was
That was that the early game? Was that the ESPN
when I was sending you that stuff off the air?

Speaker 2 (14:29):
That yeah, that was it was?

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yes, yeah, but no, So I don't know you would
like to see Fox top that eight seventy three. You're going, like,
like we said, you're going in against the NBA, but
then obviously you want the conference house with any other
takeaways from that. I just I don't know what Fox
does to kind of I would love to know, Like
Mike mulva Hill's like thoughts right now, this is candid thoughts,

(14:54):
like are we like like we just said, I mean Okay,
you know, you do the Friday night thing with Gordon.
Here we have the Xflampionship game on. You know, this
is primetime Fox whatever again opposite and we're dealing. I'm
just curious hear kind of your thoughts on just Fox's appetite.
We saw NBC drop out of the USFL, you know
that kind of all that agreement that was part of
the merger and everything. But yeah, you saw them maybe

(15:15):
not feeling like they were getting enough out of that
could be.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
And it was delayed I think about twenty five minutes
or so. Fox had h and I don't watch soccer,
so I'm not sure what it was, but it was
some kind of s and there was some trophy presentation
thing and it ran over, which actually worked into their
favor because the the USFL Conference Championship was had not
quite wrapped up at six o'clock. I also when I

(15:40):
saw it was gonna be three and six. Now, I
know they've been playing a lot of these games right
at the three hour mark, but I mean, you're kind
of taking a chance and you got two conference championship
games on different networks.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
But it did end up working out.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
I think the soccer ran a little long, and they
might have even carried it a little longer than they
had planned to because they did a lot of trophy
presentations and stuff. But yeah, you got a one. You
know here it is six pm Eastern on a Sunday.
You would have thought that it really had a shot
to top, you know, a million viewers, but you know,
it's this is this is kind of the trend that

(16:12):
we've seen. At least it was higher than some of
these Friday night games.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's the positive out of this.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Did you know so like Major League Soccer can't actually
use MLS dot com because that's MLS. That's my marker
on the real estate website. So they actually have to
use MLS soccer dot com. That's pretty interesting the mL
Like Major League Soccer doesn't actually have MLS.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Why would you bring that up?

Speaker 1 (16:35):
But I did, like how was it? Saint Louis tweeted.
They're like, oh, we need the defenders need more time
to get ready for the game because with the delay
and then they lost. I'm like, man, this is this is? Uh?

Speaker 2 (16:48):
I like that?

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Oh the other thing I was going to say, and
just I don't know any better time to talk about this,
but we have been talking offline that both the Twitter
and Instagram and everything doesn't seem to know when this
championship game is that uh Fox on UFL, wait is it?
The UFL on Fox seems to think that the game
is on Fox this weekend, which it is not. It's

(17:09):
on ABC. And they also think that it's on Sunday,
June fourteenth, which is on Saturday, June fourteenth. But even
yesterday I think it was one of the and I
don't want to I got an email yesterday from the
UFL saying that the game was on Sunday and not Saturday,
and then they updated it. I responded just so you know,

(17:31):
never heard of response. It was actually one of the
team reps and not the league, so but still like no,
I'm like, this is where I get my problem, John
of like I can only care so much, like when
we don't like when the like when UFL on like
I'm sure they just like had the graphic from last
year up there, like when the networks don't know when
the game is or don't care to update or delete

(17:53):
the tweet, Like I can only care so much. It's
just kind of where I'm at and how I feel
the way I am.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
And I can show you it is still up.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
It's been two days and it still says it's Sunday
and you can see there. I actually replied, hang on,
isn't this Saturday on ABC? Not on Fox on Sunday.
So it's so it's yeah, there's a lack of detail.
And here's the problem with this. There's only about two
or three of us that were in the comments there

(18:22):
on Instagram who said this isn't right. Everyone else is like, oh,
this is great and whatever. It's like there's gonna be
a lot of people that are casuals who saw that,
and then they're gonna say they're going to tune in
on Sunday and it's gonna be too late.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
I know.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Do I have the Twitter one? Even? I mean, I
send that to them, but it's just like it just
means and then there's like there's no response, and so
then you're like, Okay, well why do I I just
that's when then I just start losing like my my
will and like you know, at the end of next week,
this won't be like because the Sea Dragons didn't come

(18:57):
back to Seattle or because of like online bulb, because
it'll be like because I just can't care if you
can't get the if you can't get the data of
the championship game right in the email and like don't
respond or like that's where I just like, what am I?
What am I doing here?

Speaker 2 (19:12):
I just don't crazy, I just don't get.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Like, you know, there are coaches and general managers and
everything who will tell you football is about detail and
everything is about detail, and for that to be up
for two plus days kind of shows you and on
from the UFL on Fox account.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
To me, that's a problem. And it's been liked to
buy Fox Sports.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
You'd think somebody, I don't anybody would say, hey, that
graphic's not right or they so they.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Deleted the one on Twitter. I just pulled it out
because I tasted. So that's you know, I mean, okay,
it's it's Tuesday at three twenty now, I.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Mean this like it's maybe Instagram's next.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
I just can't, like I can't care more than like
they care. It's just kind of where I'm at, Like,
I just can't. It's just really hard. So so we
did that. Okay, So then the the ab ratings here,
so this was better and we were hoping all this
stuff on here. So at the USFL conference rating the
better game to be fair, the ABC games a new

(20:09):
and Eastern on this and I was this was like,
this is also why this is time of year is
just brutal, Like these are all it's like graduation parties
and barbecues and all like spring. It just it's a
horrible time of year to try to watch anything on
the weekends. Like I said, I caught up all day today,
which was great, but I couldn't imagine most casual you know,
it's it's it's hard to kind of just sit down

(20:30):
and find the time to do these at this time
of year. But what was at one point one million
peaked at one point six with AVO, So yeahnon to
three better, ABC was a lot better.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Better presentation to you know, Joe tests sells everything like
it's a super Bowl, and that is not a criticism.
I mean, I love I love that he gets he
gets intense about these games, and and you know, and
I don't know if it was on Twitter, but the
video that you sent me someone had been recording obviously, Yeah,
that's on the air. They were recording the back arm,

