Well, Happy Tuesday everyone here, coming off of the long Memorial Day weekend.
Hope everyone had a good time coming today Tuesday. You know, Pat
and I felt like it would probably be better than trying to do it on
the holiday, and I know Pat was working hard over the weekend. Dorothy's
back at school now, so I can get back to talking about USFL football
here. Interesting games this weekend. Nothing quite as bad as the blowout that
the Star stuffort last night, six zero against the Vegas gold Nights, but
I'm sure we will have fun stuff to talk about today. I'm gonna bring
it Pat, Pat, how are you doing, sir? You know,
a little tired? Shocker shocker guys, the USFL hater and me, I
did not watch all the games live, but because you know, we have
a show to do, and I am a champion of these leagues, I
watched them, I think starting at nine pm last night all the way till
now, you know, I watched them. I watched Yellow Jackets, you
know, the season finale of that, and I watched all the USFL games
and till about twenty minutes ago. So I did that for you guys.
You know I was I was thinking about this so I was doing a little
market research this weekend, just obviously over the long. Let me change my
microphone here, that would probably help me sound better. I do look market
research here over the weekend. I think we are the highest view. It's
a little bar, but I just think we're the highest viewt USFL either you
know, preview, recap whatever. So the haters that we are. I
was poking around the internet this weekend. We've had a lot of podcasts drop
off after the XFL season. You know, We've had obviously, you know
Stefan and Zach and them, and there's Sports Gambling Network. There are a
lot of different guys. But I think we have no offseason here. It's
no days off. We have CFLs already. But I do think that we
are as much as the haters we are. I just wanted to point that
out. Guys, So you are doing good worth their pat well. I
mean the haters come out to, you know, to boost our engagement,
right, Like a view is a view. So if I'm going to come
on and on someone's show that I don't like and to say, hey man,
this is the worst video ever, hey man, it's engagement. The
comments, So pat here we are exciting here week seven. I just got
the standings up here. We'll go kind of week by week and all that
general thoughts here, Like you know, you're coming fresh off having just watched
all the games as well. I caught as much as I could throughout the
weekend, especially the Gamblers game and the Stars. Did you make of USFL
Week seven? Um? So, I just did my quarterback rankings, and
outside of Kenji Bahard, it was actually some of the best quarterback play I
think we've seen. Like Troy Williams had an okay game. He was in
the back end, you know, law let us started out real slow.
I think he was two of seven in the half. In my notes I
have right now or before the half. Obviously, DeAndre Johnson getting hurt not
only hurts the team in a tremendous way, but he's such a fun player
to watch and I've seen a lot of improvement from him this year. So
it's really sad to see that Michigan gets back on track. Some breaking news
on that he was removed from the roster, and then newsroom James Larson,
you know, got it direct from the source that he was released. So
there's an open quarterback vacancy there, So that's kind of, you know,
a little bit shocking. I guess who was? Yeah, I say that
the e. You didn't say the name. Oh excuse me. Eric Barrier
out of East Washington. He played in two games last year. He's he's
way more athletic. Comes from that Mike Leech air raid type offense. If
you're a CFL guy, same school as a Bernd Adams, you know,
same type of players, same type of offense. They both came from Eastern
Washington. So I mean that's kind of sad. But you know, Josh
Love, it's been put up or shut up for him the last two weeks.
With Carson Strong out in a decent game last week. This week he
obviously one player of the week. You know, Magoo magic continues the role
obviously Cole Kelly with some big time throws while getting hit, you know,
not the sexiest stat line, but he made the plays when it needed to
happen. And that's why you know, Memphis is Memphis is a second Now
our boy MBT, you know, showing some fatigue, man, like he's
he's making some great throws and he starts off so hot and then cools off.
I don't know if that's a script thing. I don't know if that
John di Filippo get out coached by h John Chavis and Skip holds on the
Birmingham side, but I mean MBT keeps him in it. Uh. West
Hills they're running back looks really fatigued to me as well. I'd like to
see more Anthony Jones their backup, not because I think Anthony Jones is better
than West Hills, but because you know, the guy's been getting the rock
almost thirty times a game. Uh. You know, people don't realize how
much of a uh thanks Chris, how much of a how much like he
does in the receiving game as well, and those hits add up, man,
especially if you're going out for a pass and you don't you know,
get the reception, you still get a little nick You're still you know,
putting Max's effort. So it is a little bit of it is a little
bit disheartening to see some guys just you know, trail down. I think
at West Hills was a CFL guy as well. Um, so you know,
maybe there's some fatigue at that. But I know you talked to Trey
Watson last or two weeks ago. I talked to him last week and uh,
we talked it's about a little bit when I talked about him about with
Tray about you know, CFL to this, but you know, off camera,
Trey was like, man, I'm just you know, you know,
I'm trying to get back to the NFL, etceter. But like I wasn't
one hundred percent, man, And I'm like, yeah, I don't blame
you like you did May and then you know training camp in May to you
know, playing ten almost ten games in the CFL, and then January camp
starts at the XFL. So like you got taken an account with a couple
of these guys, especially Hills and MBT as well, and you can even
you can even throw that bow into Sage Surat who was injured last year and
then comes into camp as well. Granted a little bit more advantageous for him,
but you know, he probably wasn't one hundred percent a couple of weeks
ago, despite what his statistical output was. So I think we're seeing some
fatigue by some guys who have been in NFL camps, XFL for five minutes
CFL last year. We're starting to see some of that in my opinion.
But the story of the USFL is the strong strong stat versus a week North
is vice versa, and the XFL, so I'm very curious to see.
Obviously the tiebreaker was put out by USL Twitter. You know, you're really
similar to the counterpart. But in the end, it is football, so
it doesn't get too complicated when it comes to tiebreakers, right, Yeah.
I did, like, yeah, the the USFL, it's it's interesting when
they had them. When they had the kickoff thing with the NFL the big
vote last week, and there was a lot of XFL kickoff talk. We
had a lot of USFL like, hey, we also have an interesting kickoff
too, And now I think that they were like, oh yeah the tiebreaker
like that went pretty viral with the XFL, like we need we need to
post out as well. Yeah, I mean, I mean, you know
these leagues. You know, football's football when it comes down to it.
Um. I like the XFL kickoff for the XFL. I don't know about
it for the NFL. UM. Sometimes the USFL kickoff is just too much.
You know. It seems like the ball is starting at the forty five
all the time, so maybe it's lates the field. These these kickers their
stats a little bit because they're having more attempts in a ten games fan,
And that's something I'd have to dig into. And you know, Greg Parks
seems like he has a bunch of free times, so he probably don't dug
into it already. But you know, something I always talk about with these
leagues is like special teams is where these guys are going to make their money.
So they need to return kicks, they need to run down the field,
they need to do all this stuff stuff. The thing I like about
the XFL kickoff is that it keeps them healthy so they can go to code
to the NFL. But what I like about the USFL kickoff is that they
are returning it more, so they're getting more opportunity. The returners are getting
more opportunity, and then you're able to measure that speed from the guy running
with the kicker. So I flip a coin depending on how I feel about
it that day, you know, Like, you know, Josh Simmons probably
made himself a little bit of money this week of the Maulers. He had
some good returns a hen he's been a top pump returner. So these guys
are probably going to garner some workouts and interest based off their returnability alone.
