Well, good morning, Happy Tuesday. Welcome everyone to the Mark ash Here
USFL live playoff recaps, and then we'll also be doing the championship preview game
note. Our Friday show this week is going to be a live show.
I've got John Vogel coming, I think Pat Evan and coach Craig Sports.
We're trying to figure out the time, but that will be on the YouTube
channel Live Friday full preview for the USFL Championship weekend. We'll be doing that
in place of the normal Friday show on that. Checking in today with Pat
Here. Pat, there's a lot of nonsense going on in the world right
now. How are you doing? Oh man, I'm stop. Unfortunately in
my industry, I gotta deal with about it less than a tenth of it,
and it's a little bit too much for me. So lots of things
going on. We're going to do a quick note here. Normally we get
a lot of questions about the USFLTV radians quick and we're gonna pour one out
for our dead homies today on here show. Buzz Daily just posting this morning
Mitch over there that they're shutting the site down, kind of noting you can
read the article, but noting just kind of the manusha that goes into basically
like things are so switched to streaming now, there's so many different ways to
consume this content and everything to the manusha of like a point two three versus
a point two five or whatever on some of these TV shows and things,
and just kind of he doesn't feel like it's important enough to keep tracking this,
and like he's not providing any data if you want to take it,
you know, once the sight goes down. So kind of a you know,
a kind of a sad little post here. But I think Mike Mitchell
should still be able to get us the TV rating staff. He said that
he was talking, we were in the group chat this morning. He was
talking, but I know some of the Twitter reporters there, their their sources
are immediately gone. So, Pat, are you sad Showbuzz Daily going the
way here? Yeah? I mean I don't. I don't do the TV
ratings. It's kind of out of my wheelhouse to be honest with you.
Um So, I mean, my life doesn't really change, you know.
I feel like Mike and I are pretty uh in good, in good faith
with each other. That I got my insider source right there. So I
think I think the main thing is as as as long as someone has it
um where I have no problem, you know. I mean it sucks because
it's independent journalism, and well, like I care about it more from just
like you know, I think we talked about it. You know, we
don't really agree or you know, or have like you know, some of
the best relationships with other outlets, but like there's very few people that if
I saw their platform to throne or taken away, It's like I don't wish
that on any of these people, you know what I mean. Like some
of them obviously do it for free. Some of them make a little bit
of money. But you know, it's just all these different these outlets,
even if you know we're not the most friends with them, they they all
put their heart and soul into it, you know what I mean. Yeah,
I just I just know there's a lot of people that take very highly
I'm being able to push these TV ratings every week. So that's just interesting.
Hey man, I'm I'm you know, pretty high about finding UFL stats
and talking about how good Brooks Follinger was in the for the Florida Florida Tuskers
you know, over ten years ago now, So yeah, I want to
I just tweeted this out of so does sounded silence that Thanos sitting here in
the peaceful world, here overlooking the overlooking its life. I will say I
did see the prelimbs before everything went down. I want to say it was
like seven hundred and fifty thousand, give or take, for both the games.
I know that obviously the overtime game on Saturday went late, don't I
don't if I'm wrong, if I if I remember there was a seven in
front of all the numbers. I'm sure Maxwell let me know if that was
incorrect, But I do believe what I saw it was that at the times.
So anyway, anything else with it, with the anything else with the
rating show buzz. We'll get into the games here, we'll talk playoffs,
and then we'll do a preview here, and then obviously we'll do the big
preview on US Friday's all uh not really on my front. Um, you
know, it's it is what it is. It's it's it's like for the
ratings people and whatnot. But I mean, regardless, ratings are not if
you watch it great if you didn't watch it you know, kind of sucks
for you because overall, like despite the lack of Section US from the competitiveness
of the Breakers and Stallions game, we did see a lot of good football,
at least from the Stallions, you know, and like that that Mauler's
Panthers game was pretty on point as well. Yeah, so let's get into
that here. So that was, you know, to me, we had
one game that was very unappealing here in the North with the Panthers Maulers,
and then this was kind of everyone was expecting, Okay, this is the
big championship game. One really delivered, one didn't. I watched every snap
of the Sunday game. Saturday was kind of in and out. We had
a birthday dinner, caught enough and the overtime, first overtime, and USFL
Coms had a weird tweet where it was like the first overtime since last and
they were the Maulers were involved in that back in like nineteen. I don't
know, I couldn't really try what they were trying to stay with that,
but let's get into it. First year Maulers worse the first You're North Division
champions, Pat, what did you make of this? I mean, we
all knew it was a gaggle, a gaggle of this North Division, right,
and like what we saw that was different from the other four and sixteen
previously was you know, at least the Roughnecks were like the established favorite,
right, Like this was a toss up, like you know, how's Troy
Williams gonna do? Like how is you know, this defensive line going to
do? Like the Mueller's offensive line not the best in the in the game,
Like we all we all knew the answers about the Muellers on defense,
but it's like, okay, are they going to do enough to manipulate this
game for a victory? And it's like, okay, granted the Panthers,
you know, they had a nice little spark with E. J. Perry,
and I guess you could say he delivered another spark. You know,
I think he played as well as he could with the condition and whatnot,
and of that he's under you know, only being with the team for four
weeks. But like overall, like I mean, the first half was a
little slow, and you know, we kind of took our time, but
like once that second half came, like you know, you go from the
Xbox meme of like casually sitting back to like sitting to the edge of the
seat. You're like, oh, okay, this this game means a little
you know these let's let's go a little bit, you know, well,
you wanted to feel like it matters short at this point the last week and
we were talking week ten, it felt like some of these teams were playing
either like not to lose. You're like, god, I mean these are
for playoff spots here, so it's good to see kind of some motivation there
on that. In terms of the Malers, it's I think it's a good
storyline, right, I mean I wasn't a big fan of them being in
it, but it is a cool it's a compelling storyline now going especially now
into the championship game. Yeah, I mean, like, you know,
I talked about a couple of weeks ago, I think I said why not
them? You know, at this point, like why not? You know,
um, you know, I think we got a little bit of a
parody obviously with like you know that the evenly matchedness of the of the North
Division kind of everyone being all, you know, under five hundred and like
someone was gonna limp in there. But like you know, you obviously have
all the nonsense from twenty twenty two and then you have you know the story
of Earn Horden, his dad, obviously the coach, like changing their culture.
