UFL 2025 Championship Reactions + Final Markcast® Episode!!!

We are going LIVE to recap and react to the 2025 UFL Championship game, the 2025 UFL season as a whole, and to record the (likely) last episode of The Markcast®!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well here we are back here. Let me get back
over to Twitter. Let's bring up our co host. Welcome everyone,
last ever my cast episode UFL Championship Reactions. John just
discovered like five, I'm like, John, that was the name
of the episode. What do you meet? John's like, wait,
this is the end anyway, John, Welcome, How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm great. I don't believe it, but I'm doing well.
It was interesting championship game. Great way to wrap it up.
I wish more people had tuned in to watch it.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
We'll do all that to that. Yeah, so we have
Mike Mitchell's TV ratings, we have attendance stuff, we have
the championship reactions, and then we'll say goodbye. I already
put out you know, we're not doing the CFL and
then it feels like it's time. It's twenty percent down
UFL Championship ratings year over year. We'll get to it later.

(01:28):
We'll get to all of that. Welcome everyone, and I
will note we might have a what did I call
it a pressure washer coming to clean the deck here?
What do we want to go out?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Back, so I couldn't even be on the deck. So
really just a perfect way to kind of end all
of this today. But anyway, welcome. Make sure I can
subscribe to John's channel. You know, I might pop up
back up on there every once in a while, or
PATS channel. I know Anthony Miller is working on CFL
stuff as well. So yeah, we'll still you know, propagate

(01:58):
everything and I'll still be your But I wanted to
have this. I just didn't want there to be this
lingering question forever of like when is like when am
I coming back? So John, it was an exciting the weekend,
I guess football we're here Tuesday, we'll do all that
and then we'll do kind of the year end stuff.
But I was hosting my mother's seventieth birthday party. Many

(02:19):
reasons why this is podcast. But I watched the game
on Monday. I texted you was it? You know, it
was a little bit of a slog in the rewatch
just because we kind of know the outcome. What was
your reactions watching the game live because you had a
different opinion.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, I thought it was I thought it was entertaining.
I mean, if you kind of look at the final
score and you're you know, and and maybe if you
kind of just rewatch some of the highlights or or
just maybe a cut and you know cut down. I
know UFL is really good about putting up longer form highlights.
I thought it was completely entertaining. Now about five minutes left,
I did, I was, I was starting to nod off

(02:54):
a little bit, but I thought it was I really
really thought it was an entertaining game, and it was
a great way for the UFL to kind of wrap
up the season. Those were two incredible quarterbacks, Jordan Tom
who had the game of his absolute life and then
Bryce Perkins. You know, it kind of got overshadowed because
like every time, I think for the first ten possessions,
why DC scored so but what Bryce Perkins did you

(03:18):
know in that game also might have got an overlooked
but he had really had like a he had an
incredible game too. So they even said after after the game,
like his teammates and Shannon Harris, the coach felt like
Jordan Tom who should have been the Offensive Player of
the Year and the MVP, but he did win the
MVP of the championship, so that that did go a

(03:39):
long way.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
He was just bizarre to me that, like the Panthers
just seemingly kind of forgot to play defense or just
like you said, it was every time you know, Tamu
was throwing it down. Well, did you just kind of
not the Michigan team maybe that we were used to
or what was your thoughts on just kind of that.
It really felt like they kind of fell apart here.
I know they some points at the end, but you know,
certainly not a good show.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Well they I think they got punched in the mouth.
And it's you know, they old Mike Tyson quote about
everybody has a plan to they get punched in the mouth,
and but that's what Jordan Tamu and that offense did.
I think Fred Kayes had an absolutely incredible game plan
for the Michigan Panthers because it was kind of, you know,
not to that extent, but it was kind of the
opposite last time these two played. And so there were

(04:25):
a couple of things I thought that d C wanted
to prove. And when they they just got hot and
they and they never cooled off. And you don't see
that a lot in football. A lot of times you'll see,
you know, a team come out pretty strong and they're
going to hit a slog now and then d C
never felt like they did, and they all and and
Michigan just could not counter punch with them Sunday night.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
In terms of the Tayomu of it, I know, you know,
off season a long time and then we talked to
pres and all that. I mean, I don't know, I
feel like Taomu is kind of a little bit longer
in the tooth as well. Here Similarly, in the Mark
has like, do you feel like he I just like,
what is left.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
For him here?

Speaker 1 (05:04):
You know he's he was right the game MVP won.
I don't know what else is left for Tamla at
this point.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
I don't know, but I mean, when you have a
game like that, it would be hard for me to
think that he's just gonna stop playing, like, I mean,
there's a lot. It felt like that there's still a
lot left in that tank that you know, that wasn't
you know, some slappy team they were playing. They were
playing a really really good Michigan team in the championship
game of the UFL. You know, I don't know that
he gets you know, I would think he would get

(05:33):
another look in the NFL. But you're right, Age might
play a factor in that. But we're you know, assuming
that you know, things line up for the UFL in
twenty twenty six. I would just be shocked if he
just if he didn't get an NFL look and he
didn't catch on, you know, whether it's on an active
roster or a practice squad, that he would just quit
because it just feels like that he's got a lot,

(05:54):
He's got a lot left to me, at least on
this level.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, he's twenty seven. I mean that's I just you know,
and you kind of go to the UFL fan zone
said twice, I was, well, of course twenty.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Seven on that.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
I still getting wrong here last day, but like it
feels like he I just feels like he's he's I
don't know, just have kind of gone through it. Andrew
here says you a masterclass and play my guys. It
wasn't Cassious or whatever. What was the Fred Cassius or whatever?
The Brandon mad On the I could get that. What

(06:29):
is what do you this championship game right lopsided by
all accounts, score looks a little whatever. I was there
last year, blowout, right, we all remember, I mean it
was it was it wasn't a game, yeah, And I
mean really I'm trying to remember, like what was it
the Star Stallions, like that was a good one back,
like the Cookiss leg break. I'm just trying to think of,

(06:51):
like what is it about these championship games that and
obviously you know there's only been a couple of it
feels like we have a little bit more lopside here,
like were these two the best two teams? And why
do you think that there was such lopside in this
year in the.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
I mean that happens to the super Bowl. I mean
we've seen it more more often than not that you know,
the super Bowl ends up being a complete blowout. So no,
I mean, I just there are a lot of I
think there are a lot of factors in there. It's like,
you know, who is the who's the better play caller,
who gets hot, stays hot, who's got you know, who's
who's got the uh, who's got the right game plan?