But in the end, like we don't talk about you know, guy who's
running down as the gunner, like Vinnie Papali called the touchdown this week and
then made a special team's tackle right after. Vinnie Papali is not going to
be your wide receiver three or four on an NFL team. The only way
he's going to make a rosters can he return punts? Can he cover kicks?
You know, that was my big criticism with Reggie Corbyn last year that
I always get a lot of hate for is like I would rather sign Cam
Scarlett or Stevie Scott because they play on kickoff, not returning, but they
play on the kickoff. And you know, Corbyn's done a good job this
year being more involved in the passing game, so maybe it adds to his
value. He's a great kick returner. But special teams is where it's at,
and you know, when we mess with it too much, we're messing
with people's jobs. Essentially. I'll never forget Larry Isot of the Miami Dolphins
couldn't play linebacker worth a lick, but man, he made twenty tackles a
year on to kickoff. Well, it's interesting. I was talking with Eric
Eager about this on I believe it was last week's show, the one that
you know from Friday with John Hodge and all of that, and that's what
he pointed out. With the you know, the NFL kickoff and all of
that going the way, you know you're gonna have guys like to Kavante Turpin,
you know who came out. I think there was a SoundBite over the
weekend like well, I'm still going to return the balls, like I'm not
going to fair catch, which I like. Right, I mean, that's
a good spot for him. But you know a lot of these guys,
like you said that you make their money in the Spring League transitioning to the
NFL if there's not as much of a role for them. The other thing
that I had with you're talking about you know, McLeod looking tired West Hills.
I had it back and forth with one of the YouTube commenters this weekend
because they were upset that the XFL wasn't allowing players to opt out to the
CFL. Right, it's only to the NFL, and he goes, well,
I thought this was a player league, and I thought, whatever,
I'm like, it's not sustainable for most of these guys to play that many
times, you know, to go from XFL to USFL or whatever to CFL
back to the NFL. Like yeah, I mean there's you know, certain
cases, you know, Darnell Sanky, you know, could could do the
CFL and or whatever we want to do that way, but it's just not
sustainable to have eighty of these guys transitioning through the calendar all year, if
that makes sense. No, and I don't. I didn't read your comments
specifically. I know I love to comment, but John Hodge was completely reasonable
about wanting the one of these leagues to fail, like they're losing American talent,
and like, if you're a Canadian nationalist, that's great, Like I'm
not knocking on anyone for wanting to champion the Canadians to play in the Canadian
Football League, but like there's there's just a lot of football players kind of
in this weird purgatory of like what am I doing and whatnot? So like
we always champion. There's six there's sixteen approximately sixteen hundred jobs right now for
staff and players and coaches and all that goofy stuff, and that's great.
I'm uber about that. But on the plus side, like you know,
some of these guys are getting cut release cut really like, hey man,
you gotta think about your body, you know, Like it comes down to
financials and tray tray, and I talked about that as well, but it's
like, if you know, money is important, but man, you're gonna
you're gonna make an extra ten grand playing in this league and then be done
for your career because you blew out your knee because you're not recovering. Like
you know, you hear stories about bets in the NFL, like they don't
practice still Friday, you know, because they're literally off their feet, you
know, and taking towardolf shots and right. And you know, I get
it, man, you gotta do what you gotta do. But some of
this league hopping. While I get it. You know, a guy like
Kyle Sluller is gonna make a little bit extra money this year because of it.
But in the end, man, it's like it's a little bit scary
for these guys's health. You know. Let's go through some of the games
and sure we'll get some other step here. We'll talk about Stallion's breakers coming
in here. I think the biggest news of the weekend is McLeod no longer
a beer than Beer Brethren. What was this like? First of all,
the mark Ass curse is definitely a thing. I posted this over the weekend.
McCleod has not won a game since appearing on the Mark Hass. Meanwhile,
Ben Holmes, famously now of the Toronto Argonauts, when the Gray Cup
not no showing my show going on that way, but McCleod shaving It was
like when Julio Rodriguez, like when he was cold a little bit earlier this
season for the Mariners, he wouldn't wear his pants up anymore. He would
wear the full length. He wouldn't show his stockings when he was batting,
like trying to Okay, I gotta get my mojo back? Is that McCleod,
Like, what is going on here? I mean, you gotta do
it's it's cool until it's not right with the beer gang and whatnot. Obviously
it's a little bit hot in Birmingham. Um you think that's it? If
a temperature thing, I mean maybe maybe he tried to trim it up and
it messed up. Like you know, I mean McLeod, it's got a
good, uh good set of hair on him, so I'm sure he's got
decent, you know, Nordic genetics, which you know, I think his
middle name's baltaz Are or something. Yeah, an article on him for your
site, But I mean he's got good genetics. That bureau come back.
I don't know, man, what's help with these breakers? Like he's not
playing that bad, like he goes to Coote Spurts, but I think he
started four four. Yeah. John McLeod, John Balthazar Bethel Thompson, the
phenomenal name. Not that much younger than me. I mean, I'm an
eighty six baby. McLeod and I are actually the same age, Andy,
And I think his uh his grandfather's name is like Wilburn Moose and he was
like an Olympic shot put. Yeah, go on the Wikipedia page real quick,
okay, Bilburg, Yeah Thompson. Yeah, dude, I've done a
lot of MBT research. But um, I mean, I mean, dude,
he put them in the position to win this week man, Like I
don't know how much of the game you call it this weekend, but this
one like he's driving down they had like you know, they got the ball
to twenty. I think it was like forty something seconds last or something like
that. And you know, he threw a dime to one of his receivers
that got ruled incomplete, another dime to Jonathan Adams that you know, set
them up at like the four year or something like that. And you know
the pocket broke down on that hail Mary through you know, through an interception
that was a big bugga boot. That was a big bugga boo on the
last play the game. But the guy, the guy, the guy's battling
out there, man, And I mean he's not playing he's not playing with
the best offensive line, you know. And you know, like I said,
west Hills is a little bit, a little bit haggard. He had
twenty, He's got twenty attempts this week, probably another three or four receptions.
I mean, I think he had like ninety something all purpose yard,
which is probably his lowest output, which is scary, but I mean it
is what it is. You know, it is a receiving corps. Fine.
I think that offensive line just needs to give him a little bit more
time. He got hit a couple of times by quinnin polling, and I
noted quinnin polling last week for not being able to finish on a wild plays
because he was getting in the backfield on almost every play and then just couldn't
finish that tackle. So that loss of two turned to like a gain of
note of one yard, which you know obviously didn't matter too much last week
for the Stallions. But in the end, man, like the Birmingham team's
no joke. I think I think coming into the season, they returned like
sixty percent of their roster, you know, and they retooled at the position
too, but picking up Richard Smith and picked up Austin Watkins and Myron Mitchell
and dave On Davis former XFL guy Jase Sternberger. So I mean, we
can knock the breakers all we want, but in the end, like Stallions
are the best team in the league right now. Well it's crazy because you
know here obviously coming off for last year in the championship game, and I
think there was a lot of lamenting here at the beginning of the season and
what's going on, and they started slow here, but you know, McGoo
looks like the real deal. You know, obviously they're not asking to do
with as much as they are with McLeod here, which is crazy twenty four
or forty two. It's just like it feels like a Benda Nucci stat line
here going on. But you know, I don't know, they're getting back.
They got the home field. I thought the crowds looked better this weekend.
