Well, here we are. We are alive here from Saint Louis, across
the street from the ballot of them getting a little bit of the background light
here, but I think that's okay. We are live here. We have
the Professor Andrew Murray here as always, and then Anthony Miller here credential covering
the game today. If anything sounds weird, looks weird, let me know.
I think we've done all the checks and everything. Just a reminder if
you like all the work we're doing here. We gave away two sets of
tickets today to the UFL Championship game, making up for some of the Cacaw
cry babies aren't going. And then we gave away a bunch of jerseys too,
like this is a Royal Retros custom jersey. So if you like the
work we're doing, like it, subscribe we get up to four thousand subscribers.
We're gonna give away two season ticket sets to the UFL twenty twenty five
seasons, so be aboard with that. First off, Anthony, how are
you doing? We had fun last night. We went to Hooters, walked
around at downtown Sate Loois. How are you doing? Anthey, I mess
that's Okay, we still had a good times. It's weird to be here.
It's kind of weird. Last year we made the same comments in Sanchia,
like oh, we actually got to a championship game, like this is
great, And now this year is like, wow, we have USFL and
XFL growing at it for the UFL Championship. It just feels like a completely
different world from what it was just a year ago, even just six months
ago. I know were we were. What was it? It was Anthony
and Evan and I were at Arlington for the kickoff and now we are here
twelve weeks later or whatever. Andy, how are you doing here? Missed
last week? John Lewis filled in. John Lewis will be on the show
Big guest list coming up today. I'll plug you that in a second.
By that, Andy, how are you doing sir? Well, I have
to tell you read it's just as hot here as it was in Mexico.
However, there is nearly a sea turtle or beach and side, so the
climate could be a little bit different. But no, it's greatly back.
I'm happy to see you. You and John did a great job last week.
You absolutely punked John with that video of his predictions of all the beginning
of the year really really just masterpiece work by you read. But no,
it's fantastic to be here. I'm excited U Saint Louis has been on.
Actually, I know this sounds crazy, but it actually has been a bucket
list citing of mind for a long time. But I've heard a lot about
the Gateway. We saw it last night, all lit up the arts.
Hopefully we get a chance to go into it. But no, I'm very
excited to be here and just be back at State Side. Yeah, everyone's
checking in here at Genas checking in a Blues Fall fan. Yes, we
man. Yeah, Like I said, I think I fixed Anthony's mike.
If there's any mike issues, just put it in the chat. I think
I've got it. But rolling here through here, so we will be here
live for the next ten twelve minutes or so. Then we have a big
guest list today. I've posted in in the YouTube description here. But Pat
Raffino's going to be joining. We thought Pat was going to be here today,
his work commitments and not allowed him to be here. Emery Hunt everyone
loves Emory Max producer Max is going to be on the aforementioned John Lewis,
we're gonna have Greg Parks, Mike Mitchell, Evan Will's more rounded it out,
so it should be fun here every fifteen minutes or so. Yes,
John says, excuse me, he is still hurting from that punking. Yes
we got we got John punked on that. But anyway, big guest,
list like and subscribe. We're talking the game today. We're going to be
talking kind of sights and sounds or lack thereof around the stadium, you know,
all the kind of stuff we do, not try to be overly critical,
but trying to be optimistic about, you know, and realistic about everything.
I go firstus Andy, just because we were at coffee today looking at
like sights and sounds around here. What do you make of this today?
Because we've had a lot of comments like Arthur signages or what's going on?
What have you made of kind of a lack thereof around the around the stadium?
Yet not too many signs. I mean I saw more signs for the
Saint Louis Blues that are hockey team than I have really for the champions Giam.
However, that has not stopped us from seeing a number of individuals who
have worn colors from the league. A couple of Ballahawks fans obviously still maybe
grumbling about last week, still floating around. Plenty of Birmingham people coming around
here. We've we've run into a number of individuals our hotel lobby. I
will say this is absolutely pommin. I not believe we are at the We
are at the Stallion's headquarters. I posted that. I said, hey,
I could have pulled the fire alarm last night, so we be lucky there.
But yes, that we are in the Stallions. They have vandalized their
own media sign nange here and there's truly a Birmingham tag over here at the
hotel. Yeah, it really is. But no, I mean, obviously
this is the thing that is important to see, especially when you have a
game like this that's a neutral site game, a game that maybe out of
towners or people that are in Saint Louis are not familiar with. Obviously,
during Vaalahawks season, when it's going on, there's plenty of of signage around
the town. As far as I know that proclaiming that that things are going
on. I haven't really seen so much of that as far as this game
goes. But maybe perhaps when we're going around the stadium we'll see more of
it, but we've been mostly in quarters our hotel quarder so far. Yeah,
it's been fun. We were here last night. We saw Russ Brandon
shit chatty and I have Stuf friend of the sir Rus Julio walking around.
Just see a lot of networking. Nothing too crazy here, Moose. Was
that Starbucks with us today for breakfast? That was excited. I got a
couple of questions here, but first anti thoughts. Yeah, walking around the
city, I mean, what do you I was telling Andy when we went
to WrestleMania the first Wrestlingdia I went two years ago, flying in and seeing
like signage around the convention center, around the stadium, like feeling like you
were kind of in your own pocket in the city of like anyone around your
kind of knows. I really like that. We don't get it, we
don't have any of that. I would like to see that in the future.
We've kind of bemoaned this, But what's your thoughts on that? Yeah,
so I'm actually saying the hotel right next to you, guys, and
there's actually a lot of Roman camp Stalli fans there as well. So there's
been a lot more Stallion fans than I thought there was going to be.
I've seen some, I have seen a couple of renegades. I have seen
just UFL in general, but it seems like this is kind of the Stallion's
headquarters. But you know, I've seen more Saint Louis Cardinals and like Andy
said, Blues stuff than I've really seen with any battle Hawks or UFL stuff.
So, you know, I didn't even see it. You know,
we I drove around with the Uber driver around the Dome stadium, and I
honestly didn't see anything UFL. Really. I was lucky to see if the
present any signage or anything like that. I saw absolutely nothing for it.
So I you know, I think if the battle Hawks would have been here
this weekend, I think there would be a lot more of it and they
would have pushed it a lot more. But I think just because the battle
Hawks are not here, they probably don't want to do as much work with
it, or I don't know what the deal is with it, but I
just haven't seen as much I would have. I would like to see more,
though. I think that's something they can maybe improve upon in the future.
Yeah, A couple of comments here and Pat Sandy by ring pat On
here at twelve fifteen. You know, I posted on Twitter and part of
it was kind of a joke, but I do mean that, like it's,
you know, we have the rock with the Cody cry babies or in
WrestleMania. Now it does really feel like kind of the Cocock cry Babies that
we're not here, Like our attendance hasn't been taken for granted all season and
we don't appreciate it. Like I got a lot of those comments just really
surprising. I mean, we we pot on our Monday recap, we pulled
up the seating chart, saw a lot of you know, resale tickets,
which was surprising to me. So I do mean that. I'm like,
you're here, the tickets are bought, Show up, show out. Jenna
has a comment post in the chat with you think, what's the first score?
It's at shanderfield goal. Let's get the you know, the let's get
the algorithm working a little bit here and then football Binge wants to know where'd
you get the custom jersey? This is real retros. He hooked me a
Dustin hooked me up, It says Mark cast on the back. I wore
this and when we were down here for Memorial Day at Choctaw. Get on
there. He'll do custom ones, but we always include some of our giveaways,
so I get subscribed, be a part of the thing. Get us
up to four thousand, but we always a couple of giveaways Dustin. I
think we had four for the last time. I just mailed them all out
last week. We had the Tayamu one and Brandon Silvers and Kamanti Turpin and
DJ Walker, So that was all good. And then last comment here you
know ufl Isaac, thanks for putting me in the spinning wheel. Yeah,
so like and subscribe, get a part of that. We'll do the season
tickets. I would like to get all that done before the season kicks out,
but I don't know if we're gonna I don't know how hot the CFL
content will be this summer, but we'll see, I guess football wise year.
And then, like I said, we'll bring in Pat Anthony will go
first and just general thoughts for the game, and then I think we'll get
more into the league and the season as we go on. But let's talk
a little football at the start. Yeah, So I like it. It's
an interesting game because I think the Bramos have better individual talent than the Birmingham
Stallions do. Like you look, I look at the roster for the Bromos
and I'm thoroughly impressed with them, and I think it took It was a
crime that there wasn't any like there wasn't there was just two all UFL selections.
But there's so much talent on offense and d. But I also understand,
like Michigan had a lot of good talent, Birmingham had a lot of
good talent, so I understand why that happened. But you know, I
love the mentality of this Promise team and Wade Phillips and you know, they're
they're the underdogs because you know, being an Eagles fan, and we were
the under dogs of every game when we won our stuper Bowl back in twenty
eighteen. So I think the problems have that same mentality. But to me,
it's just the way the Stallions play overall. Is a team. It's
just look, they've lost four games in the last three years and there's a
reason for it. They're very you know, last week may not show it
because of the four turnovers, but This is a very disciplined team. They're
very smart. They don't get you know, craze when they're down by a
lot like they they know how to win games. This has been this team
has a winning mentality. Skip Holes is a big reason for that. He's
a you know, you see his demeanor on the side, like like when
Adrian Martinez was making you know, mistakes, like Skip was going up to
him and he wasn't yelling at him, he was just coaching him through it.
You know, I do this thing when I'm a salesman wer when I
do like the compliments him which like a compliment, then you know, get
the criticism and then you compliment him at the end. Like Skip Holes does
that a lot, and it really resonates well with the players and they really
seem to connect with him on that aspect. So I think from the football
side, I love the individual town for the proms, especially with guys like
Anthony McFarland junior, you know, Johntay Kirkland, like those guys have really
made a difference in the offense. But you know, the stallions that the
one interesting thing I want to see today is the quarterback position. You know
how it's going to work with Andrew Martinez and macrou because it sounds like both
guys are going to play in some capacity unless Martinez absolutely kills it in his
first couple of drives. But I'd like to see how the quarterback situation is
going to be today. Yeah, Andy, what do you like? I
know you were out last week. You kind of obviously saw its other games.
But yeah, this this disrespect that the Brahmas felt that, like,
oh, we were in the All UFL which I didn't believe, and then
Mike reported that it at least told us, and then it certainly seems that
way and way then the Coach of the Year. I mean, it really
feels like the Brahmas got like the Renegades last year, playing with the chip
on their shoulder. Look, this promised team absolutely deserves to be here.
They proved it thoroughly. They made basically everyone eat their own crow, and
I'm gonna have to eat my own here on the show too, just like
mister Lewis did last week on your show. Look, this team has been
remarkably resilient given the circumstances, given the fact that most of this roster,
these coaches removed from the Houston market, obviously over to San Antonio, a
lot of transition injuries, Chase Garber's getting hurt, a man who I'll be
honest, before the season, I did not have a lot of faith in
as a passer or really as a commander of this offense. But he has
been brilliant in the time that he has played with them. He's been methodical,
accurate, smart. This whole team that plays with a lot of discipline
similar to the Stallion's team I think we talked about as well, just a
lot of even keel emotions anytime something gets out of hand. This team has
really held firm in the face of a really lot of tough storms. I
mean, I go back to that Week two win against Memphis, when they
were down. They had absolutely the reason coming back in that game, there
was four and a half minutes left to get they found a way to get
two touchdown drives. Garber's engineering those, and I think that's up the tone
for the rest of the season. They knew that they can win, and
they will win if everything goes right. But they are just remarkably resilient.
This defense has been incredible. Way Phillips has been just a master orchestrator of
another fantastic unit. A J. Smith has really been coming into his own
really get this offense to hume at times. I'm really just impressed, and
honestly, like I said, I was completely wrong about them before the season
started, as were a lot of people, and they've been showing it and
they have one more chance to really prove it this afternoon. Let's see a
couple of comments. We're ringing Pat Pat Sandy by here we asking Phillip thinks
san Antonio with a Kurkland TD. We had Zach here checking in Saint Louis
and alahais Zach, you got to track us down today. But if you're
at the game, first score will be a field goal by Birmingham calling it
be the first game to go to overtime. San Antonio went by a touchdown,
not reading for any one. Look root for the Mark cast, Zach,
Root for the Mark Cast. All right, football band to the defense
is different from san Antonio. Phillip checking in here should be the rough Necks
playing today. And then we have the here we go football fan Anthony Milker
is a definition of legit. So there you go. Liking that, Let's
bring in yes, we'll bring in Pat here. But yeah, let's bring
in very happy BC Lions back to one and one here following fifty seven,
the Mariners, be the Rangers, really really all out at night here,
Anthony. But this was just and we're bringing Pat. This is at the
stage we are. You know, we were in Saint Louis, Like everybody's
like, hey, Reed, where are you guys? Like are you coming
out? We're doing carrier all this. We sat at the bar, watched
the CFL game on Anty's iPad. CFL haters v damn, that's what we
were doing. I know far home is at the game, and then we
watched the Mariners as well. So really doing all that. Let's bring in
Patrick, sir. How are you doing? I'm doing well, guys.
I wish I was with you guys, obviously, but duty calls as they
say, yeah we're here. Pat. Let me see if I can bump
your mic up a little bit. I think you're good on your end,
Pat, Yeah, thoughts thoughts on the concock cry babies here? You're the
local Saint Louis now obviously not here right now? What's your thoughts about like
this kind of well, this league has never appreciated us, like now we're
we've been taking for granted all season. I mean, the fans don't play
the game. The team has to win. And I know the league appreciates,
appreciates the Saint Louis fans because they obviously did it in Saint Louis.
So it's like they were kind of banking on this like that hopefully they were
able to go. But in the end, like you have to win the
football games, like last year. I think I don't know if I said
it on the last time I was on your show, read, but I
think I was like, yeah, it sucks like they won seven games.
But I remember I remember, like there was a Mets team that won like
ninety games and didn't make the playoffs. It happens in baseball all the time,
where you have a ninety two win team and they don't make the playoffs
and it comes down the one or two games. It's it just happens.