(07:25):
But also this might have been for a lot of
these players the first time on a stage like this,
like in a championship game. Now granted it wasn't the
super Bowl. It certainly wasn't a super Bowl crowd there
or a super Bowl TV audience, but that none of
that really matters. It's like a lot of people who
are asking these NBA players about, you know, what do
you think about like the TV ratings being down? And

(07:47):
you know, I think it was like Halliburton, there were
some other players saying, well, we're we're playing in the finals.
We don't care about TV ratings because this is their sport.
So to me, I just think that this might have
been I'm not saying that Bryce Perkins or you know,
some of that didn't live up to it. But you know,
you play a little differently when you're in a championship game.
Sometimes that's better and sometimes that's worse.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
They're talking here at Commander's back. I assumed for a talent,
but well, you know they got married other right, we
got them one more because Commander's my team. We got
married of that, I would I mean, guys, love Marcus
right now and I'm glad that we got him back
on there, but he's not going to be a backup forever.
I think that would be cool. Do we want to
do ratings and kind of move that into this? Do
you want to any more general thoughts about the game

(08:30):
before we get into that.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
I just again, I thought like if you if a
lot of people might just have seen the score, they
would have thought, well, that wasn't very interesting, or boy,
there were a lot of points score, but it was
still wasn't a close game. I just really thought it
was entertaining to me from beginning to end. And you know,
I didn't have a dog in the fight, even though
I did. I mean, I had a panther shirt ready
to go too, but I just I did. I thought

(08:52):
it was a really interesting game and it showed like
high how high level that a lot of these players
can play and have played this season.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
I think it was Sunday and I finally texted you
because again we had had people over on Saturday. Kind
of right during the game, I thought, well, like so
much for that Tom Brady halftime announcement and expansion the
new markets. And I did not see the halftime show.
I was not included in the recaps that I watched.
I heard it did not feel very high budget was

(09:24):
with the vibes that I got. I saw pictures from
the stadium, like do we see any of that? Or
I guess how is your thoughts on the overall TV
presentation Joe Testaturus style here?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Oh, I mean like, those guys did a great job,
but yeah, the halftime show probably would have been better off.
It looked like somebody was televising a free concert at
the State Fair. I mean it was you know, three
I think it was three guys. They were good. I mean,
I'm not gonna take that away from them. I just
it looked low budget and it looked amateurish. And again

(09:58):
we've talked about how this league is a TV product
and they have got to embrace some of this with
like with optics, if you're putting on a TV show,
you got to make it look good, and that just
it did. It didn't look good. It was there was
no special lighting or anything. It was just those guys
out there playing. Again, I thought they were good. You know,
they got mixed reviews from a lot of people, but yeah,
that they could have they could have found something maybe

(10:20):
a little better, some better content to put on at halftime.
Seemed like that would have been a that would have
been a great time to tell the story of some
of these players and you put together some of those
packages that you know that have those storytelling or you know,
bring out Tom Brady and and Fred Smith and everybody
that they're going to buy these teams, but none of
that happened. We got a I don't the black Moods, that's.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
That's yeah, well more like the bad moods here coming
out of the well. No, but I mean I agree
with you in terms of either you know, tell this
and again like I I didn't watch the whole package
day of there and it my enternet. I don't know
why it keeps them light the one time I'm inside here,
so hopefully it's fine. I'm just getting there a mess
just but yeah, like spotlight some of that or you know, pregame,

(11:04):
you know, tell kind of the story of the season.
Like not one person in the world except for the
Black Moods, you know, parents or whatever or watching that.
So I don't And I don't think they're paying for that, right,
Like I don't think the Black Moods are like, hey
we got twenty gram we'll pay, so like you're not
gaining anything from it. So I and I did see
the comments, like at least in the CFL this last

(11:24):
year they had we were there in BC, the Jonas
Brothers and like, yeah, but you know, and and I
was at the time like, well, this is the CFL
this is gonna look and it looks like a million dollars.
It looks so good, Like even like you said, with
the UFL dim the lights bring some fans to stand
in front of them. Do we have it, like, do

(11:45):
we have a stage? Like can we just a little
bit of stuff to make it feel like it's more?
I mean it's brutal for I mean, I don't make
any fun Like what do you what are you supposed
to do if you're those guys Like I saw the
photo like he's standing on a guitar case or something
to be three feet up. He's got a little Chris
Daughtry kind of short thing going on. But I just,
you know, but this whole like it just it killed me.

(12:08):
The you know, we're the last times, Like yeah, this
whole halftime and expansion and everything, and then but like, hey,
we got all our views off it, so I guess
it's fine.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Well, and you know, there was also the talk, oh,
the UFL's making this big announcement, be sure to stay tuned.
You know, earlier in the season when they were in
Saint Louis and everyone, all of us knew what it was,
but there were a few of us who were just saying,
maybe this is it. This is when they're going to
announce that it's but it was just Danny Garcia announcing
that it was the UFL Championship was going to be

(12:38):
played in Saint Louis. That we all knew about that.
So but yeah, I just you know, again, it's optics
and you had fourteen thousand people there or fourteen thousand
tickets sold. It just it's I mean, maybe it's good
that the ratings were low that a lot of people
didn't see that, because I don't know that they would
return if that's what they thought. The championship game should

(12:59):
have looked like, well.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Let's yeah, let's talk to that and then you know,
I mean, I don't know, deep dive here at the
game Tuesday, you know, going and all that. But I agree,
and it was I just it was just really curious
to me because I knew the outcome. But like you said, well, no,
it was you know, the game itself was entertaining because
it felt like every time DC got the ball, they scored.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
But you know, it's just I mean, it was like
arena football there for a while.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
It was it was it was certainly better than last year.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
With the show.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
I mean like so I would, Yes, I would, absolutely,
because that was I came down and sat with Andy
and them at halftime last year. I mean it was
brutal because I was up in the stands. I'm like,
uh in the press box, I'm what's the point of
sitting up here? Lift? But let's get some mic posted
this today and then Abdul's got a chart here. Of course,
we have our charts and our attendance, but nine hundred

(13:46):
and eighty three thousand viewers for the championship game. It
peaked at one point two from eight to eight fifteen.
That means it peaked in the first fifteen minutes. Greg
Parks had tweeted out that last weekend repeat of the Connors,
and I can pull up the tweet it had a
million viewers for a similar timeslot. So just to give

(14:06):
kind of a retrospect for that, we saw the Gordon
Ramsey Friday Night step before. I think Mike has on here.
It's a twenty percent, or I'd do a twenty percent,
I said, yack. I didn't think it was very good,
but down nineteen percent overall, but the attendance here was
one point five to nine. You know, so one point
six to nine eighty three year over year, Like that

(14:28):
was my reaction. What was your reaction to this, John,
Because this was not good.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
No, it wasn't good. And I went back and like
looked at some numbers. So the twenty twenty two USFL
Championship that was on Fox, that was on July third,
So it's kind of like the July fourth weekend got
one point five million viewers, and then the next year
it got one point one million. XFL Championship in twenty
twenty three one point four and then we're just talking

(14:54):
about how you went from one point five to nine
hundred and eighty three thousand, and that's just you know,
and then you also look at the over the season,
it had an average of six hundred and forty five
thousand viewers, and that was down from eight hundred and
twelve from the year before. So something has to change here.
And again, you know, we we heard from Russ Brandon

(15:16):
and Danny Garcia and Daryl Johnston Friday before the game
that everything is on the table and they're taking a
look at some things they and they said, well, we're
not worried about the ratings. I think Russ Brandon said,
you know, there are a lot of leagues that would
give their eye teeth that to have the viewers that
they had, And that might be true for some, but
that's just not sustainable. I mean, I don't have any

(15:38):
question that I shouldn't say this. I've seen a lot
of Spring leagues just disappear all overnight. I don't think
that's going to happen with the UFL. So I think
it's we've got a twenty twenty six, but you can't
have numbers like this and have a twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
It's well, that's like the thing. And so you know,
I had tweeted just again in the response to the
Jerry Cardinell that Mark Perry had wrote up, you know,
the ratings aren't down, you know, or whatever he said.
I talked and at least, you know, Daryl Johnston was
a little bit more you know, he feels a little
bit more honest about it. But like, so, you know,

(16:14):
my point is we talked all the time TV and attendance,
and they go, attendant, doesn't matter who cares, and we'll
talk to the attendants here. So then you go look
at the ratings and you go you're halfway. You know,
you did sixty percent of what you did last year,
fifty five percent of that? Like, so so what does
matter then? Like that's what I just don't like if
the attendant sayesn't matter, but then the ratings are down
fifty I mean that what is the math on that

(16:37):
one point six and nine eighty three? I mean that's
a that's a was it forty percent drop?

