UFL 2025 Week 2 Results + Reactions!!!

We are going LIVE to react to and recap UFL 2025 week 2 on Monday, April 7th!! Join John Lewis Sports 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 (00:36):
Well, here we are. We made that. Let me pull
John in now running crazy hitting here. John said he
heard the sigh when I sat down.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
We are here.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Welcome. I have my sweaty sweatshirt on here. John, we've
been sprinting. But we are here today talking UFL. Week
two was really fifty to fifty on if this was
going to happen today or not. John and I will
get into more of that later. So things going on
around the league right now. My demeanor is changing. We'll see,

(01:06):
we'll see, we'll get to it. That could be a
tease for later. We'll talk through, you know, the week two. Here,
we have Mike Mitchell's TV ratings from Friday, we have attendance.
We'll talk through all the games and then we'll do
all that because I know people come here for football
first and foremost, and then we'll get through all that.
But we'll see episode next week. We'll see do I
have lint on my hat? We're doing the best we can.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
You're clean?

Speaker 1 (01:27):
How are you? John? Welcome to the show, John Lewis,
John Lewis Sports. I even tagged you on the YouTube
descriptions day. Oh, hopefully you can find your channel. How
are you starting so kind.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'm doing well. Man. We've made it through two weeks here,
and you know what's funny something I was thinking about today.
We have not had any talks about labor strife. It's
like that issue kind of went away. I'm still wondering,
you know, what's going on with that. But I don't
want to start on a negative point here. We saw
some good football this week. We saw some bad football
this week, if that's what the UFL is.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, I was gonna say, did we see good football? John?
I mean, I don't want to start. I don't want
to start there. I had a lot of fun because really, truly,
you know, we were busy Friday Saturday. I'm trying to
catch up. Was able to sit and watch the games yesterday,
text with you, text with the group chat, and that
does kind of excite me. This is why I do this.
I'm serious, it is very much. You know, I don't

(02:19):
get a lot of it, as I'm sure you as well,
talking with the wife about the games and stuff. So
when I'm able to talk with like the boys, you know,
and you and Mike and Pat kind of gets me
more excited about all that. But yeah, I do here says,
is your demeanor going to go from bad? Absolutely? Ah,
stay tuned. That is a spoiler and this is real

(02:40):
actionable stuff. Yeah, John, I guess we'll do Mike's breaking
news here first. But can you grade UFL week two here?
A Week one came off a little short. We talked
through TV ratings last week. You can go back and
football gameplay and all of that. I'm still fighting the
cole apologize for that. What did you make grade wise?
If excuse the UFO we two.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
I mean, I'll give it a song. Let see, and
only because there were some f There was an F
game or two here, but there was you know, there
were some A games as well. So I mean, you know,
I think when you've got this is I don't want
to say a top heavy league because I don't know
that there's a clear favor in right now. I know
Saint Louis is playing the best football so far in

(03:20):
two weeks here, and we know who's playing the worst
and its Houston. I mean that's no secret. Uh, but
it feels like of those other seven, even with Memphis
being zero and two, that is such a It's a
completely different team. There's so much better. So I just
think it's exciting right now. So I mean when I
say see that it was, was it an average week?

(03:40):
I mean maybe, uh, but I'm like kind of optimistic
on this could be more of an open There's no,
it's not top heavy. I think there are seven contenders
in this league at least after week two.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, and we have I have a couple of comments
here to kind of help driving this discussion that I
have an email as well from fourth and Long on
the on the All Football dot Com. Just a quick
plug for that Allfootball dot Com for all your CFL
and UFL and Arina. So obviously a lot of UFL
stuff right now, but I'll pull that up later as
well to kind of gauge our discussions around that. And
I think I have a couple of bookmarks Saviot as well.

(04:15):
Are you are you sensing the apathy that fan apathy
that seems to be able. I'll pull Mike article up
here to kind of gauge that. But you know, down
a little bit over last week. We were underwhelmed by
the Friday night kickoff last week overall, and then this
week down even over that.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well right now, if I'm not mistaken, the women's NCAA tournament,
it was having wreck almost record ratings. I mean, nothing
will probably be last year, but it was right up there,
I think top three or four. So when you're going
up against that, you're going up against the final four.
And to be honest with you, one of the one
of the games, I think it was the DC game,
was going up against the final four, and that was

(04:54):
my second screen. My second screen was the was the
UFL game, and my you know, my main screen was,
uh was the Final Four. But I think that's why
we're that's why we're going to start seeing some you know,
hopefully better ratings, especially on Friday Night, because this third
week to me, is going to be pivotal as far

(05:14):
as rating steals because there's no major competition that I've
seen in the sports world.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well and yeah, sorry not to jump on there that
that is my concern and I will I made the
joke on Twitter. But on the Sunday game, it was
you know, the that dreadful Arlington, the Renegades and Roughnecks
going up against you know, Alexandrovechkins, who there was did
you know broke the NHL all time scoring record. You know,

(05:39):
obviously East Coast game midday Sunday game for the NHL
here even going up against and that's when I tweeted out,
we hear all this all the time. Well, why the
UFL do this, or why Saint Louis open this day
or why like you could schedule a game for noon
eastern on a Sunday and you're like, how could you
ever know that you're going up against you know, the
greatest sport feat of this time. You know, we kind

(06:01):
of lived through Lebron's thing and then this. You know,
there'll be other things, but you really can't avoid it.
It kind of no matter where you go there. Yeah,
six times fifty nine thousand viewers on that down from
six to ninety the week before this weekend, John Willby
WrestleMania Weekend. I know that we were talking about things
going up again, so obviously not on traditional cable that way.
I'm just thinking out loud. I'm not trying to call

(06:23):
you up.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
No, I didn't.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
I forgot about regains again next week.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, okay, so yes, I mean so that is that's
something too. You know, you're right, It's just that wasn't
a huge surprise to see it go down, you know,
at least it. I mean, the bottom didn't drop out.
But next week it's got to be better than this
on Friday night.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, And this is my concern that we were talking
about all this even before we got on here. Spring
League championship game midday Fox Saturday drew four hundred and
fifty thousand viewers for the championship game. So put in
context of whether Brian's I woulds run out of his
garage with cardboard box, Football League drew that. You know,

(07:05):
so I so to me when you you know, and
I agree with all this, you don't, you know, you
wanted to be to be down with all that. But
but Fox Friday is just there's just numbers built into this,
these diary the Nielsen everything is not exact on that.
I mean, I used to work and I tell all
this for people that did not maybe follow through last season.

