Well here we are back again. Happy Friday, Mark Cast here, lots
of stuff to talk about. Didn't know if we would have anything to talk
about. John and I have kind of been going back a fourth all week.
Here we have John Lewis here, John Lewis Sports sporty, and I
guess I'm Mark Cast. Sure the bought that I wasn't even notified from the
shop listen, so maybe I've been selling hundreds of them. I had no
idea. Very well, could be. We were talking fashion today. I
figured I got to come fashionable on this. Yeah, So lots of news
today, John and I I have so I'm podcasting under duress. A dental
surgery earlier this week, gum reconstructive, worse than anything I've kind of gone
through medical wise, at least in this I have. Genetics have not been
kind to me. So we're here, you know, we kind of expected
Okay, Wednesday, Okay, Thursday. Yeah, we've been doing the media
days and all that stuff. But we have uniforms to talk about, we
have new merchandise to talk about. We have the broadcasters we can talk a
little bit about that. Lots of stuff to talk about. I'll roll through
some comments here, John, you were on two weeks ago. We had
Greg Parks last week. How are you feeling now? We're three weeks out
from kickoff? We will be in Arlington, I will be you can be
on the show if you want to be, you know, but we will
be live here going March March thirtieth, so we're almost there. How are
you feeling. I'm feeling optimistic. I'm really looking forward to the kickoff.
It feels like at least, you know, kind of in our community here
that it's that people are are getting excited. To me, there are a
few red flags on some of these rollouts. That's really kind of my only
thing about this because you mentioned media days. So far, the Birmingham Stallions
are the only media that I have that has contacted me. I'm on the
UFL mailing list. Now, I mean, I'm nobody, I get it,
but it's like they they have contacted me. They're you know, allow
me to be part of the news conferences. They allow me to download the
news conferences. It's only team that I have gotten anything from, which is
kind of disappointing, because you know, we can get we can give the
UFL. It's what we do. We're fans, but we also like want
to tell stories and pass things along to people who aren't privy to these things.
So it's just kind of I think it's a missed opportunity there. And
I'm sure we'll talk about some of the other things that we've seen pr wise,
but the game's the thing, so I'm gonna stay optimistic here. Yeah.
Now, I'll give you just a preface here, and I see,
Zach, we have a comment here talking I'll pull that out here talking about
the format of the show. This might air a little bit neggati today just
with everything going on. Is I always put my hand up and then I
screw up my hand tracking on my camera there. This could be a little
negative today. Now next week, I've already recorded one interview a training campvenue.
I tweeted about yesterday's surprise, a big name. Everyone will be excited
for that. I know people want more interviews. Zach has the common area.
Please bring back the format of the show. There probably wouldn't have been
a show the last two months three months if we weren't be doing the little
live things and having John and Greg and Andy and Evan and Pat and everybody
else. So we're getting some interviews I cannot control the flow of Okay,
read we're in training camp. Okay, now we need time. Okay,
we're working on it. I have a big name guest I'm working on.
I guess I already have one recorded and then a couple other kind of spokes
in the fire. So I think Pat's going to join me next week.
I think we're going to do an all Markcasts UFL team listenings. Like I
said, I already have one interview, so I can subscribe, but you
do not want to miss my big name interview. So they got back to
me again this week. We're working on that so it should be so just
stay tuned. But if you're a little like hey, I don't want to
get to we might get a little bit nitpicky today with some of the rollout
stuff this week. Does not mean I'm not excited. Does not mean so
I can subscribe if you want to be part of that, because I promise
you at least the interview are already recorded here last night. You will not
want to miss that. So exciting stuff. Yeah, you know, we
got the uniforms and I'll pull up the press photos here. We finally got
the release today because I know Mike Mitchell have reported with Sports Illustrated like it
was coming. It did not make sense to me. I guess a couple
different ways. So doing a uniform release feels redundant. Redundant if because a
lot of the uniforms are recycled, right, like there's no new uniforms.