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah? And you know it also I think speaks to
we've talked about this before. I think it also speaks
to interest in the markets, you know overall, when you
start to see attendants drop and then you start to
see you know, and they're there are a bit you
know large some you know, mid size to larger markets
that are these home teams and I don't you know,

(17:03):
I'm sure Mike Mitchell can probably break it down who
he's got, you know, by market by market through Nielsen ratings. Uh,
but yeah, this is you. You you start to worry
that interest has waned, and you know, and then when
you see numbers like that, you you know, you start
to have those thoughts again, like interests might be waning
in this overall, not just not just from the casuals

(17:24):
who might not have caught on, but maybe some people
who watched it last year and just kind of gave
up on it this year.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Well, and that's the problem is now we're getting and
I have a comment from a sky here and he's
just asking about, you know, the stallions and all that.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Do we come back? Do we move?

Speaker 1 (17:38):
It's so now that we've done the championship game, that
was when you were going to make the announcement. That's
you know, so I don't know, like so spoiler, that
announcement isn't coming right, So that's not coming. And I
don't know how you drum interest in year three now
of this UFL. And I'm not saying that, uh, you know,
expansion is the answer, but obviously that's the break glass,

(17:59):
you know, we need. I just don't know a natural
way to grow interest in this league now going into
year three if you're gonna have all eight markets back,
because like we said that, half these markets are ones
that I would have ever picked anyway to put that
in there.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, and you know, from the sounds of what they were,
you know, at least saying publicly that the trio that
did the news conference, it sounds like they're going to
take a pretty conservative approach. But you're right, it's I
wonder if if you can have a two conservative approach,
like if you don't signal some kind of growth and
read you you said this, I think even after last
season that to signal some growth you need to have

(18:36):
maybe a couple of new teams. And it just and
it just it didn't never came to fruition. And you know,
Russ Brandon said they did put out you know, the
RFPs and said that they've had some conversations. I'm just
surprised we haven't heard anything that some kind of news
hasn't leaked out, or if it has, I haven't seen it.
So that doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. I just

(18:58):
you know, I don't know if location is going to
be the answer, although I've said before, like the Memphis
situation doesn't seem sustainable, and you know, Birmingham still getting
you know when when they need some help with scheduling,
so they can't use that as an excuse next year.
Number one. But you know, you can't have those Sunday

(19:21):
noon games down there. You just can't do that. So
that I think these again, these are things that it's
going to they'll use this as a learning process. Now,
let's see if they act on that and see really
what comes to fruition and in the off season now
and in twenty twenty six, well, yeah, we.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Saw it back It was at the USFLA that season
two and then we talked about, you know, the hub
and kind of adding to Memphis thing like I just
like you said, it's kind of the break glass whatever.
I saw USF whether they now UFL news, it was
the USFL. I mean, everyone hates me, but they were
all it was like the USFL news account and was

(19:58):
UFL news, but they were posting we had like a
a the out or Oklahoma whatever. And then they're you know,
another trademark, right, like another trademark was filed, and of
course and everyone runs and all this stuff, and I'm like,
this is like not how you league build of like
well we were able to get this old trademark or
like well this one we bought this one from Brian Woods,

(20:20):
so we should put a team Like that's just not
I just this is all backwards, just how like how
you would ever go about doing any of this or
even like putting the request out like well if you'd
like to come to our cities, like, you know, we're
open to it. Like I don't know. I watched fourteen
thousand people go into Saint Louis, Like why would I
for the championship game? Like why would I want that?

(20:43):
And we'll do ratings in a second, but I just
I to me, like, as I've said before, you kind
of lose all that momentum. I have one more comment
about the trio here, but go for it, and then
I'll make that No.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
I you're right, and you've brought up this point before
and we've talked about it. If you want to sell
these franchises, keep it in the market. You have what's
your product? Now? We saw some absolutely great gameplay on
the field, especially after Week three. It seemed like, you know,
that was when offenses are catching up to defenses. Everything
was going great, you know, play wise, it wasn't going

(21:15):
great attendance wise. So you can have you know, and
I've used this this before talking to people. It's like
you can have the best food you know and have
the best restaurant, but if nobody's coming in to sample it,
you're not gonna make any sales and you don't stay
in business. So the gameplay has been good. It's just
a matter of they've got to figure out a way.
And Darryl Johnson has said as much. In places like

(21:37):
Birmingham and places like Memphis, what is the disconnect here? Now?
I know Memphis struggled, there's no question, and that you
know a lot of people aren't going to show up
to watch a bad team. But there are a lot
of things that they can fix. Ticket prices is won
They keep saying it's affordable, it's affordable, but ticket prices
went up in a lot of places. They started doing
specials later on, but that's also what restaurants do. Before

(21:59):
they go out of business, and you start doing two
for one specials, you know that they they're in trouble.
So there are some things that they've got to look at.
I think that the product is good, but there's got
a way to make it better and make it connect
not just to the communities, but also you know, to
the casual fans as well.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
They just the comment I wanted to have was about
the trio just kind of the media day in general,
and if you want to share any thoughts or not,
but you know, if you're going to be a League
moving forward. I was getting the emails and the zoom
links didn't work, and then we needed to do and
the audio wasn't working, and you were trying to send
me links so I could watch. Like, it's not a
professional way.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
To handle that.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
So I don't know if anyone from ufl it makes
it this far into this final episode, but like, this
is not a This is not a professional way to
run your media day. So you need to have links
at work and microphones and cameras at work, and people
get like, I don't. I think we saw more from
Maddie and I think Stefan and them were doing cell
phone videos than I saw the League posting any of

(22:57):
that stuff, and it would just was garbage anyway. So
just it's always just kind of like the least amount
of effort. It's the same with the halftime show. It's
the same with the media day. It's the same with
all this stuff. It's like, well, we kind of kind
of tried to do it, so now what we can
just move on to some of us.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, I would have liked, you know, I know a
guy who's like really good at video and has cameras
and like knows how to live stream. I bet, I
bet I can. I'll have I'll get in touch with
him and see if he can get in touch with
the UFL next time. But yeah, I mean again, you know,
it looked kind of amateurous. Now here's the thing. You know,

(23:34):
a lot of the people out there weren't going to
They're not going to see that anyway. But I'll also
say on the converse of that, if you are a
local station, a local TV station or anything, you're not
going to use somebody's cell phone string. You can't use
it on television. I mean, I used it in the video,
my last video, and you can say it's just you know,
I tried to fix it. I spent thirty plus minutes