Like Boogie Roberts, we talked, we talked about him a lot,
but for good reason. One he's a good football player and two like he's
a pseudo face of the league in my opinion, like like it's a little
different for us because we covered these leagues so much. So it's like like
I knew Boogie Roberts played on the Rams in like twenty twenty and then that
was it until he came into the league last year and then he was highlighted
a lot going finishing his degree at San Jose State and then like you know,
you saw him on in the Burma and that was like the coolest thing
about the Birmingham Hub in my opinion, was like these players would go interact
with the you know, the fans when they weren't playing and whatnot. So
you saw a lot of that. So he began, you know to form
like you know a lot of love with that. He's doing the radio show
in Ohio, Like there's so much that not to there's so much to like
about these guys, Like you have Ruben Foster, there a second chance to
Vino some Marcus Um sorry not Marcus Gilbert, Mike Mark Gilbert the cornerback.
Like you keep going down that list, and it's just like underdog after underdog,
and then you go on the offensive side of the ball ball You have
Terry Poole, who was a cast off put the word receivers that probably don't
get enough respect. Troy Williams was the backup, you know, supposed to
be the James Morgan Show, and thank god, you know, we moved
on from that. And then you keep like throwing all these like you look
at each position group and it's like, oh, man, that's kind of
cool. Yeah, Madre London a European guy, you know, Garrett Groshek
never really you know. I feel like I'm like Jason Kelsey from the Super
Bowl. You remember when he was dressed up as a genie. Yeah,
and he's like Howard Rose Lane Johnson can't stay off there. Like That's how
I feel when I'm talking about this team, man. And it's like,
you know, when you start and like break it down person by person and
play or by player. It's kind of like it is kind of cool man,
Like you know, like do I think they beat Birmingham? No,
But like I mean at this point, whynot, right Pat? You need
to be careful here here almost coming to cloud across too glowingly talking about the
USFL. You need to be careful. Yeah, I mean maybe I got
too many sins in so like my my dopamine and the ndorphins, they're all
high up. But I mean I think E J. Perry got a job
this weekend, like that was pretty cool. You know, his story's cool
too. In terms of the Mawlers here, I saw a lot of crediting
Ray Horton coming in kind of like and you said changing the culture. Do
you think that that? Because I always with these like spring leagues, and
like, I don't know how much culture there is right in like the Roughnecks
next year, like depending on who comes back and there's turn I mean,
do you think there was enough like duty culture with the Maulers here that we
needed to flip it? Yeah? Yeah? And I think that goes for
any spring league team, right like you got like you you established the culture
when you show up right like like way it establishes the culture. So I
don't know the percentage of like players they had from year one the year two,
but like it's a pretty decent amount. Like granted, the quarterbacks room
was completely changed. Okay, they got rid of badly Roland Rivers, Kyle
Lavela, the and Josh Love, and I mean that changes it, right,
So it's like, oh, the quarterback like the guys they drafted the
first two picks like from last year. Granted that was a Kirby move,
but then you know, Ray gets brought in and I think he got brought
in later after Roland and that were that were released, But like Jaren was
still there, and everyone talked about how how up and coming Jarn was and
you saw the enthusiasm, and then you bring in a guy like Ruben Foster
who's like, you guys want to go to the NFL. I was there
and I talked to Joey Ivy about that on my show about like when these
NFL guys came in, like him being one of them, like you guys
want to taste this, like this is what you have to do. And
I talk to a lot of coaches about that as well, about like you're
not doing enough or you're not doing it right, and like this is what
we need to do, and everyone thinks for a joke and this and that,
and you know, I don't think James Morgan played outstandley like well,
but he's still a guy who's been in NFL QB rooms and been around NFL
players. And it's like, you know, Grett Groshek played with um Jonathan
Taylor, so you bring that. Terry Pool has been around all these football
leagues. You bring in that. So it's like you keep going down this
list of guys with experience to be like, hey, man, like this
is what you have to do to be successful, not only on the field,
but get to the next level. And that translates into, like my
opinion, character like being a good man as far as like you know,
character building and like because in the end, like a lot of these guys
are going to do other things in the off season in the off season,
and so we continue to like you know, not only build these people as
football players, as young men and whatnot. And it's a I mean,
I think I think I think it does matter way more than people give it
credit for. And I think it matters even more because the seasons are shorter,
do you have to be like, hey, like hammer down or get
out? And it sounds well with Jared getting kind of that was an assistant
Coach of the Year and then not doing that last year. I thought that
was kind of a cool honor as well for that, didn't you think?
Yeah? No, And and maybe that was a part of the plan the
whole year, you know what I mean? Like like, but in the
end, like the you know, assistant coaches coordinators are usually the unsung heroes
of this though. I mean the CE Jaron get recognized for all the work
you did, and like that defense was great, Like, you know,
we had questions about Troy, and you know, I think Troy's a little
bit better than um, you know, a guy like DeAndre Johnson and uh,
you know these other more mobile guys and whatnot. But I mean,
you know, he came into the season as a QB two and you know
obviously turned that team around once he became the starter. What did you want?
That's the thing too, Like, even if maybe that wasn't the plan,
I think that that's a really easy pivot to do, right where you
see Jared, Like, I that's the thing I wish and I go back
and forth because I didn't like last year kind of the Tank Bowl and adding
you know, okay, we're going to add the picture whatever. But I
do like the mobility of some of these spring leagues to be able to like,
yeah, let's do this, like let's honor, like let's kind of
make this be a thing here because it is something guys take pride in that.
It is something that I know the team probably really appreciated him getting recognized
as well. And not only that, just for like Jared, like you
know, he's coached at Yukon. I think he coached at another school before.