We can talk about the show boats during that, but it does feel
like they're finally clicking to get in here and carrying back the way that we
were talking in the group chat yesterday where the Generals maybe didn't retool enough in
the offseason bringing it back the Sallions. We're able to kind of retain here
what their core was it run it back here and they're looking really good.
Yeah. And there was two special teams plunders um for the for the Breakers.
I don't remember if they cashed in on both of them, but I
know they cashed in on one. There was one on the fumball on the
kick return and then fumball on the punt um. I mean, special teams
is always always a big deal in my opinion. You know, kind of
worked out, they had it kind of worked out in their favor. Big
thing I want to shout out was, you know, Joe Clatt did a
great job commenting, and I love the fact that they clowned on Carrera at
the end of the game. I don't know if you saw that, but
there was a punt and clap. Clat was straight up like, I don't
know what he's looking at here, and I think that's kind of a running
gag at this point, you know. And also, let's really shout out
Mike Pereira wearing the high water sweatpants in the We'll Ask You there you kind
of for the second where Mike farrew wet was wearing the high water like sweatpants
jogger sweatpants in the studio. I just the thing, I don't know,
Mike Pereira gets like heal heat on the show. I don't really understand that
in the way that I don't think playing Dino does. It does seem like
Pereira. I mean, it seems like we commented last week. I mean,
every time I'm watching the games, they're they're arguing with him about something.
They're sand he's not seeing it, right. Yeah, I mean I
think they had the what is a catch situation towards the end of the game.
But there was a down punt by Kobe Watman that was at the negative
inch line, and it clearly looks like the receipting like I have football with
me, and it clearly looks like he had. He had the football like
this when he tucked it back before he touched the end zone. But Pereira
called it a touchback, and I mean maybe a game more interesting came down
to the final seconds obviously on an MBT heat But I mean, regardless of
that, Clatt's doing a great job. Like it's he's uber enjoyable to listen
to. He obviously knows what he's talking about. Do you how do you
feel I know last year there was a lot of criticisms for some of the
USFL teams and even this year, people you know where they sound sleepy and
I know they're not flying him in all the time and all of that.
But you know, we've got a lot of ESPN like we didn't like this
when the kid to the XFL. Do you feel like the USL commentating is
better worse than the XFL. I think it's better because they mentioned the betting
a little bit less. I mean, that's that was my biggest concern.
I think you see it the over under on the thing when it shows up
on the little on the on the score from the score tracker or whatever you
want to call on the scoreboard. But like, I mean, Fox,
like Fox is putting out like they're a team if I'm not, If not,
they're a team, they're a minus team. While well the XFL would
ESPN was putting out guys and gals who were like in the up and up.
And you know, Jack Collinsworth last year was a guy. You know,
you got Cameron Hayward. He's been doing games here and there and whatnot.
But I mean, you know, Jack Collinsworth's snow scrub. You know,
Cameron Hayward has been around the game a decent amount, which obviously doesn't
mean anything, but it seems like Fox is using the sideline reporters to be
more of their like training grounds and whatnot, which where Jack was and now
they have Jake. But Devin Gardner was there last year. But you know
he's always on the watch. You know, I got a lot of love
for Devin Gardner. You know, was a big fan of his at when
he played at Michigan. So I mean it's cool too, you know,
it's cool to see Jake, but there as well. You know, it's
a guy who had high helps her in the NFL a lot of injuries and
uh, you know, still see him involved in the game and whatnot.
Yeah, it feels like the sideline, like he said, I don't.
And obviously it was kind of like Brock with the XDL back in twenty twenty,
and I know when he's been doing games, you know, it's it's
like with the USFL, like we're kind of trying to replicate that. For
whatever reason, it does feel a little bit more organic in the XFL.
I know, they're both doing it now and kind of like ones begetting the
other and they're both kind of going back and forth. It does feel like
it's a little bit more natural. I don't. I don't really feel like
I ever gained a lot from the USFL sideline stuff and the way that I
thought some of this stuff that you know, Kole Kublick was doing or whatever.
With the XFL this year felt a little more fun and if that makes
any sense. Yeah, and you know, when Devon's doing it, I
have no problem. But you know, Jake Bud's never done this before,
so this is his like spring training essentially. But the commentating in the play
by play, you know, with Joe Klatt memo fees Downe a couple of
games, Greg McRoy, I know, seeing Greg mclroys ESPN, but the
one other gentleman, you know, I'm feeling like they're bringing their A team
to that because it's easier when you don't have to find them out, you
know, you keep them in studio. Oh well no, And that's the
thing I mean, it's it is interesting sometimes when they're talking, like Kurt's
like, oh, you know the feeling here in Detroit. It's like you're
not You're not anywhere near Detroit, brother, Like you as think you're saving
money here on these flights. Bro, You're not even wearing cants right now,
you're doing that. Let's see here, all right, So stars coming
up here kind of you know, getting back on track here, right are
they? They're technically top in the in the north right now here at four
and three. Uh god, it's it's really really weak. And we have
a comment here from Gregory. We can talk about the parody later here with
all the teams still being in it. What did you make here? Malers
here and kind of continuing their downward slide, obviously closer. But what do
you make of this? I mean, they're they're way more competitive this year,
and you know that says a lot to uh, you know, coach
Hardens. Troy Williams had, you know, a mediocre game in my opinion.
I think I ranked him at seven or eight. I ranked him at
eight out, just ahead of Bahar h dynamic on the rushing attack obviously,
but he was their leading rusher. Usually what they're pretty good about doing is
getting London to that thirty forty yard range, Groschek to that twenty five to
thirty yard range, and then Williams kind of does does the rest. Um
Cucus looked a lot better. You know, he only got sacked once.
He got hit a decent amount. But I've said before, I said again,
like Stars have one of the better receiving cores in this group. Anytime
he got Corey Coleman. Regardless of his NFL career, he's still a first
round pick for a reason. I think he took one for like fifty five
yards or something like that. It was, you know, great, great
to see him continue to succeed. Um, you know, a little bit
too much rushing for Cucus. I think he was like almost thirty yards or
something like that. I'm really worried about his health still, but they were
able to keep him upright just enough. Colburn had a good coming out game,
really leaned on him. You know, some tough rushes as well.
But Stars are probably gonna win the North. They're probably gonna go back to
the championship and that'd be what up their fifth time. A shout out Cucus
by the way for coming up on three thousand passing yards in the USFL and
this career. I like to the clip where Case lost his ring. I
saw that floating around on Twitter as well. Now I lost my wedding ring.
He's I like, he's kind of a goober. I mean, I
like, I like Case Salon and I think he's a good obviously good quarterback.
He is a little bit of a boob. But it's like I tell
my wife, I lost my wedding ring. I lost my wedding ring.
So I thought that was funny. Uh yeah, they had that one of
them. I was one of the something like that's happened before where a guy
like lost their necklace in the end zone or something they couldn't find it.
Some precious valuable, Like let's let's leave that's why do they wear like the
silicon rings and so let's leave them the hardware for another time. Yeah,
or you get tattooed on you know, you know the bed. Yeah.
Here, so we're looking here in the in the north here I can see
right over the sands. Yeah, it seems like you know, Stars,
you know there are two games up now right against the Panthers, Like do
we is this a repeat or were heading back to Stars Stallion's part two?
I think so. I mean, I don't see it in another way.
