UFL 2025 Week 1 Results + Reactions!!!

We are going LIVE to react to and recap UFL 2025 week 1 on Monday, March 31st! 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, one of these days, I promise I will look
at the intro music. I'll figure out what's going on.
The wonderful countdown here, really driving up, getting this pumped here.
I am going to open the door today A man
that's a door man.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
A door Matt, a door man for no one. I
will be John. Uh, that was wild. We will talk
about that.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
We have at least the opening game TV ratings to
talk about, courtesy Mike Mitchell, plus everything UFL Week one here.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Thanks everyone for joining us. First off, John, how are you?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I'm good man. It was an interesting first week. As
the old Native Americans saying goes, may you live in
interesting times. That's not always a blessing. But we'll see
what happens. I mean, there's going to be a lot
of overreaction, understandable, but I think there's gonna be some
legitimate reaction here. So we're gonna see.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, And so we're here today, like and subscribe. We'll
be back.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
The attempt is every week here during the UFL season.
I was just telling John off camera, kind of just
really busy times for me, thankfully good. So we will
do our best to be here every week. I like
the Tuesdays because we can do the TV ratings. But
we were lucky today that we were blessed with at
least the opening. Well, I don't know if that would
admit your UFL management. I don't know if you feel
blessed with that, but we'll talk to about that. So anyway,

(01:51):
like and subscribe to free Row Retros jerseys given out
to winners here once we get to four thousand subscribers,
has a code for Dustin's Row Retros to get discounts.
In the meantime, we're kind of co branding this year,
So John, what is that? If you want ten percent
off Row retros? But like and subscribe, give a thumbs up.
Dustin's long friend, a longtime friend. He's even helping me

(02:14):
out with a custom jersey I'm doing right now. But John,
what would you want people to do?

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Well? I appreciate that, and Dustin has been awesome to
work with for sure. Yeah. But if you go to
Royal Retros and you use code j LS John Lewis
Sports when you check out, you get ten percent off
your entire order, So that that's awesome. I appreciate you.
Always let me up plug that.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Let's see that everyone's checking in here, So we'll go through.
We'll do general thoughts on the weekend, we'll talk to
the TV ratings, and then we'll go through the games.
I did my best catching up, you know, baseball opening weekend.
I was at the Mariners game yesterday, John, I kind
of missed all of that at the end of the game,
which David Well I was. You know, I was a

(02:52):
little buzz last night just coming out.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
You know.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
We uber down and went to the game, and I
was watching the Memphis game here and we were texting,
and then we went to the game and I, you know,
I caught the end of the game whatever. And I'm
sitting here today and I go, wow, I completely kind
of missed all of that, the engagement and everything at
the end of the So we will talk through all that. Also,
I was on Rod Peterson Show today, so check that

(03:14):
out as well. The Canadians always like hearing of that.
You know, I was how bad was the UFL kickoffs?
So but we'll share with thoughts, John. I tweeted out
last night and I'll see if I can pull it
up here. But you know, a grade UFL you know,
kickoff weekend. I had a lot of c's and d's
in my group chat, you know, in my comments, What
did you make of kind of just UFL weekend overall?

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, yeah, I mean I think see my for for
a lot of this overall might be a little generous.
Maybe you're grading on a curve here that there was
some that were better than others. But yeah, I was
we talked last week. I was very optimistic going in,
or at least cautiously optimistic. Maybe not very optimistic. It's
it's one week. You know, we don't need a off

(04:00):
launch for a league that is entering the second season,
So I'm willing to give it a break. I said
last week. I was kind of talking out of both
sides of my mouth. I'm interested to see what the
ratings are, but I'm also almost ready to throw them
out because because of March madness and a lot of
and baseball and a lot of other things going on.

(04:22):
So I think probably the UFL would like to throw
those ratings out for this first week as well.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
It's really hard, and I was talking about this with
Rod and everything too, like it's just the worst time,
and I know they did decent ratings last year. We'll
talk through the game I haven't pulled up one point
one eight one last year.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
So to give the context Saturday day for that, I
thought it was good. At the time.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
You're going up, as we've said before, March madness and
baseball and everything.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I mean, that's all that I saw.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Obviously I'm seeing the UFL teams because I followed them
and kind of engage in that. But you know, algorithmically,
it's a really tough weekend to kind of break in,
I think, and just even get any casual fans and
no disrespect. But until the game last night, I thought
the first three games really had nothing to write home
about it. I know you said the Memphis game got

(05:09):
more exciting than the second half, but that first half
Sunday morning, I mean that was when Rod and everyone
was texting me, I'm home, I'm watching this game. What's
going on? Why is there anyone here? We can talk
through attendance as well, but you know, you know, down
across the board, I think Memphis only had forty three
hundred people, which is if the UFL is putting that out,

(05:30):
then that's obviously the high end of kind of tickets distributed.
So to me, it was tough that way where even
if ratings come in decently and we'll talk to you know,
six hundred ninety thousand for the opening game, I don't
feel like you saw a lot from a casual fan
that would bring you back next week. Mike Mitchell, I
guess as well put it up on here just to

(05:51):
go with our thoughts. You know, the first game peaked
in the first fifteen minutes, as you would you know,
eight hundred and forty four thousand dropped average six hundred nine,
so obviously peaked. You would like to see that peak
at the end. Gives us a gauge. Any comments I
kind of rambled there. Any thoughts on that.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
No, I think it peaked in the first fifteen minutes
because a lot of people tuned in, and I think
they saw not necessarily the product on the field. I
thought the broadcast was below average. I mean, frankly, you know,
the fans deserve better than what I think Fox is
giving them. It was interesting to see the how different

(06:29):
the Fox the two Fox games were from the two
ESPN games, and read you and I have talked before.
Usually the Fox presentation has been so much better than
the ESPN. Not that the ESPN presentation was bad but
frankly Fox was better and there was no pregame. It
was one of the things that I talked about when
I said that I think Fox can make this a thing.

(06:51):
How about at least maybe a ten minute pre game
that gives you a little something. ESPN did that, and
I don't understand why Fox did not. Joel Klatt does
a great job. Give me Kevin Kugler and Joel Klatt
to there you go, Leon Knows. Give me two guys
who I think have a really, you know, a lot

(07:12):
of interest in this league. Joel Clatt. Every time I
hear him speak, it's like I'm learning something from him.
I mean, he's so good. And Kevin Kugler has just
like legitimate excitement for the league. At one point, Kurt
Menafee called called the Houston Rough next to Houston Rough Riders.
I mean, what are we doing here? At some point?
And you know, you have to get people in here

(07:33):
who are invested. He fumbled so many times it's almost
like he's parachuted in and he's just not interested in
this league. For maybe the casuals, they don't really care.
You obviously know it wasn't the Houston rough Riders for us,
you know, hardcore fans. It's that's not what we want
to see. It's almost it's almost insulting to watch something

(07:54):
like that. And I hate to be hard on announcers.
I'm not. I mean, you can go to my channel
and see from about twenty years ago when I attempted
to call college football play by play. It's very hard
to do and I was no good at it, and
that's why I'm sitting in my basement talking UFL with you.
So we but there are people who are very good
in the Fox stable, and I don't know why they

(08:16):
continue to make Kurt Menafee the number one play by
play guy for those kinds of things. As a Seahawks fan,
he was the play by play guy for you know,
Seahawks preseason and it was brutal every time. I'm just
he's a fine studio host. But if the if Fox
wants to make this a thing, there are a lot
of ways to improve it from what we saw Friday

(08:37):
night and what we frankly saw Saturday afternoon. And I
think that's one piece of it. Yeah, ran over.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
No, And I agree.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
It's interesting because, like I said, people really do have
their flavor. If you want the you know, esp under
the Fox side. You know what I feel like a
lot on the ESPN at folks is you get the
not all the time in the heads of generous, you
do get kind of the leftovers or the people working
their way up.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
And so you get a lot of that.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
I turned on and you see Jordan Rodgers trying to
sit there with whoever the side person was and airing
the ESPN bets and they're.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Like, what's like, what's the point swing of this game?