(21:03):
you know, recording the what was not for air and
he was like, pretty you know, trying to You don't
like people who want to try to direct and produce
from the booth as someone who is a sportscaster and
has worked behind the scenes, but he was saying, hey,
can we put this up there so it says conference
championship and can we do this so we want because
we want people to know what they're watching. And you know,

(21:25):
you would hope that everyone that involved in the UFL
cares as much as Joe Tess did about the broadcast.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Well no, and that that is just also and I
don't I don't want to speak to you know, the
ABC crew or whatever that, but I understand and not
producing like from the booth thing. But I have the
same things. Saturday, I had to go out and shoot
a dance recital at the thing and I showed I
told him i'd be there at one. The thing was
at two, and I show up at one and like

(21:51):
none of the audio stuff was ready and nothing was,
you know, for me to test or do and so
that they're like, oh, we got to go on break
now we got to do it. I'm like, guys, you've known,
like I would have been here at noon or eleven
or like you know, you say anyway, and so then
the production suffered because right, and I can only care
so much, and it's to say, yeah, Joe, like, can

(22:12):
we get this? And maybe they're not even thinking about it,
they're oh, shoot, oh yeah, okay, maybe we like I
just I appreciate that. And I thought he did a
good way of that where you could tell that that
was him trying to like, we need to elevate this
for the fans, and not like someone did. I just
it's because he cares, and I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
Right, And you know, and there's probably I've talked to
some people who have worked you know throughout uh you know,
back during the USFL and XFL who worked on those
broadcast crews, and you know, by the end of the season,
you know, you're a little tired, There's no question, you
get a little burnout. And then you also wonder sometimes
they just you know, this is this is just the UFL,

(22:53):
and you know, you hope that that attitude doesn't is
not prevalent, you know, through through the networks. But I
do like, you know, again, the presentation of ABC was
to me, ABC and ESPN was second to none this year.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Just a couple other things we have. We have the
attendance here and then a couple other things. Just I
want to talk Abdul's tweets here, just kind of year
over year, and then we'll we'll talk the games because
they're really exciting. And we got to get Brandon Silvers.
Who would have thought the I can't read this, My
eyes were too about the actually conference at the Dome
and American Center averaged twenty seven five eighty nine per attendance.

(23:30):
In Birmingham it was to tred and sixty two. And
then we'll talk the year over year, but twenty seven
for Saint Louis, twenty for Birmingham. Thoughts on that first
nineteen sees me.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Saying, right, yeah, And as we all know, these attendance
figures are always tickets distributed. Because when that Birmingham game
started and they were showing you know, protective stadium, I
was just like, this is you know again, you know,
you know, it's awesome that the people are there. They

(24:03):
have some great hardcore fans, but these guys were trying
to play for a trip to their fourth straight championship
and you and and it was a sparse crowd. It's like,
you know, was there a big tent revival in Birmingham?
Did church run late? Like what happened that they couldn't
get people there, you know at three o'clock in the afternoon,
two o'clock Central time? Uh So, Yeah, it was just

(24:27):
really disappointing. And I and and we've talked about it
all season long. We know that the UFL is disappointed
with with the attendants I think overall, and I think
they're they're disappointed with the attendants in some certain venues,
and I think Birmingham is one of them.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, I would co sign that. I think it was
in our group chat today. We were yes Sdair today
and Mike and everyone, But yeah, I think we seem down,
feel feel down on Birmingham. I have a we have
a pro prolific network. I wanted to do your comment
here in this second. I just a couple of things
trap duel here. So now that we kind of have
a ra season playoffs, we'll talk attendance brave predictions here

(25:04):
with the attendance later on. But year year decreased five
percent five half a million, five fifty three six twenty nine.
Last year. Thanks have Duel for all this five hundred
and twenty four thousand this year, XFL seventeen thousand, USFL
Conference seventy seven one hundred and the XFL Conference without
Saint Louis eleven thousand, so is still averaging more with that,

(25:24):
but five percent down on fans this year, even with
Saint Louis getting the extra home game, you know, the Albmodome,
all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
Thoughts on that right, well, I think ticket prices have
gone up, and I think that probably kept a lot
of people away because it's just not as accessible for
a lot of people. You know, when I went up
in the middle of the season to Saint Louis, you
know our tickets we had, we paid I think about
twenty or thirty dollars more each for those in relatively

(25:52):
the same area. And then you add on top of that,
you know, your concessions are They're going to be expensive.
It's like that in any venue. So I do wonder
that if some of the prices that they that a
lot of them might have felt like they're getting gouged
a little bit, especially ones who may be in Saint
Louis or even Birmingham or wherever. It's like, hey, wait

(26:13):
a minute, we were here from the start, and we
were paying twenty dollars a ticket, and now my same
tickets seventy dollars. I just to me, that would keep
a lot of people away, especially when you know you
don't have to pay for parking. You can watch it
at home and not pay for parking and not pay
for fifteen dollars beers and ten dollars hot dogs.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
I go back and forth because like live entertainment is
so much anymore, Like I know what I paid to
go to WrestleMania for two nights, and I know what
Dorothy and I are paying to go to Madrid to
watch the Commander's play, and I know what. We even
had a friend that was like trying to sell their
Seahawks season tickets and hey, we can't. You know, does
anyone want to take it over? And you know, because

(26:53):
I haven't looked at like, you know, what is a
professional sport? Right? And I've been even tracking the Commanders
new the stadium building and how they're going to have
to do these like seat licenses. And the point is
like football is really expensive. So on one hand, I
see these people that complain about whatever, and you're like,
just everything's expensive. I mean I paid nine hundred dollars

(27:15):
for a plumber to come do you know whatever, and
like just everything's expensive. Everything's really really expensive, but I
do get you where like and that was the comments
last week in the YouTube channel because I think we
got in it was either last week or the week
before when we got into the Birmingham discussion, and that
was echoing your comments, like you know, it was free
or it was whatever, and now it's it's them starting Birmingham.