I know that that that I don't want to say that gasped by the what
was it the US website put that new playoff structure in? I mean,
dude, at this point, man, it's not the worst idea. Like
I would rather see the Breakers, the Breakers Stallions than the Stars um Stallions,
honestly, because it's in my opinion, like you know, the Breakers
would put a better, better, better show on especially but they're one and
one and Whatnotum, I mean, Philly, Philly has got some good things,
but then, like you talked about every week, they didn't they didn't
improve their offensive line. Um, cookis has been beat up. They got.
You know, the defense is doing pretty okay. Channing Shribbling hasn't been
as much as a ballhawk this year, but he hasn't been bad, you
know, Amani Dennis has kind of picked up his statistical slack um and whatnot.
But man, that I just the two best teams and I know they
lost this week, but the breakers and the Stallions or who I would want
it like if it came down in the USFL Championship NBT throwing a forty yard
like heave to the end zone for the final play not a bad book in
my opinion. That was Yeah, for anyone that wasn't tracking this last week,
that was the most bizarre thing. Where I Fran that writes with Paul
Reads over at our Sports Essential and Paul's obviously the USFL historian. He's been
on the show bunch. Fran was on our live show and Fran sends me
over the whatever the new article he wrote, and I'm checking it out and
it's showing. It's showing the for the playoffs that the one seed in each
division is going to play the two seed in the other division. I thought,
well, like Fran, where did this coverm was like, it's on
the website. It's on the website. It came out in the press release
and I go on there and who yeah, whoever was writing the articles for
that was just the most bizarre thing. I know, we reached out to
the league, I know Mike reached out to the league, but really the
most bizarre thing that they concocted this entire all universe playoffs scenario, wrote like
clinching scenarios out of it, and then had the backtrack at all and they
said, well, no, it's actually the one seed. It's going to
face the two seed in each of their divisions. Wait, how did that
happen? Pat? I mean the same it's the same guy who probably wrote
the sixty five destroy it right. I mean maybe it was a conversation and
I'm you know about like, hey, like, this is not going to
be a good championship game, and you know, I think Cannon's gonna show
out, show out in for the for the playoffs. You know, they
put together a good product, especially that championship game, and they're probably like,
hey, man, like this ain't gonna be a good game, dude,
because and maybe maybe part of it too is that they don't want the
Stars to play the Stallions in um next next champion in the championship. I
don't know, but man, I mean your g guess is as good as
mine. Someone someone's getting some heat right now, especially if it's that same
guy or gal that did the sixty five hundred fans? Do you do we
like the parody here? We talked about this every week. I've talked about
this on the on the Normal Friday Show? Do we like this? And
every team's basically you know, gals and mallers a kind of value, but
every where everyone else is kind of more or less than that. I mean,
it makes these games matter, right, Like if if the Stars were
seven or six and one or seven and one going into a you know,
week eight and week nine, would we care as much if they were playing
if they were playing you know, who are they playing? I think they
played gamblers this week, would we care as much? You know, like,
you know, Panthers are playing the Breakers this week. So now we're
kind of like, oh man, this this game matters too, because you
know, what happens with the malers in generals if they figure it out like
it were, you know, do Stars take another lead like if the Panthers
upset the Breakers, then obviously, uh, you know, the playoff.
The playoff run for MBT gets a little bit more murky, and then you
got the show boats like Cole Kelly's cool. Kelly has been my dog this
whole time, you know, like I'd probably be good and think dB this
good. So it's um, I mean, it's keeping these games interesting,
right, and that's all you really want, and especially in an eight game
or eighteen, like, it's good that you know two playoff spots. I
don't know what the percentage is to the fourteen versus the fourteen versus the thirty
two in the NFL, but like we have to care about if you care
about like watching this league, you have to care about these games. You
have to stay in tune to see what's going on. So maybe he draws
a couple more more fans. I'm not really sure, but you know,
for me, I'm all about it. A couple of questions here, we'll
go to the next gamble, we'll stop here. Xander Alex mcgo m USL
MVP hands down. What do you make of of that? I mean,
he ain't wrong every time I post a QB ranking Xander Xanders in those comments
saying that MPP. So, I mean, Xander, you're not getting any
hate from me on that. I definitely agree with you. It's not only
what he does with his let with his arm, it's like it's moving around,
creating that extra time sometimes like they said, he does too much.
But I mean, he's making plenty of plays. And you know he was
robbed of a like there were four bad drops, so stat line seeven a
little bit deflated. Like Adrian Hardy dropped the pass, Jasternberger dropped the pass,
Dion Kane dropped the pass, and then Michael Pettway slipped and he couldn't
reel in a pass that would have been like a twenty two yard first down
on a first and like or a second and twenty one or something like that.
So his stat line is a little bit deflated in my opinion. Question
here from Mike and this is interesting. Would it be good or bad for
the league if the Stallion's winning again? My comment, then we'll go to
past. You know, I think ideally you would like to see another team
win just to kind of get that kind of get that rub off of it.
I don't feel like Birmingham has been as hot this year. I feel
like they it felt like they got burned out last year and going to all
the home games and the tenant you know ten and asking everyone ten weekends in
the road to kind of do that, has it felt like they've got the
rub? I do think you would like to have, you know, Philly
wins and the next year we're moving Philly into their home market here Gregory has
a comment about that, right, moving the teams in, But you would
like to see that, you know, let's get Houston get the rub or
kind of whoever, what do you make about that in terms of that Bred
winning again an agreement? You know, like I like to skip poles a
lot, So from like a personal standpoint, i'd love to see him win
another championship. But you know, if he does that, he'll probably he'll
probably get some calls of coaching, you know, I know he was connected
to the uab UAB this year. My thing would be, I would really
like to see Detroit or Memphis win, or Michigan or Memphis win, just
because it is, you know, a hub city. But I don't think
what you're saying is outlandish about um, you know, Houston winning, people
in Houston are like, oh, we have a football another football team,
which is pretty cool, like and then it might motivate the USFL. So
like if next year their goal is to get Philadelphia into a Hub and then
Houston wins, they're like, Okay, well we should probably try this one
out, because you know, people in Touchas love football. People in Houston
love football. You know, the Roughnecks, you know, put together a
pretty decent show this year. Why not why not, you know, get
another team in there and kind of get some of that residual. And I'm
curious to see and from a Houston standpoint, if Houston and the Roughnecks are
bad next year, but the Gamblers are good this year, you know,
going and they are in their Hub in twenty twenty four or their Shabeuve in
twenty twenty four, will we see an uptick and fans for the Gamblers versus
the Roughnecks And then we'll but to do that, we got to see attendance,
right So, And I'm you know, we can talk about the attendance
all we want, circles, but I'm good with not seeing the attendance for
Canton, which show me the Michigan games, not even the stars. Just
show me the Panther games, show me the Showboat games, and show me
the Standing games. It's interesting, you know, where you have both in
alternate worlds here where you have both the Houston and Detroit. We're both of
those NFL teams rather really rebuild right now. You know, the Lions looking
good at you, you know, presumably here why you know this coming year
into the next year kind of rebuilding, and an alt world where both of
those teams are still you know, duty you would think that maybe you get
a little bit more rub with the USFL where both of those markets are kind
of rebuilding. You feel like there has to be a little bit more,
you know. And I mean that goes to the Roughnecks as well. But
you know, these all leagues competing in markets where the teams are actually building