(23:57):
trying to fix their audio so you could actually hear it.
You can't see it. It looks terrible, but you can
hear at least hear the audio what they're trying to say. So,
but you're right, it's just they're they're they need to
step up in some professionalism. Again. I'm going to lean
on the side of optimism that, Okay, here's something that
they've learned. This is what they need to fix for

(24:17):
next year.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
I am going to have to talk to this deck
watching guys super quick, Why don't you I'm going to
flip over to the attention super quick, Why don't you share?
Because we gotta have duetts thoughts here or I his charts.
We'll do that, but give your thoughts on this. I'm
going to drop out for thirty seconds, not.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Right back, sure, you know, so we'll you know, I mean,
we'll take a look there with the attendance at fourteen
five point fifty nine, and that is you know, that's
tough for a championship to me. Number one is because
it it shows that, you know, people weren't interested. And
we thought like, okay, what if we you know, what

(24:54):
if we have in Saint Louis where we think that
everything you know, where it's it's a football crazy town,
and then there's gonna be a lot of people there.
But it didn't happen. And you know, I was talking
to a friend of mine today and say, well, if
it's not in their team, then why why should they care?
And I said, that's your first problem right there, that's
your problem, because it's just showing that there's not a

(25:16):
lot of you know, a lot of interest, you know,
even for people who would come to that game even
in Saint Louis, and you know they were given tickets
and everything else. So I don't know what's going on,
uh with that, And I just think that that's another
indicator of they've got to work this out. Also, Stephen Johnson,
I saw you. I see you here. I gave you

(25:37):
a shout out. It's not on the lie I think
it's not on the last video but the one before.
So check it out and thank you for joining much channel.
I appreciate I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
You know, like that. Who oh, it was funny today
I saw one of my Washington Commanders reporters was something
and he was in there like you need to get
this right, like you get paid millions of dollars to
talk about sports. And I was like, he's a beat
reporter for the Commanders that like has like very good,

(26:06):
but like he's not making millions of dollars talking about this.
I just the one comment I had on this in
just the fourteen thousand whatever. Just today they open and
like this is Apple Sapple or not Apple samples, but
the they just open the Ireland UK tickets for the
NFL game. There are six hundred thousand people just in

(26:28):
the Q on line to buy tickets and like, so
we bought our tickets for the Madrid game. I go,
we bought them through the league, like early, through a
you know, their hospitality department or whatever the heck you
want to call it. And I'm like, gosh, so like
people do travel again today, They're like it does. And
I understand that, like the UFL is not the NFL,

(26:49):
and I understand all of that, but the point is
you need to make it be something that people were
worth while to travel to. And if any year, like
if I wasn't going to travel to Saint Louis lash
for the Birmingham you know, maybe I had gone to
the other Birmingham Championship games. Well shoot, I'm I'm a
Defenders fan. I can go now, I'm I'm a.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Panthers, you know.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
I mean, at least there's there's that thing on that.
But I'm like, people will want to do anything if
you give them the reason to do it. So it
kills me this lag, Well, no one who would travel
to like a lot of people travel the games.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, and you know, and somebody made a good point here.
You know, maybe Saint Louis fans did do their part,
and but you can't ask them to fill up the
stadium when the BattleHawks aren't there. But I'll still say,
like fourteen thousand for a championship game. You know that
that's just that's not good. I mean, that's that was.
In fact, I think the last Saint Louis game, people

(27:42):
said that was a low that might have been like
one of the lowest attended games. And that was a
playoff game. So yeah, there were some I mean there's Christopher,
he traveled from DC, so there were some.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yeah, this is excuse me. So now you can hear
the pressure rusher. Really, she's weast were all squared away here.
Last year they had Tom Brady do his first ever
game announcement. I that is a good point, Like what
was the Brady bump last year for the USFL? Like,
but hey, I'm there was there was more people watching
Tom Brady last year than watching the Bad Moods this
year play in Saint Louis at halftimes.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
So I'm just telling you, yeah, I mean I don't
know what ABC does, I mean, do they bring Steven A.
Smith out there? Like what do what do they do?
Like to drum up interest? And I I don't know.
I just I was just really shocked, you know you
you sent that to me earlier today Mike's tweet. And
by the way, I almost joined Twitter this weekend, but
then I saw some cesspool stuff that I was not

(28:33):
interested in. But but when I saw that, I was shocked.
I was like, I couldn't believe that sat on a
Saturday night, it's a championship game on ABC, which has
had like really good ratings for their UFL games that
they couldn't even top a million. And that's that's just
that's tough to understand.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Let's look here through I just real quick, I'm doing
if you're not following that due on all this. Yeah,
he kind of takes Mike Mitchell's numbers throughout the course
of the season and breaks it down. I share this out,
but you'll see down twenty one point seventy two percent
year over year, you know, ABC down, I mean everything,
ABC down ten percent, Fox down thirty percent, ESPN down

(29:14):
thirty eight percent. ESPN two wasn't the FS one window
because I think there was.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Only the one.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, it was only one game each and whatever. But
Fox really, you know, taking kind of the biggest dip
here the Friday games go into that, right, because you
figure if that, you know, if you're getting seven hundred
to Friday, you're you know, those were generally averaging more
like eight fifty to nine right during the course of
the season last year. Anything stand out from this just

(29:43):
I just appreciate a due kind of doing this. Obviously,
everything down, but anything stand out.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, Abdul might make me join Twitter because he has
some good content here. I think what he posted is overall,
like we were saying, it's just showing that there's a
drop in interest, and I don't know why that. That's
why I would I would like to know why not.
I do understand that, you know, there are a lot
of us out there who are going to watch no
matter what, so you know, we'll we'll see. But but that, yeah,

(30:13):
when I saw those those numbers, it was very surprising
to me, and I don't know, I don't understand like
why that it just overall and then and then for
it to culminate with ABC of the issue and like
in the championship game, it's just I don't know. I
want to dive into it and read a lot more
on it because I know we just got these numbers today,

(30:34):
So there's there's probably a bigger story, uh that I
just don't know what it is yet.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Well, at least just a couple of my takeaways here is,
you know, we got the big jump last year going
in when they you know, because they had said we're
going to merge the leagues. We want to give the
you know, the best TV and you tell me of
this is unbearable and the pressure washing and you know,
they said they wanted to prioritize you give the TV
windows and that's what we had to merge everything. So

(31:01):
you saw forty versus forty one this year, and now
you have a lot of those Fox Friday ones taking
the part of that. So all to me, the biggest
question mark will be is if they keep this Fox
Friday Night experiment going on in the year two, because
that's where Fox had the biggest drop in my opinion.
But you do still have those forty plus you know

(31:23):
game windows, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, I just felt, you know, we've talked about it before.
I thought Fox could have dressed it up. I thought
Fox could have made it a thing. Instead, we got
you know, Kurt Menafee, you know, messing up players names,
and team names and it was just like any other thing.
It just felt like it was low effort to me.
And then you had ABC and ESPN on the converse