(27:37):
So low was the problem because you started it at
this unsustainable rate of you know, basically we get in
for free or you get a T shirt in a
blanket and whatever, and then yeah, you want to gadruple
the prices over three years. I understand that. And I
don't know how affluent a market Birmingham is. I think
that compounds it. But it's a two sided coin. But
they really shot themselves in the foot by you know,

(27:59):
three or three or four years ago.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Now with usfl well.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
And you've got to make these things events too, Like
I mean, if you if you you can't charge people
more and then have the same event, you've got to
have a little bit of extra something, you know, at
Saint Louis. They do have an area set up. I
will say two years ago it was incredible. I mean
they were giving stuff away and they had all this stuff,

(28:23):
and then last year was a little bit smaller. It
felt like it was a little bit smaller this year.
But you have to make it. You have to make
it more than just the game to get a lot
of people to come out. Now, hardcore people, you know,
the fans who are fans of that team, they're going
to come out, but they're not. But you know, a
lot they're not gonna come out every game if it's
going to be you know, I can't walk out of

(28:43):
here without spending two hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Well yeah, And just even like if you look at
you know, if you're looking at Birmingham, right, so I've
got you know, five home games over ten weeks, right,
or whatever it is it is that I mean, and
so you know, if I had Seahawks season take, it's
maybe I'm going to seven or eight games over seventeen.
I mean, it just it just feels like it compounds
all that. And I mean I just remember that first

(29:07):
season when we were really you know they do in
the USFL podcast every week and all that, and I'm like,
you know, by like the third Sunday, I might have
to grocery shop. John like I might not be able
to just like take the week, like I work from home,
so I but like I definitely get Dorothy where I
have to do everything I do on Monday or on
Sunday because come Monday, you know, I'm working at school

(29:29):
and I get up at six and I get home
late and I don't have time. So I just I
always laugh at that. Or like when people used to
get out of the Seattle stuff, I'm like, you know,
people have like you know, it's like a Thursday at
ten o'clock, like people have stuff to do here in Seattle.
Any other comments. I have a couple of comments from
the chat and then we'll move on.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Uh No, I think you covered it. I think there again,
as Daryl Johnson said, it's only your two. We got
to work some things out. Don't have a game in
Birmingham at eleven o'clock Central time on Mother's Day on
a Sunday.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Shouldn't have one to come and I can't put that.
But yet, when the mech isn't gone, the plum attendance
will plumbing in Saint Louis. We are done with this
ass uh and then this I like this and justin
check Birmingham's when ever saw but this is probably never
I used to. I considered Birmingham gets Spring Football City.
I don't have faith anymore. The original Stallions had great numbers.

(30:21):
Uh yeah, same here. I totally agree as expecting the
conference championships be more of a fiest, the conference logos
paying homage. Remember when we got the rights to all
the USFL stuff and then we could do all the
legacy and everything, and then we're.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Like, well, well, I mean, how great would that? You know?
The USFL.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
I think it was uh the second year, I think
when they like really leaned into.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
That's what I'm saying, because they got they saidled the
lawsuits so they could finally do all that.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
They leaned into it.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
They would show, you know, during the games, they would
show clips and they it was almost like they were
trying to work some of those records into they were
current USFL.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
And it certainly felt that way because you'd say, well,
this is the you know, the highest uh you know passing,
you know, yardage since you know Bobby Abert did it
and what and so yeah, they they really leaned into
some of that.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
I mean, honestly, I don't know what to deal with
the XFL is.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
Or or who owns what copyright or whatever, but man
lean into some of this, you know, some of the
older stuff, you know, bring out, bring out Jeff Bram
and asking questions. Let me let me ask you a question.
So yeah, I would have loved to have seen more
of that, and really like, may you know that that
that's a good point, like this is this could have
been like a you know, a big thing.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
That is probably my favorite interview of all times from
and right, John what's his name, Jeff Brom Jeff Brom
and if anyone that doesn't know, but that's from the
XFL O one. And he was blown up the week
before it killed right.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
And oh he was decapitated, and they actually stayed. He
stayed in the stadium and he's wearing this neck break.
And what's great is he's now the UFL coach and
here in Louisville. And he was the head coach at
Western Kentucky University, which I covered in television, so I
really kind of got to know him. I covered his brother,
who was a high school phenom here in Louisville and

(32:16):
got to know him and he is such a great guy,
and I would talk to him all the time about
you know, spring, about the XFL, but also about spring football,
and actually did a story with him where I asked him,
you know about this was at the time when the
AAF was about to announce, as was the XFL, and
even he said, Hey, it's great, but there's no way,
there's no room for two spring football leagues. He said

(32:39):
that in I think twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, so and
he was right. But I always said that if the
UFL really did expand expansion and they came to Louisville,
you know, if that was you know, I know that
was very far fetched, but if it did, like there
would be no greater ambassador than Jeff prom.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
If I was still doing the podcast, I would have you,
like get a cameo from him and be like like,
why do I listen to the Mark Cast? Like am
I breathing?

Speaker 2 (33:09):
I ask your question, yeah, is this or is this not?
The Yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:13):
The queste the quote was is he got the cabinet
today was the next week, and they're like, like, how
the hell are you out here playing the football, and
he goes, let me ask you a question. Is this
this is not the XFL and they go yes, and
he goes, do I do I not have a pulse
and then they go yes. He goes, I'm let's go
play football, and it's it is all.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
It's awesome.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
And they play that during u of L at u
of L football like they play it on the PA
and have the video.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
It's great.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
What's the guy's name, Jeff brom I gotta play it
on here.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, yeah, And he's uh.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
And like I said, he there could be no better
ambassador for for spring football because I mean it.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Killing this because we're killing times there. I feel like
everyone's okay with this if you're not okay with this,
but we're just we're gonna play. Joe, don't come at
me for copyright track. And this was the week before
Third Night Bailey in motion into the answer.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
He caught it, say no touch.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Out, Okay, that was all right.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
I didn't even realize it was actually a touch He's dead.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
He's dead.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yes, he is looking out of.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
His Orlando Rager led by quarterback Jeff Broms seven GD passes,
one of the XFL's first Stars XFL on one, don't
come after me? Copy right shot that knocked him out?
Oh here they waited, just showed it on here. I
could just played the whole thing. My first reaction was up,
you know, was shocked. This is I need the sideline?

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah? Yeah, they go through.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Here we go, Here we go, here we go.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
This is starting this game tight after taking that hit
just six days ago.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Well let me answer.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
Let me answer that question by asking you two questions.
One is this there is it's not the XFL, Yes
it is. Two Do I not currently have a pulse?