themselves to be better has to kind of hurt a little bit. I mean,
it just depends. I think for the Panthers it helps them because everyone's
excited about football in Michigan and specifically obviously in Detroit with the Lions. But
then I think it goes either way. But we don't have enough data to
accurately do that because I think you could be you could be one hundred percent
right or one hundred percent wrong, like you know what I mean. And
I was big on the Panthers being you know, showing out this year,
and I think they, you know, from what we've seen, it's been
you know, first two weeks were good, that third week didn't look too
good, and then last week was okay. In my opinion, I think
it looked like over ten thousand ends. But you know, coming from Birmingham,
where I've been very vocal about this, like so much credit to the
people of Birmingham who are not associated with these players, these coaches, just
dudes and gals just doing something on a Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday
night to continue to show up. I think that's you know, they were
asked to do way too much that city. And you know, I know
they made out like five million dollars plus and whatnot, but man, that's
that's a lot, dude. Like, you know, I get tired of
watching these games on my couch sometimes. You know, I'm like, well,
we're like eighteen weeks into this, seventeen weeks into this, like you
know, I'm beat down a little bit. But you know, to ask
to actually go to the games, you know, even if the tickets are
free, you know, even if I'm you know, getting comp drinks and
whatnot. Man Like, I have a way better time watching these games on
my couch than I do at the stadium. We had the comment here,
Dylan talking and I don't want to get into the post XFL depression, but
yeah, a little bit of football fatigue here, a little bit of spring
football especially. I don't know how many of our fans overlap going into the
CFL here picking up and at least to me, that feels different, right,
And you know, the CFL is kind of a different where. You
know, I've had Bill say on a couple of times with the athletic where
for the casual fan there is not a lot to differentiate the XFL and the
USFL. I know that we sit here in the minutia and go back and
forth, but generally speaking, you know, if you turn my mom onto
either game, she wouldn't know, Okay, this is the one that oh
buy the Rock or Fox or whatever. So are you feeling that they kind
of football fatigue here? I am, And I think that's why I'm looking
forward to the CFL, and I think for us read not to put us
on a high horse, but because we talk to the players, and like,
you know, we interview players, when we interview coaches, and we
talk with all these people, and I mean, you keep sending me freaking
guys in my DMS to talk, you know, try to get them,
you know, in my contacts in the league and whatnot. The coaches keep
coming to me, and I'm like, you know, it's kind of like
a NonStop grind with ill like about the CFLs like I'm a very casual writher
for it, you know, so I can kind of just watch watch the
game and turn off. I don't, you know, like I pay attention
to Brian, I pay attention to my glass. I pay attention to certain
players, and I watched them from a more analytical group faction. But I
mean, like for the CFL, for me, it's just enjoyable, you
know, Like I don't I don't have to press pause, I don't have
to rewatch the game. I can enjoy the football. And I do that
with certain things in the NFL as well. I like the NFL because I
can just I can sit there and have a beer and kind of do that
talking here, and so let's get into the next game. Speaking of attendance,
I was very in this the game I turned on Sunday, I was
very impressed with this. I was very impressed that Memphis looks good. I
know we've kind of pooh pooed on them, and you know, obviously the
non hut, but I was impressed with this. What did you make of
the Memphis crowd and then obviously the game. The only thing that I'll like
say negative about Memphis is just that stadium is so weird that it, like,
I feel like they may have had like a five thousand person person attendance
a couple of weeks ago, and we would never know because of how that
stadium is built. Because while Birmingham was on the opposite sideline, they still
had probably you know, five hundred two a thousand people on the visiting sideline.
You know, granted it's a big game, but like that the home
team sideline was filled up. You know, it looked pretty good. Like
so, I don't think I think Memphis gets a bad shake, because we
don't. You know, if there's you know, five thousand people for a
game, you know, not a bad not a bad shake still probably you
know, pretty okay in the checkbook. We don't we don't get the best
the best view of it, in my opinion, because of how weird shape
that stadium is, and that bothers me a lot, because I don't think
it's fair to even the players, you know, getting getting hyped up and
going back to the Birmingham Mingham game, there was a lot of like you
know, you could hear the actual chance and whatnot as well. You know,
that was cool to hear for you know, we don't always hear that
in these in these games. But I mean, I don't know where else
you put the show boats, you know, well, no, I mean
it makes sense to do it there. I just to me, like I
said, I was just impressed where and I saw comments online. I think
it was on Facebook as well, Like you know, it just proves that
it's working there. I was talking with listener Seth, and I guess Memphis
is is you know obviously in the area there in terms of like being visible
with doing stuff and sending players out. It just feels like that's the ultimate
goal. You know, in the USFL. We've talked to people, you
know, slow instead you kind of all that stuff. It just it proves
like it it does work in a in an area where you know the team
is becoming successful. Now I know they started slow, but you have that
momentum going to me. It's not asking as much like we said with Birmingham,
where it felt like Birmingham was criticized all last year. I wouldn't go
to the ten home games either, if I have the opportunity to do it.
Just it put a lot on them where it feels it might be a
little bit more organic with Memphis. Yeah, and Memphis is a good market.
You know, there's no football there, there's no protein there. It's
you know, they have you know, the Grizzlies are there. They've got
some good minor league baseball. It's a decent tourist attraction. Um, if
you're a real football like, like hardcore real football fan like and you really
like the BattleHawks to three hour drive to get down the Memphis you know,
um, you can pick up some people from Arkansas, you can pick up
some people from southern Missouri, southern Illinois. So there's you know, there's
semi attraction for people to go out get shifty on Beal Street and then go
to a football game. You know they can get that because you go,
um, you know, I used to go to Memphis Redbirds games a lot.
You know when I lived in Southeast Missouri. It's you know, two
and a half hour drive for me, two hour drive, and it's like,
you know, let's go have some decent barbecue, go see a site,
and then you know, go to a game for fifteen bucks. Like
so you can you can pick up some Jules Is there as well. How'd
your boy Kelly um? I so spoiler alert, I ranked him at number
two, not the sexiest stat line. He had fifty percent completion percentage,
but he made two tough throws for his touchdowns. And that touchdown that Derek
Dylan, he got rocked on Um and you know, delivering a good pass
and Dylan did the rest. I mean another And some of these receivers in
the USFL, man, like a lot of these receiver rooms are high quality
or like, guys, I could continue. You know, I'm more impressed
with the receivers in both the XFL and USFL than any other position, honestly.
And I mean the chips were on, the chips were on on the
uh you know, the chips, chips were on the table and he delivered,
man, And that's really that's all you can ask, you know,
especially with all and I'll straight up call it all the bs that we saw
with the Brady White thing, and yeah, I get it. He's from
Memphis and whatnot to see him kind of I don't know if he was an
aft with thought per se, but you know, kind of have to be
inactive for a week at Ryan Willis play a couple of snaps and yeah,
I like, I like Ryan Wills and everything like that, but I mean,
Kelly Kelly's better, and Kelly's playing, and you know, I don't
know if he'll get another opportunity in the NFL. He was with the Commanders
for forty five minutes, but I definitely think like if the chips fall,
you know, he's kind of got that Jalen McClendon vibe if he you know,
he played a lot more in college than Jalen. But he just needs
another year in this league and then we'll really know what type of quarterback he
is moving forward. I didn't like it show Bus, but you know,
because now they're on their big, like undefeated streak and they posted they said,
yeah, if you weren't with us at and three, you can't be
with us at four and though, And I was like, I don't.