(07:25):
I used to work in local news. I worked in Bakersfield, California.
We were small market news town. John knows very well.
John's worked in local news knows very well. And in
our station would live and die off of diaries that
people would fill out in journals that they would literally
write in. I watched NBC this day and so you know,
the week before the books came in, you'd run a

(07:47):
lot of stuff and hope that the last thing people
thought about was just My point is, it's not an
exact science. I think Fox bakes in a base number
on this and we'll go up. I cannot imagine that
that is an insightful look on that. But who am
I to say. I think going down week one to
week two. Week one is always going to be your peak.
I think in that. And my last thought is, as

(08:08):
you said here, in week three and four, maybe the
competition opens up, but my feeling is at that point,
the audience has lost the product. Right. We saw this
in USFL Season one peaked really high in twenty two.
We talked a lot about the poor gameplay, the rush
training camps and all of that. The rest of the
games that first weekend weren't very good and the Radians
were never able to recover. Because when you get the

(08:30):
most amount of people to sample the product, especially in
these leagues like we saw this weekend, where you have
a lot of well scoring at fairs, you're not going
to get them to come back time and time again.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, that's true, and a bill brings up a good
point too. Masters. This is weekend, so if there's a
if there's some competition, it would it would be that
because you know, there are a lot of times even
the casual fans, you know, like Ovechkin. You know, I'm
not an NHL fan, but I was keeping my eye
on that as well. Uh, you know, and then Masters
is one of those events that you know brings in
anyone who's half interested in sports. But you're right, and

(09:02):
that that's my concern when we saw the schedule come
out and you and I talked about it on here
is do you really want to start off your this
new franchise Friday night thing at Houston and they followed
up at Michigan Because you know, the optics are not
going to be good. You hope the gameplay is good
so people will buy in. But I'm not I'm not

(09:24):
sure they did. But again, the UFL is that I
think they've done a really good job with advertising and
you know, trying to get the word out not just
nationally but also in some of these communities. I don't
know why it's not connecting in some but you know,
I will say what we need I think what we

(09:45):
need to see Friday from Fox especially is there's there's
not going to be a major competition at eight o'clock
Eastern times, so again those numbers have to pop up.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Some last thing for me on this and and just
we'll do some more because I do want to get
to football. Excuse me here before we get out to
all this. But one thing I was kind of pleased about,
and of course I had it pinned and then I
deleted that. Let me pull it back on here. But
I was kind of you know, I was watching the
game yesterday and John was laughing, and he goes, man,
you're really on the heater with all these tweets, like

(10:17):
go whilely, this is a really busy time. We didn't
even know if we were doing the show today. I
got to fly to Orlando tomorrow for work all week
and then we are going for pleasure next week to
Vegas and wrestle mating and all that. It's just it's
a busy time. I do the best I can. But
I'm watching the game yesterday and I see, you know,
we're interviewing Luis Prez. They're showing the highlights of the
beer Snake, and they not only talked about Louis press

(10:40):
in the game. We have like an interstitial with him
on the commercial break, we've been talking about the book,
you know, and then obviously that the football has played
in the spring, and I just said, you know, I
love the Luis spres, I love the beer Snake, I
love the UFL's football that's played in the spring. But
we need some other ideas here. I was, you know,
didn't even think about Jordan Rogers like that. So hey,
Jordan Rodgers, you know, part of this broadcast even all that, Like,

(11:04):
you know, I don't like Aaron Rodgers. I don't know
if Aaron Rodgers will be liking any of my tweets
anytime soon, but I will take the estrange Jordan Rogers
on that. But I do like again, and and this
isn't week two of I mean, this is like this
year two now we're trying to get people I don't know.
To me, it just feels like we've got four bullet
points that we can talk about betting the Lions with

(11:25):
Aaron on ESPN and all that. We'll do the individual games.
But to me right now, as a casual, I would
really have If I was a casual, I would have
a hard time recommending with someone to go watch one
of these games.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
I'm sorry, Yeah, I mean you and I talked last
week about the Fox presentation. You know, kurtin Minafee busted
a Dean Kane instead of Dion Kanes, like we superman
out there. I mean, and it's just like, I don't
think the presentation is that is that great. I love
Joel Klatt, Like Joel Clatt to me, not only is
he and we've said it before, it's like you learn
thanks from him. He's also doing clean up duty, trying
to correct what Kurt Menafee continues to say on on

(11:59):
these Fox broad cast. Yeah, and as our as our
man Tanner there sending the comments he said destroyer. Someone
get to Connor Onion, who I love the guy, but
it's destroying, it's not kept calling him, kept calling him destroyer.
There was that, and but yeah, it's like, what are
you trying to sell to a casual fan right now?
Because you know, this past week, like I said, it

(12:21):
was kind of a c average. So if you're watching
that football especially you know, if you tune into the
Arlington game, I mean you know that was kind of
a televised abortion there for about three quarters until it
you know, kind of picked up in the fourth quarter.
So it's like it's hard to kind of sell those
kinds of things to casual fans, especially ones who are
trying to fill a football need. And then it's like, oh, well,
the NFL is over, I'm gonna give this a try,

(12:42):
and it's you know, it's a little slow out of
the gate for now. If you were watching, you know
you did watch that the the BattleHawks game if you
found it on f S one after the NASCAR race,
I mean you saw some good You saw Saint Louis
team that plays really well, So I mean that was
that was some high caliber football from them.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Let's say, are just real quick football fan and becoming
a member I think was a member of Jointed back
guy heereer remember nine sent some month goes to support
the channel for all that. Yeah, because guy, your Doug,
I wish you would get too busy covering the UFL.
Glad you hit her dog. I'll show you the twenty
four dollars heading and YouTube as sts we got versus
what I build a fly over night to Miami last

(13:22):
week for work, and we will decide which is the
better use. I will tell you what my wife. My
wife thinks, especially with her friend getting married in France
this year, so we have a lot of I have
to work. We were playing the fortieth birthday party from
my Life John. It's really like my full time job
is just supporting my wife a little bit right now,
A little bit.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
It's good, it should be.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Come on, it's good. All right, So let's talk through
all this. We'll get comments, and then I do have
a rant at the end, so I promise for all
that stuff. Panthers, Stallions, Stallions, come back here Friday night,
ford Field, and we'll let's let's do this, let's talk
through the games, and we'll bounce back and forth with
Mike at tendants here because I don't want to do
all that. But I do have a comment on this

(14:03):
in a minute. What did you make of this game
ford Field hosting Friday night?

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Well, there were ten thousand people there. I mean that's
the official thing we got, right. Did you see ten
thousand people in the standards not outside?

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:16):
I just thought, you know, when your kicker is your
offense there for a while, and your starting quarterback goes
out in the you know, first quarter, it's like, oh,
you know, what is this going to be and then
Matt corral started to kind of get hot there in
the second half, which there are a lot of naysayers there.
I mean, you know, they were ready to bench Alex.

(14:36):
A lot of Stallions fans were ready to bench Alex
Magoo after that game last week and on and frankly,
it's like that argument gets bolstered after what you saw
out of Matt Corrall. Now, there were some shaky passes.
There were a few that there were at least two
that I remember that were very close to being pick sixes.
But man, I mean he ended up looking good. He

(14:57):
did throw a couple of picks, you know, and you
know what we saw from Bryce Perkins, Like, you know,
they weren't out of it, and I mean, Norther should
they be. But it just feels like Birmingham has their number, Like,
no matter what happens, Birmingham and Skip Holtz and that
team finds a way to beat Michigan.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
To me, and and part of this is just because
the Stallions have have the most you know, I would
say cash a just in terms of the Multi Age
Championship wins and kind of all that stuff. But I
do feel like I see more mainstream people tweeting about
Matt Carrall tweeting about Alex macgoo covering this his Stallions.
So that's great. You want the Sallions to be good obviously,

(15:37):
Uh this forward field thing, We'll get to all of that.
But do you like, did the Panthers have any momentum here?
I guess just trying to kind of figure out I
don't know, the USFL conference kind of versus XFL here
and kind of what we're making are the Panthers they
weren't they second last year in the division, Like what
do we make of this? And then hey, look at

(15:59):
this for Mark has callback? But do they have upside here?