It's sports. Not everyone can get in. This isn't This isn't the NBA
where half the league is getting in and then you have the play in tournaments.
I think it's a it's an eight game it's an eight team league with
ten games, every game counts. Win the games, Like, I mean,
it sucks, but you know, Arleaguton kind of threw a shoot in
there last year and won, So how could we be like they didn't deserve
to get in. I mean, they beat a good defenders team that five,
six, seven of those guys got NFL contracts and stuck. And then
they beat a good you know, they beat a good Houston team that if
it wasn't for maybe an injury to Brandon Silvers last year, probably could have
been in that championship game as well. So I mean, I think you've
got to get over it. I think I think part of it is like
this isn't the Saint Leuis BattleHawks League. This is the UFL. Now it's
all one team technically, so if you're going to go to the game,
go to the game. And I mean it's not like we got the rams
to watch. So I mean, this is it for football, you know,
like for me? Yeah, I know, it's funny like we I
was messaging with the league, one of the league officials last night and they
were like, hey, what, like what do you think attendance is going
to be? And I said, uh, you know, I think there's
a lot of you know, upset BattleHawks fans and they're like, but they
lost fair and square. Well they did, and they also lost last year
too, and that didn't prevent it as well. Yeah, and these aren't
controversial calls where it's like he's in, he's out. I mean when they
lost to Seattle, I think they lost by like ten ten points and then
they had I mean, they mismanaged the game last week, and you know,
I think the offense is extremely effective in a four minute offense and whatnot,
and I mean their clock management the last minute and change was pretty abysmal
where they could you know. I mean, I'm always in this league not
to get sidetracked, but in this league, with the the onside kick being
such a high percentage, with the fourth and twelve, I am of the
mindset of go for the field goal with the more time because in the end
you still need the nine or ten points. So I mean, as soon
as I feel comfortable in field goal range, I'm gonna kick it, and
then I'm going to go for that fourth and twelve and go to my playshet
and whatnot. So I felt, I mean, I know we're talking a
lot about last week. But I mean, just get over it. I
mean, one, it doesn't really affect your life. I mean, I
don't think these people bet enough income on these games to have life changing income
being being altered by it. So I mean, go to the game,
enjoy the game. If you don't, if you're that hard up on it,
don't go to the game. How many times are you going to be
able to go to a championship football game in Saint Louis regardless, So yeah,
let's get let's get attendance predictions in the chat. I know that was
something people wanted to know. We have a question here. We'll circle around
here and then we'll get back to Pat here on this, which I like
doing the kind of the live shows for this. We can kind of get
some steff by this. See my CFL co host for the Monday shows or
I think it will be Tuesday. This we wants to know and I have
thoughts. We'll go around. Is this the most promising spring football has ever?
Let we'll go first Anthony. Yes, I think the talent level we've
talked about, We'll go to you, Pat. The talent level is the
best that we have seen in spring football, at least probably since the USFL
back in the eighties. I think it's gonna be interesting how they handled the
next year or so when it comes down to marketing and getting out to these
local markets and getting you know, people excited about the coaches and players.
And you know, the one thing the XFL did well last year, and
even the USFL has done lot, you know, back in twenty twenty two,
was they did a great job of telling the story of these players and
these coaches. You know, the USFL had that that documentary that they were
shooting like once a week that we got to watch behind the scenes stuff with
you know, the XFL last year they had their own documentary with that.
I would like to see more of that from the UFL next year, is
bring back a documentary where we can watch, you know, once a week
for thirty minutes to an hour, what's going on behind the scenes, you
know, to tell stories about the players, because that's that's what it's all
about. And I know this year was different just because there was a merger
and it was a lot to put everything together last second. But I want
to see more stuff like that next year so we can get connected to these
players and coaches because I know there's a push for everyone to be like,
well, we don't want to make this a developmental league, but we want
to make this its own, like it's only to stand on during the spring.
Well, let's start acting like it and start getting you know, these
fans used to these players that are gonna you know, you look at guys
like Luis Perez, his story is great. I don't know, you know,
i'd love for him to be in the NFL. I don't know if
he's ever going to get into the NFL. Like spring football is kind of
his thing, so let's, you know, let's keep telling his story and
stories that are similar to it. So yeah, this is the best I
think we've had in spring football. But you know, we're going to see
the next year or two. You know, it's gonna be make or break
to see, you know, how how this league is going to work out.
I just say said not from that, Like I agree with you the
documentary player fifty four, you have football whatever, But like providing more players
to local media isn't great, Like if you don't want to expand to doing
and weekly like we're going to fly it because like I was in DC with
the player fifty four crew for the playoffs last year for the XMFL. I'm
like, you know, it's a huge undertaking, Like I get, and
I would like to see that too, and more support than the UFL Today
show and like actually promoting that on social media and posting that. But like,
just let's have more than two media availabilities for the Birmingham Stallions going into
the championship game. I don't think that's crazy. Anyway, what's your thoughts
on this? And we'll get to pack because I think that's been disagreeed and
I have thoughts. I want to give it a little bit. I do
think from a talent perspective in this century, I will say it's not as
good as it's going to be. I really do believe that. As far
as whether it's being as recognized as it should be, obviously we have a
lot of thoughts on that. I think it's getting better. I am very
encouraged by the TV ratings last week. I think those were actually passed my
expectations, to be honest. So from an exposure standpoint, sure, as
far as TV goes, absolutely, I think it's probably about where you're gonna
have it. But as far as getting that message out further. There's a
lot more work that needs to be done, and I do believe that that's
really the part of it. I do think, And maybe Jason can disagree
with me, and I'm sure a lot of Canadians have been disagree with me,
but I do think it can be at a point where, similar to
the CFL, where we know this product is great, we need to get
the message out more. There needs to be more visibility. I mean,
people were debating about this last night, but I mean the Lions just hosted
the VC Lines hosted over fifty three thousand people in their stadium last night.
I mean, you could debate whether or not they were there for a concert
or a football game, but the fact of the matter is those people were
in those seats in that stadium and a lot of people got exposed to that
game and to not only the franchise, but to CFL Canadian football in general
for the first time in their lives. So that experience can also be had
here in spring football. You can get someone to have their first game,
their first experience, the first paste of this sort of experience, and I
think that needs to be more addressed. But as far as as far as
as the like I said, the talent loving Bobo goes a lot of coaching,
I do think it's pretty exceptional. I just want to see I really
just want to see it more visible. As I said, that's really my
biggest takeaway. Let's go pat and then I'll give a little spil. I
mean, I think I think as far as like the marketing standpoint, I
don't think anything tops in our lifetime the XFL twenty twenty. I just think
it was so dynamic, and I mean, Vince is the greatest showman essentially,
So I mean that's my opinion on it. From a talent perspective,
I definitely agree. Something that I always kind of try to circle back with
talent. Right now, and I think I've talked with John Vogel both on
air and off about this is now that COVID is kind of evening out.
You're having this influx of players because you have these twenty four to twenty six
year old men who are shooting to the NFL right now because they've all had
like seven years of eligibility plus the COVID year, plus an injury US.
You know, their mom had a birthday, so they could you know it's
it's mildly ridiculous with the transfer portal and whatnot. So I do think now
you're starting to get these influx of guys to where like, yeah, are
they NFL players, But NFL gms are like, well, I need this
guy to be my kickoff guy, and there's a twenty two year old that
I could pay the same. I don't really care about this twenty five year
old. Like the Utah quarterback Cam Rising is going to be twenty six when
he comes out, I'm pretty sure. I mean, does he get an
NFL shot? Yeah? Possibly, I don't know. That's a different show.
But I do think like that's the influx of talent that the expert or
the UFL could like benefit from and whatnot. And reed, I know,
I wrote this article about about it on your thing. Is like the QB
purge and whatnot, because there's like this influx of guys, like you know,
there was Chase Daniel and Brian Hoyer and like Mike Glennan who were clogging
roster spots and whatnot. Those guys are kind of getting purged out. And
I do believe part of it is because you know, the UFL and just
like the kind of this like trickling of talent. And I know Emory's going
to come on here and probably talk about that, but it's like do we
do we like what's going to be the kind of like evening out of like
the AJ mccherons versus like the Brian Smith from Delaware Valley State quarterback that like
would never get an opportunity, but talent level wise, yeah, marketing level
wise, it's the whole let's just get through this season. Yeah, I'm
I kind of I don't know. I'm really positive right now in the TV
ratings. I'm really positive about how that I'll win. And I agree with
hell what Andy said you. I think the playoffs succeeded and we've seen the
growth all year. I don't know if and I've said this last week,
I don't know if we see that thirty forty percent growth again next year because
you can't give more time slots. We're talked and we have the report out
that it's going to be and Mike was reporting that, you know the Friday
night you know UFL games potentially not expansion, right, We're just going to
be moving game expansion, but we're going to be moving games for Friday,
So I think that's gonna hurt. And then I always hear in the back
of my head this like Fox, UFL Divide, Redbird kind of whatever,
and I I mean it's really outside of like more on my purview the like
I don't know, that's more of like a mic thing, like hey,
what do you know whatever? But like I hear enough rumblings about that,
Like I think that there's something going on there with you know, like Fox
and thinking Okay, well we know what we're doing and like we don't need
to spend as much, like how much money we saved the first year and
then the XFL you guys lost all this money. It's like I don't know
if that comes into a head, Like I don't know if you guys have
any thoughts about that, but like it still doesn't feel like it's it's like
from from enough of what I hear. It's not like in sembatico like we're
all in this together. Still does that make sense? Yeah, I think
it's this Leak is just trying to find their identity right now, Like this
merger was never gonna be smooth and like get going. It's I think it's
been as smooth as it can be under those circumstances. But yeah, I
mean you got two different mentalities where you know, the USFL they had their
option, they would still have their four hub cities for this year. And
then if you know, if it was the XFL, they would probably be
you know, continuing playing in their home markets. Like there is a different
mentality to it. At the end of the day, you know, the
I don't know if it's a USFL side or or whatnot, but this league
has got to realize eventually, you're gonna have to spend money. You're gonna
have to get these players into their home markets, get these coaches to home
markets, and get them connected with the you know, the people in their
local markets. Because if you don't do that, then they're they're they're eventually
not gonna care. You know that they they have to be able to do
that. And you know, you can play conservatively and maybe it work this
year, but next year, I want them to be more aggressive in marketing.
I want to see them out in you know, doing more local events.
I don't want I don't want to see DC Defender players going to doing
Salvation Army in Arlington, Like that's that's not gonna help Like DC fans don't
care because you're not helping Washington, You're helping Arlington, Texas like this is
this is not the Arlington defenders like these are the DC defenders. Get them
in their cities. That's how you're going to make this thing better. I
mean the ratings are encouraging, that's good. I think it will continued to
slowly go up. I don't think I like you said, right, I
don't think it'll go as much next year. But yeah, I think the
big thing is just get just get in your home markets and spend a little
more on it, and like it's it's not going to kill you to do
it. Let's go Andy and then Pat and then wederstand the Bible swap out
here at the bottom of the hour. Andy thoughts, I think there's a
difference between being rugle and protecting your treaser jest. And for me, I
think there's a little bit of asset protection as opposed to asset spendash And for
me, I just the reason I think this is such a pop part part
of the discussion is because when you decide to be a little bit more conservative,
if you're spending you're going to hold back and not want to do some
of the things that you want, which, look, I understand. I'm
not saying go out there and shoot off all the fireworks, because it looks
pretty like we've seen cases in the past with teams or sports leagues that tried
something and it failed, but maybe it was memorable. I just got done
reading Paul Woods's book about the Rocket Rocket Your Mail and the one year the
Toronto Argonauts one in nineteen ninety one when Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky, and
John Candy all on the team and they all just basically went for broke and
just did a bunch of crazy stuff. It was spectacular or it was messy.
They won the title and then they basically went back. We're basically bankrupt
after that. But it was extremely memorable. So I'm not like that's the
extreme level of it. I think you can have a happy medium where you
can say, hey, let's spend a little bit of money, let's put
in a little bit of capital. Let's at least start putting targeted marketing and
trying to attack certain demographics. We're not I'm again, I'm not saying that
you have to go parting all of your cash out out the window, Like,
that's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is that there
needs to be at least a little more forethought of. It's not just going
to be statis quo, because status quo and writing the line isn't really going
to push the envelope. It's just going to keep things even keel, which
from a survivability standpoint, I understand. But as far as like getting new
people really thriving and trying to at least attempting to grow your asset, which
I think is the ultimate goal, I would think from Fox that everyone involved
here you have to be able to push your chips a little bit more into
the bill of table. I got a comment here from Logan. We'll touch
on that. I think when Max comes on about expansion and then after the
season, Pat, let's get to you here and then we'll swap out with
them right here and just submitted Pat thoughts on that. I mean, I
I think Andy's Andy's right. The only thing I'd like to hear more on
is like his targeted marketing and whatnot. I'm I mean, I feel I
feel like something with Saint Louis I feel like something with Saint Louis, you
got to get them over the hump of like the forty five K and whatnot.
I don't know what that is, but my targeted marketing would be more
towards obviously the bottom half of the attendance list and whatnot. I think with
Saint Louis, you go with that. To save funds, you go with
it. It's not broke, what's not fixed. If it ain't broke,
don't fix it type thing. And that's kind of if we're talking about like
saving money. But I mean, also I think it would help if they
would make a championship game and win the games they're supposed to win on that
front. Reid, obviously, I know it's Emery's time to kind of punch
out or for me, I did want to add something that I want to
say in the beginning of the hour, A big shout out by the way
to a couple Missouri natives. Dan Issam Saint Louis guy. His father used
to be the police chief there. He's a defensive back for the Birmingham Stallions.
So you should see a couple of those guys. And then you know
someone and I'll call him out. Luke was like, Oh, I'm seeing
all these Nebraska guys there for Adrian Martinez. No, it's actually Carlos Davis,
who is a Kansas City native, which Kansas City football probably one of
the most underrated places in the United States from recruiting. That's a lot of
his family is there because and then maybe we'll see some other Casey natives there
as well. So I mean, overall, I think I think it's give
me a good game. So I mean I'm excited for it. I think
Birmingham wins. Yeah, throwing in throwing it in there, all right.