Like this was his air quote big break, and he is doing what
he is supposed to be doing, like he is taking advantage of the opportunity,
you know, like like all football, spring football, you know,
all this stuff. If your goal is to get to the NFL, like
you might not have the most linear path depending on your background or this or
that. You know. So it's like like none of these guys and like
a guy like James Morgan can't look in the mirror anymore and say I never
got a fair shot, you know, like Jaren Jaren if he dubbed it
out right, like it's obviously coaching is a little bit different because it does
come down to the players. Like scheams could be good, but like you
look at Jared and it's like, hey, man, I did everything I
needed to do to put myself in to give myself the best position to one
put the team to succeed, get him into a championship, and then two
like like do what I needed to do. And he took advantage of the
opportunity. And you know, sometimes it's kind of a double edged sword because
you play so well then you're then you're gone, you know. But in
the end, like he needed to do what he needed to do, and
I know that's a very simplistic way of looking at it. And he took
full advantage of the situation and now he's going to be peating for a championship
with his defense. Is does Jaren does he come back next year? I
don't know, And I you know, I think that comes down to him.
You know, um, you know, does he want to go be
a dB coach or a D line coach or you know, a linebackers coach
or is he like you know, money talks obviously, right, Like I
don't know what the coaches make. But you know, the money money talks.
So if the financials line up in addition to if the financials lineup in
addition to the uh, you know, just the squeeze. I want to
say, is the juice worth to squeeze? And you know, I think
it comes down to that. I was looking on here. We had a
comment. I can't find I was trying to find the tweet. Dylan has
a comment just while we're talking about the Mallers. Here are they talking about
doing the hub style and kind of all that stuff. Um, they had
to tweet that that they're selling season tickets for Canton next year now, but
they it's like TBD what the teams are gonna be or whatever. I thought
that was kind of weird. I think that that's that's a tough sell.
They kind of get fans to buy into that. I mean, here,
if if the Malers win or not, Like I don't either, what do
you make of that? I mean, I know we're kind of sick to
death talking about the hubs and all that, but here we're selling season tickets
for next year, but we don't know the teams that they're going to be
there. I mean I think we talked. Um. I mean I think
COMMS US of l COMS put it out like was that who was let me
try to find I don't know if they put it out, but I think
I know they like subtweeted like an announcement about the teams. It's gonna it's
gonna come out. Um. I mean I eventually you got to get everyone
into their home markets, right, Like that's just you know you have to
do that. So I know they have a plan. Um. I mean
I don't you know, I don't want to go shill here and just do
like trust the process, but any end, like all the speculation we're doing
is not like oh or the or the Breakers going to be there or is
this team to be there? Like okay, so it was COMS that did
it, Like like I'm not I'm not ready to sing the praises or or
go against like that state that like situation until I know what the teams are
and everything like that. Like it's just you know, I want them all
to be in their own cities. And I think I think to an extent
like everyone else does as well. You know, like you've got people covering
New Orleans who haven't been to a game, you know, and we'll see
what happens. I just like, like, who doesn't want them to not
be in their hub or into in their home city. Well, the thing
too is, and I've seen a lot of people like, oh, well,
you know, if Pittsburgh wins, they like they should absolutely be moving
to the city. It's like, well, I think they would have had
I mean, Canton was the fallback plan last year. I mean, they
would have been there, you know, Jersey and Philly if they have Aaron
Pittsburgh, if they would have had somewhere to go. I mean, just
winning the title doesn't necessarily make a stadium available or make it better financially for
you to move into a market. I mean I think that it would certainly
incentimized. I don't know the residents that the pit through Mullers have in the
city of Pittsburgh right now. I can't imagine it's it's particularly high, but
I mean I'm sure it's a non zero number, right yeah. I mean,
I mean I'm definitely one of those people that like, I think you
can championship that into a mark into their own market, you know. Um,
Like I said, I don't, I don't know if that's the air
quote right move and whatnot, like or exchange the right move the right train
of thought. But regardless, like I think it would be nice for like
the people of Pittsburgh to have this obviously, and like I don't I don't
think many people would disagree with me, you know, and you could kind
of sell it. Um. You know, I've been very vocal about that
Cannon that Cannon Stadium kind of being the transitionary one. Um. You know,
you gotta think about like in Memphis and the Gamblers and you know,
in New Orleans with the Breakers and the Stars up in Michigan. It's kind
of like, in my opinion, you gotta look like what team did the
worst as far as like attendance wise, and let's like push them into a
new market if we can't get them into the home market, to just kind
of freshen it up a little bit. Because I do think like part of
like geographically it makes sense to me that um, um, that Pittsburgh and
New Jersey were there, But like I also part of me and I don't
know any of this for a fact that like maybe you have them there because
you knew that you had something in the back room type thing. But I
mean, and I've been vocal about this too, like I do think it's
cool that that, um, you know, people in Ohio got a casual
taste of this, whether it was one person or one million people. I
just thought it was kind of like, oh, we're going to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. Like was it always successful? Absolutely not. But
in the same sense, it's like, well, I'm from Iowa and I
went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'm going to care about those
a little bit more, you know what I mean? Like I don't I
don't know how much dividends that's paying in the long run, but I mean
it is expanding the market, whether it be by a minimal movement or you
know, more than we know. The interesting thing to me here at Dylan
Siger to like CFL haus nineteen, I want to add a nineteen nineteen doesn't
work in the CFL. It needs to be even numbers otherwise, Yeah,
the CFL by weeks. But just my quick note if Pittsburgh, well,
I guess now I would say either way now that Pittsburgh is the because there's
been a lot of talk like do we do the Canton Gold or do we
do the Canton whatever, what do we do? We make an Ohio team.
You can't rebrand Pittsburgh now, right, I mean I think you could
have last year where they were duty and you're like, but we did the
Colors who to make up like that? But you have to keep Pittsburgh now.
So do you lose New Jersey? I mean from that I wins and
losses record, probably not, but from a nostalgia of the USFL, I
think you have to keep the New Jersey generals there. So what do you
do at that point? How do you lose that team? I yeah,
I get all the teams into their markets before I get rid of any of
the teams. Like if we if they go to New Orleans and negative for
people are there, then you go to a Canton Legends. And I'm pretty
big on Canton Legends being the being the name. Um I think that was
a maddened name at some point. But uh yeah, I mean, like
you have to give it the old college try, like you have to,
Like I think it's an injustice, like if New Jersey blows. I'm not
big on these teams going to the East Coast, Like I just I don't
think it's I mean, I saw it with the UFL, with the New
York Sentinels. Um, you know, Mike Mitchell, I know went to
a couple of Guardians games in New York. Um, I'm not I'm not
big on it. Uh you know, like I am from there, believe
it or not. I know my accent doesn't sound like anymore, thank god.