Normally it's like if you weren't with us and don't be with us now,
but it was like, you can't be with us. I'm like, I
would I would take any fan that I could get on the Memphis band wagon
right now. I wouldn't be telling anyone you can't be a fan of our
team. Yeah, I mean, I mean a little bit of alienation,
right, but it is what it is. You know, it makes for
it makes her a good tweet, and we're talking about it. So,
yeah, Mark Thompson here, you know, thirteen to times forty two,
you know, he's really feels kind of like that's that's you know, Houston's
kind of game plan here. And I don't know, it doesn't feel like
they have much more depth because on that well, Kenji bahar Man, he
was doing such a good job moving around in the pocket and rolling out and
I knew Josh Peterson had a pretty good game, but they were really hitting
a lot more drag routes to Justin Hall and the screen passes, and I
mean, we didn't it just couldn't get it done. I think he had
five five passes deflected at the line. One of them led to an interception.
In a couple of them, it looked like his arm angle dropped a
little bit, so it's like maybe he's trying to find those lanes on the
mesh. Maybe I'm not sure, but there were a couple where he like
cocked it back a little bit and it's still got deflected. And he's not
a short guy. I think he's six one six two. Like it was
maybe more about John John Atkins than anything else. You know, it just
seemed like there was a hand hand on the football every five minutes that you
know, every five attempts that but hard drop back on it was impressive from
the defensive line and they were getting plenty of pressure all day on the four
kid, so he couldn't really take that next step. And he's been improving
every week and this is probably the worst game he's played this whole year.
It's good, you know, I know Anthony lamenting here Gamblers and that,
you know that's the team he covers right for the news, Hubs and all
that, but you know, there's still at it here. It feels like
Memphis is on the upswing. Todd Haley is certainly not going to be yelling
at anyone on the sidelines after this one. Yeah, And I mean it's
competitive, It's you know, that whole South Division is competitive. It's a
toss up in these next three weeks. Um. You know they're all four
and three right now. I mean you know that. I think this,
excuse me, except the Stallions or five and two obviously, you know,
I think I think we could see you know, Birmingham finished the season,
you know, seven and three, and then I think we're gonna have a
tie breaker. Personally, you know, I hope it doesn't go down to
like the fourth or like with the BattleHawks and Dragon the Sea Dragons. But
I mean, these teams are going to cannibalize each other. And I want
to pull up the schedule just so I'm not talking out out of left field
or anything like that, but um, can you pull up the schedule?
Yeah, so we got here. We got Houston here against Michigan or sorry,
against Pittsburgh coming up, and then obviously Philadelphia against Birmingham h NBC USA,
and then Memphis at Jersey and then Panthers a breakers here. Yeah,
I mean all three of those teams could win this week and then you know,
then there'll be some cannibalization with the Breakers and show Boats in week nine.
Um, you know, you know, Birmingham could lose the Gamblers and
then week ten it's you know, going to be a Week ten and it's
going to be a big game for the show Boats versus the Stallions. And
if the Stallions are clinched, do they want to you know, throw everyone
out there. They're dealing with so many injuries, you know, on the
show Boats are playing and the Breakers are playing the Gamblers. So that's gonna
be a big game, and it's it's gonna it's gonna come down to some
some nasty stuff once again, because all these teams can be three and oh
or excuse me, could win out this weekend. They're all it's a very
winnable game for all of them. They are the superior team. You know,
they should be the favorite moving into week eight for going into Week e
or the betting and whatnot. So it could be real goofy going in the
week nine and then gets even goof here in week ten because both those games
are division games. Well here's so you know, spoiler, the ratings will
be out tomorrow. Obviously the LAYD with the holiday, I don't think ratings
will be good this weekend, just because of Memorial Day and people traveling to
kind of doing all that stuff. I do think though, in terms of
scheduling, and I don't I think the time slots in the networks matter far
more than the games. But I do think they're they're fortunate here where the
Birmingham Neworld game I think will be the highest view just because that's you know,
that was the one on NBC here kind of more in the good slot.
But if you go here the week eight with three of the games,
but especially with the Panthers at Breakers, that's going to be a good game
on Fox. You have the Stars at Stallion, so that's going to be
a good game on NBC. I think that at least, and they can't
flex these or they don't seem to want to, but at least I think
they're benefiting from if there is going to be a viewership boost with any of
these games, I think that some of the better games are happening to be
in those time slots. Yeah, you know, I was down down in
Lake Theo's arts this weekend and you know they were all on all the bars,
you know, so you got so you know, there's not much USFL
in the Midwest, so and Lake the os Arks, you got a lot
of Kansas City people, a lot of people from Iowa, a lot of
people from Nebraska. Um, you know, come up from Arkansas. So
I'm not saying that mattered because obviously everyone's getting drunk and whatnot. But they
were on at the bars for what that is, you know, so you
get some boosts there, a little bit of exposure to you know, the
one or two guys or gals other there at the bachelor party and don't want
anything to do with the chaos that is the lake of Theo's arcs. It
is funny, though, when you have a conversation I'll pull up the last
game here. When you have a conversation something okay, what like what is
this like what's going on? Like is this in Europe? You're like,
oh no, this is in like we had it with the XFL back in
twenty Like, I no, this is this is in Seattle or this isn't
where you know it is. It is a very foreign concept here to get
used to that. Finally, here we have Panthers. I can't win at
home, but at least can win here against the Generals. I know Andy
Murray was in the chat very down on Mike Riley's coaching. You know,
the DeAndre Johnson got injured. I don't know if he's out for the year.
Lots of things to talk about coming out of this game. Yeah,
I mean, this is the game I you know, was in team to
the most big big shout out to Reggie Corbyn. He only had the eight
yards rushing, but I think he had four or five receptions. He was
very he was running very tough. He was, you know, doing a
lot more grinding, taking that Stevie Scott role. Um, I think they
give me the dan ball thing is kind of played out at this point,
Like you know, over these averaging like forty forty yards a game, forty
five yards a game since he made that comment in week two or three.
But in the end, we saw from Josh Love and the offensive coordinator Eric
Marty a lot more of these dig routes and mesh routes and whatnot that you
know, sprung Trade Quinn a lot. They attacked the seams again once again,
So I mean it seemed like once Love got comfortable in that second half.
Um, you know, he returned to the prowess that is you know,
his Week one Offensive Offensive Player of the Week. He looks overall much
better than he did last year. Very curious to see what's going on with
Eric Barrier. Um. You know, the last two weeks for Josh Love
or kind of his make it or break it. We saw a lot of
improvement last week, you know, being able to play the game the whole
the whole game. You know, Strong was out for Strong was out,
you know with his knee injury and whatnot. But on the other side,
there's an open quarterback vacancy, you know for a guy, So we'll probably
see Brian Lurkie up. I mean, Michigan States ties to these Michigan players,
So don't be surprised to see a guy like Anthony Russo, Connor Cook.
Um. You know, I got goofy with this one. Ryan Mallett,
that's twenty twenty one spring league guy. Um to maybe get a call,
you know, because now it's coaching football right now, so you know
he uh, he's a high school head coach in Arkansas. I think,
so wouldn't be surprised to see maybe he comes up for two or three games,
you know, just to put on some shoulder pads for a little bit.