I was trying to text my mom will link to watch the show. I
ended up sending it to Hop on the show. So I don't know if
you're texting your mom to get another year of eligibility for the Mark cast.
Yeah, no, I don't know if we need those Susan's thoughts here on
the show. Well, we'll get her on the watching the YouTube comment All
right, Pat, I appreciate it. We wish you could have been here.
Yeah, always, guys, thank you great stuff. Uh so we
so, like I said here, we're bringing on Emory Hunt. Like the
subscribe give us some four thousand subscribers your big guest list here, Emory's is
one of the many coming on. But if you Emory, people love hearing
from you. One here. How are you doing, sir? We did
our big playoff preview show a couple of weeks ago, and now you're calling
olf games. Anthony's involved them as well. Busy guy, how are you
doing doing? Fun? Man? Appreciate you'll bring me on the show as
always. Do you guys have questions for Emory? I think about that.
I'll ask him one here and then maybe we can toss to the panel thoughts
about the game today. I mean that Brahma is playing with the chip on
their shoulder here. I can't remember if you had them winning against the BattleHawks,
I would presume probably not. So what do you make in the championship
game to that? You know? It's fun because I know we're gonna get
a competitive game. I know we're gonna get a physical game. And this
will still has some more intrigue as we know the law the loan loss for
Birmingham comes from San Antonio, so we know, even though you can't really
peg what is San Antonio's offense, you know even now as we're in the
championship game, but they find ways to score enough to win games. We
know their defense is good. Their run game, I think is better than
their passing game, but their passing game, for whatever reason, finds fire
at some point in the in the game. And we've seen Birmingham kind of
get bored with their opponents at some point in times sometimes that that has came
back to haunt them, as it has uh them when they when they lost
that game. So this should be fun. Quarterback is gonna be intrigued for
Birmingham. We know we have the MVP at Birmingham with Adrian Martinez, but
you know, we saw how that was going for them last weekend and needed
Matt Correll, which just adds all kinds of intrigue to this ball game.
So I'm excited to see how it's going to play out because I know we're
gonna get a good game no matter what. We got here, Javon checking
in there the czar of the playbook and that's good. And then Pat here
at fun fact, I'm reasoning the first on the screen I've met in real
life. So there you go. Yeah, Pat, we tried Pat.
We can to Saint Louis. We can know what these amouts. It's like
I get that a lot when I go to like the CFL, and then
the people they're like, oh well, and then they don't. I'm like,
I'm in Canada. I've done the art work like you need to,
Like I've had that where people are in like other sections just in the stadium.
I'm like, okay, we're I'm in there. Statement profits here thoughts
on that, Let's get Anthony like, yeah, because the Brahmas like haven't
been great all year, I mean, you know, and they working with
injuries and like he said, you know, consistency. It really it feels
like a different vibe than Birmingham. When's your thoughts on memories comments. I
think it's San Antonio. It's their defense has been consistent, right, They've
been the best defense in the league this year. I think overall, I
think it's just been their offenses. I don't know, even last year when
they were the Houston Roughnecks, like there was just something weird about the offense.
Like the first half of the season, the offense was spectacular, and
then Kirklin got hurt and then all of a sudden, we'll spell off the
wagon for the offense and it was just really inconsistent. I think the difference
between this San Antonio team this year from the Houston Roughnecks team last year is
I think the running game is stronger. I think when you have Anthony McFarland
junior, you got John love It, you got Morgan Ellison. Like that
run that backfield in San Antonio is ridiculous, and I think that's been that
was the big thing that what Houston was getting better at last year towards the
end of the season was running the football with Max Bourge in them. But
this this running game has really made a difference. But you know, there's
there is some creativity in AJ's offense with San Antonio, but I don't know
it just it feels like they're a big play offense and then like the rest
of the plays is very like short yard situations, Like they don't they don't
bomb the ball down the field like Chase Garbs of them the strongest harm but
he's really accurate with the football. He's very precise with that. He knows
where to put the football where it needs to be. And I think that
you know, it's not the sexiest offense, but I think San Antonio's offense
has been very efficient in how they're doing it. I think they're like fourth
in the league in total offense, but they're one of the more efficient offenses.
I think that's what makes them and Birmingham in this championship game right now,
is because both teams can run and pass ball, be efficient and protect
the football. Yeah, that's a really good and I mean this is obviously
have Anthony and Emory on here are really good comments around, like yeah,
because I don't know, A j was like hot last year and he was
on the show and then I know he had like he just it feels like
this year like the Stella never got his groove going, Like I don't know,
it just feels like a really weird. It doesn't feel like the same
offense through or at least I don't know any of this, but it doesn't
feel like the same kind of team. We watch it, and I know
obviously all those kinds of things that the team on the field. I think
it really boils down to injuries for him. I mean, as Anthony mentioned,
Johshrey Kirkle in the second he went off the offense for Houston last year.
Things kind of pill apart. Also, Randon Silvers was banged up last
year, and this year you kind of saw the same thing a little bit
when Chase Garver's was out of the lineup and they had a bit of a
rotation quit. Dormerty tried his best, but I've never seen a man have
the propensity to throw it into the fire more than Dormerty does. There are
times where he tries to fit into the tightest window possible, and sometimes it
goes well and sometimes not so much. So I think having someone like Garbaus
who's so even keel and be able to kind of control the blow of the
offense really helps a j Smith kind of control that vision and really play out
his game plan that he Obviously he does tremendous work every week. He just
seems to always have an idea of what he wants to do. It doesn't
always get executed, but I do think they've been a lot more even keel
this year as far as executing their plan. But I actually wanted to turn
a question over to every every I'm sure you and I both are just a
little bit bewildered that san Antonio had been gott into this position in the first
place for you, what's been maybe the most standout or the most significant part
of the San Antonio Ramas in kind of disturb bring the established order here and
being in the championship game. They've been winning with subpar quarterback play. If
we are being completely honest and listen, I was I was early in the
preseason telling folks that garbage can play a little bit. You know, garbage
is not not bad. But when you look at the UFL, CFL ELF,
all of these leagues, right these secondary leagues to the NFL, it
is it is very tough to find sustained success if you don't have a quarterback
that is mobile. And we're not talking about someone that's out there running a
four two, but you have to be able to evade pressure, create all
scripts, get outside the pocket, do things above the x's and o's,
and those that tend to have those quarterbacks I e. Birmingham consistently have been
able to win and we saw that last night with the BC lines in Calgary
Stampeder's game. It's a difference between Vernon Adams and Jake Mayer, and in
this game, it could be the difference between a win for Birmingham and a
loss for san Antonio, but watching them, you know, play in spite
of quarterback play, but it's because of you guys with what you guys touched
on the explosive element of the run game. I think it's funny when you
talk about the backs, it's it's fascinating to watch how san Antonio leans into
their talent and gets those guys the football. On the other side, Birmingham,
yes they've always had a two back tandem, but every year we've watched
Birmingham, whether it's the two years in the USFL and this year in the
ULF, the best back has always been CJ. Marrable. Yet he's the
one that doesn't get the football enough, you know, And when they do
give him the football, it gets the run game jump started, the big
plays start to pop. So that's gonna be what I'm watching for, is
how quickly they go to Marrable in this game, because we've seen them lose
possessions by trying to run the football and they can't convert. But if they
go to Marrable, Marryble will get it. But we've seen san Antonio just
lean on the explosive plays of McFarland. The consistency of love it and then
Ellison in short yards, goal line situation. So that's been their calling card.
Run game, good defense, timely special teams because if we're being completely
honest, their receivers dropped at least three or four passes a game they like
hit him in the face, you know. And then in the crucial situations,
here comes a clutch reception and you're like, man, why you didn't
catch that ball earlier in the ball game. But what has been consistent over
the course of the season has been a run game, has been a defense,
their ability to blitz, their ability to get home, get off the
field, and that's something that is gonna bite Birmingham if they can't put this
team away early and also lean on their better back in Cja Marrable for that.
Yeah, I mean, this is I think the winning mentality, the
way the win championships. We've seen it with so many teams is run the
ball and have good defense. And that's something Birmingham has had over the last
two to three years. That's what you know San Antonio's had this season.
They're both ranked in the top three, top four in total defense. They're
both the two of the best running teams in the league. So when you
have that kind of power, you're able to do it. But I love
Emory's comment on the quarterback position because, look, the reality is when we've
talked with the XFL, Like I remember talking with the XFL last year in
one of the I don't know the inside the football meetings, the inside leagues
or whatever it is, they Neil and them have talked about the XFL officials
had talked about it's really hard to find good offensive linement, Like there's just
not enough offensive alignment out there. So you need to have a quarterback who
can move out of the pocket, can throw on the run, can run
with the football, because if you've got a pocket quarterback, they're going to
get killed back there because the development of the offensive lines are just they're getting
better, but they're they're not where any other position in football. So you
need to have quarterbacks that can move out of the pocket. That's what has
made for Macamp's so good is I have Adrian Martinez as is the league rusher
in the league, and he's been able to, you know, make plays
with his legs, and I think that's what separates Chase Garber versus Quin Dormney's.
Dormieus does not mobile like he can't run like Garber's can't like Garber's is
not always going to run it, but he has the ability to move out
of the pocket when he needs to, because I remember A. J.
Smith the beginning of the season said that he compare Chase Garver's to PJ.
Walker, like he's got that type. I think p J. Walker's got
a stronger arm, but they both can move out of the pocket when they
need to. They're both very precise actor quarterbacks, and that's what's made the
difference for San Antonio. We got a question here. We'll go with this
to Andy and then we'll pass around the Emery and around hear this from Christopher.
Christopher was one of the ones that gave away. We gave away his
tickets to the UFL Championship game, I think, and we have four different
fans going to the game courtesy of US free chart, so they tried to
do our part. Here. We'll go first Andy, then we'll get the
Emory. Speaking of quarterbacks, which quarterbacks you see back next year, either
championship quarterbacks and Matt Crouch Town Movies. Perez. Yeah, we've talked about
this a little bit. I think there's those guys that we talked about earlier
who are the spring football lifers. You know. Perez, in my opinion,
is one of those guys. I love him. He's a fantastic player,
a great story. I think he's really destined of these kinds of leagues.
No fault of zone, it's just tough competition. I think his skill
set really matches these kinds of leagues. Joran Tambo another guy. I think
he's a spring football lifer. I really believe that the guys are gonna see
to move on. I mean, Adrian Martinez is going to get a chance.
We'll see if he can stick in the camp. I mean he's definitely
developed quite a bit since he was at Kansas State and Nebraska. I do
believe that he is going to get a fair shot here. I mean,
Skip Foltz just finds a way to send these guys off eventually. You know,
Alex Mugu leaps and bounds better last year, goes to Green Bay,
signs on with them. Martinez is one. I don't know anybody necessarily from
San Antonio Memphis. I think Chase case Cocus is still going to hang around.
I mean, he's just again kind of a spring football lifer if you
can stay right. You know, I'm worried about his long term prospects in
other days, not just football wise, But I just don't really see a
crop of guys moving on. AJ mccaron. Mccaren's really the wild card here.
Does he want to continue doing this full time or does he just want
to play as a backup, be on a practice squad, be with the
Bengals. He seems to really relish the opportunity to play in front of his
kids. He really, really really appreciates that. I think it matters the
most to him. I don't know if he's going to get another shot to
play significant time in the NFL. I do see him. I personally it's
up to him, but I believe that he will stay around. So to
answer your question, Martinez is like the only one that I can really see
moving on and getting a shot. But you know, again comes out in
the relationships some of these guys get in the camps that we don't expect to.
I mean, Taylor Heinde Ky is a perfect example. Never played the
NEXTEL twenty twenty starts games in the NFL. Well, No, and agent
wants to stick ground, the teacher his kid when he skips his knees.
You gotta get that to keep playing every last question for you, and I
think it was at least at one point when we had you on talking about
standouts and people, but obviously will relate this to quarterbacks. Yeah, has
anyone played into or what do you make of this before we get you out
of here. It's a great question, and you know, I think you
guys kind of know where I stand on it. Where, Yes, you
want a league where guys can have a career, So Luis Perez or Jordan
Tiamo, you want to see those guys back as backups because you have to
start creating new stars to get people to watch. I e. A.
Lindsay Scott probably should have been playing in Arlington over Luis Perez. I know
people love Perez's story and him having all the passing yards and you know,
and leading in this and this and this, but they were always losing,
right, So imagine if they had someone that was exciting, the PJ.
Walker would have been the Lindsay Scott. The challenge for this league is to
go out and find those guys that you know for a fact, and it's
twofold. It's find those guys that you know for a fact they're gonna get
snubbed the NFL, and those guys that are gonna be snubbed by the NFL
to have the werewthal to say, you know what, man, I'm gonna
go play here first, because I'm not gonna go get two reps of throwing
the football in a ninety man rookie mini camp and not make the roster.
Just go play some ball, get some protape, and then come back at
it. And so it requires a little bit of self reflection and humbleness from
the prospect and a little bit of foresight from the league because you can always
grab the Luis Perez and the Jordan Tiamu and the AJ mccarren's, but you
need to have those guys that are within that right age of twenty one to
twenty four that still has a window of perhaps getting in the NFL, especially
at that position. Every other position, you're looking for guys that can kind
of become UFL veterans. And in order for that to happen, And this
is kind of tying all my points in together, where yes, there's more
than enough talent to have. I wrote an article on this in twenty sixteen.
There's more enough talent to have for each NFL team to have its own
minor league team. Fast forward to now, there's more than enough talent to
have a twenty four team UFL. But let's just say we branches out to
twelve and keep it at twelve, or if they want to keep it at
eight and develop that with Moose. Johnson talked about having guys that just want
to play in this league because they know that NFL will do it's closed well.