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yes? I do.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
Let's play football home?

Speaker 1 (35:07):
I mean this is the greatest is the greatest? Now
sideline on that interview.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Still, we're about to come up on the like twenty
fifth anniversary of that next spring.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
If I was doing the podcast, I would get Jeff
Brawm on next week. I would say, we need to
get him on the job, all right, anything else with that,
because I because I want to get into the game. Here,
let's let's go back, let's talk BattleHawks. But I wanted
to get to this because it brought into this. It
kind of was all related to this. How about the
UFL trying the shortcut to shortcut its numbers by continually

(35:40):
putting the championship in Saint Louis instead of focusing on
other fan bases. So I want to get into this. Now,
what's your thoughts on Saint Louis? You know here and
even like this year, the six home games and all
this and the playoffs and the championship. I mean, you're
a huge beat guy, You're a huge I mean, what
are your thoughts on this? And then we'll get into
the game. I'll pull this outs.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
I think it's you're not It's not much of a
gamble to put it in Saint Louis. You've got a dome.
You hope that the BattleHawks are going to be there
if you're the UFL. But even if you're not, you're
drawing on a pretty large metropolitan area. And then when
you look at it, I mean, I understand the point
of you know what about some other fan bases, but

(36:21):
if you're the UFL, like think about this, where else
are you gonna put it? Are you gonna San Antonio?
Seems to always be a problem with scheduling. Are you
going to put it at Ford Field? That's uh, you know,
that's a lot, and as James Ellis say, is right there,
it's like, you know, what's going to be the availability
of some of these other places.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
So I get it.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
You know, they made a big deal, like this big announcement,
like we're here to announce that it's gonna be, you know,
the UFL Championships coming back to Saint Louis. I think
we all knew that before the season. There might have
been some talk about trying to put it in d C,
but I think there was wasn't there an issue there
with MLS or there was some some problem there, So.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Hey, Johnny, you know it's interesting about them a lot?

Speaker 2 (37:04):
Is it the website? So but but I get it.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I think there are there are probably a lot of
people that are you know, they're tired of that would
would love for it to be somewhere else. But the
problem is, if you're the UFL, you've got to find
an available place and you've got to try not to
roll the dice on are you going to take it
to Birmingham?

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Well, are you going to get people that people.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Won't even show up for a team that won three
straight championships and it's outdoors, you know, in the spring
in the South. So there's just there's a there are
there are a lot a lot of factors that probably
went in there, but that just seems to me the
path of least resistance to do that, To put it
in Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Well, yeah, I mean you're just running into a lot
of issues obviously with the Super Bowl and the two
weeks in between, and you know, so this you have
six days now, right if you were trying to get
you know, to to go do and travel. Ah, I don't,
I don't know. We'll see. I guess I'll be really curious.
Michigan has shown their fan base to be very passionate

(38:00):
this year, and so maybe they do come down and
maybe Michigan looks good. And this is kind of whatever
h DC has always been in power US. I. You know,
ideally you would use the championship game and the neutral
side as a way to test the water somewhere. But
then you're having to take a gamble, right, and you know,
find it. If I'm the UFL, and if if attendance

(38:21):
doesn't really matter, then who cares? Then put it in
find some soccer stadium somewhere and put it cool, like
if just to experiment them, like if you don't, because
I mean if it was twenty seven thousand for the
game Sunday, I mean, what's the championship game going to
be twenty right?

Speaker 3 (38:37):
I mean, and you think about it, what if you
did find a neutral site, you know, to put this
where maybe you draw a little bit more of an audience,
but you put it in a metropolitan area where you
could actually you know, but yeah, like it.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Put it.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Put it in an expansion market to see where you
can if you could test some interest there, but make it,
make it a thing.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Bring it. Oh you know, you.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
Open up a open up a whole new area of
maybe some casual fans who'd be like, oh, this is
going on in my town.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
I might go try to check this out.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Speaking of the game, and speaking of quarterbacks getting killed,
Jeff bromstot like the defenders were all over this today
and whether it was Manny Wilkins or whether it was
Brandon silver Is, they're not a lot of options on that.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
What is this?

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Oh, harem, I don't like this website anymore. But so
what did you make of I don't know, I mean,
how did you view that? Did you view that as
a defenders, defense showing up and just taking care of business.
Or was it Saint Louis have no opportunity to protect
at all because they were getting killed all that. Yes, yes, yes, everything, Yeah, two.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Things can be correct. I mean it felt like saintly.
You know, we we heard all season long, all season long,
and and for a reason that you know that offensive line,
the Knights of Colombo, and you know that they were
doing such great work and protecting, protecting mac dug In.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
I don't know what happened there.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
I mean at one point, you know, you hear the
announcers say like, maybe we need to put in that
backup offensive line that played last week because they were
doing a lot better job. They absolutely got dominated at
the line of scrimmage and that's where games are won
and lost. And then you know Jordan Tom who doing
his thing. Max duggan Uh, I don't know how many
times he was sacked, but like he was under pressure

(40:23):
the whole time, and we know, you know, with his motion,
you know we.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Saw it coming.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
We saw it happen again with that slower motion and
where he brings you know, the ball down here and
comes up with it. It gives it, gave a lot
of those you know, defensive linemen and and and the
pass rush time to get to him. I mean to
the point where they had to bring in Brandon Silver's
and you know, and it's too bad because then he
got in there was doing some work and then he

(40:49):
got carted off. So uh, it's just that that was
a that's a tough one to watch if you were
really kind of pulling for the battle Hawks, you know,
to do this, and and it would have it would
have been from I mean, I think DC fans would
tell you it would have been better for the league
if Saint Louis had won that game so they could
play a championship there. So I just, yeah, that was

(41:10):
a tough watch. But take you know, take again, take
nothing away from DC. Like they were absolutely the better
team pretty much in all three phases. And that's what
that's what what wins, and that's why I think it's
really gonna be a great match up with Michigan.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
It's just interesting because we kind of talked this Max
dug And thing all season. It was kind of his
throwing motion and the weird and obviously they're gonna rewatches
and somebody did they highlight a lot more of the
turnovers in sacks and stud but like, uh, we were
playing Mariners for playing the Arizona last night, and it
was this weird thing too where the pitcher kept trying
to throw, like Julio got thrown that we kept trying

(41:44):
to throw the player off at first and the pitcher
was just an abysmal throw the first but where the
first baseman would have to catch him was like down
low where he could like it was almost like a
bad throw that led to the kind of the tag
and Julio got caught and it's just weird, this dug
and thing like we've been talking about a year. And
then obviously you know they can spotlight that and tape
study and everything else, but it was just a nightmare

(42:05):
that way. And then yeah, it was like I had
forgotten because Pat Raffino had blown up the group chat
on Sunday about you know, Brandon Silvers, and then I
kind of forgot by the Brandon silver some whatever, and
then he got carried off. Keem Butler incredible catching the
end zone for that. That looks good, but I don't know,
it just felt like did Saint Louis have a quarterback

(42:28):
issue here?