(31:46):
of that, who put in a lot.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Now.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
I know some people didn't like all the betting stuff,
but they those games felt much bigger to me than
the Fox Friday Night game, which should be the game
that you would think, like, that's the spotlight game, and
that's what we thought it was gonna be. It just
really it never came to that. And yeah, I agree,
and I agree with pro catch here who says that
in the chat that there should have been some kind

(32:08):
of pre game thing, And that's what I thought, like,
even if you're you're already gonna have a three hour broadcast,
why don't you spend five to ten minutes, you know,
telling a little bit of a story, doing a pregame,
making it a thing, dress it up, and then you've
got the game. Because the gameplay was good, the product's good.
You got to get people to watch.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
This is I guess we're and this will kind of
dictate the conversation here to kind of round out all
this is. You know, so, so where do you go
from from here? Right? And Fox wants to be in
this market because they want to own, you know, the programming, right,
have cheap, repeatable programming, and that they have the the
you know that they own and so I get that,

(32:47):
But then when you're gonna have it and not put
in the effort, and then you see stuff like Gordon
rams here or ABC with the Connors getting I guess that.
My question is where does that leave Fox? And obviously
we don't know. I saw the comment earlier. You know,
Fox decide that they go in in twenty six and
kind of they basically they kind of dictate all this.
I just don't know where you go from here or what.

(33:08):
I don't know what marketing strategy you come up with
here in a dark room to kind of figure out
how what your game plan is for next year besides
really overhauling and spending a lot of time and money
to get the messaging now. And I just don't see that.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Yeah, but I don't even know that it's it would
even be that expensive. It's like you've got producers for
these games, You've got people who know how to put
together you know, NFL broadcasts. I'm not saying that there
was like a bunch of NFL personnel that were doing
these Fox broadcasts. I mean to me that they were
mostly you know, as we used to stay in the
TV business, they were clean broadcasts. You didn't see like

(33:40):
a ton of technical mistakes. There wasn't. It wasn't that
kind of thing, although that first season or that first
game was a little bit shaky. But but yeah, I
don't even know that it's that expensive. You just change
the format a little bit and that's free. But you've
got to get some some talented producers who who probably
you know, I would think a lot of them wanted
to do a lot more. But maybe it's just like

(34:01):
it's just not they just said, let's just put this
on and get it over with. And when you have
low effort things like that, or what at least appeared
to be low effort, it's just not going to catch on.
It's just it would be like anyone flipping around and
you know, watching they flip around to ESPN on Sunday
afternoon and they're showing X throwing. Well, you might watch
it for a few minutes, but you're not going to

(34:21):
watch the whole thing. I mean, there was darts on
there one day and I was like, okay, this is
interesting for about ten minutes and then I was like, okay,
I'm gonna move on.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Well, I think, and the RIX told me, he's like,
you need to mute your mic when you're not talking,
So let me know if anyone if But like I
just I don't know who is someone has to advocate
for this, right like someone at Foster or at ESPN,
And I don't know who that is anymore. And I
think that the fact that we as you said, you know,

(34:50):
you flipped aroundside darts or saw whatever whatever the peak was,
you know, saw x amount during the first fifteen minutes
of the thing and then decided that was enough of
it and moved on right like it peaked in the
here let me pull it up again, you know, peaked,
so you know, I mean they're doing that, you know,
and they lost three hundred thousand that way. I just
I don't know, you know, if we're gone, if who's gone, Like,

(35:12):
I just don't know who advocates or who you know,
you need like a Sam Schwarztein or someone like in
this regime of this kind of feeling, maybe you feel
like it's advocating for the fans and more. I don't know,
like it just it feels like we're very disconnected from
this now and I just don't know where that advocation
is going to come from.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, that's a good question. And if they I guess
also if they do it like they've done, you know,
next year, you know, is the championship game going to
be on Fox? So I don't know, but yeah, you
you there, there needs to be. It feels like to
me now we're outsiders. We don't know what, as you said,
what goes on in the dark room, and we don't
know what these meetings are like. They're supposed to have

(35:52):
leadership meetings this week, they're supposed to be more throughout
the summer. But you feel like they need to bring
in someone who has some TV knowledge. It's not just
football knowledge. They have the football knowledge people, they need
some people who have some TV knowledge who can say, listen,
I watched all your broadcasts and here's what I think
you can do better and get that and and but
who's the person at Fox to do this? Eric Shanks

(36:15):
is that he's the main guy in Fox Sports. He's
the guy who wanted to restart the USFL and that
was his pet project and it didn't cost I mean
for what it costs Fox again, this is it was
a rounding area. It's pocket change for them, So it
wasn't it's not a big expense. And you know, but
you but you have investors involved in this also. You

(36:35):
know in this now with the USFL, it was only Fox.
Then with the XFL, you had you know, the Rock
and Danny, and you had the Redbird Capitol. Now you've
got you know, those two entities together. And then somehow
I guess ESPN is doing some things, but I don't
know how financially invested they are in it. So I

(36:55):
don't know what. And I see someone mentioned they're Oliver Luck.
You could pick a lot worse people than Oliver. Look
there you go, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Best the interview we ever did in one of them
last year, the talking and you know, and like I said,
that was kind of I was like, I feel like
I'm kind of done with a lot, Like I've climbed
the mountain of I don't know, you know, like even
the CFL now they have a new UH, they have
a new UH commissioner, and I'm like, God, I got
to go through the ranks again and work my way.
I've done all this, But no, I do agree with

(37:25):
Max here because you said bring in the TV people.
But you need, you know, you need to get and
and we've seen the comments here. Talk to the Savannah
Bananas people or talk to the you know, the Harlem
Globe tribe. People will talk to me like, how how
can you you need to sell more just as entertainment
than this football. You almost need to have it more.
It's just that product.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
Well, and that's you know, something we've talked about too.
You've been to games. I've been to games. It's some
you go there and watch football, that's fine, but if
you're going there for some kind of you know, game experiences,
which is what you need to have, you don't get
that a lot of places. Now I didn't go to
all eight venues, so I don't know I can. You know,
I've been to Saint Louis and they had you know,

(38:06):
they had some stuff outside. You know, was at Memphis
and you know they tried, but they had a very
small crowd. But it's not it's not a you know,
that's a they had a good tailgating section out there,
but there's not this you know, we're gonna go and
have all like minor league baseball, Like there's always something
with minor league baseball. We brought it up before, and
like you said, Savannah Bananas, there's there's entertainment for everyone.