Making the salary one hundred grand is out of fifty grand is the best
way to do that, and that kind of keeps you in that eight to
twelve team league, and that's how you attract those guys that may be a
G five. Let's say a Grayson McCall who is at Coastal Carolina who's now
at NC State, doesn't have the best NFL all prospects, but you know
the kid can play. It's kind of like Alex magou Man. Once he's
done at the NC State this year, tell him come play with for you
know, the New Jersey Generals or whatever, right and get him to play
against pro competition, and then now you have he's gonna create those opportunities for
himself, and then you're gonna see other young quarterbacks gonna see, Okay,
well he did it this way, I can go do it that way too.
Because it's as much as we like Adrian Martinez and we like the fact
that he got in you know, uh, you know, in this league
and did some great things, it's it's hard to say the NFL, which
has the luxury of scraping off the top, Yeah, okay, we found
our franchise quarterback and Adrian Martinez when in reality he's gonna end up being a
QB too. Yeah, he's gonna make some money, But do you want
to play? And yes, you could make money, but you see what
happened with A. J. McCarry. He's like, man, I just
want to play, Like I hate being a backup. I just want to
play. And I think a lot of guys really just want to play ball.
And if more guys can see the big picture, then we'll see the
salaries increase, they'll be able to create a substantial living in the in the
in the UFL, and then we'll start to see this ecosystem just grow develop
and become what we expected to be. But don't get it twisted. There's
room for more expansion. Financially, it doesn't make sense yet, but you
know, if they want to create that lead that they want, then the
salary is going to have to increase. Here before you go, I'll do
it. Here Here comes the UFL Expansion Podcast Episode than three or two one,
real quick, rapid fire. Maxis standing by every real quick to you
because he does have a question. If Martinez was to get a shot off
the top of your head, any team that you think that would would pop
off for him? I mean, that's a great one. The Ravens.
You even looking at the division, the Ravens, Steelers, Browns, they
all all fit that mo. So you know, Washington would be a good
place to have a backup. Hell Detroit, we don't know you have yet
in Hinton Hooker. They had Adrian Martinez in camp. You know, bring
them back, you know what I'm saying. Let's because until we see what
hidden Hooker looks like playing pro football, he's still a relative unknown, you
know, because he was coming off that injury. Well, Emory, we
appreciate it. Thank you for making the time. As always, Scheka Emory
and all. He's doing ELF games and Anthony's doing a exciting step here,
say Emry, I appreciate you taking the time to that. Appreciate it.
Next next show we'll talk about a UFL ELF championship game that we'll get to
that leader, we'll get to that. I appreciated. They thank you so
much. Let's get every out of here. We'll bring in Max. Max
first off here Christmas and we were talking to quarterbacks and everything to lay Tugle
Live. He's up in Hamilton now man CFL just signed them last week,
right, I mean, are you fighting against all that kind of stuff?
Max? You're unmuted. How are we doing here, sir? I'm doing
I'm doing great. You know, I'm excited to finally see you know,
whether that's San Antonio regular season game, how much does that translate to this
environment. So it's gonna be so totally different. You have to imagine Birmingham
as a much more fleshed out, complete game plan than a end of regular
near end of regular season game that they kind of knew they were probably gonna
be able to clinch home field anyway. And then on top of that,
even if they didn't they might have gotten their home game anyway, So I'm
feeling there's going to be completely different attitude today. Yeah, coach Craig here
checking then I missed when he was he was talking expansion there, so yeah,
Craig, I miss when you're popping in the chat hair. But she
we should have got Coach Craig on as well. I kind of just say
the rapid fire her email list at the end of the week. And then
Tom here, I haven't been able to see see UFL games in Canada that
don't have cable hopefully, how do we not have a tsnner some partnership,
Like I don't know. I mean there's still there's I mean, the CFL
plus concept is still wonderful, but like, how did don't you think that
they would have a UFL I'm surprised that they don't have. Isn't a part
of ESPN, Like isn't that Like Max, can we fact check this for
Tom? So because of Canadian laws? Max notes, of course, you
know, because there are certain stipulations that require like an a mayor can or
other foreign entity cannot own more than twenty percent of these sorts of things.
So TSN is twenty percent ESPN owned and eighty percent owned by Bell. Uh
So they have a lot of ESPN programming, but not all of it.
They use a lot of ESPN IP but not all of it. They do
their own thing. They get to pick and choose what they want on their
platforms. And last year the XFL they had like they launched a streaming service
called like TSN plus or something, and they had it for the XFL on
there. I don't think the UFL made it on there this time. So
yeah, yeah, I like that when it was on ESPN and you can
do kind of like the at least the games run the Man and we had
the player for fifty four and kind of all that stuff. What do we
want I'm really loud here. What do we want to talk about here?
Max? What are you expecting on the game for that? Uh? You
know, I'm expecting some more points for one, you know, with Garbers
of being ready to go with Birmingham hopefully expecting to open up their offense a
little bit. And then I'll talk of that offensive outburst last week after I
mean there was what twenty eight unanswered. I mean that was amazing, and
on top of that, it completely shut me up because I was like,
I was already starting to party. I'm like, what would happen if if
Michigan won? And then because I just thought it would be very funny,
and they were like you think you get to have fun? No, no,
no, this is this is this ain't in the game, this life,
and they shut that down real quick. Yeah. The fact that I
was really getting excited about that about Birmingham missing sorry, is that bad?
I mean, I can be I'm not that. I'm not a journalist.
I can be. I can be anti Birmingham all I want here, But
I mean, it really did for a while there it looked like Stallions might
miss out. I mean I I picked Michigan to win last week just because
I thought Michigan was just on a better role than Birmingham was, you know,
after that Saint Louis battlelocks game for Birmingham. But I just didn't think
the Stallions looked great to end the season, so I was concerned about how
they were gonna do into the into a playoffs game with Michigan, but and
ended up Michigan just shot themselves on the foot with four turnovers, even though
Birmingham also had four turnovers, but Birmingham took advantage of turnovers versus Michigan.
Michigan didn't. I don't think they got any points on those turnovers, and
I think Birmingham got I think they got like two scores out of it.
So that was that was the difference in the game. So yeah, well,
we hate to be negative against Birmingham, but you know, we at
the end, we want we want the Stallions to succeed. We love the
Stallions as a team. But I think we've already talked about how we just
want the city to maybe do it a little bit better in attendance, even
though they're not the worst. It's just just add a little more people.
Just got a couple thousand more we'll be get Well. When you see that
layout of like in the bottom with it being Houston at Memphis and all that,
I want to make sure we touched on Andy and then match. I'm
sure I have thoughts, but they were We asked way again yesterday about the
player that they were supposed to sign that they didn't sign, and there was
all the shenanigans about that, and I know that I got DMS from one
of the individuals that was telling me about it, but then you saw a
lot of other people trying to like, oh well, hey, like yeah,
like I heard maybe something was going on with that, and like way,
it seems like you're trying to kind of sweep it under the rug.
We're all just trying to kind of play about the roles thoughts on that,
And I don't think it's anything nefarious. I mean, I think it's just
like we're trying to get by and make everybody play about it. Say,
I think yeah, I think it was just sort of a technicality that maybe
it was read into correctly by by either party it is. It does seem
I hate to use the word bias, but it does seem to have a
little bit of that and intrigue with it as far as the transaction not going
through. But I do think I don't think that's what the league is trying
to do. They're not trying to undermine people and not trying to let them
signe certain players that they can. It is unfortunate, especially considering san Antonio's
angle, especially with the injuries that they've been burged, but I do think
I don't think there's anything nefarious at play either here. Going back to what
Max was talking about a little bit as far as more points being scored.
It's interesting I've been looking up at a lot of the vetting adds, which
actually Anthony Penda a great article this week about all the bets onsen some of
the information going into this game. The over unders forty two points. Last
time these teams met, it was a combined of twenty seven. So if
we are to believe that both these defenses are really good, I would have
to say I'd probably go with the slide under there. I know there's probably
gonna be a little bit more offensive this game for both sides, but I
don't think there's gonna be too much more. I do believe these two teams
are defensive minded teams from the outset, and I do believe that they pride
themselves on that. So for me, I'd have to say it's probably gonna
be a little bit less than that. That's kind of where I stand on
the point spread or the overrunder. I should say, max thoughts on kind
of the way thing of it, and then I want to I have a
follow up and thoughts on that, and I don't know, it'sad just Darryl
kind of overstep in well, it's probably a league rule. But the enforcement
mechanism makes no sense because if I recall, they were allowed to sign a
receiver instead, so they were still allowed to sign somebody, but just not
that tight end that they wanted to sign and that and the guy was literally
like from my understanding, he was in meetings like with the team. He
was Yeah, he was through test. I mean he was all through everything,
medicals and everything like that. This makes so the tight end is not
allowed, but then this random receiver they're allowed to sign it instead. In
the last second, you're allowed them to get somebody but not the guy.
They want, what are we doing here? What's this enforcement mechanism? This
makes no sense. So I don't want to say it's bias, but I
do think that there's some there's whatever the chain of command and the regulations,
they don't make sense. That it's improper and it should not be like this.
They should have just been allowed to sign the tight end and carry on.
Yeah, I think he has something to do with like them not having
enough tape and being able to like game plan and all that. I don't
know, it's a weird thing with the league because like it is kind of
just existing then it's unether right now. But I think if you weren't good
enough that you were on the team anyway, I don't know, is it
like that big of a mind changing to bring on someone like that? I
mean, yeah, I mean I don't. I don't think it really would
have it. They just wanted to backup tight end man, Like they only
have one on their roster today because they couldn't bring in a backup. So
why would you not let them bring in a backup tight Like you're not going
to have film on any random backup they signed. But like, realistically,
it's not like they're bringing in a ringer who is, like, you know,
the very best player available and like would actually be better than their starting
tight end right now. I mean, it's just a guy who comes who's
going to come in and play some snaps and maybe take over if the starter
gets injured, Like you're putting them in a vulnerable position all for what the
sake of enforcing a rule? Like what what is this? Why it doesn't
make any sense? Fall up from maxim then we'll move on to someone else.
Thoughts, what is like this game resonating online right now? Like I'm
looking at that I've been tracking that viewership like it's fine. I mean we're
kind of up and down, like is this you know it's it's what four
o'clock Central five, I mean, it's not really I don't know, it's
not really prime time. It doesn't really feel like it's like, I don't
know, how is this game as the eighteen today? If you're looking online,
I don't feel like there's much more hype for this game than there was
for last year's XFL title game or the USFL title game. They both got
about the same amount of viewership, They about the same amount of interests right
now. I mean, I'm sure the fact that they're not going head to
head with each other will help the ratings be a bit higher, and the
fact that there's the only there's barely any real competition going on for this game.
So I mean, maybe it's possible that it actually gets above that one
and a half million number that we're all putting as like a kind of expectation.
But I mean, if it hits two million, like you think you
said you would do some kind of crazy thing they had two million, I
will I will join you whatever your plans are for that, because I just
think that's impossible. Yeah, Anthony, what do you I mean we we
missed the media day yesterday flying then it doesn't sound like it was wildly attended.
I know part of that is obviously, you know Saint Louis not being
in this, but you would think that the media, if I'm Saint Louis
media don't know what them. I mean the Cardinals are at town and the
one I'm covered. I always think about that, like whether if I'm I
were to local this, like if I'm a local sports like department, Like
what am I covering today? But you just surprise this like it hasn't I
mean, obviously be different than the Ballahowcks we're in it, but it just
kind of feels like out of the that guys right now, I'm not surprised
by it. I mean, again, everything that this loogue has been put
together and the lack of marketing and stuff like that, I think this is
just kind of what it is. Like I I'm not expecting it to be
some kind of spectacular thing. I know Fox is really pushing on, Hey,
We're gonna do a lot of innovative stuff on the on the air today.
It's gonna be different from any sports broadcast, So I guess we'll see
how that is. I know they've been pushing on Tom Brady, like,
hey, Tom Brady's gonna be you know, in the in the booth in
the second quarter. He's gonna be presenting the UFL you know, Championship MVP
award, like and and and that's cool. Like I think that's all great
stuff. But I think at the end of the day, like, yeah,
if they do two million, that will just be a massive win.
I am not expected, No, I expect it to be a lot like
the numbers last year at one point to one point three. I think if
they can get over a million, I think it's a when I'd be more
concerned if it goes under, but I doubt it goes under. Let's do
Andy and we'll get Max some more time. And then John Lewis is lugging
in here, will bring him on, like yeah, what the hell is
going? Like Tom, Okay, well Brady's coming now. He's missing Father's
Day. Even though we retire from football to be a father, He's going
to be here for Father's Day, which I thought was really interesting. But
then like he's gonna fake call the game in the booth, like just for
practice. What is going on here? I think this is a case of
your boss telling you what to do. Yeah, what's happening box isn't very
much making it clear that you are going to be a part of our plans
and this is what's gonna happen from now on, buddy. So I think
for Tom Brady, I mean I don't know how much he's really watched with
the sleep of the team, not a second. Well, he was at
the Michigan Panthers game a month ago. True, that doesn't mean okay,
okay, yeah, No, I mean I don't know how much really game
tape he's watched. I was outside of the Michigan game. But you know,
do I think he has an enthusiasm for d just football in general.