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Then?

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Or how did you because it kind of felt like here,
none of their options really came to be well.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
I mean Max Duggan had I think fewer than thirty
yards passing in the first half and they're down twenty
to six at halftime. So Anthony Beck had to do
something and it felt like it really did. It felt
like just dugging. It just wasn't coming together. I mean,
people have bad games. He's he's had great games, but
it's again, I don't think it was all him.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
I think DC's defense, whatever they were doing, they were
doing it right.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
And you know, they'd seen that team before and you
know it, and I know it that last game did
it that You don't take a whole lot, but they
had played you know, they had played there at Saint Louis,
you know earlier in the year, so and and they
you know, handling pretty well. Now again, they had picked
off i think three Manny Wilkins passes, so it was

(43:19):
it was it was a different setup. But DC's defense
is really good, you know. Now they they had trouble
stopping the run, but at that point, which d C
is always I think d C was a probably fifth
and like stopping the rush, but when you're down twenty
to six, when you've put so much pressure on the quarterback,
they have no choice but to pass. And that was
where you know, you just you get it. You've got

(43:41):
into trouble, and that's what happened Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
A couple of comments in the chili pull up in
a minute. I agree with that. I we other comments
related to the game. A lot of people calling for
agent mccherron here. I'm like, AJ is still just chilling
or doing.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
Want coming back to Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Bro But you know what I mean, the thing here
we go through and right, you know they brought it
in Silver's lay. I mean, there's just been a lot
of it feels like they never like that happened offseason, right,
and I feel like they never really had that backup.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Yeah, but you know, Max Duggan had played great. I mean,
he was undefeated, and he was like one of the
big reasons that they were one of the number one
rush offense because I mean, yeah, they have a great
running game, they had a good they have a good
offensive line that did not show up that night. But
he is also a great dual threat quarterback. I mean,
it was just there. You couldn't really take anything away

(44:35):
from him having to step up into that starting role
and then doing everything that he could do and looked
really good until he played DC.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Is that the last football pass the Brandon silver throws
in a professional level?

Speaker 3 (44:52):
I mean, you know, he didn't start the season, and
you gotta wonder, like, O, I came back and now
you know, and then this happens, and you know, he's
been around it for he's been around it for a while,
so maybe and it's too bad because like when he
did get in there there, you know, we saw him
a couple of times this season. He got in there man,

(45:15):
and he looked great.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Man.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
He was slinging it just you could tell like he
was a veteran quarterback. But yeah, I would I'd love
to see him come back and play for someone because
I think he could probably start for a lot of teams.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
I was just laughing, like thinking, like because we really
didn't talk any of that, like AJ, the just the
drama and everything. I guess with age hand the Bramas,
like it feels like it feels like burning a lot
of bridges if you ask me, Like, I don't know,
if I like very entertaining, but nothing was as exciting.
What made me think about it was Brandon Silver's with

(45:50):
AJ and the Roughnecks and that kind of like that
was just kind of the most And I was also
way more like I just had the time to watch
every game. I just that was kind of if I
really enjoyed that, and that was a kind of a
fun little, uh, you know, time period we had there.
And what was that the XFL twenty three right, yes,
maybe they all float.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
Together, Gambler's Roughnecks. It's you know, still debate. It is
the biggest fumble of the merger was that whole thing,
But that's another story.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
It is funny the think that Brandon Silver's was our
my quarterback back in twenty twenty with the Dragons and
now there you go with Brandon will be into that
ballocks again come up short in the you know, to
go to the championship game. Uh, I don't think Anthony
Beck is going anywhere. But do you have any thoughts?

Speaker 2 (46:38):
I don't. I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
I mean, I I'll never say never because coaching business
is weird. But speaking of coaches, Shannon Harris and I mean,
that's he's got to be coach of the year, right,
I don't they started to announce them, and we do.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
We'll touch on I did realize we forgot we had
the offensive player and defense. We can touch on.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
That time at the end.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
But yeah, but I mean, I think what Shannon Harris
has done is is pretty incredible, and he taught he
you know, he gives credit to Reggie Barlow and the
culture and all that, but it takes a lot when
you start to look. You know, he lost an offensive
line coach before the season started, then he loses the
head coach, then his defensive coordinator leaves, so everybody's stepping up,
and you know, what.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
He's done to me is like that's he's he's got
to be coach of the year.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
And and you know I was on the Skip Holtz
bandwagon too because he's he did what he did with
about fifteen different quarterbacks. But what Shannon Harris has done,
did it consistently and now he is in the UFL championship.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
That's pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
I will be curious, yeah, if just what he does
and does he follow you know, does he go to
college there with the kind of the rest I think
DC will be will be a team to kind of
watch there. The Beck thing's weird because you know, he's
he's more of the cheerleader kind of coach, right. I
feel like it's more of the the Dan Campbell right
like where the leader of men coach versus the like

(47:55):
where I'm I'm very curious what the Lions look like
this year with what Dan Campbell without Ben Johnson and
all that, like, you know, I mean.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Some of these teams like yeah, and and you know this,
and with the battle Hawks, you know, I said before
the season, I thought they're the big question was there
was way too much change that happened, and happened really quickly.
But they really they adapted, as you know, they adapted,
you know, pretty quickly. They did not adapt to what
to what to what happened against DC for sure.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Though.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Just a couple of funny comments here at Chris because
of mar Doma by a UFL team and then then
the Edfonton Eskimos, which is wildly funny because the Edmonton
Eskimo mar Domino is the BC Lions. But Edmonton they
rebranded to the Elks like during like right after COVID
and then they've sucked. So now they're like the Elks,
but they just go by the ee. So now they're like,