But my argument would be we are still trying to attract new fans here,
right, So the uniform release and us doing a video about that is not
for the people that are watching this or already subscribed. It's God forbid we
get anybody else like, oh man, there's new uniforms coming out, Like
I didn't watch before. These are new. So to me, it was
backwards. We did the media day, you know, we we leaked kind
of leaked everything, and then today we put out the press release. I
just feel as backwards in terms of any way that you would generate any kind
of excitement about that. I'll pull up the uniforms, But how did you
like kind of that? Uh, you know, we finally come out today
like oh yeah, by the way, here we have this agreement. Yeah,
and it came out like this afternoon. It was you know, here
at least here on the in the East. Uh. Yeah, this was
this was kind of backwards. I think that there is an opportunity that we
talk about all the time. You've got to catch the casual fans, So
why not make it a thing. Yeah, some of us will be like,
oh, these are the same uniforms that they wore, and these are
the these are the under armored uniforms that the XFL wore. Now all they
did was just kind of move that template to the USFL uniform, which there
are some little tweaks, and I mean very minor, but still you can
make it a thing. I mean that in the here and here's another thing.
I've signed up. I'm on the UFL mailing list, not not just
the the PR thing, but also the fan list where they're supposed to,
you know, send you emails like, Hey, this is happening, this
is happening, check out this news. I rarely get anything from there.
In fact, the way that I found out that they had new under armour
gear on the website today was I was on the website to look to see
if they had shipped my UFL shirt that I ordered on February sixteenth, and
then I see, oh, they've got some new stuff on here. I'd
never even gotten anything. By the way, I still don't. They still
haven't shipped my shirt, but that's my problem. So again, yeah,
they're just it. We continue to say this, there are a lot of
missed opportunities read because again and I want to talk through these here from like
this isn't for us, this isn't for you know you're trying to do and
that's again we found the conversations in Greg Parks last week. Is I don't
know, and I certainly a to you know, I appreciate the Rock being
on Daytona and we're making a lot of that. I want to get talked
today as well about kind of like where does Danny and Dwayne kind of fit
into this, because I did any Garcia has seemed to like drop off the
face of the earth here. I mean, I know the Rocks feudy with
Kody Rhodes and like that's been tremendous. He's still taking the time to do
Daytona, but it seems to me like, okay, uh, I just
I don't know what we're reaching outside of unless I'm following the XFL on Instagram,
which these social teams have done a tremendous job. Anybody involved, and
I follow all you guys on you know, personally and Jay and Leah and
everybody, anybody that's involved in that tremendous. But but you know, I
keep hearing this like, Okay, well we just need to get through this,
we just need to get through this. And it's been where it's March
of twenty four now, I've heard that for the last four years. So
we got these out. I will say, I am not a I am
a professional wedding videographer. I'm not a professional photographer. These are I would
have photo shopped these a little bit. I don't want to be too critical
John and I went back. I was arguing with producing Max about that,
Uh, these are not social media leaks. These are the These are the
press release photos that were sent to me via the league. So I don't
want to be but you know, we have markings on some, we have
the laptop showing on some. But here, we have the here, we
have you know, Ballahawks back again, So I know real tweaks for any
of this stuff. Like I said, we have kind of the UFL logo
on that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'll pull up the
Ballahawks social as well because I know they have someone there. But thoughts on
this and getting the UFL logo on there, Yeah, I mean right,
this it's it's a great picture, you know, because you can see the
whole uniform. But you look and if you go on the UFL website,
anyone who's out there who hasn't even seen these are on the uf official UFL
website, So you see the markings on the floor. I mean these look
like red. I said to you, because I'm old, I remember these
things that looks like back in the back in the eighties and nineties when they
actually took pictures on film and they would shoot them the frame wider so you
could crop things out and you would you would have markings on the floor and
all that. So I just don't know why, like you would look at
that. Why not, I mean, anyone could photo shop that out.
Just look. It feels bush league. Love the uniforms though, I mean,
I'm a big I'm glad that they did. I'm glad they kept the
Battlehall uniforms because those are some of my favorites. Well, I'm just I'm
surprised because like the one thing I thought was Fox two years ago with the
initial USFL logos. I thought those were the best videos we had seen of
any of them, you know, and it was like the bright yellow background
and the red with with the stablets. Let me see if I can pluy
that. But I just thought that that was such a tremendous job the XFL
ones last year. I know, they were live right on what were they
live on whatever? They did the show and then they had the videos without
all that, but I don't know, just really surprised that this is what
we got this time. And I know too that like Scooby Wright was tweeting
that they were taking photos in the wrong jersey numbers that he was wearing someone
else's, so like interesting that way as well. But I wanted to see
if I get the USFL on up here. But yeah, thoughts on the
actual uniform here, Yeah, I like it, and it, you know,
just from as much as we could take a look at some of these,
I still haven't seen a lot of the of the road uniforms, so
I don't know how much tweaking there's going to be done on those, but
like we've seen some of the home uniforms and I will say I do like
that again that the battle Hawks. They they kept that whole theme all blue.