But um, but I am pretty big on like staying away from the
East coast on that front, um in the northeast rather because I think Florida
you can put a JV team there and I think people show up, you
know, I think, you know, it helps when they have the win
lost thing. But I think the Apollo showed up and have to look at
the Guardians, but rand that they were kind of a kitchen fire when we
look at that, or the Orlando Guardians. But I think the Vipers had
decent crowd crowds and know the Orlando Rage did pretty well, but I think
that was because everyone like Jeff Brown, you know, the XFL and yeah,
it's just weird. I don't know, I don't know what they do.
I'll be curious to see here because it is kind of a pickle.
Like I said, you could have gotten rid of Pittsburgh or whatever going into
the season, but now you're surely not anything else. I mean, obviously
we'll talk that the Salad Championship game and all of that here. Anything else
at Michigan picked up steam here towards the end, it wasn't enough and we
got the two four and six here. We made the jokes and stuff about
that last week, but anything else about the Panthers, I mean, I
mean they put together a great effort. Um. You know, EJ pushed
the ball down field a lot more. He's a lot more aggressive, you
know, still relying on his athletic abilities, still having some mental mishaps and
whatnot as well. He threw that interception the cole hicatmy fumble. Um,
I mean just sometimes things happened, you know, he got hit and as
he was like putting them, like trying to readjust the ball, it's slipped
out. You know, it's sweaty, sweaty and uh, you know,
probably humid in Canton. Um. You know, there was a miss handled
on the handle on the on the excuse me, on the exchange to him,
and I think Stevie Scott, Stevie Scott fumbling at the one yard line.
Rewatched the game last night, and I mean, Pereira isn't wrong,
like by the rules, they got the call right. It's just I just
you know what I mean, Like that's not like Ken Stabler. I think
it was who was kicking the ball you know, down the field and in
the seventies when that rule was like okay, like fourth quarter under two minutes,
Like I just kind of feel like, you know, like, yes,
the call is right, but that might be an adjustment in the rule
book because it was a clean it was a clean fumble. Like I agree,
it was a fumble. Um he didn't have control of it when he
was you know, when he crossed the plane, but like tray Quinn like
had a clean recovery on that, you know what I mean. Like it
just to me, it's it made no sense, you know what I mean,
Because now you're saying, if there's a botched snap and he scores a
touchdown, that's a fumble, the play's dead. I don't know. I
think Pereira is kind of the guy Dean does it too. Praire kind of
doubles down on that where it's like now like we're like we're then like,
I mean I think that they're I think they're trying to establish like they're like,
this is the rule. Both of them do it. It's like it's
it's it. I know. We kind of like we've touched on before where
Mike gets way more heat than he deserves because you know, he's not as
good looking. But I mean, you know these uh, these younger Italian
guys with their facial hair man and jaw lines, you know what I mean,
Like you know, you throw you throw some rogaine on Mike and give
him you know, look at five o'clock shadow beard. We might be like
Mike, it's Mike, you know what I mean, it's uncle Mike.
Do you remember this? Do you remember when he was like this going on
this this is why people don't like like for cutting the brag and he's like,
what is what is he doing here? I mean, Mike gets a
lot of heat. I think he deserves it. Sometimes it's it's it's something,
dude, Like I think I think both of these guys are kind of
like memes in their own right, you know what I mean. Like I
remember Dean did something and then like they panned over to him and he was
like, yeah, we got that wrong, and I was just like,
dude, yeah, no, Buino, you can't. You can never admit
defeat. So Panthers here, do they have enough going into next year?
Do they have enough to build on here? Like I mean they did they
end with with enough momentum or even though they lost? Yeah, I think
they do. Man. But the problem is is, like, you know,
it's Spring League. So it's like we so we talked about this,
right, there's like twenty six open roster spots right now, probably more because
I saw some guys get released over the weekend, and it's like, why
aren't teams signing those guys, you know what I mean? Like they have
they're looking at the USFL like they're looking because like at this point, the
XFL, like the you know, hot girl and the hot new girl at
school is like, all right, man, she's been around for a year,
Like she ain't that hot, you know what I mean? And I
knew that might be a little bit edgy to say, but like they had
their big boost, right, So you have twenty five open roster spots.
Teams already have had twenty of looks at like free agents, undrafted free agents.
You know, there's definitely guys who are waiting on injuries that might have
been offered contract and whatnot. But like who who's going next? You know
what I mean? Like who's the next Like who's the next girl transferring and
into San Demons High School? I hope, I hope you guys got that
reference by the way Sandeons high school football rules? Um uh so, like
who who who is the next group of of of incoming players and it's got
to be usbl guys, like it makes sense and like excuse me, I
live our work by trick but um but so it's like you have guys like
Brilliance speaks right like all he I don't want to say all he had to
do, but if he played effectively, he's gonna get an opportunity. We
have magoo right Like McGoo is just tearing this league up right now, Like
it's not even it's not even fair to watch at this point. So you
got McGoo. He's doing a lot of great stuff. CJ. Marrable was
great. Derek Dillon did a lot of stuff on special teams and whatnot,
Like go down this list of the guys. You know, Lavonte Taylor had
a great season, had a couple of pass breakups and as well Frank Endo.
We can't talk enough about him. Levi Bell a shorter guy, but
you know despite his you know, putting up Elvis Dumerville like pressure and whatnot,
and like playing a lot like Patrick Rashard who's a fullback and whatnot that
used to play defensive line. I mean, it makes sense that like,
and that's you know, it comes out and you gotta give you gotta give
the Stallion so much credit because of you know, it was a reload,
not the rebuild, like who is our team actually? You know? And
then when those guys get signed, how if they get released, how many
of them come back? You know? So it's so much you know what
I mean, Like and that's a podcast in itself. So in like my
opinion, like I I think they a lot of these Panthers like players.