(48:47):
it'st the Eskimos again. But they're like, well, no, we're
just we're just the Edmonton. It's very weird. So I
think that's very funny. And then de Marcus here, Yeah,
it should be in San Antonio or I think San
Antonio is about middle of the country. Every flight in
the world goes to Texas. Uh, you stay on the river.
I mean Andrew Murray knows the best stay on the
river Walk. But that's really but that would be my

(49:09):
vote because I think not that downtown Saint Lewis and
the Hooters that Evan and I and Anon he would
to like, not that that wasn't fine dining, but there's
and I think there's a Hooters in San Antonio as well.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
But the river Walk.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Yes, there's a lot more things to do yard house
in San Antonio and there's a Margaritaville and I played corn.
I mean, I've spent a lot of time on the
river Walk.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yes, I covered a Final four down there and it
was it was a lot of fun. But I will say,
you know, Canton is a good idea. It's a good venue.
I just you gotta worry. You got to be a
football hardcore fan because there's not a whole lot else
to do and can't. Now you're you know, you are
close to some you know you're close to cities, but
still you're I don't know, you got to be there

(49:55):
for the game.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah, when they have the Rock and Roll Museum, I
think you can go see in Cleveland and right, but
you know, got how far is that? How far is
Cleveland the Canton?

Speaker 3 (50:03):
I don't think it's that far, but you know, I
mean when I was there, I went to the I
was there for USFL at the Hub, and you know
the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I mean, any football fans,
they got to do it. But the venue is I
think it is a great venue they've got. And I
know they were at the time they were building, it
looked like some kind of amusement park or something that

(50:26):
was going on, you know, on that on the land.
So but you it feels like a place like San Antonio.
If you're going to not have it in Saint Louis
would probably be the right place, assuming it's available.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
It's a seven minute drive from Canton, Ohio to the
Pro Football Fan I looked at up, well, yeah there,
meaning the Rock and Roll Hall Fame. That's I looked
at Oh yeah, yeah yeah, rock and roll fam Yeah yeah,
uh yeah. And then that was yeah, this can't have that.
And then they have the Pro Football. I always thought
that that made the most sense to me. It was
like to have the league, like did we play in
Canton and just like anytime you come to the Hall

(50:58):
of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, like there's a
game going on, like I just saw that.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Was it's right there.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
I mean, it's like right when I left the game
on a Saturday, I just walked down some stairs and
went right into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
It's right there. It's right beside the stadium.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
Let's talk here and we might well see how we do.
Tell us we're doing good here. Uh. Michigan Birmingham, Michigan
took over. I tweeted out, you know, Hitler, Dad, that's
my fe know whenever Birmingham loses Soldiers Hitler that uh,
and first championship game that the Stallions aren't going to
be a part of Skip Holtz and kind of everything else.
I had thoughts and I enjoyed kind of watching Danny

(51:37):
Ettling on the sidelines watching Bryce Perkins and all that.
But curious your thoughts here that you know, Jmar was it.
You know, we had a little quarterback being here for Birmingham.
I was down on Jmar. What's your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Yeah, uh, I was.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
I was worried about Bryce Perkins like having rust so
forget that.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
I mean you could tell, like as soon as it came.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Out like this dude is not rusty. And he said that.
He said after the game that he knew, you know,
he hadn't played in a while. So they were trying
to make the practices, you know, as game like as
they could.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
You know, obviously you're not going to.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Hit the quarterback in practice, but he I just thought that,
I mean, he I understand he's the offensive MVP, still
probably should have been Luis Perez or Jordan Tamu, but
beside the point, he's so dynamic and he just went
he took over offensively. I mean, and you want to
talk about he was he all season long, through the

(52:32):
ten games, even though I think he only played seven
or eight and didn't start for whatever reason. You know,
in some of those you see the efficiency. He was
the most efficient quarterback in the league all season because
he can do so much and you know, he's such.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
A he's just like such a good passer, such a
good runner.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
I understand why skip Holtz took out Jmar. I think
he was I think some of it carried over from,
you know, from previously when he'd been a little frustrated
with him. Matt Carrall came in and he started dealing,
so it's like, Okay, maybe this is this is going
to be the move that sparks him. But you know,
Michigan's defense awfully good too. Even though they lost Frank Ginda,

(53:10):
this defense, as you know, they picked up, you know,
they were thin kind of you know in the secondary
they sign they signed to think they signed a guy
or two like maybe that week, and they came in
and we're really kind of able to shut down Dion
Kane quite a bit, who was like, you know, the
big offense, Stallion's biggest offensive weapons or one of the
biggest offensive weapons.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
But yeah, I just.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
Thought, you know, when Malik Turner had that big touchdown
and it made it thirty like thirty thirty four to seventeen,
it's like, okay, that's it. Like that that that was
it and it was.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Anything made to and they were talking like you Michigan
had played Birmingham seven times or whatever over you know,
like this it you know, I mean, and like we
get this in the CFL, like you play a lot
of teams a lot and we do fa everything which
is the home and home where we play at home
one week and then they play I'm like this is wonderful,
like but like is it was it where they just

(54:08):
kind of do there and was it time? I mean,
Michigan looked really good. They looked really fun. I liked
the sideline with Danny watching Bryce and he's like doing
spins in the field and he's laughing. Like it just
felt like there was like a little bit more where
to me, Birmingham was at two weeks. Whenever jmr came in,
it's like, well, I've got this chip on my shoulder.