I wish they'd bring back the blue helmets. But I was like,
I was hyped to see like the behind the scenes media day stuff with their
shooting. Obviously you could see it's at ESPN in the back, so those
are the what they call in A lot of people won't see interstitials or bumper
shots that that they'll show during the game. You crop that correctly there by
the way. So yeah, and these things are just these This looks good,
This looks good, and they were doing like the bubbles. We had
a lot of bubble stuff going on, Like I thought, this was all
great. Yes, was fun, This was great behind the scenes stuff that's
gonna look even better when you actually see like what they're shooting there. But
yeah, that really shows off the uniform there and looks you know, pretty
much the same as last year, if not exactly the same. But see,
yeah, here was kind of some of the press photos back with the
with the USFL before And I mean it just to me, uh, you
know, you're sending these outs and you're posting and podcasters are using them,
and the YouTube people and even I'm talking bigger people than us. I mean,
there's huge channels that do uniform breakdowns and city and breakdowns and football staff.
Like I just I was just kind of surprised that that was what we
rolled through with that. Yeah, I mean, I just I just thought
the roll again, that just feels like it's another missed opportunity rollout for for
a lot of things. You're right, I mean these are the promotional Now
think about this. These are the promotional photos that a lot of people will
use because these are press photos. And can you imagine if they if they
use this, then there's marketing on the floor. I mean, it just
feels like this is you know, you said it, we're going We're going
to be nitpicky. But branding is very important for this league. Not for
us. It's for the people out there who want to get involved and are
casual fans, and when they see stuff like this, they'll be like what
is this? Yeah, and I'm looking on so I like having to get
home in a way, I'm not seeing a lot. I'm seeing a lot
of the home. He's here. I know a couple of the a couple
of the teams had So we'll kind of go through it. But they were
showing the away jerseys as well, because it's in the Ballahawks. It's more
that gray one, right, It's like a nice gray with the blue.
That's what they used, yeah, last year, So I don't, I
can't. I was looking around to see if they were going to use it
again this year. I didn't really see a lot of these. I'm looking
at videos like this and trying to look in the background because you'd see some
people in the background that had that had the away uniform, so you could
kind of tell what was going on there. Yeah, So I think it's
similar that way, replacing the XVl with the UFL obviously with you know,
the USFL one is getting rebranded here with the under armor and all of that.
So, you know, I like it again, if it ain't broke,
don't fix. I don't think we were expecting like a big blowout here
in terms of like, you know, radical redesigns. But you know,
I just think again, it's all about how you present it, right,
Like The Rock, Like The Rock right now with Cody Rhuds and all,
this is like the most basic wrestling promo thing ever. Right, He's with
Roman Reins and Okay, you know he's gonna turn on them at some point,
like everybody can see it, but you just sell it, you go
through it, and this is what we're doing here, Like it doesn't matter
if we've seen all these the last two years, no one's going to care
about that. Put this out, put together a press release. You know,
have the video crew coming, like you did before the XFL ones back
We're awesome back in back in twenty twenty three. Yeah, I thought,
you know, and they did it right there. You know, they did
it on Sports Center. It was really cool. You know. Again,
ESPN is a you know, they're a partner, so I don't know why
they just didn't pick it up a little more, or you know, have
these ready to be sold? You know? Of course, you know that's
another topic. The UFL shop. We've we've had some problems, but uh,
you know right now, you as far as I know, I haven't
seen any replica jerseys or authentic jerseys for sale. So you thought that,
you know, you another missed opportunity to me. Uh so Zach hates our
live shows. We just say that you should be a permanent co host.
This man is absolutely awesome. So there come over with content, if not
with with you know, with the form right here. Uh so some of
these. So then like the San Antonio one, which I love and that's
my team. Uh again, so now we're just this is just a crop
photo for this one. So again, you know, if you're doing and
we said this be like home and away, full body, front back,
that's all we need. This is great and I love the detailing this.