Of course, Tom Brady lives breeze and dies with football like that's just his
likelihood. It was his likelihood for a good majority of his life. And
I can see him having enthusiasm for being able to analyze the game. I
would love. I mean a dream scenario is that he would have a chance
to be a color commentator in this league. I mean this, look,
we've seen Spring football have amazing commentators. We've seen guys like Kevin Burkhard and
Greg Olson. Are you kidding me? That was an incredible matchup in twenty
twenty. Kevin Couger's done a great job, Cold Platt, Kurt Menafee,
a lot of these guys just doing outstanding work in this league. So it's
we're not unknown to having great broadcasting people in this space. But I just
don't know as far as Brady goes. It'll be interesting to see what his
role is and how that plays into what he's doing into the future, or
if they get him involved next year. Who knows. That rates to be
seen. But it is just kind of funny seeing him. I guess I'm
not sure if i'd say he's being strong armed into this, but obviously there's
some things that he has to fill now he is actually part of the Box
Corporation manx, what is god something this is to be that we'll get you
out of here. But just like, okay, we do it. It's
it's never like with enough time to promote. It's like, hey, we're
doing this. It's the same thing like they emailed that Friday afternoon, like
hey we're doing media data. I'm like, well, I don't. I'm
not flying any the time to do that. Like, I don't know,
Like is the Brady thing? Is it just getting him involved in this ca
they expect to pop a rating. I don't even think it's to pop up
rating as much as it is to get some social media engagement like Tom No
one's gonna watch the game because Tom Brady happens to be there for a little
bit on television. Like that's that's not how this works. But you know,
let's be real the whole We've done so many rants on how the the
league's promotion strategy has been ineffective, and we could do a whole other dietray
boy, that's not what the show's about. So I'll just leave it at
this. They can at this point do whatever you want to add on ff
on for the championship game. None of it's gonna change anything. So just
make it look however you want so you can say it's yours and then carry
on and let's try to do better this offseason. The next season, we
got Marquette King, we got the Blues. It's a national anthem singer.
I mean, Max, we're rolling here. I mean the CFL's got the
Jonas Brothers for godsake, So Max, I appreciate it. Stay safe,
keep working all your other stuff here. I'm sure we'll figure out what's going
on after all this next see you. Uh, let's bring in this gentleman
and get ready for this. Boo boo boo. I heard a lot of
slander on here before I got on. Hey, uh is it? John?
Let you think about Birmingham being then the championship game. Finally, looking
at the schedules, I predict both the Houston Roughnecks and Michigan Panthers to finish
the season at two and eight in the San Antoniobramas. Maybe just a single
win with wayde Phillips and company return. Good thing? Is it? Mutes?
Here? Mike? When I play that video? John, w how
the heck are? I'm going to keep this in here forever well as you
should and I but I will say this. I am pulled. I mean
I've I've been kind of ride or die with the Stallions in the us FL,
but you know I did hedge my bet. If things start going poorly,
I'm ready. So yeah, I saw you, I saw you pop
on that. I'm going to get a jersey if the problems went today.
If anyone's curious that this is a blast in the past, Hey, what
else does Reed have saved in the streamyard? Check check this bad boy out
see if you see if you remember this football is fueled by dreams to go
further, get there faster. What was the old accest? But when they
rebranded, I got the leaked rebrand video in here. Exciting stuff. Uh,
John Stallion's running crazy? Have we would you guys say, have we
seen more Stallion fans here than Brahmas fans? For sure? Absolutely? John,
Are you surprised Stallion fans are showing up here? I don't know if
the bram is expected to be here. Yeah, you know, it's probably
a little bit better. I guess it'd be easier to get there. I
mean, I don't know what the drive time would be, but yeah,
I think that there's it's a bit of a probably a more of a known
brand, although that didn't really seem to play out in Birmingham. You know,
talking to some people down there, you know there were people that were
still unaware and read you and I talked about it. There were people that
were unaware that the who the Stallions were, or that they were playing,
or that they were in the playoffs, or even what the UFL was.
So, I mean, I think that speaks to there's going to be some
stronger marketing efforts going on. But you know, there is a hardcore group
of fans, and I think that that they probably made the trek up there.
I know there were a lot of the you know people who do what
we do here that are that are kind of more Birmingham Stallions based that are
that were on their way up there. Oh yeah, here a couple of
its hit here one and nine, Wade Phillips, Lol, Chris here,
Santa beats Birmingham. You got to play that every time he comes on the
show, and that and show that picture of him. He's wearing Stallion's shirt
right now, and then I'll go here, I re needs to make a
screenshot of that, make a T shirt send to John. I'll wear it
every time classic. I was gonna ask Emory about this. We'll go around
the horn here obviously, Mike Mitchell's coming on later at UFL Insider. We're
gonna do like a post recap. I think it's the plan here once we
get back in down and kind of like the season as a whole bit,
say, for like it being the most incredible game today that we've ever seen,
and you know the Brahms is a game winning comeback with her grade the
season, how do we feel like we've done here? Like marketing decide just
like football and the storylines kind of anything that way. I think I gave
the XFL A last year when you asked the same question. I think I'm
gonna give them the same grade. And the reason I'm going to give them
the same grade, I'm gonna be more lenient on them than what I think
they could do a lot. Obviously, marketing, we've been talking about a
whole show that they have to do a better job of it. But I
think under the circumstances, the talent level was fantastic. The teams are looking
good, there's a lot of competitive games. Coaching was good for the most
part, maybe outside of Houston, but for the most part, like the
league did well. The presentations were good. You know, I think ESPN
needs to stop leaning so much on the betting. I'm so sick and tired
of hearing about over unders five hundred times a game. I think Fox's presentation
is fantastic. I will keep saying that the Fox you know, Kurb Metafie
and Joel Klatt are fantastic in the booth. I think Fox's presentation of football
is way better than ABC and ESPN. I think ESPN has to work on
that next year. I think marketing needs to improve, but I think overall,
you know, the attendance numbers look to be decent. I think there's
more than needs to be done on that front. Ratings were better than they
were last year, so I think that's a positive. So I think there's
a lot of positive you can take with it. I think there's a lot
that they can work on in general, but overall, yeah, I give
it a be I think that the league has done a good job, and
I'm going to be much rougher on them next year. As someone that for
Sports Illustrated just posted the betting nods, I mean, you really, look,
I'm so tired of hearing it. Well, I have to post something
weakly on it, but I'm not throwing it at everyone's face five hundred times
a game on it within three hours. I don't need to hear like six
times an hour, like oh the over under is they're gonna hit, Like
I don't care. It's the guy that does it with Logan mill and I
love Tom Thomas been on the show multiple times. I didn't like I had
all the ESPN people on last year. They didn't seem like we needed it
this year. I don't know, like I felt like we had guests plenty
here where maybe a year ago I was like, Okay, we gotta get
a stormy around, we gotta get we had Colon, we had Eric McLean
on. But uh yeah, like is the over again? Like the over
is still in play? But andyw thoughts on that, and then I got
a question for John. Yeah, a couple of things. First of all,
Anthony, you're telling me you're not excited when Jace Sternberger catches the go
ahead touchdown and they're gonna tell us how it hits the player. Prop you're
not psyched for that? No or not really? I'm good. I'm not
talking about that, of course. No. I think it's it's definitely worn
out. It's welcome. The matt has not only been worn out, it's
basically been burns. And I for me, look, betting is part of
the sports like it's more now so than ever. Again, as I said,
but you don't have to keep reminding of people over and over again.
I do think what Fox does, I think it's more subtle where they'll have
a little pop up where we'll bring up the pregame odds. Like last week
they kept saying, well, not always announcing it, but just kind of
that little markers saying, hey, remember Saint Louis was favored in this game
and this is not going so well. Like that's kind of something that they
remind their audience of, which I think makes a lot of sense. I
think in terms of that engagement, that's fine, but I don't need to
be hearing about every single yard that the player has and how much closer they
are so they're over under because people, as I said in the kind of
the reimagining video that me and reads it a few weeks ago, like you
can talk about that stuff in spurts, but the people who follow that stuff
are in all that information. And I don't think that the non betting public
really needs to be inundated with all that information because at some point it just
becomes overload and they really just want to focus on simple narratives or just who's
winning the game. That's really the biggest thing that people look at John thoughts
for you on that and I got a couple coming. Yeah. I think
a lot of that is probably kind of a brand push for the ESPN bet.
I'm sure they're trying to sign up new people and they can say well,
there you go. So I think there's a lot there's probably something to
that where they're trying to push these odds and say hey, you can go
on your phone right now and make this bet and make that bet. And
Christopher's right on. I think there's a lot of that. They're just trying.
They're trying to drum up some new customers for that or to get people
to continue to engage with it. But it does, let's get a little
overwhelming. And you know, I'm with Anthony too on the grade as far
as this year because I feel like we should grade on a curve because it
was the way that this merger came together so late and then they were actually
able to get it off the ground and it was a clunky roll out,
there's no question. But the presentations have been good. I think the gameplay
has been good. I think a solid B absolutely as we grade on a
curve on anything, but you know, read as you said, and Anthony
brought up the local marketing and the marketing itself that's going to need some work
in twenty twenty five and really later in twenty twenty four. But overall,
I've been I've certainly been as much criticism as we talked about. I've been
pleased with the product all year long. I have a lot of thoughts on
here. Let's first get to these comments here I'm doing with saying, is
there gonna be a UFL post game show today where we're just going to post
the full game? I could the full game? Yeah, Lowell is the
guy, the ESPN guy that's so much sports betting talking. And obviously we
talked about Christopher's thing, and Christopher gave is a super chat. You know
at this hotel room isn't free. We're here across the street, you know,
super chats are always nice. To join the channel, John's a member
and ninety nine cents a month to become a member. I go back and
forth. Yeah, so gameplay is good, it's exciting. I don't like
that it felt you know, a lot of teams held out of it right,
and I would rather have like the Renegade sub five hundred kind of making
it versus Okay, well, you know there was such a divide kind of
between the house and they have not to getting all that locked up. I'm
just you know, Darryl's obviously had comments here on mus Johnson about being unhappy
and okay, we want all this stuff. I like that. Like I've
talked with even like my CLO buddies, you know, Michael and Paul and
stuff, and they're like, maybe Fox is just fine with this, and
that's kind of concern. And that's why I feel like we need to keep
saying things because I don't want Fox to be like, well, this is
fine. It's cheaper than running and you know all in the Family reruns or
whatever. There's Seventh Heaven reruns, and you know it's a Saturday afternoon,
like we're moving the games for Friday. That doesn't feel great for me.
I guess we'll go right here, like them moving games. I don't like
that. I don't like the Friday Like, well, now we have something
that's more high profile here. See, like that's how it happens. They
didn't have anything this year. Yeah, well I guess here you the first
show. Oh I'm sorry, Yeah, I was just gonna say, I
think they can make this Friday night game a thing, but you worry about
the demographics that you're trying to attract on a Friday. And also, if
you are still only going to have eight teams in this league, then what's
this weekend slate gonna look like? So that that was that's my concern.
I thought like, okay, well if there's if there are ten teams,
you can make this a showcase Friday night kind of thing. But yeah,
but then when they say, well it makes room for IndyCar and you know,
yeah, that's where it's like, this is exactly. It's like what
you're what you're weigh in one against the other. For sure. Let's go
right here. Greg's standing by. I have a question from John. I
hope someone can answer, but let's get thoughts on this and then we'll ring
it Greg here in the minute. Sorry forgot the question. Oh it's just
about moving, like you know, we're all ready now we have something more
high profile. We're moving the games to Friday, and we don't know they're
talking expansion. I mean, we can make another video video about that,
but it's not it's not gonna pull the ratings that like w W SmackDown did,
and just just because ww is a much bigger product. It's like they're
just more name brand into it, more name recognition to it. Like I
mean they tried XFL did this last year. They did it Friday night game.
I was there for the Renegades game. They barely had ten eleven thousand
fans, which would actually be really good this year, but last year it
was not good, right, and and that was well, that was the
same. We can also Taylor Swift was in town, so completely killed the
attendance numbers, but the ratings weren't good. I think they made what four
or five hundred thousand that night, Like it wasn't a lot so and yeah,
that was probably on the ESPN so Fox. If they put on Fox,
it could be better. But I guess it really just depends on how
they're gonna present this game, Like I anticipate this is gonna be six seven
hundred thousand per game unless they willing knock it out of the park with it.
And I mean, could you imagine that they put like the Houston Roughnecks
and the Mesa Showboats on Friday Night, like nobody's gonna watch, Like that's
the game that if you're gonna put it on Friday night and you're gonna hype
it up as to the marquee, you have to have the best teams playing
each other week. It needs to be like the game of the week,
like it's gonna be between these two teams. That's how it's gonna work.
It needs to be UFL's Monday Night football or Sunday Night Football. Yeah.
I like this coming here, Jack Hammers. I gotta put it up here.
If I'm gonna make fun of it and not make fun of it,
Why DFL don't you answer my local obscurity? We were totally supported. I
like that. I like that. Andy. Let's get your thoughts. We'll
circle back to John because then I think we have someone standy by that knows
all about Friday night sports competition here, So let's get that Andy's thoughts and
then we'll move on here. Yeah. My thoughts on that are be consistent,
not convenience. And the reason I say that is, don't do this
change just because it's gonna be an in career broadcast schedule. To be consistent
with it. If you want to commit to Friday and night, commit to
it. Do that fine. The CFL does that with Friday night lights.
They love doing it. That's their thing. Obviously, in this country,
more people are familiar with watching high school football on Fridays in the fall and
in the spring. There's not really a concept of that. If you want
to make that a thing, go for it, Advertise it, as Anthony
said, make it the game of the week, make it really important.
Is John also alluded to as well. But I don't want them to just
keep doing this because well, we have something, we have better programming,
We're just gonna shift this over because that tells me that shows at least as
a viewer. That tells me that you don't really care about that product nearly
as much as you do other assets. And look, I know it may
not be as much of a moneymaker. And I know Eric Shanks was the
one that obviously one of the pigh end Fox executives will he has a much
bigger ulterior motive here at play than the league officials do, because obviously he
has to make sure that Fox Sports programming is optimal at all times. But
this is something that I would like to see from the league, is that
you choose something, you stick with it and if it works great, If
it's not working, how do we make it better? So for me,
I just wanted to be more of a plan as opposed to it just being
convenience. Real quick here, we've had a bunch of these comments John,
John's checking in here and then we'll get to John. We'll get out of
here. Can other can he CFL experience in the great cut? It's not
the great in the championship game today. The last year we had Thanky and
all that and then went off the top of my head. I've been trying
to We've had like three or four different people of us about that. Maybe
Andy'll do some off site research here. We'll look into that. John,
we'll look into that. Uh, John Lewis. Anything else from you will
bring in Greg, John, I appreciate it like his you know, check
out John's channel. John. I think I'm going to come on there soon.