What do you what are you making the generals here? Like I said,
with DeAndre Johnson going out kind of a little that, I don't know
why he has been seeing as much action as he has here, But I
mean they're generals are kind of done for the year here. If john Jay's
out right, yeah, I mean I'm a man. This poor this poor
guy, man, this poor kid. I love this kid. He's you
know, I know, I know Mike Mitchell was a little bit critical how
babied he's getting and whatnot. But he's so much he's so dynamic and that
three headed rushing attack that we talk about every week. To see him get
hurt on the rushing attempt one, it just kind of breaks my heart.
But this law Letta is just we know who he is. He should be
in the USFL or the XFL. I don't. As long as he wants
to play football, I think he should have a job, but as a
backup so and there's nothing wrong with that. And you know he's probably a
financial advisor on the side, you know, or selling insurance. So he's
probably living a pretty decent life. But in the end, I'm just I'm
done with this dude. I'd rather see pru Cup play because at least pru
Cup is shifty and whatnot. Like Lett is athletic, don't get me wrong,
but pruke Up is a lot more fun to watch, you know.
He's he's a little bit more frant Harkington esque, you know, and he's
a bigger guy. He might roll someone over as well, so it would
be a good highlight. But I mean, the general is this, this
team through, this team runs through Johnson, and with him out, I
don't see much adjusting. Mike Mitchell is really critical about the team kind of
just ran it back, and that's fine and all. But you know,
it's fine until it's not. And it's not right now, well that's the
day. It just feels like they haven't we talked to you, they had,
they lost some guys. My microphones breaking here, they had some guys,
and it just doesn't feel like they did enough in the offseason to kind
of replenish that sad year. I mean, Generals are one of the kind
of standout franchises last year, and certainly one of the more recognizable franchises.
You would like to see them, you know, performing better here, but
that certainly it seems like they're done for the year. Yeah, I mean
it's it's it's definitely sad, you know, kudos in Michigan. They keeping
Josh right, Josh love Well relatively upright. Um. I think they made
a change at tackle. I know, Brodarius Ham was out in an injury.
I think you have a right quad or a right knee injury. And
then Josh Dumblap got to start, and it seemed like they had another guy
in there. I don't know if it was Ryan Nelson, um, one
of their reserved offensive lineman came in. But in the end, I mean,
they played a pretty clean game as best as they could. They have
two roster spots open Isheiman going to the Mallers now, so very curious to
see what's what they're gonna do with two roster spots. Obviously one should be
a quarterback, but we'll we'll see, I know, um, you know
a lot of people were really excited and I see him up there, Warren
Newman. They're wide receiver, but he's been kind of limited, you know,
not really getting as exposed as we'd like to see and you know,
more touches. So overall, really curious to see what's going on. Alonzo
more thirty years old and still making plays. Man, it's it's it's it's
fun to watch. Michigan here is still very much alive. I mean,
I know that kind of their home field, they're kind of the the Edmonton
Elks here of the USFL. But I mean, certainly still do you really
do you see them making the push here as it just too they're too far
gone. I mean, they're in that second spot, you know, like
who who's gonna take it from him? You know what I mean, Like
who's gonna who's gonna take Who's gonna take it from him? Like, you
know, Troy Williams is good, it's gonna come down to him. And
it seems like they're leaning too much on their defense and special teams and defense
won championships and that's great, but you know you can't do that given up
thirty seven points and against the Beliguered Stars offensive line. So I mean,
if if DeAndre comes back, I could see them making a push to the
generals if he's done for the year, which I feel like he's going to
be more limited right now because of his injury. Then I don't, I
don't. I don't see anything happening with the generals. Yeah, I mean
we had a comment here falling apart, why don't they play prucop more.
I don't understand that either. I don't get why he's never gotten more.
I mean, he didn't look great them a little bit we saw at the
beginning of the year. But it just seems weird that you wouldn't go to
him and stick with a lotta Yeah. I mean, I don't, I
don't. I don't know. You know, he's his arm strength isn't as
good as Lalto's, and you know, but he's a bigger guy. I
think he's six two, like two twenty two thirty, So you could run
a more aggressive approach in this readoption offense and you know, have prow cup
kind of barrel some guys over and whatnot. But I mean, law Letta
threw some balls in the dirt, like DeAndre was a victim the two bad
drops won by Brandon Bowman. I believe his tight end, but I mean,
like la Letta kind of turned it on in the second half, but
it was like two of seven going in the halftime. So I mean that
the Michigan game was pretty low scoring initially and then you know they've obviously won
twenty five to twenty twenty two, but I think it was like six three
going in the halftime. Well, here we go, we'll start putting the
you know, airplane down here or started the landing gear out. What did
you make of this week? You know, last week, I feel like
people were down and the gameplay wasn't as good. Obviously the games are a
lot more competitive this week. Thoughts on us of a Week seven as a
whole. I mean, it's kind of a shame that during Memorial Day we
s some of the better playing you know and whatnot. And I hope there's
a lot of people in these bars that I was, you know, running
around that you know, that saw the game and maybe got a little bit
more exposed and whatnot to the USFL. And you know, obviously that might
be a national thing because you know, people love football Memorial Day weekend,
all that good stuff. But you know, I think the ratings will be
down, and I don't think that's the USFL problem. I think that's just
the nature of the beast when it comes to everything like that. And I
don't think you know, people who want to troll the USFL, that's you
know, they're going to either way. But you know it's funny, you
see the ratings might go down, but the attendance was up, you know,
so kind of it's kind of like what we're doing here whatnot? But
I mean, as far as the actual product on the field, I'm pretty
good. I'm pretty good with what I saw. Like I said, it
was some of the better quarterback player I've seen in a while. And the
games are all competitive right now, and that's really the biggest thing. So
maybe if you didn't watch the game and week you turned you know, Fox
Sports app on or whatever, and you're like, oh, these games matter
and week nine okay, or excuse me, then watching in week seven,
but they matter in week eight, you might get a little bit more giddy
about it. You know. Yeah. We had a comment here, Mike,
and I'm not gonna lie with the holiday week and that note issues skipping
the USFL. Just watch YouTube pighlights this morning to catch up. May do
that more often. Moving forward, Mark here says, haven't watching USL.
I pretty much record the games and watch them on my own pace. That's
the challenge. And I was signing with Dorothy about this yesterday that you know,
the biggest ratings issue for the USFL. You know, we're talking about
the XFL March Mountains and all that USFL here coming into May through June into
July is just weather and people doing anything else outside they're watching TV. Where
the CFL, they really have their schedule, you know, where they go
June, July, August kind of through November. It's built where you can
kind of not watch the summer games if you want that. You could turn
on the CFL schedule Labor Day and kind of know what you need to know
for the rest of the year. Where the USFL here going their playoffs into
the summer. It really is the gameplay is peaking at the worst time where
people are going outside, do you know what I mean? Where the CFL
and they kind of understand that and they're like, okay, well, it's
almost like a modified preseason or it's like season part one, and then you
can come in where the USFL it is. It is harmful here going into
summer with the games. So we've been very critical about and we'll go on
a little journey with me real quick. We've been very critical about R J.