Speaker 2 (16:03):
I guess yeah, Oh, I think they do. I mean,
I think what's not really to like about Bryce Perkins?
Don't take anything away from Birmingham's defense because that defense,
you know, we talk about offense all the time. Birmingham's
defense is really good, So don't take anything away from that.
But I think, you know, what we saw from Bryce
Perkins in week one and what we saw a little

(16:23):
bit in week two here, I mean, he's playing a
good defense. I think Michigan absolutely has plenty of upside now.
I dropped him a little bit. My power rankings that
will be on All Football dot Com here, and you
know Greg Parks is putting that together and kind of
taling all our votes. But that's a snapshot of the week.
So I think there's plenty of upside. I certainly am
not counting out Michigan Panthers right now.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
King William Michigan would have a momentum if they stopped
playing two quarterbacks system. We see that a lot and
early on I mean even last week, right they were
talking with no one about all that. I mean, it's
still early. You don't know, and this isn't the NFL
where everyone's all right, I don't know what. I'm curious
your thoughts on that, because I see both sides in
the CFL does this as well.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
I can see that. Uh to me, it's I mean,
let's look at Manny Wilkins, you know, it's it felt
like the BattleHawks were going to come in with a
two quarterback system, and you know, and it didn't happen
because Manny Wilkins continues to play. He's such a dual
threat and he's such a good quarterback that Anthony Beck
is not going to take him Uh, he's not going

(17:26):
to take him out of the game to run a
two quarterback system. If Mike Nolan feels that's the way
and maybe runs the packages, you know, I guess, but
I can, like you said, I can see it both ways.
This is not in the NFL they say if you
if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have any I
believe that to an extent on any level. But you know,

(17:47):
I give the Michigan Panthers and the coaches who want
to run two quarterbacks a little bit of a break here.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, Mike Gy just talking TV ratings in the chat.
It's covering that off. Appreciate that, certainly do, because I
know it definitely comes in. I didn't even really this
is just the day that kind of works for John
and I, especially the last couple of weeks with me
going out on Tuesdays. I would like to do it
Tuesday when we have all of the ratings. I just
think it makes for a more worthwhile conversation. But we
just haven't had time. But luckily Mike's been able to

(18:15):
get at least back to back here these weeks, so
we'll see. We'll figure out. I mean, this isn't like
a forever thing. But we're I appreciate John's schedule hopping
on here and all of that. The two quarterback system,
and we could talk through any of these teams or
anything that it goes to this. You know, what is
this league? Right? If I'm a coach of a team,
Am I trying to develop players? Am I trying to win?

(18:35):
Am I trying to get the most of my players
to the NFL? Like I would say any coach you
asked there, I mean, we know what coach back that
said a couple of years ago. You know, my goal
is to get everyone to the NFL. Well, if you
have the option between being, you know, playing the best
quarterback to win the championship game, I just feel like
you get into this, I would be curious with that.
But yeah, I would feel like the two quarterback system.

(18:56):
Are we trying to develop more of that in an
attempt to win? But yeah, than when the game's on
the line, you're not gonna It's hard. It's a hard balance,
Like what is this league? Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Right? Yeah? I mean you are? You do walk a line.
It's something that all of these coaches, like you said
Anthony Beck skip Holtz, it's uh, you know, Bob stoops
even it's like, you know, my my goal is to
develop these players. But you know, where do you draw
the line of I need to develop this guy. I'm
going to put him in this tough situation here in

(19:27):
crunch time. Are you going to do that and risk
a game? I don't think so. Not in the I mean,
this is still a competitive league, especially when you just
have eight teams, So I don't think that there's so
I think coaches do have to kind of figure out
walking that great area of we want to develop, but
also you know, we want to win these games because
if we start winning games and put a good product

(19:48):
on the field, you hope that fans will show up
and people will watch on television.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, you kind of get we we're living through that
right now. The Mariners and Dan Wilson and we had.
We're getting a lot of like, let's play some of
the guy. You know, we're still early in this season.
We're trying to kind of figure out, Okay, let's pinch
hit this guy. But then every time it's bottom of
the ninth and then that guy's back up to bat again.
You go, God, I sure wish we you know, excuse me,
wish we could have gone back on that. I'm sorry,

(20:14):
I might. I might disgro off camera for a second
to just blow my nose just because it's so disgusting. John,
do you want to wait, let's go through this just
super quick. We'll finish the game here. But yeah, the
ten thousand in Michigan and then I'm doua below here.
I always have that as well, this kind of the
conference breakdowns and the outliers with Saint Louis and otherwise.
But I mean, if they're just gonna lie about I mean,

(20:35):
it's not a lie. It's distributed tickets, but I mean
there's not so that's just the number. Now I'm not
going to freak out about that. But I'm also not
going to like count these as the win here because
DC thirteen thousand is normally closer to seventeen eighteen. So like,
there's never been ten thousand souls ever in Michigan when
any of these teams have played. So if you want to,

(20:57):
maybe they're just maybe they're sending them to a school
and saying here's five thousand, you know, here's five hundred
tickets for your students to go and then they go,
we'll see we distributed the tickets. It depends on that.
I know, curious your thoughts on that, Like this, just
that feels like an outlier high where it almost feels
like that's disingenuous and I'm gonna go blow my house
beer back.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Okay, No, I'll agree with you. And you know I've
seen in Saint Louis. You know, they said they were
thirty two thousand people there, but we saw a lot
of empty seats that were, you know, in that lower bowl.
I remember, you know, I've gone to a couple of
Saint Louis games, especially last year, and when they said
there were thirty two, thirty three thousand whatever, the whole
lower bowl, you didn't see a lot of empty seats.

(21:36):
So but I think this does happen, you know, to
Read's point, a lot of the times these are distributed tickets,
These are sponsors who are probably given a block of
tickets as part of some kind of sponsorship opportunity. So
if you know, if the Mark Cast is sponsoring you know,
the the Memphis Showboats, and they say a part of
this sponsorship deal is you're gonna get signage and you're

(21:56):
gonna get this, you're gonna get an in game announcement,
but you're also going to going to get a block
of five hundred tickets. You know, are are who's going
to use those five hundred tickets? I mean, you and
I have both worked for TV stations. You know how
many times somebody will say, hey, we uh, as part
of our sponsorship deal, they've given us these thirty tickets
or whatever. If it does anybody want them? And then

(22:17):
you'll see, like you know, back in the physical ticket
they they'd be posted up on the bullet the board somewhere.
So so that's tickets distributed versus people who actually show up.
And I think that's that's what you see a lot
of the times when you see some of these numbers
when the eyeball test tells you that wasn't what was
in the stadium that night.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, and so I don't want to live on this,
but like my feeling, at least on the Michigan now
is if that's how they're going to play that, I'm
just not going to freak out every week of like, wow,
that's really And I see comments in the child like
they're on the rice. Okay, I mean that that's what
they want, right the perceptions reality. It annoys me where
that's just accepted now, right, like it's just accepted like oh,

(22:55):
we you know, we it's it's ten thousand, it's ten thousand,
we said, you know, it's like the chock. Think anything else.
So Stallion's looking great, right, obviously, Panthers anything else? It
takeaways of that of the Friday night game, I will
pull up something else there.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well, the one thing I'm I'm going to be interested
in to see like if Alex Magoo is not as injured.
You know, he said he said that his shoulder came
out of socket. Now whether that was really the case
or not, I don't know. But it's going to be
interesting what kind of quarterback decision And as we say,
two weeks in a row now, it'll be interesting to
see the quarterback decision that skip Holtz makes.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Well and yeah, and how how bad do you gauge
that injury? I guess is that a long term concern?