(38:29):
And then oh yeah, also you've got a game I
had just in in Since the twenty twenty two USFL,
I just have not seen a whole lot of that
atmosphere game atmosphere or you know, fan atmosphere at some
of these games because there's just not a lot to
do there.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
I know they couldn't, but even even fourteen thousand and
Audi Field would have looked tremendously different than fourteen. I
mean that's that's that's a completely different Yeah, and then
that helps build and excitement, you know, I mean we
just I know we're talking not just a championship game,
but you know we've talked to venues and all that. Yeah,
I mean having the right, but you don't have you
see all the time if they can only get this

(39:09):
venue in this like yeah, I'm sure they're sitting there too,
like we we I mean, you can't. We had one
of the comments and said that you know, they had
talked with the people at the Roughnecks and they know
that like they're like, oh, yeah, they know it's a problem.
I'm sure everyone on the ground does know it's a problem.
But it's the same thing when you work in the corporation.
I mean, I Pam in the county might know that

(39:30):
there's a problem, but you need you know, Jenny the
CEO to make that decision or whoever. Like it doesn't
That doesn't do any good that you know that the
San Antonio people know, and marketing is rough and San
Antonio you need, but I don't continue and I just
because I don't know when they run out of Karen.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Yeah, And and that's we talked about. Someone brought it
up to and it's a great idea, but that's the
problem is that you would want to have like the
higher seeded team host you know, host a playoff or
host a championship. But it's it's a venue problem. And
that's one of the things that Russ Brandon said that
you know, they were trying to look at at He

(40:10):
talked about venue problems. And I don't know if it
was city problems or if it was venue problems, but
I think they want to be they want to be
more involved and be a bigger star on a bigger
platform in some of these communities, but you have to
have availability. And I know, you know, like this has
happened a few times where you know, it happened with

(40:33):
Michigan like last year and the end this year where
even if they had one home field advantage they wouldn't
get to play. It happened with the d C with
you know, Audi Field this year because you're right, like
it would have been incredible to see fourteen thousand people
at Audi Field. I mean it just would have been
it would have it would have been something else. So

(40:53):
they got to look at the venues and as Russ
Brandon said, everything's on the table. So I'm going to
be interested in some of these off season announcements, assuming
they come.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
So I'm watching, I'm watching, my bread, my breath, watching
so everyone can see. I'm not like, we got got
years of building out there. Yeah, Christopher here, we got
Audi original. Aldis here at Aldi West. Yeah. So I
like that that they were calling Aldi West, Yeah, Sat
Louis so okay. So when Russ Brandon says that, right,

(41:26):
everything is on the table, we're having leadership tops, we're
having off season talks. I what does that look like
or does that. I don't know. That doesn't fill me
with a tremendous sense of enthusiasm that like I like
that everything's on the table, but then that feels like
nothing's on the table. And then I don't know if
if registering new marks is the way I found the
one just a weekend, I can give credit here, but

(41:49):
like the first comment was like they have yeah, this,
like they have trademarks for everything, like so you can
read into it, you can read not but I I
just it doesn't excite me to still have Russ and
Darryll and them in charge of this, Like I feel
like I feel like I've seen what this is now.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Well I would say that I don't mind them being
in charge, but as you brought up earlier, they need
to have somebody else has to be in that room.
Somebody that can, you know, as as Max said, somebody
that can knows how to bring fans. They need somebody
in there who knows how to fix these broadcasts, some
of these broadcasts. So I know, I think that to me,
I think they've got the football thing that they got.

(42:30):
They got the football thing down, because I don't think
anybody can complain about you know, overall like what the
football looked like, even from the first three weeks, but
certainly after week three, when again we talked about I
think some of the quarterback issues started to show in
the first three weeks and then everybody got on the
same page. But you also can't go into it what

(42:51):
we saw with the XFL, where that said Okay, we're
going to have a team in Las Vegas and then
they worked backwards. You can't do that because it was
a complete failure. You got to do it a much
different way. And I think that's why they did the
whole RFP process was to say, Okay, we're going to
talk to these cities, make sure there's interest, make sure
there's the right venue, in the right situation, and the

(43:11):
right fan base. I'm trying to give them the benefit
of the doubt here read.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Well, no, and and I completely agree. I mean, that
is more how you have to do it. But again,
it still feels like I am read and I am
trying to get Sidney Sweeney to date me, or trying
to get whoever to date me, you know. I mean,
it's still and I'm a happily mayor maybe, but it
still just feels like you know we're the UFL, like
would you like us to come? And I don't. I

(43:37):
think I think the CFL would have a higher stance
and saying like, hey, we want to host a Gray
Cup in you know, Tulsa and really blow it out
and bring a lot of people in then get the
tunors going there without like I don't, like, you know
what I'm saying, Like, I don't. I don't know what
they're mean. We said this for I just don't know
what they're selling.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, I mean maybe this maybe we have Like it's
been what thirty years since the CFL has been here
in America? Is that what we need? I know there
was somebody there was who kept saying like, well, the
CFL and UFL need to merge and then they could
do that, And I was like, I don't think that's
gonna happen. But yeah, I mean I don't know, Like

(44:15):
you're right, Like that's a great question. Where do you
go from here? Again, On the positive side, the gameplay
is good, the structure's already in place. But on the
negative side, you've got to get more people involved and
you have to get eyeballs from casual fans. And I
think there are a lot of us in this niche
that they're saying like, well, we don't need the casual fans.

(44:36):
This is for us. Well that's not sustainable. I mean
it can be for us, but it's six hundred thousand people.
You know, watching network TV is not gonna do. You
can be on Evergreen TV and right now TV like
these arena football leagues are or whatever, so which would
be fine, I guess, but you know you got to
lower your expectations after that.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
It is wild and I know it's different, but like
the Europeian League of Football like has a TV network
or has a deal and the YouTube deal and is
adding teams and all this, and then the UFL. How
would you grade this season of the UFL because we
heard a lot of well, we couldn't look through it
year one because we you know, we merged the late

(45:18):
and we didn't even know we were doing. So now
you know we went through the whole year. How would
you how would you rate this?

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Well, all grade on a curve because you know we
saw it, like you said, we saw what happened in
year one and and as as I think it was
Danny Garcia or Darryl Johnson, one of the said like
it was kind of murky. We were still trying to
figure it out. They got it off the ground, so,
you know, so to me, when I see season two,
I have to give it at least a B because

(45:45):
you everything, you know played out. They worked out the
labor strife, they worked out that issue. We got good gameplay,
they didn't put stuff on, they learned don't put you know,
games on FS one and you know, but I know
there were some issues with weather and things like that.
That's out of their control. The things I thought that
were in their control, I thought they handled well. So

(46:07):
to me, it's got to be at least a BE.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
I just don't know, And I was trying to kind
of formulate the way around this. I'm just I think
they did a good job, right, I would agree with
you and B and then we accomplished this. But going
back and I'm just really trying to formulate my thoughts
to kind of get out of this is I'm just
afraid that like the UFL is going to end up

(46:32):
being like a suits or something for like USA or
one of these channels that's just on for like fifteen
years and then just doesn't and then you're like oh,
I didn't realize, like suits was on and then like,
I'm just afraid that this is going to be on
Friday nights on Fox for the next like fifteen years,
and they're gonna go, well, it's cheaper than paying Gordon
ramsay another show, and we'll do this. I just that's

(46:55):
my fear, and that's what I don't want. But given
year two, now we have that, do we just get
a four hundred dollars super chat? Like, what's happening here? John?