We're going to talk about some strenand agains. It won't be two hours,
John, does these short videos probably make you two hours? Yeah?
John? Anything else from you? No, just looking forward to it again.
You know, as a lot of us who's followed spring football, I've
said this before. We followed over the years. When you get to a
championship game and you've actually completed a season, let's call it a win,
and let's hope for a lot more. You know a lot better, and
I think the league will learn from from some mistakes in twenty twenty fours.
We move on to twenty twenty five, but looking forward to it today,
John appreciated John Flannery. Hey, we got John's thanking. John's here.
I appreciate Thank you, John, John, don't make any more bad takes
here before the championship game. Well, I want to make so many,
and I want them all. I want you to record them all. I'll
send them to you, all right, Thanks John, appreciate you, guys.
Let's bring in here a gentleman, Sandy By. I appreciate that as
someone that knows all about Friday destination programming with w W and Smackdot. What
do you make of this? Greg Parks ufl board appreciate it. Greg was
on a couple weeks ago. I like a subscribe here. We've added a
few subscribers today. The thoughts that maybe we aren't doing expansion, Greg,
that we're just really allocating games for Friday to make room for things that we
care more about on Fox. Well, I don't know if i'd term it
that way, at least I hope not for the sake of the league.
But you know, this is something where you know, obviously this has been
Friday night SmackDown spot on for a long time. And so what's interesting is
by the time the UFL season comes around, whether it's February, whether it's
March, whatever time they start next year, you are going to have that
Friday spot already a destination for sports because you're going to have college football on
Fridays, You're gonna have college basketball on Fridays. I think there's gonna be
some other sports offerings perhaps that will be on Fridays as well. So the
idea, I think is to get fans used to Friday nights on Fox being
a sports destination night. And hopefully by the time the UFL rolls around when
it kicks off, fans will be used to, you know, tuning in
on Friday nights and this time they're just going to tune into UFL football instead
of the Big Ten or instead of college basketball. So that's I think,
in an ideal world that's what happens. Because I know SmackDown is leaving Fox
this fall, so you know they're going to have to start replacing that programming
in the fall the time the winter rolls around. Hopefully that's the spot for
it. And again, you know, I've made this point on social media
before, I'd never understood the connection with expansion and moving to Friday nights.
To me, it's not difficult to find. I think it's maybe even less
difficult for ABC and Fox to find three spots on the weekend for UFL games
instead of four, so it might be actually easier on the networks. But
you know, hopefully if the league was planning on expanding for the second year,
we would have heard about that by now, because we're now into the
time of the year where it's going to be less than a year until this
league kicks off. And if you're talking expansion, there's been no city's name.
There's not even been any rumors of the UFL reaching out to any cities.
You'd have to hire head coaches, you'd have to design logos, you'd
have to reveal all of this stuff, you'd have to have an expansion draft,
all of this stuff in less than a year's time. And now we're
talking again about fitting all of this stuff into a very short compacted time period,
which, as we know, has bit in the UFL slash XFL slash
USFL in the butt before. So it doesn't seem like it's in the cards
for season two. I don't think it should be in the cards for season
two. But if we have a successful season two, let's start talking about
it for season three. Man, Greg is coming in fire. I appreciate
it. Ready to go here, All right, let's do it. Let's
go around the horn. We will not TALC expansion yet. You know,
I just took advil this morning to heal my headache and now already have one
back up because we're talking expansion. So thanks, great, appreciate it.
Look, I agree with Greg, like we need I know, expansion is
such a fun topic to have, but we have got to stop talking about
it, like the league has to be profitable. We need to see success,
we need to see growth. You're in a year out before we even
consider it. Yeah, I think twenty twenty six of the earliest they should
think about expansion. But I mean, where are you gonna go? Like,
it just seems like they're just gonna go with their the assets that they
have. So where do you go? You go to Oklahoma and bring back
the laws to you bring back the teams that you had in the past.
I know they're very big on Ohio, Like where I don't. I don't
know what the next direction is gonna be. I assume they're just gonna go
with former USFL teams and start with those first and maybe go back to go
to New Orleans or something like that. I know there's been a big push
on that. Like for me, like I hate expansion. It's just like,
what's the point in talking about it. Let's let's try to make it
work with the eighteens we got now, because we've had so many leagues fail
and we saw this with the USFL back in the eighties when they expanded so
quickly and it fell apart so badly that everyone went bankrupt and they lost a
ton of money out of it. So yeah, let's stick with the eight
teams. Let's make it work at the markets first, Like, let's make
it work. Houston needs a lot of work, Memphis needs a lot of
work, Michigan needs a lot of work. Even Arlington needs a lot of
You got to markets, those four you need to have every one of your
teams averaging at least ten thousand fans a game next year, or otherwise you
may have to consider red occasion for those other teams, and you may need
to before you can. I just I don't think we should talk expansion first.
I think the first conversation needs to be do we need to relocate teams
after next year. I'm fine with everyone's staying, but you know, if
we got to figure out if these markets are gonna work or not. If
they're not gonna work next year, let's get them in the right market average
to ten thousand fans a game, and then let's bring on two more teams,
Andy Thollos, and then I'll hop in here. It's the E word,
as I like to call it now, and it has been for some
time. Look, people love talking about this in all leagues and all sports
because everyone wants to have a team. But as Anthony talked about, the
reality is, that's just not in the cards for this sleep right now,
because they need to figure out what they're doing with their markets right now.
You're telling me that you would be comfortable with expanding when you have two teams
Memphis and Houston, who combined individually combines, their attendance was outdrawn by the
BattleHawks in the first game of their season. Completely. That means you have
a lot of work to do. I cannot in good conscious recommend that they
expand right now until they figure that out first. And look, if you
want to take risks, that's fine. The XFL was going to move from
Las Vegas. That is well documented. They were going to move from Las
Pigs. If they tried it failed. It didn't work for a litany of
reasons. But there's no reason to think that this is going to really happen.
There's going to be real location before there's going to be expansion, because
the markets need to work first. There needs to be foundations in place if
you're not going to have individual owners that at least have successful teams and attendance
first, this has to be a baby steps process. As far as the
teams be successful, as far as the marketing goes, we obviously want to
see more done. But as far as just being successful and not expecting to
have thirty teams, that's just a pipe dream and it has to be approached.
Typically, if they're even thinking about even thinking about putting another team in
another market and adding to the ones they have. We got Mike Mitchell here
logging in here. We'll get to him in a few minutes. Appreciate that,
we'll get Mica. Send him a private note here, Greg, And
then I got a question for you, Greg. This is a good one.
Yeah, I agree with you where we don't want to have this every
year we've had a truncated timeline. You know, we dealt with the Vegas
thing, and we dealt with this year and okay, Michigan can sell things
in time. And now we're even talking there. I mean, they're complaining
even about the championship game. And we should have had the buy week and
then last year we wanted to buy. We didn't want to buy week,
like there's always all this kind of time, and said, but I agree
with that, Like you need to be moving on this, like you know
next week or the week, you know, in the next couple of weeks.
You got to have these announcements to move on because you can't just sit
idle all summer and then come around to that. Uh. Jack's got a
question here, and this this is this, This might be the title next
week if if Greg there, Mike and I do our post game. What
is the UFL's end game. I know the AF wanted to compete with the
NFL, but the UFL wants to be like Greg, what is the UFL's
end game. You know, based on everything that ownership has talked about,
they want to kind of be in their own ecosystem. You know, I
don't think it's necessarily a competition with the NFL. It's a competition with any
sport and any entertainment entity. But really it's you know, providing a place
for these players to play that don't make it to the NFL. But also,
you know, making money. Obviously, you know, how are they
going to make money? That's a good question. Is it selling the franchises?
Is it selling broadcast fees, which you would think would be very difficult
now because Fox and ABC, Slash ESPN both have an ownership stake. So
the idea when Vince McMahon first relaunched it in twenty twenty was to get a
piece of that broadcast pie where everybody, all these networks and all these cable
stations saw that sports programming was the golden goose and they were going to pay
billions of dollars. Vince saw that his own company WWE was getting a piece
of that, and you know, that was kind of his endgame. He
wanted to cash in on the rights fees bonanza that was going on. It's
still going on for the larger organizations your NBA's, your NHL's, your nfls.
We haven't really seen that trickle down to some of the lower levels that
the UFL would be considered yet, But the fact that Fox owns it means
okay, you know, are they going to sell games to a third party
broadcast to kind of cash in on that. So I'm not as sure of
the end game of the UFL today as I was when the XFL first relaunched,
Which takes me back to is it just selling franchises? Is it trying
to make tens of millions of dollars selling these franchises and expanding the market for
the UFL. You know, That's that's what I see right now. Let's
pop around here. I had to comment this out of my head now because
I was making for the greg I endgame here, because like, that's it
was it? Because it's been mixed, because you have Luz saying like on
our show, like well, we don't want it to be a development of
league, and then we talk about the players wanted to develop. You talk
about, like it said, the sports. I don't see anyone in the
world. It's say, for Saint Louis, you're the CFL fans want now
to be a franchise. I don't see anyone paying money for any of these
teams. But what's your thoughts? Yeah, I don't know what the end
game is. I think right now is survival. Just live every year.
Like if they can get through a whole season, I think it's a massive
win. But yeah, in terms of endgame, I have no idea,
Like how much does this league want to expand? Like I feel like they're
so focused more on being a TV product versus like a live sports product.
You know that that's the difference between them and like the n b A and
you know, NHL, like the leagues they have to compete within the off
season. Is they want to be a TV product. That's just the most
important thing. They want to be innovative. They want to you know,
add in different camera angles. They want to put cameras on rests and players
and give you know, the viewers a different the drone. We Yeah,
that's so loud, you can't hear anything else. But they want to have
that innovation because they the reality is they know they're not going to get the
attendance number that these other sports are going to get. So you know,
if you're going to draw people that are at home, all right, let's
make it a great experience for them, so that you know, maybe maybe
it draws fans away from going to the stadium, maybe becomes a TV product
thing. Like you look at the Fan Control Football League, like that's a
that's a TV product in itself, Like they play one place where in Atlanta,
Georgia. But it looks but it's it's a lot of fun to watch
on TV. I'm not gonna lie, it's not great football, but it's
like arena football. But it's still a lot of fun to watch. And
I feel like if that's the way the UFL wants to go about it.
And I've always said, like the Premiere Lacrosse League they do the touring system,
Like I really think the league should have done that in the first place,
Like they're not interested in, you know, getting higher attendants and stuff
like that, then just go on just tour around the country and play these
teams everywhere because premire lacross league they can do. You know, it looks
good on TV. It's not a big audience. It's obviously they only maybe
do two three thousand fans in the seats, but at least it looks good
on TV, not compared to like watching a Houston and mephis home game where
nobody shows up to it. So, but I don't know what the end
game is for this league at the end of the day. I think they
just want to survive. And maybe it's a tax ride off for Fox.
I don't know, but I think they just want to survive right now.
And it makes me think about a Greg guy tat survive If I like you,
I yeah, let's get Andy o Toss Patrick guy, Greg, and
then we'll bring up Mike here, you know, endgame here kind of that
process. Well, first of all, I just I want to see this
league celebrate its accomplishments a little bit more. And I think that's one of
the things that these leagues don't do enough of. Go back to Anthony's point
about I FCS and we actually talked about with you this with you guys last
night. If the CF is like still around, I know they kind of
still are, but they haven't had a season right in the last year they
In my opinion, if I was running that league, I would be trumpeting
from the top of the mountains about Quantes stickers. That guy started playing in
their league, had never played football before organized professional football or high school or
anything, goes into their league, starts playing, goes to the CFL,
and gets drafted by the Jets. Are you kidding me? That's such an
incredible story. I would be trumpeting that from the first moments that he got
any sort of NFL attention. And I really want these leagues to continue to
celebrating themselves in their accomplishments. I think that's one of the biggest things as
far as the end I mean, I think one of the things we keep
tossing around is the MLS model, right, being able to build your assets,
be able to slowly but surely get more teams across the nation, and
then as notoriety is built, being able to sell them off for franchise fees
or be able to have entry fees. I mean San Diego, I know
I talked about my city too much. San Diego is about to get an
MLS team next year. It costs four hundred million dollars for Muhammad mens Or
to start that team. I mean, that is an incredible right speech to
be able to just start a soccer team in that part of the United States
or anywhere. And so that has been built through years and years and years
of slow build up from the MLS. You can just debate about, you
know, the competition level. I know I have a lot of people I
talk to, especially people watch you know, European soccer soccer across the world
and say, well, it's not good enough, or you know, all
the retired players go there. But you know what, the fact of the
matter is they make money at their making moves. I mean lean and ls
Mennessey is playing in Miami. You know, I don't think that could have
happened ten years ago. Now it's a reality. Those are the kinds of
things that you have to think about the league like this, and you have
to have that slow build up. So if you go if you want to
go to that model, I think that's that's notable. That's fine, but
I don't know if that's their plan. That's the thing. I think that
should be their plan, at least part of the plan. I don't know
if that's what their end goal is. It really just again just seems like
it's flat lacking. You got to have you got to have patients, and
you got to have a willingness to spend a lot of money for a long
time to reach that point. I mean, think about how long the MLS
has been around before they were able to turn that stuff into profits. So
that remains to be seen how willing Fox and Redbird are to continue to split
the costs of a pro football league, whether it's eight franchises or ten or
whatever the case may be. Greg, anything else you want to plug and
I'm sure you're going to have your post stuff coming out is Mark Here?
Is Mark covering for board. Anything else you want to talk about before we
get you out, We'll bring my gun. Yeah. Ufl board editor Mark
Nelson is in Saint Louis, so he's got some coverage on social media and
on ufl board dot com. I tweeted out at Greg m parks a couple
of my preview articles that I posted this week leading up to the game,
and I'll have some thoughts certainly after the game next week as well. And
then we kind of turned the page to the off season, and this is
the interesting time of the year for me where we start looking ahead to the
draft and other player acquisition processes through the off season. So I'll have a
lot about that and looking back on last year's rookie draft for the XFL.