This is this a really good view of the UFL your logo on there.
I think that looks crisp right obviously the opposite the under armour on the other
side. You can see the San Antonio you know, the the cool uh
you know, the the weave on that and if you guys want I had.
I can't remember when when the XFL uniforms came out. It was Max
sent me up with the guy that like helps design uniforms, and he came
on and kind of broke down the whole like complimenting of color like this,
we're like the casual people here like, oh this is great, but he
kind of did a whole like color science and all that stuff. So if
you search mark Cast XFL uniforms, that was a pretty good on there.
But you know, good to see this come back. I like this the
off black, kind of dark gray for the for the promise is a good
look. You are not gonna like the video that I'm going to have about
grading the uniforms. So I'm just gonna tell you that right now. That's
a good tease. So what do you have coming out? Well, I
am I'm gonna do just kind of a you know, pass fail, a
B C d F kind of thing. I mean, it's all personal opinion,
who cares, but this was the San Antonio ones were probably my least
favorite. I do like the yellow yellow aways though. Yeah. If I
see again, like I want to buy this right now, like this,
this is awesome, Like now, I would wear that one hundred percent.
I think that's cool. I think the prom is is the promise is my
I like brahmas and roughnecks. We'll get we'll get to that. But I
like something a little different. I like my spring football uniforms to stand out.
I mean, I'm the one that has it. I'm going to actually
go grab some here you talk about all right, well, yeah, I
mean I like that. You know, there's been some thought that went into
these, obviously with under armour. They don't just throw stuff out there.
Under armour is some of my some of my favorite just personal like warm ups
or whatever are under armour. I have. I have an under arm or
shirt that's like a cool cool gear shirt from twenty or two thousand and nine.
I still have it because it's so comfortable, it doesn't shrink. It's
really good and these are well designed. So yeah, I mean again,
I'm not a Brahma's uniform fan, but I love the detail and I do
like the away yellows. I mean I did upgrade on that one as far
as I graded on a curve with them. Great. Well, I just
wanted to say here, you know, because I like I'm here. I
just had any time I can show off my official Spring League jousers. This
is official, this is game warn't. Dorothy has one as well. If
you want to be jealous, you know you could be hey, if you
want to be married to the Marc cast here you have that. But Jared
has a question here, and this is a very valid will we ever be
able to find official away jerseys, because that's a question or XFL twenty twenty
went away. We were never able to do that. We've never been able
to do that with the USFL, and to me, I'm not always the
biggest away jersey guy because most of the time they're just white. The XFL
with this yellow Bramas with the you know, with the gray ballot, there's
enough spice in those who I would want to buy one. I had to
do a Dragon's twenty twenty one through Dustin with throw retros. That was the
only way I was able to do that because he I can't remember what it
was. He was like, Hey, I'll make you a custom jersey anything
you want. I was like, why don't you just do this because it's
never you know, it's never existed in a way to buy. So,
yeah, that would be a good way to tell. But you know,
we couldn't even get I mean, uniforms are rough back in twenty twenty three
here with the XFL. I thought my USFL one was the better quality for
the replica with the stars, which I do have. Yeah, and I
did not get any authentic or replica jerseys, but and I've seen some.
There's a website and I don't remember it any Even if I did, I
wouldn't pass along. But they sell replica jerseys that are obviously not licensed,
and you can really tell. I've seen a few pictures and they look like
they came straight from the flea market. And so but those are out there
because there's demand and there are people that are buying them because I have seen
them, and it's not even people that I really know, it's just in
the you know, some of the Facebook communities. So yeah, again,
I just it's just that would be and that is a that is a very
valid question. It's like, not only would you like to buy a home
jersey, but could you find an away jersey? I mean the NFL you
can get you know, the first second and third, you know, the
Thursday Night Action jerseys. I own every Commander's jersey that they own, and
the team exists for a few years, like so, you know, and
we have three, you know, we have a I don't think they've ever
won in the black one, but I have I have the Commander's black one.
That's one of my favorites. But yeah, I get I love the
Brahmas on this. I like that it fits in with the San Antonio theme.