If they can keep some of this core core in, they're like, yeah,
of course they're gonna be a competitive team. They're gonna be a good
team and whatnot. But but I mean, I can't tell you any of
that about any of these teams until February. And then you have these guys
who were drafted, like they're gonna get cut from like the ones who went
to the NFL. Like those guys could get cut, you know what I
mean, Like that may have another rights draft coming in, so now that
they know their formula of the draft, like what's going on? Like where
are we at? So it's like February, I think when those rosters and
I don't you know, I think they're gonna go to sixty or something like
that in the off season again, but whatever it is, when those rosters
get close to solidified because obviously we had like Pru Cup was a late signing
to Carson Strong, and I'm sure there are other guys you know that are
escaping. You know, Ryan Willis came in from the XFL. But until
like February March comes around, like I can't, I can't. I can't
tell you like, yeah, the Stallions they're going to be in the championship
account or the Panthers are gonna build from the season and onward and upward,
because you can't tell me. EJ. Perry isn't gonna get some workouts because
he was already a cuss guy, you know, just got released by the
Texans. And then you know in these and playing in these games, performing
well and showcasing more more rushing ability than he did it in the preseason.
Like, you can't tell me that he's not going to get a phone call
or two especially. I'm gonna interrupt you here, Pat, we have some
breaking news here. We'll get back. I want to talk to the timelines
all that stuff as well. We do have per Mike Mitchieter. We do
have the USFL ratings here for the weekend, So never fear SHOWLEZ daily is
Dad Mike Mitchell. Here. We have Saturday night game Michigan Panthers North Division,
which I called Dan. I said that would be the higher rating game
nine hundred and fifty seven thousand. Sunday New Orleans Breakers where we have Stallions
eight hundred and fifty two. Neither hit a million, but I did,
if you remember last week, predict that that the NBC game, even with
the duty North and the losing record, is all that stuff, that that
would win. So any thoughts on this nine fifty seven and eight fifty two,
I mean, and you got to you gotta think that, um,
you gotta think that with all the streaming numbers, you probably kissed a million.
You know what? I mean, like I mean, I'm I'm pretty
good with that. I think, you know, consider all things considered,
like you want to hit that mill, you know that's sexy number. But
like I mean, you know, two games, you know, it's just
you know, two games heat of summer Saturday night, like you had nine
hundred and fifty thousand people watching, you know, and like I had to
you know, like you know, I had a friend of mine he went
out in the Lake of the Ozarks and he changed he changed a couple of
these games, you know, onto onto NBC. You know what I mean.
So I mean, I'm I'm pretty good with that. I just you
know, I just I just think so especially where I'm out in the Midwest,
you know, like we know some you know, we we know what
the BattleHawks are, but we don't know what the USFL is. So it's
like like, you know, let's let's do you know grant. It's not
a local market, so it's a little bit different. But it's like let's,
you know, let's get these games on that the Buffalo while Wings or
something like that. You know. I'm just here, I will say I
think I think you said I think nine fifties a tremendous number for that with
everything going on right now, I would feel good about that. I'm sure
they wanted to hit a million, but like I said, it proves network
and time slot has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do
with the teams that they're playing or anything else. You got the two losing
teams, worst records, all this kind of stuff. It doesn't matter in
terms of the championship game. We'll kind of do predictions for that coming up.
But any other thoughts on that, I mean, the Fox eight fifty
Sunday, I don't know quite the competition that was going on this weekend more
than just the life happening. I know obviously they went up back to back
with the CFL game, but I can't imagine the CFL game was drying,
drying, not much. So. Something I want to talk about, and
I think we have in spurts but not consistently, is like what does that
spot do in twenty twenty one? You know what I mean? Like,
what are these spots doing in twenty twenty one? So if they're like getting
five hundred thousand and twenty twenty one, you know, mid June from a
baseball game or something like that, like, are we like if if that's
the number and obviously arbitrary number and it's something we can look up and I'm
not going to be straight up about it, but um like, are we
seeing improvements from the time slots, because that's something I used to say about
like the USA and like FX, and it's like, if you're getting more
than a normal FX game or USA like program or whatnot, it's kind of
a win, you know, it's kind of an improvement. So I'm more
curious to see what they're getting, um like without the USFL and whatnot from
previous years to like, you know, if they're getting five hundred thousand and
now they just had four hundred and fifty, like tune in, Like you
would imagine that the executives at Fox are pretty pumped about that. Mike has
a question here, will the Championship game hit a million? That's a good
question. I think I think one hundred percent. I mean, I think
if you're getting nine fifty for the playoff gam I think i'd say, what,
you know, one point two, one point at three. I mean,
we'll do the predictions on Friday, But that that would kind of be
where I would be at what's it a good last year? I know it
was like I feel like two, No, it was like one point one
point whatever. Let me look at that here, Yeah, because I feel
like I feel like if it hit two, I say one point seven,
If it hit one point seven, I say one point five. Like you
know, I s one point five two one point five two million last year?
Yeah, I would say that one point two to one point three.
But I mean proved me wrong, you know, hopefully hopefully they proved me
wrong, you know what I mean, Like I've no problem being proven wrong
on this. No, I mean like I would be Yeah, Max is
coming here, I would be happy. I would be happy if I was
them with with kissing the million here for the weekend with a lot of competition
going on and the streaming, you know what I mean, Like you got
like I know it's not I know it's not like you know, solid in
Stone, but like I mean, do they count, like the rewatches on
the streaming because I rewatched it on Peacock you know I rewatched both games Peacock
Talk Sports, you know, like you know, like does that matter?
Like I know, you know what I mean? So and I say the
same thing for ESPN Plus. You know, like I watched a lot of
stuff, Like rewatched a lot of stuff on the ESPN Plus because you know,
if I went to a battle Hawks game, there's a game at at
four, then at seven, Like I'm not in front of my TV by
you know, seven o'clock when the game ends. So well, I think
a lot of the questions here, like we talked about at the top,
we showed uz a daily you know, stepping down I think there is this
this perifloration now kind of ways you can watch a lot of this stuff,
and I think that they've you know, it's we get caught up in the
minutia of all this week to week and oh we they won and we won,
you know all this kind of stuff. But I you know, there's
a million different metrics who's watching online, whether the impressions on you know,
the tweets that they have out or video views on the YouTube by the XFL
is kind of the championship that I campion that as well, I have to
go. I've an emergency that has an emergency. All right, we're gonna
get paid off here and thank you about Well, here we go. We're
kind of wind down here in a minute talking through this. If anyone wants
to call in, we need to go through the Birmingham and the New Orleans
game here, so will I will open up the chat lines here if anyone
wants to talk through that other or else, I can run through. I
saw enough of the Birmingham and the New Orleans one, but I did post
the I did post the link here. If anyone wants to call in.