I'll have some articles looking at the upcoming summer showcases that the UFL will be
holding. So a lot of interesting stuff still coming up in the off season.
So you know, the NFL, they don't have much of an off
season, and I like to think I don't have much of an off season
for the UFL in terms of coverage either, So you can stay tuned at
UFL board dot com for that. Well, Greg, I appreciate it.
As always. I was checking out out a lot of cmpunk here with Drew.
There's a lot I like that. It was hot w I don't know
if I ever wanted to see that Drew McIntyre cmpunk match, but exciting that
they're they're working hard to make you want to see it. Read that's what
That's what you can say. They really are. It's like, Okay,
I've seen this now for a year. I really want to see this.
Greg, I appreciate it. Chris sta apologist. There we go. We
appreciate it. Awesome. Thanks Greg. We will bring in the UFL insider
here our own Mike Mitchell. Mike, I think we're gonna schedule. Willing
God will, We'll figure out a time to do kind of a mid postseason
highly recap here this week. Like to subscribe for that, Mike. Is
the uf L to focus on being the TV product that's such a multi layered
like, it's really gonna take It's gonna take a long time to get into
that. I'll say no. I'll say they want they want to get to
the point where they're have revenue streams in every aspect of the league. We'll
probably talk about it as the after the championship game. But I have to
wonder sometimes how committed Redbird is to this long term there kind of their kind
of deal with me is. I feel like they're used to getting into something
and then getting out and maximizing their investment. And I think this merger happened
because they didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think
Fox was having that same kind of viewpoint and they wanted to see if they
can hit a home run with this thing. So I think I've said this
a million different places. Your show included, podcasts included I think this bought
this entity two more years and then we'll see what they for Fox. I
get it right. Instead of paying a rights fee for a league, you
control costs. You don't have to pay a rights fee. You own the
league. You get to pocket whatever you pocket so and so. And you
know, the ratings are respectable. They're on par or better than a lot
of these other leagues that are you know, that have been around for a
while. So and that's not an easy thing to do. So whether or
not they can grow, they've developed a nice floor. Whether or not there
is a ceiling. It makes me wonder whether or not read a bird sees
that ceiling. And well, you know, I'm not saying this is going
to happen in this offseason. What if all of a sudden we get news
alert that they've kind of gracefully bowed out. I'm not saying that's coming,
but you know, it's just something to think of down the line. So
endgame. I heard you guys talking about it. Tough act to follow with
Greg Parks on here, you always does a tremendous job. They want to
become. They want to be a standalone league MLS esque and have that type
of success. Whether or not they can get there, it remains to be
seen. I got to come and if you guys have questions for Greg or
right, excuse me for Mike, let me know too many. It's also
hard with like the Anthony and Andy. It's really just hard for my life
here all that stuff. Mike. That's what I and I was saying before
you got on here, Like I'm not nearly obviously as like into all this
as you are, with the weeds and all that stuff. You would have
liked sitting with the bar with us last night a lot of different kind of
like looking at the different xflex or ufl exachs kind of really just tremendous people
watching for about an hour there. We got back and had the night cap
at the hotel. But like, I would not be surprised in the next
six months there's an article like, uh you Redbird, uh sells off you
know, UFL steake to Fox or whatever, like is that I I don't
know over under, I mean, is that close to you? Would that
be something that could happen in the next six months? You gotta wonder.
You gotta wonder with them, like when do they get out? They usually
get out, Like I'm not saying they're getting out of Liverpool and all that
stuff, but a lot of these things they do, a lot of these
investments they make, they have you know, they're thinking about long term gains
and then selling it off, right, and that's you know there they get
people to invest. And so I think that's the endgame goal for the UFL
is to eventually get to the point where the property is so hot that they
can sell it off like MLS franchises and all that. But that takes a
lot of time. Pro football is very expensive. You need a lot of
patience to pull that off. So I'm not saying, you know, it's
just something I thought of when you guys were talking about endgame, you know,
wondering about what Redbird's endgame is. We look at Fox. Fox has
been a constant in this space, right, so you know, if you
look at like, you know, the twenty twenty with the XFL, twenty
twenty one TSL and then of course the USFL onto the UFL, they seem
pretty invested in this thing. Now. Now of course they're gonna we just
saw what they did. You know, I wrote about this SI everybody knows
about it. They kind of the UFL took a back seat, opened up
the door, took one for the team, for lack of a better term,
to create an opening there for the IndyCar series, their IndyCar jump ship
from NBC to Fox because they have all those nice broadcast windows. How did
those broadcast windows become available? UFL was moved to Friday nights, So it
doesn't speak to me as a commitment of that any thoughts, questions anything we're
testing into here. I mean, so I guess Mike Mike follow up would
be, what was the point of Redwork getting into it in the first place?
I mean, do they actually think they're gonna be able to sell like
their portion of the league off more than what they got at the beginning.
I mean, I just don't feel like this league is making the type of
revenue that would, you know, make it enough for record and be like,
oh, we're gonna sell it off and make more money off of it.
I think they saw the success of the xf fell in twenty twenty,
the Danny Garcia Dwayne Johnson element, they thought, you know, this could
be a home run. I mean, so many people over the years I've
been following these leagues my whole life. They see the potential of what a
pro football league in the NFL offseason, how popular could potentially be, And
so you know, they're they're used to betting on winners, so like they
bet on the Yankees and all this stuff and the Liverpool, all these things
are winners. These entities are winners. These are championship models with leagues like
the UFL. Let's face it, like these are not. We don't know
that these are forever leagues. We don't know if these are four year leagues
with the like MLB, NHL, NFL, those are forever leaks. Still
they'll be They're gonna be around forever. So we don't know that about this
league. So, I mean, this is a long conversation. Like I
said, there's so many different layers to this thing. I'd rather talk about
the championship game. Boy, We'll again, we'll do that before you We'll
do that. But I hear you, but I hear you, guys.
This is definitely this is something I thought I'd be delving in with read next
week. But as when the smoke clears, because there's gonna be league meetings
after all this, after the smoke clears from the championship game, and they're
going to reassess and then look at what they're you know, they have a
two year plan in place, they got government approval. They're supposed to implement
a lot of the things that they want that because they have more time now.
So let's see, you know, Danny Garcia talking about having a more
strategic schedule next year, and we'll see how they implement it, what they
do when the schedule is. There's a lot of questions for after the season,
which is you know, I guess around eight pm tonight, maybe eight
thirty ish Eastern time. I got one more question for Michael, what you
talk about the game here? Let's get Andy here real quick. Pat saying
DJ and Danny have to do more. I'm kind of underwhelmed by that.
All this season. I just don't know how much their involvement has been here,
to be honest, so we've barely seeing Dwayne or Dandy involved with this
really. I know they've been co owners, but a lot of people have
pointed this out this year, and I feel the same way. This felt
like an acquisition not a merger. I mean, this is really a Fox
product, and even though ESPN is involved, even though ABC is involved,
it's from the outside it really has felt like it's Fox's product. So for
Danny Dwayne, I don't know what they're skinning the game of this either.
I mean Dwayne obviously put out a tweet yesterday about how the game's coming.
I don't know if he's actually like where's he gonna be watching it from.
I don't know, like it is gym somewhere and Honolulu. I have no
idea. But there's there's so many mitigating factors here, like how much,
like you said, how much steak is there really in this league? How
much can they really sell off? How much like equity is built into this
league, especially when it's changed hands so many different times. I mean,
that's that's not really a thing that you can really trace most of the time.
And I mean it's not a publicly traded entity. It's not a stock
market nothing like that, so it's kind of hard to really trace that through.
So for me, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Redbird just
decided to pack up and sail off after this year, because I just I
don't know. Again, we talked about what's the long term plan here,
and if we're not sure what the long term plan is, I don't know
what Fox is thinking either. I don't know if Redbird the seats it that
way too. So for me it is it is a bit strange, and
I just I don't know. It might have just been a weird two year
experiment for Redburd overall. Mike, I got a follow up for you,
and then I'll promise them we'll talk game. Here goes because I'll do it.
I'm gonna do a follow up and I'm going to follow that up with
a game question. We see a lot even in the comments here, Okay,
they want to do the MLS thing. They want to do the MLS
thing, and like, okay, they're they're drawing more if you look at
hockey or you look at this or the WNBA, like I remember having been
fisher on last year talking with the USFL, like, you know this isn't
the same to it quate because you know you have even if a soccer game,
you know you're you're out drawing. You know, there's more of those
games. The fans are more invested monetarily wise, right, they've had season
tickets for twenty years, or buying merch there's all these other intangibles when it
comes to something that But like, how how do you view that with the
UFL, with the teams in terms of like, yeah, I mean they
rank better than some soccer games and they rank better than whatever, but that
doesn't mean that they're equal in value by any means. No, it takes
time. You know, none of these none of these leagues were home runs.
Even the NFL wasn't a home run in the early going, So there
was struggles there. They was talking about canceling the Super Bowl like it was
like like in the early stages of it, it was like one conference's one
side, the NFL strong, the AFL is kind of a gimmicky league.
This is just like an exhibition game. The early stages in the media,
they were talking about it just being like some crazy exhibition gimmick game. And
now here we are. So it takes time. With all these leagues,
MLS, all of them, I think they have a nice respectable floor in
terms of ratings. Fox has cut out the middleman. Fox and Disney.
This is like a modest investment for them and they're you know, they're not
going crazy with spending obviously, and so you know it's that's that's why Fox
has been into this since still twenty twenty with the XFL. It's not it's
low cost. The question has always been with these leagues, with these entities,
with the people who run these leagues, is whether or not they want
to take the risk and take the chance if you see the possibility that hey,
we might close up shop here in a year or two. Uh,
time to swing for the fences, right, that's my take on it,
Like if because if I think, like I said, this merger was done
to buy the league more time to see if the product and the viability of
it can grow. And uh, I think it's a very good product.
It's just a question of whether or not it catches on with the mainstream.
That's kind of like the issue right now. They they to get sponsors to
get more people into the league. So you have to prove your worth over
time. It takes time. Okay, Mike, here we go. You
got two minutes. Let's talk the game. Birmingham Brahmas. You know we
don't we see we talk game before you come up. And I want to
make sure you get to talk about so talk about the game. What do
you think here? Oh? I obviously I think the Stallion is gonna win
today. Anthony did a very good job of writing a preview before the season.
I predicted the Stallions would would win the championship. This would be their
third straight. Obviously the first pro football team outdoor, uh that would be
would have accomplished that, winning three straight championships. Maybe the Chiefs Stewart in
the NFL next year, but we haven't seen it since the Eskimos. Maybe
I get in trouble for saying that, and the Packers in the sixties.
So it's a fascinating rematch the way these two teams stack up against one another.
It also could be the swan song for Wade Phillips. The crazy thing
about Wade Phillips and San Antonio Bramas is Wade Phillips was not supposed to be
a part of this league. If it wasn't for heinz Ward balking and not
signing the new seasonal contract paperwork for coaches, Wade Phillips would have been at
home right now like eten cheetos or whatever he does in his spare time.
So This could be the end of the run for Wade. You know,
like there's no guarantee that even if he comes back next year, that he's
going to get to another championship. I think it's pretty cool that this is
his first time ever in fifty five years of coaching leading a team to a
title game, so as a head coach. So I think there are a
lot of very cool storylines Tonight's championship. I think it's going to be a
very good I think these are the two best teams. I think San Antonio
overall was better in Saint Louis. I know a lot of people favored Saint
Louis to win last week, but how could you with the way Aj mcchaeron's
like hobbling around on one leg. The Brahmas is pretty awesome story. They're
not really the BrahMos from last year. They had over forty new players.
They benefited a lot from the merger. They adopted a lot of Houston Roughnecks
from last year's seven win team, and they got a bunch of NFL draft
picks on their team. Recent NFL draft picks Anthony McFarland, Marquis Stevenson,
et cetera. So I think these are the in fact, the two best
teams in the league, and I think we're gonna have a back of a
game. But I favored Birmingham doing something that no outdoor pro football team has
done in over four decades. I got one quick follow up for Mike and
then we'll bring on Evan. I got a follow up for Evan about Wade,
so that would be a good transition here. Darren wants to know real
quick, do you think they go back to the XFL kickoff next year?
We talked a lot about that member during the preseason show. The thoughts on
that here as we get out of the season. I think it's gonna be
fun to watch what happens in the NFL. Like some people are not taking
into account that it could be a disaster. Like I'm not saying the XFL
kickoff is a dis but the way the NFL teams approach it, how it's
implemented. Remember, they only have a one year buy in basically in the
NFL, So if for whatever reason, I know they've tweaked it to kind
of like fit whatever they think will be best enhance the kickoff. The UFL's
leadership is very you know, with moose on top, I think they want
to stick with the current kickoff. So it was funny up until Chris Rowland
the final game weekend of the season, we didn't have any kickoff returns for
a touchdowns, although we've had a lot of great field position because of the
way the kick is designed. I don't know. I don't have the injury
data in front of me. If it's a smashing success in the NFL,
the XFL kickoff, I think the UFL will have no choice but to consider
using it. If, for whatever reason, the NFL is not enamorated at
the end of the season, it's like, let's do something else here.
All options are on the table. The XFL kickoff would have to take off
it has in the ELF and other places. It would have to take off
in the NFL and be a success for the UFL's going to be forced to
implement the same exact kickoff, which is a little bit different than the XFL
kickoff that Sam Schwarztein and his team designed last coming here, all, Aron
Hassel, they might as well fold this season, how y'all. I'm talking
honestly. I thought we've been pretty positive today. I mean, he all
around. He's a I mean, I thought we've been I don't think we've
been that bad. Am I get anything else, We'll bring on Evan.