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Well, you know, we had the four quarterbacks and it's
really they just don't even know what to talk about
because you can't talk about betting on this league, and
there's no one does anyway, and you certainly aren't going
to bet on this game this league in week one
when you don't even really know who these starting quarterbacks
are going to be or whether they're going to play.
Are they really doing two or they you know, we're okay,
we're going to do one one quarter and one of

(09:33):
the next. If the drive carries over, then we'll I mean,
just I get all that, and it's league building and
we're trying to figure out all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
But then the announcers have nothing to talk about either.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
But I will say in ESPN's defense here, they did
not beat us over the head with the gambling. I
thought they integrated it pretty well. It wasn't you know.
And hey man, Joe Tessitur was selling it to us too,
But there they didn't, you know. I think last year
there was too much talk they really tried to just
kind of beat you over the head with the with

(10:04):
the whole gambling aspect of it. I really like the
way that they integrated it a little more and it
seemed a lot more natural. But you're right, it's I
don't know where these point spreads came from. I mean,
you know, and ESPN had prop bets, which that was interesting,
but yeah, we had draft kings and bet MGM. I
don't know if they ever I never could find anything
as far as point spreads. I did see the futures

(10:25):
on there, so I don't know where they got them.
I am interested to see what the point spreads will
be this week now where we have a little taste
of what these teams might be. But again it's over
reaction Monday all the time. After you know, a weekend
of what we see for the first week, it's it's
still coming together.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
In terms of just kind of the slow kick gob
lyon here. As the comment players threatening to walk out
lead the league didn't help matters in attendance, Erratians, I
agree with that. You also had this weird excuse me for,
and I'm really battling the illness of this. If I'm
mute in comm I'm totally fine. I just said I
am sick, and then the Mariners straighten up. Ron's like,
now you sound really sick. But the you know you

(11:04):
had that, we have obviously had the impending strike.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Then we have Kevin. What's Kevin Seifert? Right? I should
Kevin friends and show Kevin. You know. The players have
issued a letter.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
We're going to give it to Dwayne Johnson when he
shows up tonight. They've advertised that the Rock is going
to be industan.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
It's old news Friday now at this point, considering they
played the weekend. But I thought that was a very
poorly written letter, a very poorly conceived kind of plan
that this is what we're going to do because we're
so frustrated with Darryl and Russ Brandon and we haven't
been able to get through and you know, we want
to get the Rock involved and kind of like corner
him into this thing of like, well, we know you

(11:43):
don't care, but you have more money and power, so
please get involved in that.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Then you had to come out that the Rock wasn't
going to be there.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
But then it was a plane issue and he was
supposed to go from Hawaii, and then he had did
you watch all that where he posted like the pilot
came out and got down anyway, so the Rock wasn't there.
And then yeah, then the ratings were kind of stinky.
He was advertised to the media and they pulled out.
Like the whole thing was just weird. So like I
don't even know what Fox or you Fella or anyone
expected going into this. It was really just the weirdest

(12:13):
Friday of like, okay, is this even happening here?

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Like what's going on?

Speaker 3 (12:17):
Well, and then you had you know, it was at Houston.
I did do some research and I found I finally
found the answer. America's Dome or whatever they call it
there in Saint Louis was not available because the World
of Asphalt Convention was happening, so they could not play
Friday Night at the Dome. Still, I still believe they
could have found a different game other than at Houston.

(12:40):
You know, we kept joking about it, what a gamble
you're gonna take here? No pun intended with Houston to
you know, have this Friday night game there. You know
it's outdoors, which you know they all are except for
San Antonio, I guess in Saint Louis. But but it was,
you know, they didn't show up. They didn't really show
that much when it was at TDECU in the first place.

(13:03):
They showed up less at Rice because people said Rice.
It was. It was just a terrible set up all
the way around. And then you know, I it was
funny when I did a video and I had some
and I talked about it was it was a gamble
and will Houston fans show up? And somebody said, well,
you're going to be making another video where you're apologizing
to all the Houston fans, and that's not a video
that's gonna get made. So we saw what was it,

(13:26):
seven thousand announced and you know a lot of a
lot of people dressed as empty chairs.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah. I wanted to pull that up too. That's actually
a great point.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
And we had talked and just speaking kind of ratings,
then we will do all the games here. Because I
got thoughts about Donald and the Panthers, and we've got
stuff about that, and the posted in the post game
with the Stallions and the defenders and all that.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
But uh, you you have if I'm looking here.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
At the schedule and I can pop this up, you know,
because we had talked about this, and when we did
the schedule breakdown, you know, so obviously Houston on that
you knew that was going to be poor next week.
I don't think ford Field is getting shown up for
that as well. And then you do have a Friday
in Birmingham week three TBD on that and a Birmingham
and weather and heat and is it gonna be it
is the tornado coming?

Speaker 2 (14:10):
You know?

Speaker 1 (14:10):
We have other was the lightning strikes kind of all that.
We'll see what that goes. You just aren't setting yourself
up a lot. You're back at ford Field. You're just
not setting yourself up well for that. We do have
the final numbers on here. Let me make sure I
point that up by see Max asking that I have
two of the tabs or things bookmarks here Houston seven
thousand again, and these are all on the high end.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Right, they're the leads.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
These are announced crowds, right.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Seven thousand that for Houston, ten for Arlington. I would
feel good about that, just kind of given kind of
given them back and forth of that Memphis sub five
and then d C normally does about sixteen seventeen thousand
if memory serves down to about twelve thousand for that
For this Sunday night game. I mean, that's kind of
your prime time, you know, Sunday night, that's kind of

(14:55):
DC gets out a lot. Stallion's coming in. I should
have you know, it could have been a really high
atmosphere and the pretty live cluster.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah. And you know, again when we say announced crowds,
anyone who's been around sports and professional college whatever, high
level where you know seats matter and people and the
fans matter. When you say announced crowd, that's not the
crowd that showed up. Because I think if anyone watched
that Memphis game, and frankly, Memphis is a lot better

(15:24):
team and you know, so there there's not going to
be I know, they lost, but there's not going to
be a lot of excuses for those fans not to
show up. Now, I will say the league needs to
give them a solid here. They had an eleven o'clock
am local time game. You're going up against the NCAA tournament,
which unfortunately, I mean they didn't know at the time,