I know Jared's always hanging around. We'll see if anyone wants to do that.
Let me pull up the New Orleans and Birmingham. Max Is commenting all
the people watching if I watch us online to follow these low you know,
we're still talking to demographics of the viewership and all of that. Mike saying,
I don't think there's a ton of sports competition this Saturday off the top
of my head. Well, you know it is. We're a million different
things, So let's go here. This was the other big game of the
weekend. I was kind of surprised. I thought this was going to be
we had Pat and I had talked, this was going to be more of
the championship preview game, little lackluster, a little bit of a blowout,
didn't feel close here, Breaker is kind of making a late run here at
the end, but Birmingham forty seven to twenty two on this it was interesting
to me with McLeod BETHA. Thompson obviously playing in this game, and then
the Argos playing opposite that with it with Chack Kelly now in the cfl Argos,
you had a much better night than mister mccauw Belthlo Thompson did here,
but I thought he was good. I'm curious kind of like, what is
what does McLeod's take away from all of this here at the end of this,
you know, came in, made it to the champion, you know,
made it to the playoffs, you know, losing here kind of an
embarrassing fashion here twenty six to fifty. Uh. Not a tremendous performance from
him, But you know, I think the Breakers should be happy here seven
and three with coach Flip and all that for the year. Be kind of
curious to see what they end up doing here going in the next year.
I don't know. I don't know if I see McLeod kind of going through
here for another season, you know, obviously with his kids, kid and
wife and everything working there in Atlanta. I think that worked out for him
this year, but I'll just be kind of curious to see if he decides
to go forward without again next year. Let's say here Gregory checking in as
a Stallions fan. The only thing I can say is it was a magical
night in the Magic City. The crowd and the game was fantastic. I
know, I saw we had comments here off the top when kind of Pat
and I were setting up the show talking Pip saying kind of embarrassing crowd attendance
for the playoff games. I thought the Birmingham game looked good. I thought
the home side looked really good. Yeah, Jacob is kind of contesting that
here not Birmingham. You know, Canton has always kind of had a little
bit of an issue. But I did think Mike corroborating here as well.
I thought Birmingham had good attendance, and good attendance compared to the other games
Birmingham not compared to last year at the game of Cant was just terrible.
I don't know. I think they need to figure out what they want to
do there. I don't know if we've kind of talked on here of calling
the team the Canton you know, if does anything, if that incentivises anybody
to go that way here, Dylan checking in Birmingham looked like a fun time.
You can't defend the miller's attended zone, not for a division championship interest,
you know it kind of it's kind of back and forth here, Jacob
saying you can't expect people to drive three plus hours to watch four and six
teams. I know, interesting though, you know, with the TV radiance
on all of that. But McLeod looked good, kind of magoose on a
different level here, you know, Pat, we've talked about that before.
You know, is he going to get a shot here and moving on?
Just really looks lights out compared to everyone else in the USFL at this point,
you know, he's doing finger rolls into the end zone and all of
that USFL posted him, you know, kicking the drone camera or whatever act
my age. Yeah, commentators were all there predicting the NBT would be done
after this game. Seemed a little preemptive to me at the time. I
don't know, I think it's a lot. I think McLeod is really old.
I think McLeod has played in this and played in every thing, and
I don't. I don't know. I don't know. If you do,
you put your life on hold with other other things you want to do here
for another year to come back to the USFL. I don't know. I
mean, that's the McLoud question and kind of thing he's going to have to
ponder. I know we had him on the show here was It was when
they were doing their kind of the undefeated streak and all of that, and
I thought that was interesting. You he seems there like in a very happy
spot. You know, his wife and kid, they can visit. He
was going to go watch the movies and all of that stuff. In Birmingham.
I think he was going to go watch the what was it the Birmingham
the Triple A or whatever baseball team they're in, the Bananas or whatever that
is. Jared, we know Birmingham is fine for fan support. It's all
the other teams are concerned me. Yeah. Memphis. Memphis picked up steam
kind of towards the end. That was That was one that I thought was
was came out the gate hot, a little lackluster, but I think that
they've built a good oil fan base there. I think Memphis is going to
be good. It's really just a can't an issue. It's surprise and still
like we said with the Canton you know, the Canton season tickets and all
of that going on. McGoo looked good here, you know, Sermberger,
I don't know, this really just kind of felt like a victory lap for
Birmingham. Kind of sitting there watching it, I really felt bad, really
felt bad for coach Flip and all of that stuff. Gregory says, heading
to the ship good. I don't know. I want to hear your guys'
predictions going in. I would like to see from my own amusement, the
malers kind of put a beat down on this. But Birmingham eight and three,
you know, three losses over the last two seasons. RJ. Young
I saw this morning he was calling them a dynasty. I don't know if
I would go that far with two seasons of spring football, calling anything a
dynasty. If it's certainly glad to see RJ. Young at least pretending to
kind of be involved with the USFL. Here. Let me see if I
could find that tweet here Mike's still talking about the US and all radiance.
Where is that? Here we go? Yeah, RG Young, here sallients
of average series seven points in the playoffs over the last few years, Alex
McGoo is the first player of the pass for three hundred yards and rush for
seventy five and the last two seasons sallients are about to become twenty and three
over two years to win on Saturday and we're talking dynasty, Well there you
go. If arg Young says that it has to be true, keep in
mind the USL Championship by taking place on my birthday this year. Excited for
that. Excited to I'll be in the Mariner game, but I'll be watching
the USMO game on delay. I got Sunday set aside for that as well
as CCFL stuff, So that should be excited in terms of you know,
I, like I said, I watched every snap of this game, just
not a lot to say. It felt like Breakers ran out of team.