Hear anything else from you. No, it's basically it. Thank you very
much for having me on. You guys have done a great job. Shout
out to Anthony there. Oh one thing I meant. I wanted to shout
out this guy because there's so many super fans out there. Ken Gill,
he's out there. Yeah, last night we were Yeah, shout out to
him like he's funny, like you see him all over X. I guess
you don't call it Twitter anymore, but he's always plugging the UFL stuff,
the championship game. I don't care. If it's like a thread on X
about salad, he'll put in a reply there that's about the UFL Championship game.
So there's so many super fans out there, Like who are in Saint
Louis right now? I appreciate all you guys because I love this concept and
I wanted to stick around forever and I think it's a quality and it should
it's great for the football landscape. So excited about today's game. And thanks
again for having me on. Well, we appreciate it. Like I said,
let's get you know, Mike, we'll try to recap this week.
I like it. Subscribe if you want to hear from more from Mike our
ufl insight here. So I appreciate it, Mike, thank you, and
I appreciate Megan time today because I know it's busy. Hope you guys have
a good Father's Day. Thank you. Happy father to Day to you guys.
All right, let's bring on here. Evan Wills Moore, evan last
guest today. We had Evan for our kickoff show. A couple questions.
First off, how does it feel seeing the Brahmas basically the Roughnecks more or
less kind of in the championship game today as someone that covered the team last
year. Yeah, it's great, you know, really happy for Wade Phillips,
Mark Bludbridge, AJ Smith, all the players that were carried over from
Houston. But it's bittersweet overall because you look at what happened to Houston and
that market and they had the worst team in the league this year, So
I feel bad for those fans. Again, I'm happy for, you know,
everybody that was directly involved with the Roughnecks last year who carried over into
San Antonio. But you know it's tough. You got to think about the
people in Houston who were you know, stripped of that success this year.
So mixed feelings, but I'm excited to, you know, see the product
tomorrow. You know what they put together on both sides of the ball.
And I think it's safe to say that, you know, Wade Phillips absolutely
deserves to be in this position. You know, he's been I guess a
championship winning coach before, not as a head coach obviously, but you know
his time with the Broncos and with the Rams as well, So you know,
again, really happy for him, and you know, we'll see how
it plays out. Well, yeah, that's my fall up, and then
we'll go around here. What does that do to the wades legacy? I
thought it was cool that they really kind of celebrated that him being here as
his first What what do you think that does for his legacy? Evan?
Then then we'll go around Yeah, I mean I think you know, it
does a lot for his legacy. The guy is I think he's seventy six
now, and like this is really his first chance at being a head coach,
which I believe, or well, I might have to double check that
because he's been in so many places. But the idea is, you know,
he's going to a pro football championship at seventy six years old, and
it's his first time doing so as a head coach. Like I said,
all the other places where he's done it, he's been an assistant defensive coordinator,
whatever. You know, I think it does a lot for his legacy.
You know, I remember when they first announced that Way Phillips will be
a coach in this league, which was like two years ago, you know,
for the XFL, and that was easily the biggest name you know that
they could have brought on board. I think, you know, for the
coaching, for all the coaches that they had rather and you know, if
he wins this, I think it does a lot. You know, it's
it's not going to feel maybe tremendous because again, he has so much experience
and he's like been in the super Bowl type of position before at the NFL
level, but you know, he wins this one, it's it's it's maybe
a nice sendoff because it's seventy six years old. Again, I'm assuming he's
seventy six, I think, is what I read. Assuming he's seventy six,
that's pretty old, you know, to be a head coach. And
if I were in his position, you know, maybe win the championship and
right off into the sunset and retire. I know he seems to love doing
this, you know, and all my interactions with him have been positive,
even if they've been you know, a few and far between, even when
I was in Houston. But no, it does a lot. Absolutely the
same question for you, guys. I mean I enjoy it, like you
should celebrate this, You should hear this, like Mike's talking like, Hey,
Birmingham wins are the first after of football, you know, team like
I like feeling that you make yourself part of the zeitguys, in all these
other leagues, what do you think this does for Wait? Yeah, I
think it's going to do the same thing in different Bob Stoops when he won
the championship last year for Arlington, I mean you look at stoops his first
two seasons in the regular season with with the with the Renne Gains, he
went two and three. In twenty twenty he went for and six and twenty
twenty three and I don't know if a lot of people really believe that he
could be a professional head coach, and then he went in and made that
incredible postseason run to win the championship last year. I think it's going to
do the same thing for Wade Phillips they gets go into it. He's already
done a tremendous amount since being in this league, going seven and three last
year, taking hugheston the playoffs. He went seven and three again this year
at this time he was able to get to the championship game. So I
think in terms of what he's done legacy wise, Like I know, at
the end of the day, like the UFL is not gonna be on the
same level as the NFL, so people may not think it's like a big
deal, but the impact that way Phillips is gonna have all these players,
I mean, how many of these players are gonna get onto NFL rosters during
training camp? Like I think a lot of people are looking at the San
Antonio BrahMos, especially on defense, and they have some really good skilled players
on offense. And I think Ken gets signed by the NFL and start going
into training camp if he ends up and you know, I went to well,
I was listening to one of his press conferences this week. It sounds
like he wants to keep coaching, Like if he has the opportunity to,
he's gonna say he's gonna keep coaching. So I think for the legacy that
he's starting to build right now is that he can develop guys to get into
the NFL, which I know the league doesn't want to push on, but
I think that's a big, big deal for our players that maybe were on
the fence, that come out of college and maybe they didn't get drafted or
you know former veteran NFL players who get kicked out, they lose their job
in the league. And you know, if they want to look at a
team to play for it, they want to play under Way Philips because he
knows he can develop them and get him ready for the NFL. We'll go
to Andy here, any class questions, We're going to be done here at
the top of the hour, Get ready and well we're all we're gonna Andy,
I got to get to the media, but well, you got to
be there. You have real work to do. I just said on my
phone and tweet funny step during the game. But Andy that walk over there,
Andy's gets to meet our giveaway guest today. You got it. I
don't know John. I think it's John his wife or John his son,
but yeah, he's excited for that. Anyway, any last questions here to
make sure you comment, because then we'll get out of here and you have
that's on this because that's actually really good kind of him developing and getting known
for that. Let's get more of those coaches and then what do you think
about way than anything else? I mean, what better way for Wade to
really honor not only his legacy but his father's legacy and win on Father's Day.
The late great bum Phillips obviously a renowned figure in the state of Texas
with the Houston Oilers that franchise. Those fans just absolutely loved his father.
A lot of people love Wade. I mean, that would be just an
tremendous storyline for him if he was able to win on Father's Day and get
his real first championship for him and his father. His father not able to
bring that to Houston, but was, just like I said, a beloved
figure. I think that would be immense I mean, Wade is seventy six
years young. You know, he loves doing this. I still can recall
in my youth watching him coach the defense for the San Diego Chargers, being
able to just bring ferocity on defense and just really making the careers of guys
like Sean Marram and Sean Phillips and just outstanding players on that defense. I
always remember Wade. He his accomplishments are few and far between them, There's
so many of them, there's just such a wide breadth of them. And
yet I just wonder if that's going to come to Fruition today for his sake.
I mean, that would be absolutely wonderful. I did want to turn
over to Evan really quick. There's a quick question, Evan. Obviously you
spent an extensive amount of time with the Houston rough Knicks last year. A
lot of this coaching staff, some of these players. I know you haven't
been around them obviously as much this year, but you since there's a difference
in mentality with this coaching staff and this team than last year, because obviously
the end of the season not in the greatest way. I know you were
standing next to Anthony when the shocking upset of the at the hands of the
Arlington Redkins hapened. Do you feel like there's a different sense with this team
this year? You mean the Roughnecks with the Well, with the the Broms.
Okay, yeah, the Artist, the Artist formerly known as the rough
Necks, right right. I mean I feel like it's a bit different just
because, again, you know, and it's been brought up a couple of
times. While there are some key pieces from the Roughnecks team last year,
it's still a pretty different team. And again I give a lot of credit
to Mark lily Bridge. You know, Mike was talking about how they had
like forty new players or something, and just to be in the position where
you have an opportunity to now win the championship with so much turnover and you
know, different faces, you know, whether they're you know, considered to
be maybe better highly qualified than the previous people. You know, it's really
just an incredible effort. So is there a different vibe around it? A
little bit? I'd say, you know, like I went to a game
in San Antonio, and you know, I felt like maybe the culture down
there was a bit different, the way that they kind of sell themselves.
It's still a Texas team, you know, and I think that's good for
a guy like Wade Phillips, and that was especially important when he was in
Houston, you know, with the lineage there with his father, and it
just made a lot of sense. San Antonio. Again, it's a bit
different. They've incorporated some other elements, in particular a Latin American element that
I felt very strongly when I was there. So again, that's obviously a
bit different than Houston. But the idea is, you know, it's still
Texas, and you know, they still have a lot of guys there that
you know, seem to have pretty deep roots within the state. So that's
probably the best way I can put it. You know, it's kind of
hard to gauge just because again there is so many different faces. But when
I was there, you know, I did talk to everybody that had been
in Houston, and that did feel very familiar. A couple of comments here,
and then we'll go around the horror, we'll get final predictions, we'll
get out my I'm not ready to use the facilities here as we get done
here today. Abdul says, if the championship game gets two million viewers,
I need you teach. That's fine. I have no problem to be like
yeah, I'll do two shots of Temuna. Robert here says today is to
day I celebrate the UFL. I think he's mad, as he says here,
if you guys are so smart, why are you not working for the
league? I thought about that last spring with my because I do primarily weddings
during the summer at that time. Man, I really actually could take like
a couple of months to go to Texas. A lot of corporate stuff right
now for me, and honestly, like the league can't afford me that.
I don't want to be rude about it, but that's kind of where I'm
at. But I didn't think about that last year when our wedding business completely
took at Tank in the off season, Like, hey, I could I
could go live in Texas for a couple of months, Like that would be
fun. But uh, Evan, let's get final predictions here. We'll go
around state your claim here, Bravas and Stallions. Yeah, I'm gonna take
the Stallions in this game. I'm gonna be cheering really hard for San Antonio
and boy, if they win, I'm gonna be so happy, you know,
because again of how many people I know on that staff and it's gonna
be incredible. But I really have a gut feeling that Birmingham is going to
be a three time champ, which I think Mike was saying hasn't been done
in four decades in pro football. You know, they're just so complete,
and I know they've struggled, and I know the last playoff game against Michigan,
maybe there were a few concerns, you know, Martinez had to be
benched and Coral came in, and we'll see how everything plays out today.
But they just, you know, they have so many weapons, and Skip
Holtz just comes across as a guy that really knows what he's doing. And
I think that they're in a really good position. But I'm picking them more
than anything because san Antonio has already beat him, and I wonder if you
know, Birmingham is going to roll out a completely different game plan, and
I think san Antonio was maybe more capable of, you know, pulling out
some more interesting cards, like we've seen what aj Smith can do on the
offensive side of the football and how you know, again creative he is.
So I do think that, you know, maybe the promise can produce some
more exciting plays. But I feel like Birmingham just they have too much,
you know, And I'm gonna take them to win this skime Anthony Andy and
then we'll get o there. Yeah, I'm going to take the Stallions too.
I had him in my prediction article at twenty six twenty four. Look,
I think san Antonio, like Evan said, like san Antonio is very
capable of coming up a big place. And I think they're going to have
a couple of really big plays today. But I think overall it look,
Birmingham knows how to win, Like, they just have a winning mentality.
They've They've only lost four games of three years for a reason. This is
a very disciplined team. They protect the football well, They're very smart with
what they do. I think, you know, skip Holtz knows exactly when
to lead with Adria Martinez versus growing him mat Correll Like, he's very smart,
He's very strategic. He knows his players better than they know themselves.
So I think at the end of the day, it all comes down to
coaching. I think Wade is a great coach and nothing against that coaching staff,
but I think skip Holtz just he knows exactly what it takes to win.
In spring full baughn I trust him a little bit more, and I
trust this team a little bit more. Especially, I think the big,
big thing we have been talking about is San Antonio's offensive line versus Birmingham's defensive
line. And I think Martingham's defensive line with Carl Davis and Tackle Charlton are
so good, and I think they're gonna be able to get pressure on Chase
Garber's and that Brahma's offense. So I like the best Stallions to win.
Andy Frio in the words of Pitball Clemmons, who said on your show two
years ago at the Great Cup, when no one gave the Argos a chance,
he said, it's going to take a miracle. But I believe in
miracles, and I believe in the Bramas. I am taking the Brahmas to
win this game. Their defense, I think, is going to play out
of their minds. I believe in their system. They've played with the chip
on their shoulder this entire year. I think they're ready to do it one
more time. Listen, this entire hotel might chase me out into the stream
out of town. But if that's how it's going to be, so be
it. I believe the Proms are gonna win. I take them to win
twenty two to seventeen. My MVP is Chase Garber's dependsive MVP. I think
it is going to be DeVante Beckett and my last Bowl prediction johns Drey Kirkland
throws a touchdown pass. I like it. I said, we were who
is I with last year? Evan, Jason. We were at the Great
Cup when Cody Pujardo led the Montreal Outlets down the field beat the Winnipeg Blue
Bombers. I've seen miracles happen. I agree with. I agree. I
said I'll buy a Promise Jersey if they win. I will be excited for
that. Evan, I appreciate it and taking time, Evan assist directroploy personnel
over with the Vegas Nighthawks. We appreciate that. Everybody for coming on.
Like it, Subscribe, join the channel, give a thumbs up. If
nothing else doesn't cost anything. We will be back. Jason and I are
going to be back Tuesday to do our CFL recap. Andy and I will
figure out when the heck. Andy and I will do a recap at some
point this week. Back of town, and I think Mike and I are
going to do a full deep dive at some point, probably Thursday, for
the Friday episode. I know Anthony is gonna have a lot of stuff out
on Sports Illustrated, check out Greg's stuff on ufl board. Anything else I
forgot anything, all right, appreciate it, guys, Thanks Evan. Appreciate
Anthony and Andy being here the whole time. Thanks everyone for watching. We're
gonna head over to the game and we'll see you next time. Thanks as
I do this and