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, as they said during the broadcast, and you've you've
seen it a lot on every level of football. Sometimes
you have to save players from themselves. All yeah, I'm fine,
I can go in there. But if skip Holtz kept
telling Alex Magoo, you know, just be smart with this thing,
and I know it seemed like he was pretty upset
that he wasn't back in the game. So if if

(23:55):
a player tells you that his shoulder popped out a socket,
I'm not sure if you're a head coach, you really
want to hear that and say, yeah, I'm going to
put you back in because it's pretty important game we're
playing right here.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
No, I totally get that. Yeah, protecting players from themselves.
We see the said even even in baseball, with all
that abdu all, they need to get a lot more responsor.
I like that. You tickets right, well, No, like to
your point, we used to. I when I worked at
the Fox station here, we would get tickets to the
Piatte Fair and they go, here's one hundred tickets right
for family and friends, and they're good, you know, and

(24:27):
maybe for the UFL it's this game or that game whatever,
but you know they count that as Hey, these are
tickets out whatever, go into all that. All right, So
the one Saturday game, and I like, this is just
my thing. I'm sitting around here all day. We have Dorothy,
my wife's school school auction her alma mother from high school?
Is it? Is it still your alma mother if it's

(24:48):
just your high school like, so sure, right, okay, you're
off the lot going. So I'm like, of course I'm
sitting around her all day, nothing to do. But of
course games on at five conduct here later Defenders, you
know here, big time show boats fall again, right, Ken's
back everything. We're kind of figuring all that out. What
do you make of the show boats here? I.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Like I said earlier, I think that this is a
much improved team. Is there such thing as the best
oh and two team? I don't know, uh, but you
look at like e J. Perry there, like that his
connection with Jonathan Adams. I think Jonathan Adams ended up
with let me see, about one hundred and twenty eight
hundred and thirty yards receiving here out of the two
hundred and five, So that connection is working.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
I like e J.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Perry in this you know, in this system. Uh, you know,
d C they looked a little rough. If I'm a
DC Defenders fan, I'm a little worried about playing at
the BattleHawks this weekend because I you know, even though
they won the game, they won against a you know,
a win list. Now you know, oh and two team,
but still a much improved Memphis show Boats team. And

(25:52):
I think Ken wizen Hunt coming back is probably maybe
you know, the waters were a little choppy there in
the in in the first game, and you understand because
it seems so sudden, but man, I just really feel like,
you know, if they've got the talent to make this
a with a better showing this year, and I think
we saw a little bit of that at d C.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Well, it's interesting here, right Obviously you had in Ken's back,
we had the the you know, the battle of the
two teams here with the head coaches, and d C
is such a different situation where we're a lot of that.
I think they'll be leeviing. You know, I'm curious with
d C is after the season with all of that,
but I'm curious, you know, And we'll talk at tendants.
But you know, d C was so bad last year.

(26:36):
I wonder like fan apathy with that and then now
where they're back. D C is a great franchise. I think,
you know, one of the temple franchises for the UFL.
So you want them to be good that way, you
say you're concerned about them going into Birmingham. I don't know,
I think you need d C to be hot from
the XFL side, because certainly Birmingham, I mean, yeah, you'll

(26:57):
have a lot of you have a lot of other
options here with with the San Antolio every been else.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
When uh DC goes into uh into Sanate, I mean,
uh into Saint Louis this coming weekend, I believe that's
what it is. So yeah, I mean, if I'm an,
I mean, if I'm a DC fan, I'm gonna be
a little worried about that because it just felt like
that offense was stagnant. And again, you know, I don't
think Ken wizen Hunt is into moral victories, but uh,
to me, he got one. Uh and that team's just

(27:23):
going to improve.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
How is how is our boy Jordan looking here? I
feel like, here's how long he he continues to do
this journey along with Lulis Prez. You know, we saw
McCarran get out. I'm just when do we kind of
see this og wave of these players kind of age out?

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Well, I would have said that, you know, I made
the argument if, like for Louis Perez, you don't write
a book if you're continuing to play. But when he
talked about you know, he talked with his family at
the at the book event, the virtual book event, he said,
you know, as long as I continue to to feel good,
my family's you know, and I'm playing at the level
I want to play, I want to continue. And he

(28:02):
had a lot of great things to say about the UFL.
So I'm I don't know if I'm ready to write
off some as you said, the o G quarterbacks shit.
But to me, if George, if if d C has
another you know, week season, which they I mean, they've
looked good, but it seems like they've got you know,
their offense back together here that especially with Abram Smith

(28:24):
coming back.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
But but I think if it's another mediocre season and
kind of with the coaching changes and things that happen,
you do wonder if Jordan thom It was like, Okay,
this might be enough.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, do you like to I saw at last Perez
got Tom. I can't even talk my my Tom Pelisero
plug for his for his book on Twitter. Sure I
couldn't believe that we had Tom Pelisara. They'll give it. Uh.
It just goes back to like you know, I know
we're talking DC now, but this lose press thing like
be in the face of Lake. We have a rock

(28:57):
and roll I hear I. I see your super chalol pulse
out up here. In a minute, we're done with the game.
So you say Memphis looks the best oh and two?

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Is there such thing as a good oh and two team?
I mean I think so? I mean, go ahead. Bill Parcells,
you know he always says, you know, his quote about
like you know, your record is what you know is
about your team, had some great quote about that, like
you know, your record is what you are. But still
it's like, you know, if there's a good oh and
two team, I'm gonna say it's to Memphis.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, he said, we almost want I am. It's kind
of like, you know, well, that was how I felt
about like the Commanders last year, because like we almost,
you know, we made it, like we almost beat you know,
we didn't almost. Yeah, we couldn't beat the Eagles, And
it's like, well, you have a failure of a season.
It didn't matter, okay, like I thought. Okay, So it's
kind of always interesting to see or like, you know,
not like Mike Mitchell talks a lot with you know,

(29:49):
the Jets and how things would be different if things
games did were different. For Aaron Rodgers, it's very true.
Like I think both. I think both can are very
valid and very very opposite as well. In terms of attendance.
You're speaking of Mike Mitchell, and then obviously I think
the Jets would be wildly different if certain things had
gone you know, if certain games had gone different. With
all that thirteen thousand, what was it around that last week?