(15:46):
but you know, the Tennessee volunteers are playing in the
Sweet sixteen, so that's probably going to put a herd
on the crowd. You've got the church crowd, who's not
going to show up for an eleven o'clock game. There
were just a lot of things that I thought could
be wrong, and we talked about it last week. It
felt like they maybe should should have flipped the d
C Birmingham game with with that Memphis game, and I

(16:06):
thought that might have been the better idea for that. Again,
it's all about you know what's available and how you
do it. I know there's strategy behind some of these things.
I don't I don't understand what the strategy was there.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Last comment here on this from me.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
We'll do a couple of comments and then we'll transition
to the games here because I have a comment here
that will lead to that. It's just hard and we've
talked on here and people are always gonna talk ratings,
and I've always said this on here, you the matchup
doesn't necessarily right. You have a lot of people, oh
you know the DC Birmingham game generally it's dates and timeslots,
so you you do want to position you know, it's

(16:40):
kind of like the horror car before the horse that way,
So you want to position your best game in that
best time slot. But I don't think people are watching
the UFL based on the teams that are playing and
then then the time slot.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
But I think the league, like.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
You said, needs to work on that because you look
here at this the Friday night horrendous. So that let's
look at just a couple comments here and then we'll
have to that, you know, unforced errors made by the gravel.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Aw does that time of attendance solid? The account tickets
just should be dead? Where was the other one? Oh?
Yeah here, so this will be where we transition.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
She got, Really, what's worse Houston's attendance or they're actually
play on the field. Because here's the thing, right, Anthony Miller,
and we're going to have our power rankings. We've had
a lot of talk about, you know, Chris Johnson and
everything for All Football Dot Com. Here the decision to
keep critis to this year we said was bad.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
We kind of knew this was going to be bad.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
And then to kind of see what was going on
here on the field, do you remove Curtis Johnson at
this like what is your thoughts? A just on Houston
the game right getting blown out by Saint Louis at home,
but then just how bad they looked in the process.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
They didn't look competitive when you start talking about body language,
you know, and I think it was like in the
second quarter, it's like it was no, it was bad.
There was one point where and they showed it a
couple of different times where Tom Cable was talking to
CJ and it almost felt like he was trying to
tell him how to coach this team. Curtis Johnson looks

(18:10):
a little lost sometimes on the sidelines, and I don't
understand it's the criticism that we had last year. What
we thought about going into this year was a surprise
that he was coming back. You know, some of the
play calling and I'm not play calling guy, but some
of the play calling that we saw, I don't understand it.
Now He's coached a lot more football than I have,
but I did not understand a lot of it, and

(18:31):
it led to what you're seeing right there on the
screen thirty one to six, taking don't take anything away
from Saint Louis. Manny Wilkins was incredible, and you know,
I mean that team offensively and defensively, they were doing
a lot of good things. But if Saint Louis had
any questions or they really kind of needed it almost
felt like a preseason game. It's like they've got some

(18:52):
you know, they've kind of retooled a lot of things
on offense. There was no better way to start the
season for them than to play the Houston Roughnecks.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Like you said, not to take anything away, right, So
Saint louis Is is looking good here? Does that I
don't know, does that negate anything they've done? What's the
schedule coming up to week two? Here they'll be playing.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
I got too many freaking tabs open here.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
What what do you see Saint Louis doing here? Do
you feel bullish on them? I mean the league needs
them to be well to succeed.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Agreed. You know, I don't want to again take a
whole lot away from week one, especially week one and
you're playing the Houston Roughnecks. But uh, you know they
can get tested there in Week two with San Antonio.
Now san Antonio didn't look great, but they're they're going
to be a better team. Kellen Mond, a quarterback for
San Antonio, when he starts to get into rhythm and

(19:41):
kind of gets more comfortable, I think that's going to
be a much better team. Saint Louis. I'm bullish on them.
I was a little worried because of all kind of
the coaching turmoil that happened before the season. Then there
was the whole and we we've talked about that, you know,
ad nauseum with the quarterback changes and everything. Uh, and
then when they went into when they went into the season,

(20:03):
they posted, you know, our starting quarterbacks, so it was
like Manny Wilkins and Max Duggan. Well, sometimes if you
got two quarterbacks, you don't have any But I think
there was some talk about maybe making packages for different ones,
for different quarterbacks, but there was no way to pull
Manny Wilkins the way he was playing. You just couldn't
do it. Now Max Duggan did get into the game late,

(20:24):
but yeah, I just from that from that initial you
know game, and you're trying to take what you can
from a from a first game against the Houston Roughnecks.
I like what I saw offensively and defensively.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
In terms of the AJ McCarron them at all. And
there's been a lot made about his you know and
pr and everything else with that. Do the battle Hawks
need him, did the ratings need him? I don't think
that would have mattered. I don't think he was that big.
I mean, I don't want to take anything away from
him and kind of his popularity that way. But and

(20:59):
we'll have to see we I mean, you can't look
at the Rough, you know, the Rough next year and
kind of give too much against the teams playing them.
But it was that needed? Was it time to move on?
It looks like I mean, they put up a ton
of points.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
They did. You know, when Manny Wilkins had some opportunities,
he did win a game for Saint Louis, but he
didn't look great a couple of times, right, Leon's right.
It was a layup for him, So yeah, you can
hit layups all the time, so that I think that
was probably a good thing. I yeah, I don't want
to take anything away from AJ mccerron. I thought it

(21:31):
was interesting that when he did leave. I've yet to
hear any of his teammates really come to his defense.
Maybe they have and I just haven't seen it, which
is very possible. But I think that it felt like
Saint Louis as a franchise, as a team, they were
ready for something new and needed to go a little
little bit in a different way, and that's what they

(21:52):
did with Manny Wilkins and Max Duggan. And Max Duggan
was a huge signing. But you know, Manny came in
there and did what he did and looked off good
in that first or in that first game.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, I would want love to know the politics and
obviously all team sports and especially football in.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
The locker room and kind of all that.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
But I would love to know, especially in the league
like this with all of this stuff with the strikes
and the labor and the rest and all that, like
because yeah, you have someone like AJ mccerran. Imagine if
he's still involved in this, right yeah, and the strike
and like well do I like, I just there's so
many different levels of like the players right where I
feel like in the NFL, and obviously you're gonna you know,

(22:30):
the mahomes versus you know, the fourth strings starty whatever.
But like, I just feel like here in the UFL,
you might have someone that's like, this is my last
shot or this is my only shot and I'm gonna
I'm gonna look and.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
Craver, and then you have someone like a J.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
McCarran that's like, I'm just kind of over this, right,
I just you know, hey, I can afford to do
the strike.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
I have money saying I don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
I just I think it would be fascinating to know
kind of the politics of all.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Those Yeah, and if that is the case, I mean,
if he felt that way, then he needed to make
room for someone else to come in there to really,
you know, take advantage of the art opportunity. I thought,
Manny Wilkins in, I thought we saw a lot of
players take advantage on on all the teams. You know,
there were even even the bad ones except Houston. It's
really hard to find a positive out of any of that.