Speaker 2 (47:03):
I think it disappeared though Steven might have been kind
of go for four there.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Maybe maybe it is a mistake, but someone's screenshot out
I'll take it. I'll take that in their early retirement here.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
You've just broken Steven.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
I mean yeah, they say I know that Tulsa has
a high. Yeah, so we went through kind of all
of that. Do we want to do that? Do you
want to do that really quick before we get out
of here? All right, so Van for a second and
let me pull that up because that actually would be
a good article to get into. This guy is killing
me now.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah, I mean there's a talk to me. I think
if you don't have two new teams, at least this
year in which we you know, we talked about before.
If you if you don't add some teams or you know,
try to fix the problems and you just go in
status quo. I mean, that's when you start to get sagnet.
And that's my concern that they say they the approach

(47:54):
is almost too conservative. It's okay to shake things up,
but I think there's some markets up there that this
will this would work. And you know, as Daryl Johnson said,
it's like, you know, they're trying to find out the
disconnect but between some of this some of these markets.
But yeah, I just like i'd really like to see,
you know, some change. You got to they need change,

(48:14):
and I don't know it has to be radical change,
but there needs to be some change. The football is good,
they've got to they got to catch some attention there.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
I'm muted now. I realized I hadn't muted that whole
time there when I was looking at that article. But
this is interesting. On here, Mike just talked through kind
of the top top UFL markets, uh per Fox Sports,
and this is on that Birmingham up here, and this
is this is the share kind of in that market.
So I would say that the you know, if it

(48:45):
was New York or Seattle, that's you know, you see
here Dallas has has a three share, you know, so
it's it's anyway you see, Birmingham of the todd, New Orleans,
Saint Louis no surprise, and there a Tulsa, A.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Lot of you just really just use like just completely
Nord Louisville in there.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
VELL know, Well, what's your thoughts on this, because that
at least this gives you the direction to go more
than just like we own the trademark. But I still
don't think that, like, you know, point aid in Louisville
as a reason to put a team there. What's your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Well, I would one hundred percent disagree with that. No,
I'm kidding. Uh No. New Orleans still is the biggest
surprise to me. It's like it's just crazy that the
two markets that get over a one rating are Birmingham,
which I guess people are watching on TV rather than
going to the games, and New Orleans, Like, I don't

(49:36):
you know, I guess there had to have been there
had to have been some some kind you know, when
when they they started the USFL and they started the
with the uh New Orleans breakers that thought, Okay, well
they did they did some homework here, and they know
that New Orleans is wanted the foot, wanted football because

(49:57):
I think that was the original attend of the USFL.
Here's some teams. We're going to sell these franchises off,
you know, in the long term. Uh but yeah, but
I mean when you look at Memphis, it's like a
two share is still not bad, but it's you know,
you don't have people showing up and you're still even
in the markets, you're still the lowest one. So yeah,

(50:18):
I mean, obviously no surprise with Saint Louis there, but
the New Orleans one just seems like such an outlier
to me.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
We had a lot of anti Becked comments here and
I joke with you earlier. Didn't he back down followed
me today? So either he's leaving the UFL or just
my my negative comments about Saint Louis has has finally
gotten to him. But people don't seem too happy with
back there. I know the problem, John, and we've taught

(50:45):
this market share and everything else is these non NFL markets,
it's the reason why they're not there. And yeah, so
you can draw a large percentage of the people there,
but the overall number. Yeah, it's still not this large,
massive people that you're moving them there? Is that your
similar thoughts?

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Yeah, I could see that. I mean, you're not going
to have you know, Louisville and Tulsa and New Orleans
probably in the league next year. But uh, you know,
there's been some talk with Nashville, like there's there was,
you know, not I wouldn't even say rumors, but discussion
that maybe Memphis needs to go to Nashville. You know,
I don't know if that works or not. But but yeah,

(51:22):
you're right, it's just there. There there's some outliers in there,
but I don't think that necessarily means that they're outliers
where they're going to put a team in there. I'd
love to see it. I'd love to have season tickets
to the Louisville whoever's.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Max year had that, I think it was a D
plus for the obviously seeing some ratings in your D
plus Jenna has a B minus. Uh Max year. How
can you drum up excitement when you can't expand let
the fans be involved. I just, to me, the hardest
part of all that is going in the next season,
and just I don't know what you're I just shouldn't

(51:57):
know what the talking point is. Now that we've moved
past the merger and now that we move past the
rock and all that.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Well, I feel like if you if you don't expand
and it's the same eight teams, I think you you roll,
you roll the dice. You're you're running a real risk
of losing your core fandom too, because I think there
are a lot of core fans who would say, like,
you're just gonna do this again. I'm just I'm not
gonna be that interested, and and that that's a worry
to me because that that that's the end of the
league when you start to lose the core, because you

(52:22):
have to build from the core and then go out
to the casuals. And when you start to lose this,
that's it.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Yeah, they had the comment here, and I'm doing kind
of better than what I had said. I don't think
these shares are big enough to actually expand. These markets
are so small. You're getting the small share in the
smaller market. But that's how you're going to kind of
gauge the fan. I think that's how people are gonna
they take that information, they're going to use that to
look for it.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, you're right, Yeah, you get a one point five
share in uh, you know, a top ten market that
get that you're you're talking numbers, but you're right. Yeah,
these when you start to look at the like the
Nielsen markets, like for instance, you know, Louisville is forty set,
forty eight, forty nine. It's so that's a different for
Birmingham is probably in that area as well. So these

(53:09):
are you know, now New Orleans, actually New Orleans I
think is maybe fifty one. So you're looking at, you know,
these mid size markets that are not necessarily the ratings
are good, but but overall numbers when you see them,
if you you you know, you put shares to actual population,
that's a different story.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
I still to see so many anti backed comments here.
I mean, it's really just crazy that way.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Well that that's fine if you want to get rid
of BECT, but you know, who's who's your upgrade? It's
I mean, i'd say that on a from high school
to college to any pro level, Like if you want
to fire your coach, that's fine, but who's your replacement
that's going to be better, that's gonna do what he's done.
I mean, I'm not you know, trying to defend back.
He can do that himself. But to me, like there

(53:56):
are a lot of coaches in this league that you
know that you might be able to improve on, I
don't know if if there's one for Anthony Beck, I
think there's a lot of frustration. I get that, but
you know, I don't know that how. I don't know
like how you're going to improve on him. Not to
say there aren't great coaches out there, but you know,
I just can't see it.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
And and he had a funny guy. It's all fun
and games firing the coach until you win two games
the next season. But you know, if it was me
and I had to sell this league and you got
rid of I don't know, a couple of coaches and
try to bring in someone that's got some college and
you know, yeah, Cachet and those markets, or I mean,

(54:38):
I can't you know, I'm not smart enough with the
college football brand, you know, off the top of my head,
But I just can't think of any other way you
kind of get people to go out unless you deal
with like Zorn and all that, with the Sea Dragon
or with the Dragons, like I think you got to
have maybe that connection then yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
But the problem is with that, as you know, like
there's a reason Reggie Barlow went to Tennessee State. He's
probably gonna make thirty times what he was making, you know,
as a head coach in the UFL. So you're gonna
you're gonna have to, uh, you're gonna have to spend
some money to get some of that. I mean. And
it's not like Tennessee State's Alabama. I mean, you know,
it's it's so there's there's a lot of money in

(55:14):
college coaching right now, and I don't know if the UFL,
even with just eight teams, is going to try to
keep up with those coaches salaries like that. Because there
are a lot of good coach like Peyton Party, you
can say say whatever you want to about him. That
guy is going to be a head coach somewhere on
a on a big level. He's a young dude. You know,
they didn't have a lot of success, but you look
at his journey just this season, what he had to