(30:10):
I think generally we're closer to seventeen last year. Feels
like that might kind of be the water mark there,
Saturday and night. I mean, had to be a decent
time in DC that way.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously I don't think it
was thirteen thousand. Certainly even the beer Snake area wasn't
it wasn't totally full. Now they were able to get
the beer Snake up there. I don't know if you've
heard of the beer snake, but it's something they do
in DC.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Read Yeah, remember I loved the I love the beer Snake.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Was right, you said you loved it. You need you
want even more of it? Uh? Yeah, I think as
we start to move along, I'm interested to see what
the DC turnout will be for a couple of reasons,
and one being what you just mentioned about, you know,
people liking the Commanders. Again, I think that that was
what made Saint Louis so strong is because they you know,

(31:02):
they hated uh Stan Kronkey for leaving and it was
kind of the middle finger. They're like, hey, look at this,
we have this good team and we don't need you,
and we're going to show up and support this team.
And I think there was also kind of the same
thing to Dangel Snyder at the time, is we're going
to show up. And the good thing is DC was good.
There was a reason to show up for them. So
I just wonder if you're what you said about fan

(31:24):
apathy might happen, especially as if they're not going to
be up to par Now again, we're talking about a
you know, a two and o team, So I'm not ready.
I'm not gonna ride them out now.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah. The thing and I do, like I said, I
think for my money, uh and and I I have
been to Saint Louis. I've not been to Saint Louis
when the battle Hawks were playing in the stadium. I
would imagine that would be number one it's great my
number one. Oh and it was well no, actually so yeah,
so John Lewis talking battle Hawks, speaking of which Kevin said,

(31:55):
see for it, Brandon, then let's get rid of this. Yeah,
totally forgot about that. I got an email this morning
from friend of the program Kevin Seffert ESPN, and he goes,
what's the deal with these BattleHawks? I want to talk
to someone about going to the BattleHawks games? Said, Uh, well,
do you want someone crazy or do you want someone saying?
And I will not tell you what he said, but

(32:17):
then I don't know what she talked.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
I don't know what he.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Said on Lewis. So hopefully John Lewis is going to
be quoted. Hopefully ended upcoming an article here from Kevin Seabert.
So I thought, I thought that that was great. Sorry
signed no tangent for all that, but.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
And I appreciate you passing his inf But we had
a great conversation. He's I love the work that he does,
and I told him so. He's like, he's one of
the national reporters who gets it. He's broken a lot
of news, certainly about the union issues and all, but
he also covers the league. I think in a way
that you know, legitimately covering this league.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Uh. You know, he does pay dividends to be like
friends with me. Sometimes I do know people and like
things and gets like you know, it's not all imagine that.
I mean like its just anyway. It just goes all it.
But anyway, speaking of Uh, to me, the best environment
I've ever been to is in d C. So I
want that to be successful. I've been there for kickoff,

(33:10):
I've been there for playoff games. I've done two or
three games there. I really like it, but I am
tired of Oh wait, John, I see it. The beer
snake is like it's every game now. It was it
was fine week one. It was like, it's you don't
need to do it every time. So there's twelve thirteen
thousand everybody. You don't I don't need it every time

(33:31):
a nauseum and the novelty of that is one.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, but you know what it probably has to us.
But when you're trying to bring in casual viewers like
that's easy, that's low hanging through because there would be
people who are watching, you know who, this is the
first time they've seen a UFL game or a DC game,
and They're like, what is going on in the end zone?
So you don't want as you know, we've worked in television,
you we are there. Television is there to answer viewers questions.

(33:55):
They're not there to make them, you know, ask those
questions and leave them unanswered. So uh no, I get it.
I think for all of us, you know, hardcore siccos
that watch every minute of every game, it's it does
get a little old, but but I mean, I get
it again. It's low hanging fruit. Luis Perez, you know,
played D two ball and never played in high school.
And I mean, but they're good stories.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
John Bold and his family comes on the field and
helps him run routes. Okay, Like I love the Louis Press.
He is a charismatic person in the world. Can we please,
It's like every week on here are into renegades. Would
you like to talk to Bob Stoops and Louise Press
is like I would like to tell to anybody else?
I would like to Can we type to anybody else?

(34:37):
Anybody else on this?

Speaker 2 (34:38):
All right?

Speaker 1 (34:38):
We have a ton of comments here to talk through.
All these a lot of actually ones, and we'll get
to the other two games. And my rant Rock and
roll COOKI is better in San Antonio or Detroit. He's
where's he He's with Birmingham.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Right, he's the he's the third stringer in Birmingham. And
that signing still confuses me to this hour.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Hey, big brain on read here. So he mean we're
would you put in Detroiter, we'll talk say san Antonio
coming up here.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Well, I'm not ready to count out Kellen Mond yet
in San Antonio. I mean, I think that's still kind
of trying to jill. It hasn't quite jailed just yet.
And uh, I mean I don't I don't know that
you want to, you know, put him with the Panthers yet.
I mean, I mean that quarterback situation seems okay right now.
I think there are places for him, Like wouldn't you

(35:24):
like to see him in Houston? He might not like
to see him in Houston, So you know, I don't know,
I don't, but the but for him to be in Birmingham,
I just I did not. I'm still trying to figure
out on that one. But but if I had to choose,
you know, to answer the question, I'd choose between those.
I mean, I would probably say San Antonio just because
that they're they're struggling so much right now.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
I'll never forgive the USFL for making Case Cooks get
married in the walking boot because you got injured during
the championship game. As someone that has filmed the leadings
with rooms in walking boots, that is hard.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
I had.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
I've had right that couldn't walk. I've had grooms that
couldn't John I had a bride. She had to be
carried down to our first local location, and then eight
hours later she is on the dance flo hammered, just
like I go. That girl is going to be on
the stretcher tomorrow on the anyway, Yes, I agree with that.

(36:19):
Scott's Oh, it's like s Scott Steiner, It's got st
seems sagnant Saint Louis. They're going to However, they get
some calls in my opinion of him talking about you know,
for its field, greg I know Gregor, I saw your call.
Mac Gregoro was there. He's always met Gregory and Saint
Louis all that, but here this was a go and
Leon keep doing this show big need for non fanboys.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
I you're the opposite of a fan boy.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Well the different At this point my life is not
affected by the UFL, positively or negatively. So you have
a lot of people that are riding on this to
be whatever, you know, players and coaches and fans and
media people like ever and like I just it doesn't.
If it's affected me less and less every year, it
has no effect on me anymore. I want to do

(37:06):
the show because I like talking to John and watching
and support, but like, so, yeah, I'll just say it
like I see it. I don't go to the games
right now. I don't need to worry about getting credit
like I don't. I don't have you know, does that
make sense, John.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
No, it does.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
I mean like if I if my if my livelihood
relied on the UFL. Yeah, I what are we doing here?

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Well? I think you know, and we see this with
you know, some of the college uh uh sport football
and basketball sites where you know they're dedicated to that team.
It's like you're not going to get honest coverage. You're
not going to get you know, unbiased coverage. Now some
of us, you know, I look, I've got a Saint
Louis shirt on, so I mean I can't say I'm unbiased,

(37:47):
But like I don't, there's no like I hate this
team or I like this team, And I don't think
that we should want to really sugarcoat things because you
want to be honest with the fans, and I think
that's what you know we try to do. And I
know you do. You want to be like, let's cover this. Yes,
do we enjoy it absolutely. I mean I sit here
every weekend and watch these games and read about it
during the week. But I mean I'm not going to

(38:09):
sugarcoat it and say like, oh, well, you know there
really were thirty two thousand fans. You know, stop lying
about this. You know that's I don't you know. And
you know, let's be honest about TV ratings and those
kinds of things. Some people will tell you, hey, stop whining,
just enjoy the stuff. But you know that's you're You're
gonna get whining from us. It's just what happens.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
This is what it is. And I pat here says
he's waiting for lawn read. I think that means outdoor.
But John, you do get the other side of my
living room today because normally amb said beautiful the other
side of the downing table, but I'm packing, so you
can see the other side of our living room. So
there you go.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Changing.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yeah, I'm not a believer in TAMU for the defenders,
and I'm just curious with these guys because like players age,
and I mean, like you know, especially president stuff, it's
been like forever and all through all of these I
just it just kills me with all that stuff. Okay,
and then okay, let's get anything.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
But I will say I will say with Luis Perez,
remember he had his best season ever statistically last year,
even though that team was mediocre at best. He continues
to play at a high level. Now you know the game,
you know the game with Houston. It wasn't a great game,
but you know when he you could see him start
to heat up. And he is one of the mean