(23:11):
But it felt like, you know, with the other teams,
there are there are players out there who are showing
some promise and then others who are you know, making
that next step. So far, again, it's week one, but still.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
We had a couple of comments here a that Houston's
players played like they were already on the strike. That's good,
they said here. You know, if AJ played for Houston,
that would have been more interesting. I mean, what what
do you do with Houston now? I had the other
comment I was looking for here, talking about you know
how Mark Thompson was having a field day on Twitter

(23:44):
and like Toto, he was kind of going crazy.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
And I thought that he was a little boyschous over
the years.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
But I've I've mellowed out a lot in this off
sea terms of like my my stress level with all this,
and Mark Thompson doesn't really bother me as much as
like maybe he did last year, but like.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
What do you do with this Houston thing?

Speaker 1 (24:02):
And there was the other comment I forgot to pull
up before I think it was Jared had said, you know,
there was all this talk like t TDECU, like that's
the holy Grail, like all we need to do is
get them back. Well, obviously that doesn't fix the play
on the field, right Australa didn't fix the attendance. But
I just know what you don't. I don't know what
you do with Houston now it's two years past, kind
of keeping at the branding. I saw Brandon Silvers was

(24:24):
tweeted about that. I had fun conversations with them behind
the scenes as well. A lot of people kind of
enjoying the Houston downfall right now, I guess if that
makes sense.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
I mean, I guess I don't enjoy it because you
need eight strong teams in this league for it to succeed, right,
I mean, yeah, you're right, Leon's right about that. I mean,
you know, there are a lot of people saying, we
won't wade back. This was just this was It's brutal.
Why why would you go number one? If you're if
you're a football fan in Houston, why would you go

(24:56):
to that? If they don't they're not putting something on
the field. That's I think a lot of people want
to watch obviously because they didn't show up, and the
people who are in the know, not just the casual fan,
the people who are in the know are probably like,
why would we want to go back and see Curtis
Johnson coaching again? You blew everybody out, you blow out

(25:18):
the front office, you retool everything. Guy comes in there
gets rid of like a you know, a dozen players
or whatever it was, and then you kind of got
the same thing, because what do you expect. You know,
the buck usually stops at the head coach. And you
know what we're seeing again, is I mean we've seen
it happen before. Now we've seen we have seen a
coach leave during the season. I think was when Rod Woodson,

(25:40):
you know, left the Vipers, and that was a whole
clown show in itself. You have to wonder if this continues.
Now again, you can't pull the plug after week one,
but if this continues, you have to think that the
league has to have some difficult conversations.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yeah, a couple of comments here and then we'll move
on Vihetian way. We're want to talk to some of
these other teams. You can circle around. Yeah, Sam here,
I'm gonna assume this is Samschot is probably not Samshort's team,
but watch he probably has this in a little avatar.
There can anyone explain why CJ. Johnson was at Fire.
We all saw this coming. David here says, I swear
the Brandon simmers Mark tweets that were better than the game.

(26:16):
And then here's the last one from Zach and then
a long time listener here, Zach gets mad when we
don't do the regular Fridays.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Do you think the next episode fire him?

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Unfortunately, Houston's reported rebuilt didn't look like one part.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Of me things.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
It could have been the British show on Turf and
still lose. Just horrendous and we're Houston with PJ Walker
and Jean Joe like everything kind of used to be.
To see in what four short year five whatever after
COVID and everything, like to see this again. Not that
you have a lot of like legacy and goodwill in
spring football, but you did, right Like I was on

(26:48):
Rod Show and we're talking that's the difference of the CFL.
You know that the saskatchewanwrob Friders, you know what the
BC Lions. You kind of know what these teams are
and they have any good will at all and then.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Get rid of it.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
To me, it would be each tandem out to you know,
the defenders or the say Louis, I mean Houston was
there in that top echelon and just it's really disappointed.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Well and as the commenter there said, well, a go,
it's it's ruined the brand. You know, whatever that brand
might be, it's a brand that some people might not know.
The casual viewer and if they know it now, it's
like it's not great. And then for all of us
who know Houston and know what it should be as
it should be, the Gamblers, maybe that's what they do.

(27:29):
Maybe they change back to the Gamblers because the rough
next brand, I mean, it's it's you know, it's New Coke.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Right now, last comment for me on this one and
we'll move to the Renegades game. We had media members
at I think to two of the events, like very
low attended, just from if we want to talk at that,
just you know, if you want to gauge ining just
and something. I think there were three or four people
in the press box in Houston Friday night, so that

(27:58):
that just speaks to kind of the local media interest
in this. I think that to me is another sign.
Same with like the you know, the open practices in Arlington,
but obviously you can't do a Memphis open practice in
Memphis or either the gauge, but seeing three or four
media members.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
At the Houston kickoff game.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
It speaks to that you have anything else on the
blowout bloodbath at tv CU.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
On it's not worth talking about. It's really not.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
So let me get up.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Here and I really need to kind of navigate this
side at some point and kind of figure out how
to pull this stuff up. But let's talk renegades here.
Anthony was there bright and early covering this. Anthony Miller
tons on Allfootball dot Com today. I think already he
has you know, the four postgame reports of all the games.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
We have Russ and Danny's comments.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
I think Pat Raffino has his Players of the Week
article up. It's been really busy, so like super excited
for that, just because you know, I kind of just
help with the back end of that.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
So check all that out.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Anthony has eyewinnessed reports and all of this renegades take
care of business. I heard that Aj smith it was
none looking too happy postgame thoughts kind of on this
one and anything else.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Well, this this one, I mean, was a surprise, not
necessarily a surprise that Arlington won, but a surprise that
Arlington won, you know that big yeah. I thought, like
Kellen Mond and AJ smith Man, you put like that
offensive coordinator with that quarterback, like some good things can happen.
I think good things will happen for san Antonio once
he gets a little bit you know, more use to

(29:30):
the system. You know, Luis Perez looked like Louis Perez.
I mean, look at that twenty for twenty five hundred
and sixty four yards. No, I didn't throw a touchdown,
but you know, their running game going was going pretty well.
So it's good to see them back. It was good
to see the Bandits the logo back. That was pretty
cool that they brought it back for the Helmets. I mean,
you know, it's the little things. I thought it was

(29:52):
an interesting game, you know again, you know, you had
poor Kurt Menafee, like we had a Devonte Smith, and
we had like all kinds to just you know, disastrous
calls there. What should you know, But it was exciting
to see that. I think when Arlington is good that
that helps the league. I mean, it would be nice
if all eight teams you know were good. Listen, Arlington

(30:14):
might be able to do some damage this year. It's
it's not. I don't think this is going to be
the team we saw last year.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Uh, Anthony seems very high on them.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
I know that you were just at mister Luis Prez's
kind of book Zoom and you have the copy. I'm
surprised you were even able to put it down to
a participation reading.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Yeah, light reading.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
You know, I kind of thought the Luis story was
kind of done. Right, He's doing the book and the tour,
and I'm kind of back and I'm gonna, I don't know, right,
obviously hang on to this as long as not in
a bad way, but participated as long as I can,
and here you go. I mean, he's he's had a
great game. I mean, how much how much gas do
you think is left on that take? I'm just surprised.