They kind of eat their way in last week. And I said, okay,
is this You get these teams that kind of barely get into the playoffs
and then they're gonna get picked off right away. Yeah. I don't know.
I don't have a lot to say on this. I don't know if
anyone else has any other questions about the playoff game. Talking championship, but
I would like to hear your predictions here if you have the Malers or the
Stallions here from the championship game. Oh, Pat's okay. Pat having to
drop off here for a for an emergency, So I hope everything's okay with
Pat. I'm sure he'll text me later. With the game being on NBC
this year, expect ratings to be higher for that. Obviously interesting as well.
They talked about how they switch where It's like now Canton is the neutral
site, so I think that the Maulers are still technically at home. I
saw there was some weird worrying about that that came out one of the tweets
talking about the championship game where you know, because it's it's the neutral site,
but I believe it is Birmingham at at Maulers here going in, So
the Mallers will be wearing their white their white uniforms going in. So excited
to hear about that. We have the Fan of the Play of the Year.
I know they were going to announce also the Like Player Individual Player honors
here on Friday going in on the thirtieth. I know maybe those will come
out in time that we can talk about that on the live stream we have
coming up on Friday here at Pat's going to be joining this back and I
think obviously John Vogel and everyone else will be there. That should be exciting.
Yeah, Dylan checking in hoping for the underdog story. That's kind of
where I would be out for this. I don't know. I think I
think the Stallions have done it just fine. I think that they I don't
think that anyone in Burmath has has anything to be disappointed about Hussey Huddle checking
in here. Hussey is my guy over on the CFL recaps here rolling the
solo. Pat had to jump off here. So if you wanted to watch
the Mark Cass talk solo about the USFL here for a few more minutes,
you were going to get that today. You know this will be I mean,
I'm glad. I'm glad I did watch the playoff games this weekend.
Pat's scared the heavy load here for some of the games coming in. But
I am that I did last Breakers game at this very moment, I did
watch every snap of that house. He says, you think McGoo gets an
NFL shot? I do. I think McGoose looked good. The question that
Pat and I have talked about for weeks here and then obviously Mike Mitchell and
everything else. Spots are running out. You know, you still have L
twenty twenty guys or they're on NFL teams now now we have XFL teams,
and I know we're cutting players here end of the summer, and obviously we've
had a lot of the gambling things and then there's other injuries going on with
the NFL guys getting cut. I just don't know how many spots there are,
right I saw they had the controversy this week with Carson Wentz hunting a
bear tremendously bad luck posting the photo of him, and you know people were
canceled, you know, cancel culturing Carson Wentz. And you know I'm sitting
there. He was the Commander's quarterback last year. I mean, he's not
playing no, you know, no one seems interested in him. So you
know the point is, I think there's still a surplus of talent out there.
I don't know. I hope McGoo gets a shot. I just don't
know where that would be at this point. Obviously, we've talked about this
through last year and this year really hard getting out in July and getting these
teams to want to, you know, pick you up at this point,
right, I get you in. Even the Magoose coming in as a you
know, third string quarterback or kind of a camp body here. You know,
a lot of wear and tear here over the last eleven and twelve weeks
and then coming in and spots are type DeMarcus here says all the USFL fanboys
laughed at the rending gates being four and seven. What are y'all saying?
Now? I know I had my good tweets last week. I said that
the USFL saw the XFL have a one losing team in the playoffs and said
hold my beer. Obviously with the two in there, but it's good.
I feel good for the mallers. I'm very excited for about Mangel, friend
of the show, getting to see him. You know, I know that
when he got cut last year from the Stars and you know he wo went
back into the CFL and a lot of struggles with that. I know we
had talked and he you know, what do I want to do? Do
I want to do the XFL? Do I want to do the USFL?
And I think I think he's got to be a pretty at piece right now,
and knowing that he's done everything he can to give himself in the position
here to succeed on Sunday. Excited to see that, Max, you're talking
over under prediction. If the USFL title game has more than one point two
eight seven million viewers, USFL has the higher season average in the XFL if
the XFL. If it has less, the XFL has more, So I
think that would bump up the USFL. I do I think the USFL title
game has more than one point two eight seven million viewers? I do?
I think the USVEL will pull in one point three to one point four million
on the championship game, like we talked about here earlier last year. One
point five two. I don't know if they have the same juice going into
this, So I I think that that's kind of that's your ceiling here.
So do you do you take? I don't. I don't know if they
do over one point five, don't, don't don't call me. I hate
her here. I see one point three one point four Let me know what
you think at Max wants to know what say you read? Let's see here?
What else is going on here? Chris talking and this is about the
Magoo Magoo Quarterback one material. Jacob says, how would you change the playoffs
next year? XFL and USFL. We've talked about this, Andy and I
a lot on the XFL one when we were going through all of that with
the Renegades, when we kind of can see this coming, right, we
saw, hey, what's going to happen here? And we've obviously predicted this
with the USFL heading in. I think you take the division winners and then
the next top two records. So if that comes from the whatever three North
teams and the South or whatever, but I think you would take if you
win the division, I think you get in, and then if you get
the next highest, your next highest you know, whatever win loss record after
that, that would be what I would do. It also looks like the
XFL is kind of eliminating their bye week next year, so that'll be exciting
about that. I know there was some nonsense, yeah, Mike says here.
I know there was some nonsense about here. I didn't even have time
to tweet about it this morning, and that's already been debunked. And there
was a rampant report out talking about Saint Louis hosting the Dome. I know
YouTube videos were already made and tweets were already made, and then I had
I was sent to me here during the show. Let me see if I
can get it pulled up here purst source. XFL is locked in dates for
six games across all other venues. XFL hasn't decided on where the twenty twenty
four championship game will be played yet, So glad that that was cleaned up
already and I don't have to do that. I appreciate, you know,
I don't always appreciate everything marked us, but I appreciate Mark doing the work
there, and we can kind of move on from that because I did see
people already getting I'm not saying that Saint Louis is not going to be or
will not be a good decision for that, but I think that I guarantee
you on Tuesday, June twenty seven, the XFL has not decided where they
want to have their championship game next year. Chris here is talking Birmingham twenty
Pittsburgh nineteen sees them edging it out that way. Let me get back over
here to that. Dylan has a question, would Wentz ever take a snap
in the XFL. I don't think so. I mean, Wentz has made
a tremendous amount of money from the Eagles and the Commanders that carried or was
it it was an Eagles and then the Colts carried part of that, and
then and then the Commanders picked up on that. I don't see him doing
that, gregor yhecket, here's something to consider. USFL games are on everywhere
you go, in bars, restaurants, top golf everywhere. Heck, I've
watched replays, Lots of things are on, lots of things are on TVs.