(39:23):
after he's played so much he should. He is one
of the most comfortable looking quarterbacks in the pocket and
like his field command. You there's a veteran presence there.
I mean, he's obviously a veteran. I mean, I think
he played in the original USFL. It seems like he's
been around for so long. But I just love to
watch him play, and you know, that's that's when you

(39:44):
want to see. You want to see a guy like
that succeed and get to you know, get back to
that championship game, because he even said, like, you know,
we talked about it before when he was with that
clown show in Vegas, he thought about retiring because it
was so bad and he got benched and none of
that made sense. Then he goes to Arlington win the
XFL Championship. I mean, what a story.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Let's oh. Then just last thing on here is excuse
me Brocker roll, I asked, because is is a legit starting?
I don't know, but since I love Case, I love.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Oh, I think he's a legitimate starter. There's no question.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Do you think he's a draw? Now trying to be
argument that I'm asking.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
I mean, I don't know if he's probably not, because
what you're what you're drawing to these games are you're
trying to draw casual fans. You're not trying to draw
again as hardcore siccos we're gonna go and we're gonna
watch anyway. I don't so, I don't know if he's
a draw, but he is a legitimate starter. That's why
I said, like I just can't understand him going to Birmingham,

(40:43):
Like what, like why I just you know, you have
you had Alex Magoo coming back, who who is a veteran.
You had Matt Carroll who had been in the system
already a year, and if he was gonna, if there
was something to learn, he would you think he would
learn from Alex Magoo. But I mean, skip Holtz, I'll
never question him. How came you?

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Oh? And then the last thing, you're Andrew Andy checking
in the professor. You know, I haven't talked to him Andy,
like one on one in a long time. But Andy's
been good. He's been hiking all around with his lady,
and I've been seeing lots of photos. I got stunnying
photo of them in a cave somewhere that looked awesome,
and I was. I just thought, I there's no more
person happier for me, uh, for him right now than me.
You know, Andrew's fishing him with that. So let's talk

(41:25):
to this. This game, the Renegade's rough next game. This
was the game of course I was able. This was
my treadmill game. I'm on the treadmill. I'm walked in.
As you can tell from my you can always tell
what game is Read's treadmill game. President is incessant tweeting
and texting. But Anthony was at this one. Uh you know,
I had to pay for parking to go, and I

(41:47):
don't know if there's ever food or water there. And
I think there was a leaking in the press box.
But we're really worried about who gets credited with me. No,
I'm here. Well there we go. I pushed my button
and I triggered my YouTube thing. I had just sports
playing another Uh this game? Like again, John, So I'm
watching this game. I mean I don't like, how do

(42:08):
I should like? My mom is a diehard football fan,
watches college football. Every college football watches uh you know,
every team, all the NFL everything. I've even got here
and watched the great comp stuff like how do I
put this on? How do I put this on? Like
for him to watch? For her to watch.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Uh, you could say, watch this punter because he's great.
And you know Marquette King had a you know, seventy
yard punt, so it was like, hey, that was cool.
I mean you had a push push like they brought
they brought that into the offense. I mean, here, I'm
doing exactly what I said I wouldn't do. I'm not
trying to cant. I'm trying to sugarcoat this and try
to sell it to you. There was nothing to sell here.

(42:47):
This just you know, Anthony Brown, he doesn't look comfortable
back there. You know Nolan Henderson, you know he was
in there briefly and tried. But you know again, Luis
Perez just in there just I mean running the show
when he started to heat up. But it was like
it took well, I think it was like about ten
and a half minutes left to go in the game

(43:07):
before they got you know, before he threw a touchdown.
So it was a tough watch. Like I said, it
was a televised abortion there for about three quarters.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
I do love though, if you want to have a
glowing comment for me and then Tisdale, I do see
a comment here will bring up he is like a
coach on the field, right, and so obviously that is
he and we've talked through all this and what's his
actual strategy and all that. I mean, I see that
a million percent. I think he's going to be great.
I think he's so passionate, and I think that all
of this is I don't know where he ends up

(43:36):
at some college somewhere, at a high school, or whatever
he ends up doing or working in the UFL. Like,
I just think his his command and ability to kind
of know that. But I do think the athleticism and
kind of that is aging out on that. Any thoughts
on that before I go to these other comments.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
No, I think he's going to be a coach sometime.
You know. I was able to ask him about like
what what advice does he give to the to you know,
some of the younger quarterbacks, not just with the Renegades,
because you know, they're all there together and I think,
you know a lot of them kind of get together
and talk and you know, the advice he started to
talk about giving them, It's like, this sounds like a coach.
This sounds like a coach giving advice to you know,

(44:13):
to up and comers. So I think that is a
lot of his value. I don't think he's finished yet,
and I think that you know, we might see Arlington
like keep you know, on the rise here for a while.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
The john does Curtis Johnson deserve to have a job
today Monday, April seventh, as the head coach of a
football team.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
If you brought if you're sitting across from Curtis Johnson
and ask him that question to his face, what would
he tell you? Like, what argument could he make?

Speaker 1 (44:42):
I can't imagine what.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
I don't know. I mean, I'm not one of those
fire the guy, fire the guy, this guy should lose
his job. I'm I'm I've never been one of those.
Well maybe with the Seahawks a few times, but uh,
but for Curtis Johnson, it's just like, I don't know
what argument anyone can make outside of that locker room,

(45:04):
and there will probably be some inside the locker room
that would make the argument against it. I just it's
it's it's no good, it's not getting better, and it's
not been good for a while.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
No DeMarcus here has a jang john in Tellvi's abortion,
Tell us how you really feel? I really felt it
was it was rough, it was rough. The other comment here,
I read narrative is trending towards the hitter. I say no,
and I mean this, My my opinions and thoughts are
well documented at this point, but I've actually gotten more
d ms and calls and texts this season saying, man,

(45:35):
you're right like and I'm not even like again, I don't,
I don't care. I don't want to be right. I
don't want to I want everyone to succeed. I want
it to work when I point out when things don't work,
I don't want it to fail. Uh. But but I
am seeing a lot more comments I say coming to
me yeah you're right or like wow, okay, like yeah,

(45:55):
you know, and so you know, take it for what
it is again. I mean, there's no reason go to
this show anymore expecting me to say anything different. I mean,
I feel like my my opinions and thoughts are well known.
But that's where I'm at. But I haven't getting in
a lot of that. And even from people they used
to be with the league that I've had comment you know,
and they're like yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep. So anyway,

(46:16):
any thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
No, I mean, it's too bad because we're we are
all like rooting for this league. That's why we come
on here every Monday and talk about it. It's not
to come over here and be like, you know, the
hater show. But you're right, there are a lot of things. Uh,
you know, you don't want a ton of fans service
because there are hardcores like I said, that will watch.