(30:59):
I really kind of thought this was like the farewell
tour for Luiz.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
I thought exactly the same thing we've talked about it here.
To me, you don't write a book if you're going
to continue to play. But it was interesting that he
said in in his virtual book tour that I attended
that you know, if he you know, if his family
is okay with it, if he feels good, if he's
playing at a high level, he wants to continue to play.
And he was very high on the UFL as a

(31:25):
league and as the as we always say, the league
of opportunity. He had nothing but good things to say. Now, again,
I know this was a pr event. He wasn't there
to make news. But you know he did talk about,
you know, with the whole Viper situation, he was ready
to retire, like he had had that conversation with his family,
and he may have he may have told that story before,
but he had had that conversation with his family. He

(31:47):
gets traded to the Renegades and they win the XFL title,
So I think that gave him a little bit more
juice and he enjoyed playing the game again. It sounded
like he did not enjoy playing it very much when
he was with Vegas, and that was understandable because he's
been through I mean, name a spring football league. I
mean he I think he played for the World Football
League back in the seventies. I don't been around forever.

(32:10):
But he's playing at a high level. And we saw
him play at a high level, you know, this weekend.
So no, I absolutely, grid Iron Coasters is right.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Man.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
You have to appreciate his commitment to spring football. And
you know he's he till he talked about the advice
that he gives other quarterbacks. He's not in it just
for himself. He's in there to kind of mentor these
young guys. He still has that NFL dream but he
also wants when the when football is finished, to coach.
I think he'd be a great coach.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Absolutely my only And then I have a couple of
comments here because I do want to talk about san
Antonio and kind of AJ Smith and all that.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
I just I love Louis. I mean I love Luis.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
He's been on the show, great guy filled in when
we had all the like where Brian Scott I let
go and then he had to come on.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
We just he's been very very amenable kind of over
the years.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
I just whin he's like like him destroying and you know,
Matt corral are like the three people that you point
to for your league. That's where I have a problem
because they had they seemingly used this week with the
book tour and the UFL kickoff to be like, look
at Louis Perez the face of this league and one
of these and that's great for you or I, but

(33:21):
you do get a lot of these casual comments like well,
like what development has he had or how far has
he got? You and I and we watched the games,
and so I just I don't know if I would
put all the hopes and dreams same with destroyings you
know right foot. I don't know if I would put
all my hopes and dreams of the UFL on Louis
press any other thoughts on that, because I do. We'll
talk prahmise and then we'll talk destroying here, But any

(33:41):
other thoughts on Luis or the Renegades.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
No.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
I think you make a good point. But I think
also you see that he has gotten opportunities in the NFL.
Like it's not like he's he's as pat Raffino and
I have talked about, and I know you've talked about
him too, it feels like Louis Perez is a four
A player. He's he's maybe better than Spring League, but
he's not quite to the level of the NFL. And

(34:05):
that's fine because he continues to do it. And I
think he is a valuable commodity. But you're right. If
you're a naysayer, you can say, well, yeah, he's not
developed that much, but look, but he has. He's been
in NFL camps, and I mean, I think that's all
you can ask, really, is your opportunity to get into
those camps and try.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
For the bramis here And I had a comment I
wanted to pull up from David, and he also has
a comment about the bandit's logo if I remember that,
but as the blim come off. AJ Smith, I love
the guy. It's been a lot since I've seen his
trademark offensive fireworks.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
And we obviously last year and we had the injuries
and all that, and everyone knows the championship game and
Garber's and all of that, and just kind of the
collapse and the Brahmas.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
But I agree with that statement from David. Do you
agree with that?

Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah? But I mean you have to look it back
to back games with A J. Smith a terrible uflchampionship,
and then you open the season like this. Now, there
are a lot of there are a lot of things
that play, especially quarterback in the UFL championship game and
then really quarterback in a different way in this first game. Again,
like I've said, now this will be the third time.

(35:14):
I think if Kellen Mond gets comfortable in that system
that he he could be really good. But you're right.
All the time we were just talking about how it
felt like A. J. Smith should be a head coach
in this league or some league some somewhere. He should
be a head coach.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
But do you still think that I do.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
I mean, we're talking about two games here, and I
think we're talking about two games that I don't know
that was play calling on his end. I mean, you're
trying to you're trying to work through a system, and
there's some work to do. I don't know if the
bloom has come off just yet, but there's a there's
a like a coffee ring on his resume right now,
and he's just gonna he'll he'll continue to get better

(35:51):
and I think we're going to see a lot more
at a San Antonio than what we saw in week one.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
What I do like is a league like this giving
him time to grow. I'm ma sure, I'm learned that way.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
I am a huge A J.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
Smith.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
I mean, like, don't get me wrong on it, but
I do.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
And because I am the casual person that hosts this show, right,
I mean like that is but I I can say
that from watching you know the promise you're technically my
team even you know whatever I disappointed last year, you know,
yeah you might know what happened.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Actually I do remember that now.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
But but but that question he or two, why was
Wade Phillips up in the booths. You know, a lot
of comments about that, a lot of questions. Weird to
see the head.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Coach up there?

Speaker 3 (36:33):
He you know, there was They briefly mentioned it. They
showed him in the booth, you know. I remember them
saying that he was up there he wanted his coordinators
to you know, like be filled level. But I think A. J.
Smith was also in the booth, if I'm not mistaken.
So yeah, I'm I'm not sure what was going on there.
I think he did come down toward the end of
the game, but it was almost you know, it's like
Jerry Jones coming down at the end of the game,

(36:53):
like I did. I didn't get that. I'm not sure
that we're going to see that again. I mean, unless
there was something else going on that, you know, that
he needed to sit down rather than stand. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Also, I mean, like chalk Taw Stadium isn't like your
traditional football stadium anyway, we're like, oh, I'm kind of
kind of I don't know. I mean, are you sitting
in the commentator like that? To me is kind of interesting.
Also where it's not like you're actually in a you know,
in the whatever. Okay, let's talk now. We had the
infamous So I'm at a wedding show. I have the
game on my phone, this slow wedding show.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
So we're there.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
I'm at my table. Destroying makes a kick. Donald made
the kick. Made the kick, professional kick.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
First, professional kick first? What was it? Thirty nine yards? Right?

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Ye?

Speaker 1 (37:37):
And I tweeted, thank god Donald made a kick. We
don't need to talk about this anymore. Everyone knows my thoughts.
I think I don't have any issues at all with Donald.
I just think that I I this goes for the WWE.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
This goes for the UFL or the EXCE.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
I hate it when brands bend over backwards too, for
any celebrity that comes in their way.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
WWE.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
He used to do this forever, and like, you know,
you get like Jeremy Piven on from Entrage. Oh my god,
I'm like, it's Jeremy Piven from Like, let's not act
like it anyway, you know. So that's just my problem.
He makes the kick rocket and then he misses another kick.
Katley not even closed.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
So I'm like that's why again.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Hey, Like as big as Destroying is, he's still a
special teams guy. I would never base my leagues anything
around promoting.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Obviously we have all Kwandi.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
Turpin and I'm like, that's all we have, and then
we haven't. Then he misses John, what did you think
of this?