(55:36):
go through and what he did. It's like, man, he
had those guys. He had those guys playing when there
was nothing to play for and he's a young dude.
So yeah, is he gonna stay in the UFL? I
mean he might next season. He might be a head
coach next season somewhere. Uh you know that. So you've
got to you got to spend some money if they
want to keep guys and get guys like.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
That, well they're gonna do with the defense. Do you
think they're gonna just have to rebuild or open up
the pocketbook? I mean that to me, you have your
I mean imagine now if Sharon Harris, Shannon Harris goes,
it's makes it worse now that they won the championship.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Yeah, I mean you're right. I mean it's it's funny.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Or don't you say, oh, look he got this big
promotion because he Look look it could even happen to you.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
I mean right, yeah, you're right because you look at
the optics that were bad because Reggie Barlow left before
the season and now with that same team, like the
interim coach who all the players said, well we want
to take that interim tag off. But it's like, well,
how much is he going to make? You know, will

(56:43):
he follow you know, Reggie Barlow or will he come
back and add like more to this, you know, to
his coaching resume, Like what's going to be better for him?
You know, I don't know, I don't, I don't. I
would love to talk to somebody in the coaching community
to see what they really think about if if someone
like Shannon Harris, who like obviously should have been coach

(57:05):
of the Year, there's no question about that, and he
won Coach of the Year. So it's like, does that
increase his resume to stay there and try to repeat
on that, or does he go to Tennessee State and
you know, whatever position coach or what are a coordinator
that he is there? So you know, I don't know,
but you're right, that's going to be kind of a
he's got he's got some decisions to make and what

(57:29):
DC could be a total rebuild and that would be
that would be tough for that team to have to
bring in a whole new staff. And then you got
to wonder too, how many of those players, like a
Jordan Tom who does he want to play for and
you know, for a third coach. I don't know if
he does.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
You know, he's kind of holding the cards. I mean
I kind of like that. I like that, but Max
had a thing here. You know, there's no way that
you could get paid more to be the head coach
in the pro league. Well, that is the UFL. I mean,
is the UFL get out paid?

Speaker 2 (58:00):
That?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Is that right? Is that your question?

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Yeah? I mean it's I don't know. I don't I
don't know, Willie like it. I don't know what the
salary structure is. I mean, I know, I know what
uh what? You know what Barlow? I mean, that was
a pretty big that was a pretty big pay raise
for him to be head coach there. And that is
a and that's a school who's actually financially struggling right now,

(58:23):
and he knew it going in. So I don't know
what the what the staff pay is like, but you
know there's I don't and so you got to understand,
like are you going to compare that to the UFL structure?
Like what that going to look like? And as we
talked about before, also what does it mean for you know,
when you're talking about a coaching resume and trying to
enhance that move up.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Anything else we want to talk about here we got
just a couple of minutes left. Anything else.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
I just want to say that one of the reasons
that I got into YouTube was because of you and
and you know, because I'd watched you a lot, and
you did a lot of you know, in interviews and
everything else, and you were like one of the reasons
that and you were super supportive of me, like starting out.
In fact, you were on the first episode that I did,

(59:10):
which by the way, I think still has like twenty
thousand views, and I thought like, okay, I'm about to
blow YouTube up. It didn't really kind of sustain that way.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
It never does. They give you the line.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
But but you, like you were like one of the
like kind of champions in my corner, and you always helped,
You always gave me good advice, and we got to
be friends over this. You know. That was in December
of I think twenty twenty three, or yeah, or twenty yeah,
twenty twenty three, I guess so, or maybe even twenty
twenty two. It's been it's been a few years.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Yeah, it was back. The twenty two was when, you know,
that was when Andy Murray kind of joined the world
in you and kind of that was really when we
kind of I think just a lot more people got
into the space with the U. I mean the USFL
BABA twenty two is I think the biggest.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
One hundred percent you ever had, Sinse Yeah, and it
was just it was it was fun to do, and
I just continued to do it, and I just you know,
I always appreciate your support and certainly appreciate your friendship.
And you know, I'll never publish the text that we
My promise to you is I'll never publish the text
that we send to each other. That's good.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
No, well, no, I appreciate it, and it's just yeah,
I'm I mean, I'm burnt out. John probably knows that,
and the people and you know, at least it made
a lot of sense to the beginning of the CFL
season coming out here and the fact that we're not
going to be here for Great Cup and we're not
going to go do that. That made a lot of
sense and that made that decision easy. And this summer

(01:00:35):
is terrible for me. And it's not fair that the
people listening to the show to expect us to have
you know, full your watching, or you know, to expect
me to have a full rewatch or be informed and talk.
It's just kind of getting to the point where it's
not fair and I never want to be like the
stephen A. Smith playing not to that level, but like
the playing solitaire at the game and like not. You know,

(01:00:57):
it's really hard to talk about this stuff when you're
not fully mbressed, and I feel like I've kind of
cheated my way through that the last year or so,
just kind of trying to rely on Jason Hussey a
lot last year with the CFL and then you and
everything with the UFL right now. So it's just gotten
to a point where I don't think it's fair to
the fans and everything else. So yeah, people are like, oh,
it's just like, yes, it's said the last episode of film.

(01:01:21):
It's like, what's happening here? But anyway, so I yeah,
I think we'll see. I mean, if they come out
tomorrow and say the league's going the way, But I don't.
I just don't want there to be that expectation that
we're coming back on. So John will continue to do
a lot of stuff on his channel and like I said,
off the top, but we'll promote kind of anyone else
new with that. But it's just not fair to the people,

(01:01:42):
and I don't have the time to do six interview
two and a half hour shows anymore like it was fun.
I mean it was a really fun time and that
was it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
Well again, I appreciate everything that you've done, and you know,
you introduced me to this whole YouTube world and yep,
and we just have to say, yep, salute to you man.
It's it's been fun and I appreciate you this whole season,
like having me on and we got to talk to
UFL you know, online and offline. So I appreciate that.
It was it really was fun.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Ah yes, says everyone saying goodbyes as the yeah, as
the pressure washers here. But I will say so I've
left everyone if you've made it to this point, I've
left everyone a little boats present here at partying gift.
John knows about this last week and we could change this,
but this is just the gift that is always going
to give. And so as we know, the the UFL,

(01:02:36):
you know, football league doesn't own UFL dot com. I
think it's a shipping line, right, It's like United freight line.
And they also don't all now, so their website is
the UFL dot com. So I have purchased UFL football
dot Com and if you go type that in right now,
I left you a little present. So if anyone and

(01:02:56):
if anyone ever wants to get ahold of that, but
maybe we'll change that, maybe we'll do other stuff with it.
But John, I really appreciate it. We'll still talk and
like I said, if anyone ever wants me to come
on or anything. If anyone and you might say read
we don't want to ever see again, and that's great too,
but I'll still be I just don't want the pressure
of doing this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
But no, you will definitely be on my when you're available.
I will definitely have you on.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
And don't what was I gonna say to Streamyard definitely
already charged me. I think it was yesterday for this month.
So I'm so glad. I'm like, damn it. We couldn't
even get through one more episode. I'm the streamyrd account.
But anyway, I really appreciate it. Go check out John's channel.
We'll see everyone. Be nice and you know, like online

(01:03:43):
and stuff and just be nice to people. All right,
We'll see you guys. How do I get out of here?

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
All right,