(46:39):
But you do need to listen to the fans, I
think some and you need to listen to the independent
media that cover this and just say, you know, let's
have a relationship here, like tell us like what can
we do better? Let's have a roundtable where we can
you know, sit and talk. It's like and not not
with just us, I mean like with with fans. I
mean to me, that would go a long way into

(47:01):
fostering some some good things instead of a lot of us,
you know, complaining because we continued to see this over
and over and over again.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Then zelle heryet have some opinions as ext oh Sam opinions.
I thought I was getting an in by come on,
I say, hey, let me know. But yeah, same opinions.
And there you go, as he means, oh last thing
on this. Yeah, Arlington ninety five hundreds for that, and
that's pretty in line with kind of what they believe. Yeah,
what they put out there.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
I mean, and you know it's it was April, yes,
but it was like forty four degrees in Arlington, So
how many people are you going to I mean they
were showing people that it looked like they were, you know,
Green Bay in a December playoff game or something. It
was like it looked brutal there. I mean, obviously it
wasn't snowing, but it was like really cold.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Anything else of that. I'll pull up the last game
here and then what we should be a good time
here almost we'll get down the top of the I
got a shower. We're gonna let me.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Say I'm sorry, let me say one positive thing. Yes,
when when when when Anthony Brown started to play that
up tempo last drive, he that's when he looked comfortable
to me? For three and a half quarters he did not,
So maybe that's something that they really need to look
at and say, hey, yeah, this is let's let's maybe
try to do a little bit more of this.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Let me pull up I want to see. Well, I'll
pull it up here next time. Second I had it,
I did have an email saved here. I was all
excited about and then maybe I deleted it already. Let's
go here, so we finally get and I will be
curious the freaking TV ratings for this one when they
come out tomorrow. Yeah, the FS one that was delayed
because of NASCAR, and it was on f S two

(48:31):
and I saw people like, well, we're no goody postgame
comments from the Racers because of the U I'm like, okay, okay, okay,
BattleHawks two and zero here now you know, the Brahmise
are my team. I have heard they are awful, not
looking great this year.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
What do you hear of this? That was? That is
a again that you San Antonio is not the worst team,
but this week, the snapshot of this week, Saint Louis
is the best team in the league. They are clicking
on all cylinders. Offensively, defensively. You know, our man Pat
Raffino had boots on the ground down there. He can

(49:09):
he could tell you more. But just you know, from
what I was watching on Sunday, it's like, I mean,
they were they were just out there, you know, doing work.
And and a pro tip for you here, if you
watch on the these Fox games on the Fox Sports app,
you you can like there was a whole pre game
and everything on there. So I don't know if that

(49:30):
was the case, because there was about five minutes left
to go and like six twenty five Eastern time, and
I turn it on and there's five laps to go
in this race, and I'm like, well, this is obviously
not going to start on time, and you had texted
me to tell like you were it was gonna be
on FS two. I just went to the app and
it was like watching you know, the whole game. So
I like, again, you know, I'm on this Manny Wilkins
train of being such a dual threat and like a

(49:52):
model of efficiency when he's when he's playing. I don't
know what's going on with san Antonio killing mind again.
It's not gelling with him again. It's only been two games.
I think a J. Smith is still It's not like
a J. Smith forgot how to coach or Wade Phillips
forgot how to coach. It's gonna come together. But when
you're you know, in a ten week season, Uh, you're

(50:13):
a third all the way through here almost, so you've
got to get to start to hear you're a fifth
of the way right now.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Uh yeah, I saw Pat, Yes, And and make sure
you check got past player of the Week article right
now on All Football dot com. And then Pat is
going to have his quarterback excuse me video coming out.
I think he said tomorrow when you posted that stuff
on there. Oh and then the other thing was that
posted a comment in our chat. I think it was
Wade Phillips and his wife like hanging out on the

(50:40):
sidelines before the game. Wade, maybe you should be coaching
up your guys. Okay, maybe maybe you know, maybe we
can take him out there. Uh, chop, got salt. Santo's
problem is on line Monde time. Dude, I can't really
evaluate him, and I agree with you. I have heard,
you know, Nanny Wilkins. I think Sath a friend. You know,
everyone knows Sath. You know s had lessons. I think

(51:02):
he calls them the Jane Daniels of the UFL. Now,
obviously where commander stands and all that, But yeah, is
this I don't know. I don't know what what the
Brahmas do here right and and let's uh well, I
guess any other thoughts on that because I want to
pull up something here and have a discussion.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah, I mean, you know what, what what do they
do right now? I don't think you benched mine. I mean,
as you know the commenter said there, it's like it's
an O line problem. And you know what, let's get
a ground game and give him some time, get some
blocking in there, because it's hard, it is hard to
evaluate him. But I still think like something's just not
geling yet.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Last thing here I want to look at just as
Stanley's real quick John, if you look at USh got
six wins from the XSL shot and two. I was
like interesting here, But no, I mean San Antonio looks
really bad, right, Roughnecks look really bad?

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (51:56):
You say Showboats are on the rise? How do you
feel there? Snapshot? I mean eighteen and it's hard, and
you know this is impossible, and even the CFL we
do all this stuff and power ranks and everything, and
we have to do all that. But just you know,
you got three pretty good teams in the XFL. I
think you have one really good team in the USFL.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Do you have a couple?

Speaker 1 (52:12):
How do you kind of feel about these eight?

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah? I mean don't let's let's let's not count out
the Panthers yet. I that you know, it's we're two
weeks in. Uh, I mean you can we counted out
the Roughnecks before the season started, and so far we're
on track for that. Show Boats on the rise still,
But doesn't it feel like, you know, I don't want
to go against skip Holtz, I mean, why would you? Again?
But doesn't it feel like the UFL champion is going

(52:36):
to come out of the XFL conference.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
I was, I was reading this email and you weren't.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Listening to me. It's like, you know, I'm no, I
just it just feels like the UFL champion is going
to come out of the out of the out of
the XFL conference.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
You know, ast Birmingham how they can right.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
It just it just feels like Birmingham. Again, I'm not
counting out the Panthers, but it feels like Birmingham is
going to be the USFL conference, you know, champion, and
one of those three teams out of there in the
XFL is going to be the other one and the
you know, not the Brahmas. But it feels like and
they'll be the champion two weeks in.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Oh sorry, you're my internet glitzer for me. Yeah, I
agree with that. Let's a couple of just comments here
and then I have this say I was listening. I was,
I was screenshotting one of the things I h Scott
here on Twitter, Scott back to the coach back to
has really improved as a head coach. Chop Here says,
you know what, the team that looks bad on the
field is roughnecks l conference is embarrassing, but it's very

(53:37):
similar last year. I mean, you have a lot of this.
I David, longtime listener, loveles sleep with the quality of play.
It's been trash and a Jenna is checking in here
one thing before my little ramp before we get out.
And what was interesting to me is we've been talking
a lot about the kickoff, right and obviously you know,
we've had the whole thing and they didn't do the
kickoff and then whatever is now we're doing the kickoff right? Well,

(54:00):
fourth and long here who's a longtime friend of the show,
and it is written in he does.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
Makes some great comments on here all the time.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
And I will say this, I read everything. I don't
respond to hardly anything, but I read every single YouTube comment.
I read every I read. I just don't respond anything,
but I read it all. So fourth and line big
in anyone that writes in, I just don't have the
time at the moment. Uh, there's more than this. But
you know he's talking about the kickoff, right and how
you know we talked a lot about how spoiler alert

(54:28):
the you you know, the kickoff they used last year
artificially inflated field position because it kicks so far back
and all this we know, so like, is this you know,
offenses down and first down to kind of all the
is it related to that? John? Have we now should
should the UFL be using the NFL kickoff? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (54:48):
I'm not ready to go ahead and just throw out
the rule book just yet, but I mean there's some
really good points in in here for sure. Yeah. Let's
let's let's let's let's let the cake bake a little
bit here before we start throwing things out.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
All right, last thing for me today and we'll figure
out where this is going. I had the interactions over
the weekend with the league. We're uh, this is my
life and this is read rant. Now, John, do you
have any other football thoughts? I guess before we get
to the rant, because we'll get up.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
No, no, no, go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Crazy busy week for me. Flew across the country, flew back,
worked to the Amazon. I wake up Saturday morning. I
have an hour to build the thumbnail for John and
I to do the show. I have an email from
one of the teams, and I see photos to use,
and I see some photos uploaded to the media drive,
and so I look for other teams. I don't see
any other team photos up there. So I email the league.