That's kind of what we were talking at the top of the show.
Showbuzz deciding no longer worthwhile to kind of track a lot of this stuff.
So many different avenues and ways to capture that. So I know what you're
saying, you know, I know, I get it. In the same
argument could be said for declining NHL ratings or XFL ratings or MLB ratings,
kind of any of that stuff. Yeah, Jared saying here Wentz has made
enough money. Do not see him going to the Do not see him going
to the fell? Chris Chris making joke Edmonton Elks should sign I assume Carson
wentz Yeah, Elks if you are, if you were tracking our CFL here,
we had our we three recap yesterday. Edmonton Elks definitely in the struggle
and we are seeing now they have already released kay Loxley, who I guess
was disgruntled after missing the snap and sitting on the sidelines. Hopefully Trade Forward
season is going to be there. Jared wishing they got with it. I
don't know. I think you need I said you didn't need divisions when they
were talking, and we had it because when the XFL was getting ready,
we said, we don't know how these divisions are going to work. Is
it going to be east west, it's going to be north south. Obviously
they ended up with kind of the Texas scrum and everything going on with that.
But I think you need to have divisions at some point. But I
because I was poo pooed very heavily when I said that we could go division
list, I was had a lot of people being upset about that. Coach
Craig, Yeah, one point three Phills Fair. That's where I'm at.
I Coach Craig is going to join us, I think for the Friday show
on here I got to figure out the timing with that, but I think
that should be exciting. I've already got the event page set up so you
can like and subscribe on that and get ready for that. Jared, I
guess we're still on this. Bellhawk fans have been hyping the championship game for
Saint Louis during our time in San Antonio. Yeah, we'll see, we'll
see. But I'm glad that I'm just very glad that that was already cleared
up this morning. He makes my life very easy. Appreciate that. Mark.
I think they will stick with the same playoff format. They seem to
want to market a division championship game. Yeah, I think it's I agree,
Andy, I think that that's good feedback. It's hard. I think
you in the world that we live in now and it's kind of spring football
and we got, you know, Fancantrone football not coming back or whatever,
becoming all this hodgepodge of everything. I think you could probably get away without
having the division, you know, with the playoffs and that. But I
do I think that, you know, we can market it. We have
the Saturday game, we got the Sunday game, we got the T shirts
for making the graphics and kind of all of that stuff. Yeah we're talking,
and yeah we're still talking. Heineke wentz, I miss Heineck. Yeah,
I'm kind of stuck with the Washington Commanders here now that is my team.
I can't switch allegiances again, so obviously we had I followed Heineke to
the Commanders, I can't follow him to the Falcons. So we will be
happy to see Heinecki do that. If you guys have any other questions here
all rounded out at the top of the hour. I appreciate everyone helping me
here with some comments getting through. I'm not good, you know some of
these YouTube I mark and talk for five hours by himself, not normally on
here, used to talking solo here. I I said, hope Pat is
okay, jumping off, But you know, I think we did okay here.
We had viewership remained all right, and I think you know I had
enough dumb football takes to see here. The other interesting news note I had
saved on here before we get out of here. We know that this week
to cut the prukop, he was released by the Generals, already picked back
up by the Winnipeg Blue Bomber so he will be able to kind a double
dip here with that in terms of you know, it works out that the
schedule works out that we had a lot of questions and can CFL guys jump
down or what's going on and back and forth, but the Generals releasing Dakota,
he was able to go back up to Winnipeg. He's kind of their
short yardage a solution up there. So I think that that's good Winnipeg getting
the snot kicked out of them here by America's CF healthy MDBST alliance here on
Thursday. Very exciting for that. A couple of last comments here will get
out Jared. I hope Mondor and London performs in the championship game. I
know he's never kind of gotten back up to his elf, you know,
as you're pregod League of Football kind of heights her. I think he was
the MVP or like the lead offensive whatever his award accolade that he got over.
They never really has performed up to that here, but would like to
see him go off. Max. The division championships are important for booking playoff
venues, at least for now, because usually there's going to be a clear
top regular season team in each division, so the venues get booked earlier.
Yeah, well that's good. But again, it's good to know that the
XFL is not booking venues right now for the us or for the x BEL
championship game. Yeah. Yeah, we've talked in VC alliances beat the snot
out of Boobam versus, So that'll do it for me. I think leave
your ratings predictions here for the USFL championship game. We'll be back on Friday
for a full breakdown with people a lot smarter than me talking football. I
can say, appreciate you guys all riding it out with me on here,
But I don't know. I thought Birmingham I think has this by a mile.
We'll see, you know, Mawlers defense if they can hold them in
track. But I just don't know if the Maulers have enough firepower here.
I mean, I just thought Birmingham looked really really really really good on Sunday.
Here really didn't seem close. I mean I think actually, you know,
turned the game off here at far of the fourth quarter. It kind
of felt like a losing thank Yeah. But yeah, Max is saying here
comment creating at one point too. I think it's higher than one point too.
I think it's high than one point too. Leave your predictions on here
and we will get out of here. Yeah, act my age Modre London
so much better than his competition, but the players are better in the us
BEL. He's still good player, but he's going against good players. Now.
Oh that's good, good feedback on that. I appreciate that. But
yeah, like and subscribe. Check back in here. We'll get out of
here today. I appreciate everyone's time, Like I said, writing with me,
Hope Pat's okay. I will check in with him. We got the
us BEL ratings. We'll have to see. I'm sure Twitter is just fine
right now. I'm sure I haven't missed anything being on here, but we'll
be curious to see how that goes. We'll see you guys next time.
Like and subscribe. Thanks to you all, like I said, for writing
this out with me, and we'll see you next time. Next time,