(54:30):
I got it, you know, I made the mistake and
I didn't whatever the story was, skip called and I
didn't want to do it or now I want to
do it and I have fomo and just felt like
he was running and just kind of trying to do everything.
But when it came time to actually kind of play
and throw, and do you know that was always my concern.
And when Birmingham was losing these games or one or
two kind of coming down the stretch, that was my

(54:51):
concern that way. And then and the Corral and all that.
I just, like you said, Birmingham had a thousand quarterbacks,
so eventually they were going to run out.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
And you know, like I was talking about with skip
Holtz being a little frustrated, there are a lot of
times where you have that all access and you hear
him say, you know, Jmar, you can't do this. You've
got to do this. We're looking for this corner route.
You can't overthrow this that so it felt like, you know,
he was seeing that.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
You know, maybe.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
Jmar was not, you know, playing within the system or
or trying to rely too much on his talent because
he's a very talented quarterback.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
But you know, it looked like the right move to
bring in Matt Corrall.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
You also, you want to talk about you worried about
like someone who might be you know, a little rusty.
And you know Matt Corral is always that guy like
he he'll throw, he'll make some great throws, but then
he makes the one bad one. And he did make
a you know, a pretty bad interception. Now again it
was against an all UFL safety, but it was still like,
that's that's the one that can sometimes kill you.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Moving to the championship game here with the Panthers versus
the defenders, you know, I'm I think like football wise,
as we talk to the top, I think it's very
exciting to see because I think that, you know, the
Panthers are really kind of playing at their peak right now,
Rice and everything, and I just so, I mean, I
guess ure's your take for that, because we talked at
the top, and I'm sure UFL is like God, they

(56:12):
do anything to have Saint Louis or whatever Birmingham. But
considering this is the game that it is, I think
it'll be good. But what are you looking for?

Speaker 3 (56:20):
Well, I got out of the prognostication business because I
had Birmingham in the championship game, So I don't know
if you even want to ask me that, But I
do think that you're going to see two great quarterbacks,
like we said, and you know, quarterback play is what
drives a team, but it also is what's going to
drive you know, maybe some viewers to watch this and
be interested because if it will, remember the first two

(56:44):
or three weeks of the season, the defenses were so
far ahead of the offenses, and some of those games
were just not very fun to watch unless you I mean,
it wasn't even like they were great defensive games. It
was just the offense was kept trying to catch up,
and when it did, we had some excellent games. So
I think you're right. I think I think Jordan Tamu
is is peak level right now. Bryce Perkins showed that

(57:08):
he he's not hurting.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Uh you know he did. There was no rust on
that guy. He came to play.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
So I don't know, you know, I don't want to
take anything away from either defense, but I do think
like we could see a lot of scoring in this game,
which again I think that's also a good thing for
the UFL if we see a really high scoring game
and hopefully a lot closer than last year's UFL championship.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Yeah, that was I was there. That was the blowout,
right they had Burman. Did they have three points at
the end Birmingham or what or not? San Antonio, san Antonio.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
I don't. I don't think they ever scored, did they?
I thought it was like four something. I was really bad.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
I was, yeah, it was really bad. Yeah. No, Abdul
said that to you. This should be a really fun,
high scoring game. He just had a comment here, we'll
get out at the top of the hour. There's been
a lot of buying from Detroit media this year. Detroit
pre Press bro game recap article is the second half.
I see Brian Pride of Detroit putting out two articles too.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
I mean, Tony Scott's there, He's been on the show.
I think he's with the Free pressent. We've had some
of the Detroit media. It's like you said, it's earning
that buy in and doing it every week and not
going away. I think certain teams are better at at
managing That's like I've heard san Antonio is very hard
to like get requests or you know, and Arle intended,

(58:24):
you know, we hit her mess and paying for parking
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
I think like earning that buy in, like from your
Beat reporters, I think is really valuable for them to
kind of put that putting that content on there.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
And in a click based economy, you have to write
stories that people care about and it's felt like you know,
it helps when you've got a really good team, and
then if you can put that together with some buy
in and then you say, okay, well this seems pretty
good again this year. Let's write something and see, like,
you know, what happens with it, and if they get
enough clicks on it, they'll say, Okay, this is something
that people are interested in, so we'll continue to write

(58:56):
for it. And but you're right, you have to have people,
you know, your pr people whoever, who are accommodating, because
if you put any kind of obstacle in front of
the media for a spring football league, they are going
to move on like they're they're because they don't think
it's worth it. So you don't do that, like you mentioned,

(59:16):
give them free parking, like let them in the press box.
It's fine, Like it's it's all free. It's free publicity
for you.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
I've never laughed harder than that sports scambling podcast that
Jeff who's not with the UFL anymore but the former
media former comms director and just screaming on their podcast.
And I've just never laughed harder than like every single
feeling that I felt for like two years, someone else
staying out loud in like five minutes more eloquently than

(59:48):
I could just ever say it. And I just really
really appreciated that A couple of last couple of last
questions here, of course I have Tony Paul. Yeah, it's
not Tony Scott, whatever, I do. You get it people,
Brett Brett Brett asked me yesterday, Brett with the Facebook group,
are we getting Tom Brady or another announcement at the

(01:00:11):
championship game.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
There's been a lot of smoke. I've yet to see
the fire, so but there's been some talk. I finally,
and and I had to e crow on this one
because there was a lot of talk about fred Smith
and FedEx and Memphis, and I never ever saw any
real reporting about that. And I looked forever finally and uh,
and I'm drawing a blank on the reporter's name, and

(01:00:35):
I shouldn't, because he does a great job for the
Memphis newspaper. He actually covers, you know, covers the team
and talks about not just what happens on the field,
but a lot of the stuff off it. And he
did mention that if and what which if is doing
a lot of work here in the sentence, if fred
Smith and FedEx wants to continue, you know with the UFL.
You know, then they're they're probably not gonna move. And

(01:00:57):
then we continue to hear also now that I don't
know if we're even going to see expansion, and that
you know, all the all the teams are gonna stay put.
Usually don't they have like kind of a state of
the League thing before the championship game, like maybe that
Friday or Thursday or Friday. So if that does happen again,
I know Darryl Johnson did it once. I don't know
if Russ Brandon's gonna be the guy. It seems like

(01:01:18):
we've seen a lot of Russ Brandon. But whoever it is,
I will be interested to hear, like, you know, what's
going on with the league kind of there, you know,
and really would like to hear some truth into this,
like what's really happening and are we going to see
Like I don't know if I were a betting man,
which I'm not, although I did win sixty dollars this
past weekend because I had a touchdown scored in the