Young and his interviews that he's essentially given this platform of X amount of
people and he only gets four hundred views right this platform. So I'm on
the USFL YouTube channel. They have twenty five thousand subscribers. RJ. Young
did an interview three days ago with Corey Coleman, and guess how many views
that got? And we're not there's a point to this. I got one
hundred and twenty five three ninety six. Okay, So the USFL which is
probably over four hundred. When you actually look at their analytics, you ll
posted one day ago Birmingham versus New Orleans eighteen K views on YouTube yep for
the highlights, seventeen k for the mallers, and then they haven't even had
it up for a day yet, um, and they're at fifteen k for
the Panthers and sixteen k for the show Boats on their highlights, and then
if you go into the week before, it's everything's over twenty k for their
week before. So people are caring about this enough, you know what I
mean. They might not be fully invested in it, but I don't know
if it's the algorithm, which obviously it probably is to an extent. I
don't know what their watch times are go down that list, but it's getting
engagement. And I don't have the XFL you know, highlights up because I
think they're on ESPN, which is not fair because ESPN has millions of such
all that stuff. But in the end, like we're seeing an extremely an
extremely like interesting product and whatnot. People people care more than we probably think,
you know. I think that the people that watch shows like this I
tend to be more XFL or CFL focused. I think that the USFL fan
base, and they're certainly hardcore fans, and Gregory's in here talking that he
went to thirty games to protect like that's phenomenal, right, we love like,
we love Gregory. He comments a lot. But I think a vast
majority of the USFL fan base is a little bit more casual in terms of
I'm going to watch the games when they're on. Then obviously you get that,
Okay, we're going to seek it out on YouTube, but then people
they're actually gonna watch shows like this, I do think tend to be lower.
I think the CFL engagement online might be a little bit higher. And
then obviously the XFL take that for what it is. You know, USFL
and XFL are different products, but you know, I think the fan bases
are different. Max oh Max, Maximus have woken up from crying over his
Dallas Dallas Stars last year. Often niche content esnforms as well. Uh yeah.
I also just people don't like RJ. Young. I think I think
that you RG Youngest doing for a certain brand of football, and I think
that that's not the USFL. And I think that, if anything, we've
learned going through the XFL season, just having a large number of subscribers on
YouTube doesn't necessarily equate to a high number of youth. Oh man, oh
man, anything else from you, Pat? Yeah, I mean, if
we got five minutes, I'll you know, I'm looking at the XFL YouTube
page. Um, you know, eighty subscriber, eighty thousand subscribers. They
posted their season recap a week ago, two point two k. You know,
championship highlights one thirty three K. I mean that makes loud, that's
pretty, that's impressive, But then yeah, that's a championship game. People
are gonna be searching that up. Um playoffs. I mean it's not terrible.
You know, they gotta dig through it. Um. I mean,
obviously they post all their press conferences on their and whatnot and have player fifty
four stuff. I mean, that's something I could research later because it's gonna
take me way more time than anyone really has. But I mean, I
mean it's doing something right. Like but we talked about content, like like
I put out these us about quarterback rankings, and you know, I'm gonna
keep doing it. But we talked about it all the time in circles,
like you know, my views are down, you're you know, we talk
about this show when we talk primary primarily USFL. Like obviously, my first
quarterback rankings on my YouTube channel, I have six hundred and fifty one subscribers,
and it hit and you know, when I posted, I think I
was at four hundred or something like that, and I think it got over
six hundred views, you know, and then my last one got like one
hundred and twenty or something like that in week ten for the XFL. So
I mean, it's just the nature of the beasts. You know, we
love this stuff, so we'll keep putting out content. But I mean,
you know, sometimes the things say enough, you know, Well, that's
I looked at the USFL last year. I mean, I don't think the
YouTube views are everything, but I think you can look at you know,
web traffic and views and channel like I think you can tell for products hot
or not. And I felt like the USFL last year was declining going into
the playoffs. I think the parody in the league. Hopefully it's helping year
two. Hopefully it's helping him this year. We'll see. I mean,
like all these shows have have average about the same in the last couple of
weeks since the XFL dropped off, So we'll see. But it's certainly something
to track there. Anyway, we'll get out of here. I like doing
the hour Ishmark Good Show coming up this Friday. We're going to have obviously
USFL content on another as well. Evan Willsmore is going to be joining us.
We're going to be talking XFL players that still deserve a spot in the
NFL. You know, obviously a lot of those signings going and then I
have a lot of CFL Cheam previews coming up. If you're interested in the
CFL season, should be a good show, kind of getting out of the
XFL bump. Here and going into everything for the summer. Next week,
we're going to be going live for the CFL kickoff on June eighth, and
then Andy Murray and I I think, are going to be doing a special
live Friday show of talking to XFL offseason and what that calendar should look like,
what the XFL should be doing. And then we have the Rookie Showcase
coming up on June sixteenth, which works out that's our normal Friday show,
so we'll be doing something for that as well. So lots of things to
talk about. I gotta figure out. But I do think we'll be doing
post CFL recaps. I need to figure out who wants to do that with
me on Mondays. I don't want to put that on anyone. You've got
five minutes I talk about the future for these. I don't know what Gregor
you're talking about, I think, but whoever, I don't know who wants
to do the CFL shows with me, But we'll find someone to do that
because no one is doing that in the CFL space in terms of a live
call in show Monday. So I am excited for that, and I think
that could be something. Anything else from you, Pat, I appreciate your
time today. I mean, that's really it. You know, I'm waiting.
I'm waiting on the XFL to see if they're going to allow media again.
I talked to Brian Stole about it because I do have a showcase in
Saint Louis, so I'll definitely have an opinion of an opinion on that.
That's on a Friday, so I'll definitely you know, let's see what my
camera guys got going on, and you know, maybe we'll get some good
content there to you and my own stuff. But I mean, you know,
I'm pretty pumped about these showcases and whatnot as well. You know,
we're going to see a new crop of players. Um, something to keep
in contact with with NFL spots, you know. I'm sure Evan will bring
it up. Is there's another gambling probe going right now, so we could
see a lot of you know, Mike, Mike's doing a real good job
of keeping these numbers. Um. You know, I've seen a couple more
players get cut, so maybe that that the roster spaces are at twenty five
now, you know, and maybe these teams are holding out for USFL guys,
which you know, there's some cheap, and we talk and I don't
want to discredit the players. We talked about a cheap signing, right like
Philip Lindsay didn't need to go to the XFL to go back to the NFL
like he was on the first running back yet current this is a guy we're
bringing in. What he went to the XFL. Was it get that VEMM
of six hundred k and get a guaranteed to like one middle type thing,
you know? So you know, I'm curious to see those signings from both
these leagues in the next two months, month and a half and whatnot.
And I hate to say it, but injuries always changed the game as well.
Last thing for me, just got an email from USFL after a highly
entertaining Week seven where all games were decided by six points or fewer with all
eight teams in contention that they are going to be doing a virtual media availability
via Zoom Thursday, June first, at nine thirty am Pacific time. So
maybe we'll be getting some USFL news here at twelve thirty Eastern, nine thirty
and Pacific. So it just got the email out. You can rs VP,
I'll get on that, but we'll be doing zoom media. It looks
like my prayer is going to be there. Our boy Darren James is going
to be there. Darryl Johnston, Yeah, Mike Prayer. So should be
exciting. So maybe we'll some USFL news, Maybe they'll be announcing the official
playoffs scenarios. I don't know, I don't know what that would be,
but something coming this week USFL on Thursday. So it should be excited.
Pat appreciate it. Everyone like you know, like and subscribe with Let's get
you to one of these championship games. Appreciate it and we'll see you guys
next time. Thanks so much, thank you. All right, let me
get our outro here. I've never set to go on this. Here we
go, all right, We'll see you guys,