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Well, you know you talk about special teams. One of
the guys I felt bad for was you know, Marque King,
who was out there trying to be the hype man
and he's, you know, a hype man in front of
ten thousand people. You know, he tried. He's an entertainer
and he's Uh. Also, if I'm a punter in this league,
I've got some problems with the rules. That's another story.
But uh but yeah, I mean you get it. The

(38:57):
UFL wants to cash in and get this audience. We've
talked about it before. There's a reason. I mean, if
you see the UFL account, if there's you know, if
the ratio of destroying posts versus pretty much everything else. Now,
let me say this though, they were cranking out the
videos because I have an alert for the UFL like
anything on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah, because that's all they care about. They're like, oh
my god, you gotta get I mean.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
But I'll give them credit. They were you know, you'd
see a great play and then I mean, two minutes
later in my phone, I'd have a I'd have an.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Alert and are job. Yes, I love it.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
I loved it. So yeah, you know, I cash in
where you can. You know, you've got to try to
strike and find these younger fans where they are, and
you know, maybe they continue to think that they'rew destroying
We'll see.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Any other thoughts. I guess I'm going to pull up
the other games here. This website is horrible. Any other
thoughts on this San Antonio, Saint Louis got or not St.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Louis, you know, a kind of any of that stuff.
Any other thought?

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, No, there's one thing that the UFL's got to
fix here. It's this awkward thing at the beginning where
they present the game ball and then no one knows
what to do. I mean, I'm nitpicking here, but it
was so awkward last year, and they did it a
few times, and it happened again this it happened again
in some of the first games we've got. We've got
to fix that. Other than that, I thought it was,

(40:22):
you know, it was, it was a good game. It
was it was fine. And and Arlington is I think
they're going to be a much better team than they
were last year.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
All right, so let's talk about that. So I was
so excited to send them off. You know, I'm going
to go to the Mariner game, but I go good,
I'm going to see her.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
I'm gonna watch I thought it was the Birmingham game first.
I was so excited. This was the game I had
and I had to get. I go, God forbid the
one game I'm able to watch live.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
St I. You know, is this got a little close.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
I had joked with you because we were texting about
kind of the over under of this, and I think
it was thirty eight.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
And a half at the beginning of the game. It
was ten to three.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
And this game and this first half of Phil's fell
to me like a lot of these CFL games where
you get to the last like two minutes before half
and it takes half an hour. And it was brutal
and we're in, We're kicking, We're like all this. So, hey,
what did you make of the game? Uh, Panthers win

(41:15):
here show buzz I did not look think looked well?
I did. The attendance had its own issues, is well,
what did you make of this one? Not a great
showing in my opinion on the Sunday Mornings.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Uh yeah, you know, and it's there was the Desperation
pick six, which almost you know, almost hit the over
there if they didn't hit the conversion. But I thought that,
you know, with Joe tess And and Jordan Rodgers, I
mean to me, I thought that it was a better crew.
I mean, I'm just coming out from the TV perspective,
and I don't know if you noticed or not, but
apparently ESPN has bought the rights to a red hot

(41:47):
chili Peppers can't stop because we heard it. I mean
it's I'm still hearing it in mya. But I thought
the presentation was good. You know, Tom Lougan Bill talking
you know, talking to coaches during I mean during plays,
Mike Nolan going all in, had the headset on and
was talking here. I just thought that was really cool.
They had about a ten minute pregame where they were

(42:08):
you know, it was I thought it was a good introductory,
you know, for people who might not have seen the UFL.
I just thought overall, and then as I said, you know,
they did a really good job with integrating some of
the gambling aspects. I think one thing we did learning
Bryce Perkins is a real deal. I mean there's no
question about that. You know, efficient there you see that,
Troy Williams. I mean there's some work there. E J. Perry,

(42:32):
There's some work to do. But you but for everything
that Memphis has gone through here recently, I thought it
was a better showing than maybe they would have They
would have had, you know, some excuses if they didn't,
you know, if they showed up and looked like some
of the panther I mean, some of the show boat
teams that we had seen in the past. So I've
said before and I know you kind of laughed because

(42:54):
it is funny. I said that they might be poised
for the biggest turnaround in the UFL. Does that mean
winning three games or four games games? I don't know,
but you know, if there was a this might have
been one of the better you know, two touchdown blowouts
here that are not blowouts, but two touchdown games that
we saw.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
He said.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
I did like the interactions with Mike Nolan and we're
talking on the side. I kind of made fun because
they're like, well, what did you think of the quarterbacks?
And you know, because they're doing the two well, you know,
we played last year and we played three we played
three games.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
I'm like, you don't.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
I mean, you're just taking kind of whatever. You're making
the best you can here with all this. But I
did like that. I forgot to mention you. I like
seeing that friend of the program a Brock brock huer On.
Was that the Friday game? You know, Brock's the one
that I'm going to say. You know, he's always the
one on the sideline. You know, Rock kind of made
that be a thing, and so.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
I like that a lot. I I write Brock a
lot here.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
He doesn't Marriner show you know, every well, he does
it every day.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
But I'm a big fan of him.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
But I like the access with that you agree with
kind of the different broad broadcast angles.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
And kind of all that.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
But yeah, the chili pepper is that didn't maybe I
just mut it when I go to break like I did,
I did not.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Have it's I mean, it was non stop, you can't stop.
But you also, you know, and then you had access
to to to Jared Horton, who you know, we got
at least one or two f bombs out of him,
but you know, to talk to him during as he's
you know, being interviewed and talking during the play or
at least I just thought like the way that ESPN

(44:30):
really did the presentation of this game, and even though
it might have not been the you know, the greatest
game of the Slate weekend Slate, I thought the presentation
was there. It was solid, especially again after the two
you know, kind of Fox presentations we.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Got obviously the show Boats and the head coach and
said me down all that here this week? Do you
read do we want a week to kind of refresh that?
Do you think the show Boats have kind of any
upsides here? And just kind of curious moving forward thoughts
on that.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
I think they do. I think they As I said,
I think they performed a lot better than maybe a
lot of us, a lot of us expected. I know,
the one thing we saw there was a shot there
of Mike Nolan and there was Darryl Johnston behind him
wearing his blazer and his UFL shirt and he had
this pain to look on his face. And in fact,
you know, they he talked after the game to the

(45:21):
Memphis Commercial Appeal and it was you know, saying like
we have got to figure out a way to you know,
to get some fan engagement here to the point where
he was saying, maybe we need to consult the Bill's mafia,
like how do we get the fan engagement? Which I
thought was interesting kind of to bring them up in
this article, But it almost sounded like, now I'm reading quotes,

(45:44):
so I didn't hear it. So there's a lot of
difference between when you read a quote and when you
hear someone say it. But it almost felt like there's
an ultimatum there, like this, we have got to find
a way to make this work in parentheses unsaid or else.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah, I mean, I don't advocate for anyone to lose
their job, but if you if you have been hired
to be the Memphis ticket people, and we know and
they've been all these cities and we've had all this
big off season push for all of that, and I
haven't been obviously back with was it Andy right where
Corey the big Orlando one forever? That was very vocal

(46:21):
on But I don't know a lot of Like I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
If Samantha is running the Memphis.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
I don't know like whoever it is, But yeah, how
do you walk into that stadium with forty three hundred
tickets sold? Distributed however you want to call it and
go like, yeah, this is awesome. I mean this is
year three of this, right, I mean because we did
the UFL second hub, right, and what would that been
of twenty three and then twenty four and twenty five that,
like I tweeted, I mean, the Memphis experiment needs to end.