(01:01:40):
first ten minutes of the Saint Louis DC game. I
did bet on that they scored with nine minutes. But
I will say that I if I were a betting man,
I would think that if there is some kind of announcement,
if there's anything in the works at all, whether it's
official or not, that either gets leaked out or talked
about this week.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Yeah, I I remember it was, Yeah, one of the
they did do that State of the League. So I'm
just trying to kind of backtrack all my stuff. I
think when I went to the XFL championship game, Rock
and Danny did an on field thing before the game,
and I want to say, when the USFL did that,
you are correct where they did like a day before Pressure,

(01:02:23):
which I just and that was last year too, You're
you know, you're absolutely correct. And I just howled because
I thought that anyone is getting into town early enough
to go to like an eight eight whatever the heck
it was Presser the day before the championship game. It's
just wild to me, Like this isn't the CFL where
reporters come in on Monday and stay till Sunday. Like

(01:02:44):
if the game's on Sunday, I might be flying it
on Saturday night, or if the game's on Saturday, I
might be flying I'm not. I'm not there at eight
in the morning to do a state of the League
presser with Russ at the But they did. I do
know they did that because I saw the notes. But yeah,
I don't foresee anything happening. And I'll have another comment
that I'll toss back to you. I don't foresee and
I I don't, And I think you had sent me

(01:03:06):
the Memphis show boats were back in Memphis with the
mascot like today or yesterday, And that certainly doesn't tell
me anybody is like working to relocate out.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
Of there, right, Yeah, No, I think you're right. I mean,
and that's what you know. Memphis has done so much
with you know, in the community. We've talked about it,
and they they they've tried. They've tried so but I mean,
you got to have a good product on the field,
but they did try.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
I yeah, I think that the expansion talk was a
hail mary at the beginning of the season to generate interest.
I'm not saying that hail mary that because it didn't
the league's going the way, but I think they were
trying to generate And I think it's interesting as well.
I think Mark had this article last week and they're like,
we're not expanding anymore, or like he doesn't think I'm like, well,

(01:03:49):
I'm glad. We just spent two weeks talking about all
these trademarks that you've lied. Like okay, like now that
we've gotten all the oh that's not really happening. Okay,
that's fine, all right, so we got our new cycle
out of out of it. I do not believe we're
announcing to you, and I'm I'll be happy to admit
that I'm wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:04:05):
You would think that it would have it would have
leaked out though you would think it would if it
was you know, and obviously it's got to be a
pretty major market, but you would think somewhere along the
line that someone in the mayor's office or somewhere would
have leaked this out. Hey, by the way, you know
this is going to happen. So so to me, if

(01:04:28):
the league doesn't expand and there's no real plan, I mean,
it blows. It's you're right, it's like every few weeks
we're talking like it's going to happen. No, it's not
next week. Yeah, it's going to happen. So but to me,
it's like if if it if it doesn't expand, and
you know, you've got the same eight teams in the
same eight markets, you gotta worry a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
To me, Yeah, that's what you mean.

Speaker 2 (01:04:53):
I'm still going to watch, but you gotta worry.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
Yeah, And I'm still gonna be and like with the
pot like I'll still be you know, I'm lurky and
and everything. I just I don't have especially the CFL.
I just don't. And it's just not fair to the
league to try to talk about it when I'm not watching,
Like I don't you know. That's why I'm like, I
got to the point where I'm like I actually need
to do well, there you go. If Mike's a predicting
no expert, yeah, like I said, we got like Mike

(01:05:18):
was not part of this, but like I'm saying, like
Mark and Brandon and everyone, like we got the clicks.
So now like that's okay, Now, I don't think that, like, yeah,
I don't that. Yeah, if he's I would go with that,
and I Mike's always been whatever on that, but it
felt like, well, it's week seven, I'm bored, okay now,
And I just always laugh about Brandon's in that in

(01:05:41):
whatever that the follow up video where it's like I
just can't figure out why no one else is talking
about this, And I'm like, because it's probably not happening.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
Like, well, but I just so, But you're right, like,
why would the league issue a press release to say, yeah,
you know, we are we're looking at expanding. Now again,
I go back, and I think I mentioned it here
before you go back twenty plus years. I'm old enough
to remember when it was three or four weeks into
the XFL two thousand and one season and they started

(01:06:10):
to they talked to ESPN about it, We're gonna look
at Washington, d C. Maybe Chicago or not Chicago were
they were going into another bigger market because they were saying,
we're gonna look, we're gonna start talking about expanding in
two thousand and two.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Now, it didn't happen, obviously.

Speaker 3 (01:06:25):
So that's why I just like, when you start to
talk about that, you better have something behind it, especially
these days. Again, you know, it was a different media
world in two thousand and one. Now this is you
know a lot of us slappies are on here on
YouTube talking about it and everything else.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
No, but I just again, I would be my last comment.
I would be thrilled and it would be great. I
just I don't see that happening. And then the last thing, right,
we had the Defensive Player of the Year, Bryce Perkins
for offensive player, and then pe the I from the
Ballahawks for the defensive player, and then we had Kendrick
White for specialists. With that, I imagine we'll do Coach

(01:07:03):
of the Years and all like anyway, that's all coming
out this week, but I don't I'm not delaying the
podcast to talk about it was Yeah, it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
Was like they released one as a press release, then
they released another one. So yeah, so I'm assuming it's
coming uh probably if it hasn't already, it'll be maybe tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
They'll start talking Coach of the Year that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
Yeah, last comment here, league needs to make changes. If
they do everything the same, interests will go down.

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
And that's I agree.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
My interest is down. So there.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
Well, like I said, I'm still sick of I'll watch,
but I would I'll be a little disappointed if we
don't see some something different in in in the year
three of the UFL.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
Thanks everyone for watching today. Make sure check out John's channel.
He'll be doing more of that stuff. I know. I
just keep following Anthony Miller two on Twitter. I think
he's starting to do some more stuff. I know he
announced up with the Bears today. He's work and just writing.
So just just support everyone else, And that's just kind
of what I'm going to try to do now, is
just share and support and do that with that Chris,

(01:08:13):
but anyway, so support that, support John, like the channel,
like everyone else, be kind, enjoy the game, and then
we'll yeah, we'll do it next week. I got to
look at my schedule figure it out. Thanks everyone, I
will see it