(55:40):
I go, hey, this is great, Like, are we going
to get more photos or other teams? It? Really I
don't want to throw you guys. I'm not trying to
throw any specific teams under the bus. I go, we
only have one of eight team's photos, so can we
kind of get that going. Well, what I hear back
is well, actually no, you're not allowed to use any
and that everything from the league is going supposedly. I'm

(56:01):
waiting on clarification going through Getty Imaging now, which if
you're someone that writes about this league that uses photos
in your articles, unless you're physically going to the games,
to me, that is an issue and something that is
counterintuitive to the content creators that are working on this.
I'm trying to get more clarification. I followed up again
today because like I said, it's not just for me.

(56:22):
It's for the people that work on our side and
other sites. But to me, it just it speaks to
like I was and I was gonna do my rant
on Saturday online, but it just speaks to like eight number,
like reason eight hundred and sixty two. Why like the
UFL doesn't understand who is who is covering these leagues,
because for those who don't know, to license a single
Getty image, I think is John and I looked it

(56:44):
up as three hundred and three hundred and fifty bucks
from medium Sized Image. So I have concerns, and if
my concerns aren't alleviated, I might be dialing out of
doing the podcast. We'll see, but I'm very frustrated right
now by by the league continuing to seemingly minimize independent

(57:04):
content creators, because this doesn't just affect us.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Yeah, I agree, it's when we touched on it earlier,
you know, the independent media, like, you know, the things
we do. We're not making a ton of money on this.
We're not making any money on this. We do it
because we love the league. We do it because it's
kind of a community that we're in, and I don't

(57:28):
understand why anyone would try to put obstacles into that. Now,
you know, if we were making like one thousand dollars,
you know, and doing all this, you know, every time
we posted an article or did anything or posted a video,
and then maybe I could see like, well, the UFL
saying you're not going to use us just to make

(57:48):
money and then you know, say what you want to
say about us. Whatever you know. I've had there have
been times where I've reached out to the league and
didn't hear anything back. There have been other times where
I've reached out to the league, had an email directly back.
There are each and what some people might not know
is every team has a different PR person and I've had,

(58:10):
you know, mixed results. The good results that I've had
have been great, that some are super responsive, and you know,
I just don't understand why a league would want to
put obstacles not just for us, but for for any
I mean, everybody watching this knows that there are several
other outlets who do who do the same thing.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
It affects everyone the newsroom and if ufl board was
still here, it affects the Football network people. Yes you're
welcome for that name, but you know, like I mean, okay,
but but it affects everybody. And and so that is
my concern is if we're content creators working on this,

(58:51):
and and yeah, you you need to go through getting
the license. I've had to pay images before because the
people and we didn't, you know, for no fault of
any I mean just my fault. I mean, you know,
but it's fine. I just I don't I'm not going
to pay three hundred and fifty dollars in image to
write about the rough Necks Renegades game from Sunday or

(59:12):
to post about it, or to make it like I'm
just I can't do that. I can't do that. So
we'll see. I emailed again today. The leagues seemingly just
kind of ignores problems, so that's goose. Also, my frustrations,
like with the attendance and everything else, is if we're
the point where it's well what we say is that's
just it, okay, Well then I might step aside. So

(59:34):
we'll see. I'm going to Orlando this week. Maybe the
sunshine will make me feel better, but we'll see. I'm
kind of TVD. I'm really annoyed, and people that know
me a long time. I've been sitting on this once Saturday,
so I'm kind of working through it.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Yeah, I mean, like, for instance, my plan is to
go to Memphis. I mean, who doesn't want to see
you know, show boats and Roughnecks. But you know, my
plan is to go to Memphis this weekend. Immediately you know,
I put in for credentials. Let the PR guy down there,
know Andy, who has been awesome to work with. I
mean he's great. But yeah, I mean I'm not getting

(01:00:09):
paid to do that. I'm paying to do that, and
it's my own money. So because I want to. I mean,
you know, we as someone who is you know, gonna
be turned fifty four this year. I remember, you know
how these leagues sprout, you know, sprout up and then
they die, and it's like, you know, I don't want
that for the UFL, but I'm going to take advantage
to try to see a lot of these games as

(01:00:29):
much as I can in person. Uh but yeah, I
just I just really wish that there was a, as
I said earlier, a round table for the league to
listen to fans and have like a true listening session
again for fans for independent media, you know, listen whatever
you know, whatever your politics are. And this is not political.

(01:00:52):
I'm just saying, like we we have seen how influential
like the non mainstream legacy media has been, you know, politically,
I'm not putting ourselves to that level. I mean, this
is We're not the Joe Rogan Show here or whatever.
But our pod Save America. But what we are is
like independent media who like we just want to tell

(01:01:13):
the story of the league. That that is when I
started doing the YouTube and started to do you know,
any of the content, and then you know, joined you
it's like, I just want to tell the stories of
some of these players and some of these teams and
some of these leagues, and you know, for obstacles to
be put in the way is kind of confusing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Yeah, last thing for me, I just what was I've
totally even last night train of thought on all this.
Yeah they hear, this is good. Yeah, there's seventing number
of dollars the bigod times. Oh that's what I was
gonna say. And then we'll get out of here because
I'm just rambling, like I come on here and I'm
like I am a normal person in my everyday life,

(01:01:48):
and like I run the business. So like I've emailed
and explained like hey, you know, did you know that
this is why and this is what it costs and
these are alternatives and this is like you know, this
is not just me being I'm sure, what are you like?

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
This is this is this is a thing, but this
affects everybody and I get tired of that. I was
the one that advocated for fans to go or for
the independent media, one of many to go be able
to cover the games. And then people got to cover
the games. And then I go Reid's complained, and I go, well,
that got you to cover the games. So welcome for
that anyway, John, I appreciate it. Guys like and subscribe.

(01:02:23):
We'll see, but just support, support your content creators. Support
John Lewis Sports uses was it JLS sports on? What is?

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Get another plug? Royal retros Use JLS at check out,
get ten percent off your order. And thank you, David.
I appreciate you liking my microphone there he can changes colors,
but I can't figure it out.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Appreciate everyone. I'm gonna go heckle Jose Altuve here in
love Field for the Mariners. Not I was gonna say, John,
it is pouring rain here today Monday. Mariners are three
and seven. Fans go to the games. Fans go to
the games. So I hear all this all the time.
Even Larry was the wind storm fans. It is pouring,

(01:03:04):
fans go to the games. I'll see you next time.
Thanks guys,