(46:48):
I mean this is just you know, and you had
fred Smith and FedEx and all of that that's never
really materialized. I mean you Harrold, you know they wanted
FedEx here and he's going to buy the team, and
see this is just one of the first owners and
we're gonna sell all these none of it's I mean,
I don't see any way in the world you look
at the Memphis show buck to any of these teams
and go, oh yeah, I'm gonna spend you know, twenty

(47:10):
million dollars to buy this franchise, like or whatever the
heck it would be.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
Well, right, I mean, like what you know, you're like
you've said before, like what are you buying? Memphis has
done a lot of things to get out in the community,
and I just wonder, like what's the disconnect here? Like
they do so much stuff their social media stuff to
me is really really good. Like you said, I just
don't understand where the disconnect is now. I don't. I

(47:37):
don't know that you pull the plug after after week
one and say like, Okay, that's it. You know, we'll
play out the string again. Stop having you know, eleven
am local time games in Memphis. That's just that's not
gonna work. But I will be interested to see and
hopefully if the weather holds out here in a couple
of weeks, I'm thinking about going down there to kind
of check it out, and you know, hopefully we'll have

(47:58):
good weather and maybe a good crowd.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
We'll uh, yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Any other thoughts on that, We'll get the last game
here and then we'll we'll get out at the top
of the hour. I'm going I'm going to see snow
Light tonight with my brother John. We're gonna go have
a beer and go see I gotta see how bad
this movie is.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
So we're gonna go hate watch snow White.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
I am gonna go hate watch snow Light. Yeah, and
then anyway, so we'll do all that. Any other thoughts
on that before we get to the last game, No,
I just.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
Let's let's not pull the plug on Memphis just yet.
Let's listen, Let's give them some time. I mean, you
know they might be living on borrowed time, but let's
give them a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
I I tweeted out because we had the group chat
going during the game, and I tweeted out, you know,
broke is UFL expansion, but woke is UFL reduction and
getting rid of Memphis and Houston. Roll those players into
the other six teams. Use that money to you know,
use the excess money to to pay the players more,
get year round health insurance. We we were talking in

(48:54):
the in the in the group chat, I think if
I think if you had kept with the Spring league
model as opposed to all this glitz and glamour and
money and Fox and everything that got dumped into this,
I would be really curious where we are now. And
even if you only have six or eight Spring League teams,
they got four hundred and fifty thousand for their championship.
I know the players didn't get paid and all that,
but like if you couldn't progress versus that, I think

(49:17):
once you slap USFL on this Fox product back in
twenty two, and it set a standard that was never
going to hit without the necessary.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Engagement or you know, engagement and investment.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
But I would just be curious if we still have
the jousterers and the aviators running around.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
It, are are you pulling much less?

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Well, that's the question. Would it be that much different
than what you have right now? I mean, I think
that is a great what if question.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
I think it's one of the greatest one the quick
leonne I agree with all this.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
I agree with everything that like leon is eight and on.
I agree. I just have to see how bad of this.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
So anyway, last game here, you know, was exciting for
this one DC you know, and obviously the head coach
and all that stuff, but they always show out field.
I think d C sports is just really hot right
now anyway, obviously coming off the Commander season, the Capitols
or I just think they're like the Nationals d C
sports because that's my feed obviously because of the Commander's

(50:12):
fandom right living here at Seattle, take care, you know,
knockoff the the Birmingham Stallions.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
What did you make of this?

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Well, we were all excited to see the return of
Alex Magoo and you know, he looked he looked good
early on and then whatever Greg Williams was, you know,
as we say, defensive coordinators don't call plays, they dial
up pressures and whatever he was dialing up, Birmingham could
not figure it out. And there were times where you
don't see Skip Holtz a lot, especially on Mike kind

(50:43):
of I don't want to say lose his temper, but
he was, you know, he was getting pretty hot and
he and Alex Magoo were having some some strong conversations there.
D c's defense, Uh, you know, as far as like
trying to stop the pass was always kind of a
problem and that that was not a problem for them.
Whatever they whatever Greg Williams was doing was working, and uh,

(51:07):
you know, and and Jordan tim who looked and listen,
no one. I finally found someone who has more of
a problem of pronouncing Jordan tom whose name than I do.
And it was the play by play guy, uh for ESPN.
I mean there was a tamumu when there one time.
I mean, I'm not even kidding, but that looked like
a different DC team. You know, we talked about uh

(51:29):
body lank you know, graduates of Body Language University, the
body language on that on that d C team, it
was a lot different man. They were hyped. They looked good.
You saw like even just having Abram Smith back in
the lineup, not even necessarily like with handoffs, but just
the how hard he plays and blocks and does everything.
He's such a key to that. And I just that

(51:51):
looked like a much better team than what we saw.
Just seemed to like just kind of write it out
last year.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Just speaking of the Greg Williams started it up. I
forgot to mention that. Excuse me, the Jaron Horten, like,
you know, can we yes, sam Otra right, guy's a
little break like Jared's trying to like dial I mean,
he's he's calling place and he's like, well, Jaren's like, well,
you know, I predict leave the man alone.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
He's playing like he's calling place. Leave him alone.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
You could have picked a better time.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Now.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
It was interesting when when they were on offense, you know,
they he was really starting to talk. He was able
to talk to him because he wasn't calling plays, uh
and just talking about some different things. So I thought
that was, you know, that was good. But you're right,
he's asking him a question and then you see you
see Jaron Horton like picking up the walkie talkie to
start to talk. He's like, but he I mean held

(52:48):
with it. He didn't. He wasn't you know, he wasn't
like like pushing him away. But he's I got to
call this play here because we're trying to win a game.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
I I yes, I tweeted and I said, there's a
very vocal part of the internet.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
It was very excited to.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
See Jared hord He is quite excited and not to
go back to that game, but it was, Yeah, it
was like sam like discovered real time. Like I I
hate Emmanuel Acho. I cannot stand that man. I know
Andy hates him because of the way he talks about
Justin Herbert. But Samacho has the least charisma of any

(53:22):
man I've ever met them.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
I mean I've never like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Man with least charisma. That's on TV and then sam
Otcho and him. But Jared Horton carried that segment that
says a lot about like sam Ocho is like future
and television that Jared Horton is saving him on this
live segment. But what's see next week because he's gonna
go try again next week and some other DC is
gonna be like get out of my Like, do you

(53:46):
think Greg Williams get out of my face?

Speaker 3 (53:49):
I don't know Greg Williams. It seems to me he's Karen.
I just sure you're not.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
He used to love but God bless him. But I
just just to go back to them.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Greg Williams is never meta caamer. He didn't like so
I don't know it. But but there will be one.
There's gonna be an offensive coordinator or a head coach
or that's you know, eventually going to give him the
Bill Parcells, you know, get out of here, you know,
leave us lung. But I think, also, I do wonder
if it's not almost ingrained in some of these coaches
that listen. These guys are part of the league. Just

(54:21):
they're they're just like the referees and everything else. They're
part of this game. So you know, hopefully and most
of them will understand, like, yes, he's gonna ask me
a question at the most inopportune time, I'll just have
to say, give me a second. I did, Like what
one was awesome. Cole Kublick was out there talking to
the kicker before he was on the field, before he's

(54:42):
getting ready to kick off. I can't remember it was
after after a score or whatever it was. But I
just thought that was really that was really interesting and
well done that he was just standing out there, He's
getting ready to kick off. He's like, okay, thanks, kicker
says all right, thank you, and then.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
He just kicks off.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
It was great.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
I I'm not the biggest I like Cole, He've been
on the show, but I'm not the biggest fan of his,
like his his sidelines.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
I think Brock has a little bit more of.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Like the hey, you know, go.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
To hey hey, and he's always guys like all right,
what's coming cold?

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Anyway, the last thing about this, David says, sounds like
his mouth is falling down the st like that. So
let's get to this because I do need to get
out at the top of the door this post game again,
I completely missed this, Like I saw great. I think
I think Greg Parks and people they tweeted last night
like did they say doormat or dorman and someone needs

(55:36):
to ask. I was out of it, like Dorothy and Ireary.
I was so out of it, but then I saw
the clips that I was like, oh my god, so
what did you this was? You know, for teams that
are really close and fly together and bust together and
live together.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
It's interesting.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Well, I watched the post game with Shannon Harris and
someone did ask him about it, and he just said
it was really vague. It was kind of like, well,
you know, we're fine now. I went and talked to
some of the assistant coaches and just wanted to make
sure we're all on the same page. And you know,
it's something that didn't really make a lot of sense

(56:13):
to me. But I will say I don't know that
Harry Douglas, who was doing the sidelines, saw exactly what happened,
because he immediately brought him over. He did say like,
why are you so hyped up? And he was just like, oh,
it was a big, big win. And that's what I
heard too. When someone had posted kind of a cleaned
up sound. You couldn't really hear it that well on
the broadcast, but someone I saw today had posted where

(56:35):
you kind of clean up the sound and hear it
and it sounded like he said doorman, like you know
you said, I was the doorman at at the at
the UFL headquarters. I still don't understand what. I could
never find context for what any of this meant, And
there were a lot of people who were coming to
skip Holtz defense saying like, if he ever said anything
like that, it would have been ingest, not in a

(56:56):
you know, it wouldn't have been something where it was
an insult. And in fact, skip Holtz seem pretty taken
aback by now. I mean, I'm not I'm not trying
to defend either one of them. I don't know what happened.
I just know what I saw there, and like skip Holtz,
I kind of grabbed him by the shirt and tried
to bring it back like, no, I didn't say that,
or that's not what I meant, And yeah, I could.

(57:16):
It sounded like he said he was a doorman at
the at the UFL headquarters. I'm not sure, but it was.
It was a little a little spicy something for the
for the end of the weekend.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
If this was if it's, if this were the old
XFL back in two thousand and one, it would be
a total thing and they'd have them like, you know,
fisticuffs out in fifty yard line or something. But I
don't think they're going to try to build up anything
out of this. Those are two professional guys. I hope.
I know Skip Holtz is I don't know a lot
about Shannon Harris.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Well, and I I could imagine just you know, I
don't even I don't even want to speculate too much
about it.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
No, I'm not not.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
I guess what I would say is this, I think
Skip Holtz is a pretty even keeled person. They've really
done a good job to spotlight him, you know, coaching
up quarterbacks, talking with Magoo, like you said, during this
game and last season we saw him working with all
the people.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
So I don't. Yes, I agree, and then maybe it
was a misunderstanding or whatever, but it was hot. I
mean I like it. I like it. You know, it
makes it hey, I mean you want the games to matter.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
Yeah, and obviously they mattered, and this was you know,
Birmingham already disappointed, and you know, and what again, like
what DC has gone through, uh right before the season,
and you got to think that these guys aren't even
going to be around if there is a UFL season three.
They're all you know that that DC crew might be
at Tennessee State. So uh, but yeah, it was an

(58:40):
interesting way to end the weekend for sure.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Last thing here real quick, Yes, Birmingham's going to be
in UH in Detroit on Friday night here and then
we have Saturday. We're going to have the show votes
here Defenders Houston, be a Battle of the Texas whatever
on on Saturday the sixth, and then San Antonio going
into Saint Louis.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
What's your most look two games?

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Just as we get out of here, everyone's sacking round.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
Yeah, Stallions Panthers by far. I mean it's you know,
the Stallions have to figure out what they're going to do.
Skip Holtz said after the game, there wasn't really you know,
he's not gonna play two quarterbacks or didn't really feel
like he needed to. And he talked about like last
year he couldn't really do it. But and he talked
about the personalities involved. So I don't know what's going
on there. So that's gonna be the interesting one. You know,
Alex Magoo if he is the starter versus Bryce Perkins, uh,

(59:27):
and you know Birmingham are they gonna they're going to
try to turn it around? How many dozens of fans
are going to show up for the game. To me,
that's that That's the game that I'm keeping the biggest
eye on. For sure.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Can we talk about them putting them? They Battlehawk's home
opener on f.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
S F S one.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
What do we do? I mean, I just can't figure
it out.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
I know there's like they would say, they would say,
there's a reason, John, But oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
Is the see that is? Is that's Sunday night. Yeah,
what I don't I don't.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Get Well, it's too thirty Eastern time, so it's yeah,
I don't. Oh no, I'm looking at Wednesday. Sorry now
I'm six thirty Eastern time, three thirty Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
So I don't. I'm sure there's some broadcast strategy behind it.
I don't know what it is at Bill says it's
a game after a Nascart race.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
So well, maybe, hey, it'd be good, they'd be good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
Well, I don't know. Maybe that's good.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
I really appreciate everyone. I check it out today, like
I said, John, and I will figure out. I am
flying Miami overnight tomorrow. Then I used to work, and
then we're back here at Amazon. I think we'll be
good next Monday. We'll figure out the time because then
I go back to Orlando. So John, it's a very exciting,
very good time. I wish I wish the Guardians were

(01:00:41):
playing I could have I wish any of these sounds
I was going with anywhere at the UFL game. I
really would go check it out. John, Are you going
to have more videos on your channel? Remember everything goes
to All Football dot Com, but check out John Lewis's channels. Well,
anything you have coming up before we get out.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
I tried to double my money on a hundred dollars
worth of bets on Week one of the UFL and
I got my man XFL Jim to help me out
on some betting tips. And I'm gonna show you just
how close we came to doing that that That video
will be coming up soon.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
I love it, John, I really appreciate it. Everyone for
checking it out, like and subscribe. I thumbs up. Go
do John, and go check out all football dot Com.
Those guys have been working.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
I like, get that good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Oh my god, I got like eight different articles I
need to post, which is great.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
It's awesome, So check it out. Enjoy. We'll see everyone
next time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
I know probably people are more positive than we are,
but anyway, we'll see you next time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Thanks guys,