The yellow, I don't know, to me, the yellow, it
might just be the lighting here. It doesn't necessarily this is a nice banana
yellow. I really like this color yellow. Where it's not is you know,
it's a little mute that like I don't know why I have this towel
here, but you know a little more I don't know. To me,
it stands out at pops in as as an away jersey. I think this
is one of the best ones. Agree, Uh yeah, Pat says here
it looks like the Gotham team from the Dark Knight, right, that's right,
got them rogues, I will say. And this is no disrespect to
our USFL brother and some of these ones, I think. And part of
this is we're honoring the history of the USFL, right, this is the
Panthers. We're honoring the history of the USFL things. I like some of
the updated design language with the XFL when we're marrying them. What do you
see now having gone from two XFL once now to this and maybe you're you
know, you like the history of all this. Am I is I as
jarring? Or am I alone or not? No? No? I agree?
And also if you notice too, the XFL jerseys or most of them,
have they well I think all of the XFL ones have the city name
on them this one. I mean it it doesn't and I assume this is
oh yeah, because that's Danny Apling. Right. Well, now you run
into this too, and I can go back and look, I'm just pulling
up the Panthers on Twitter. Here you do get the thing too, where
not everything is like so here, where can I get back on this?
Uh? So the why can't not all the XFL ones are the same on
that? So like if you go back, see this is San Antonio,
but if you go to the Ballahawks one, it says say like they're they're
not all consistent if I remember back and I need to pull up to who
the same in that way? But yeah, it is, Yes, it
is very different here where you have the names at least the team or the
city name on that versus the USFL one. Yeah. So I just thought,
I mean, if you're gonna, I guess that maybe it's a way
to kind of differentiate the the USFL from the XFL. But just to me,
I mean, I like the Panthers colors, but I just that just
it seems very plain to me like there's not even any there's there's no shadow
around the number, which would be really tough for television and and it has
been in the past, but yeah, I don't. I don't not a
fan. So let's pull up here. We get a little bit more detail
here. So these are obviously the home and the way again and this isn't
consistent, so we've got, you know, the Saint Louis didn't have.
But you know, it's always hard to me. I'm not nostalgic for the
old USFL stoff. So I get when you want to carry over the design
language. I get that, and we have to honor the past, but
you know it is I mean, the the at least going off the end.
The San Antonio one, not to me, just speaks of like,
we, hey, we really took some extra time here to curate something specialized.
I like, I do. I mean to me, I'm not.
I don't know if I'm the target audience, but yeah, to me,
I like that they wanted to to hold on to some of that nostalgia of
the USFL because they really had some great designs. But these are so traditional
and then you do it and it doesn't even look like the XFL conference when
it just that's confusing to me. I don't, you know, I mean,
but because you look at it. Okay, yeah, we want to
embrace the tradition. But there there's also a USFL patch, there is a
under armour patch. There's another under armour patch on the pants. There's the
I do like they all have the logo, the mascot logo on the pants,
so that it's good. But to me, why not, you know
what, why not make them You don't have to make them all the same,
but at least put the cities on there. I just I didn't or
you know, the team they meant that would be Michigan, But why not
do that? What's interesting too is if you go here, I thought this
was interesting Matt here with the comment is it's too difficult to ask you get
the shade of plumb on the pants stripe? Correct our colors aren't darkish red,
so a little bit of issue there with it not not being the correct
color. Looks Yeah, it looks a little more plumbing. And I'm not
a I'm not a Panther's purist here, but I would understand. Like,
but hey, we've seen that with fanatics right now in MLB where the Mariners,
well, but especially like the Mariners have very specific color palettes and the
hat that they have custom for spring training does not match the jersey at all.
It's not even the same colors. And so well here it's you know,
it's the seafoam green. I get that people are very conscientious about that,
and to me that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, Royal Retro
has had a great post on that. It was like, you know,
when someone was comparing, they were showing it was the mayor logo from I
guess last year, a year before, and then they showed the new one
and it did it look like it had been out in the sun and washed
out, and Roller Retros was like, yeah, we wouldn't do that.
Uh, now here's here's that fits a little bit more, I think in
terms of the accent on design language, even if it doesn't have the season
right, here's the malors here. Uh looks not quite as as purple purple
the show sorry excuse me, looks a little bit at least with with the
with the doubles, the yeah, the two shade there. I don't know.
To me, this fits a little bit more into that we're versus the
panthers. Agreed. I like these and I like that on the yolks there
they have the cutout for the under armour and for the US the UFL patch.
I think that is really sharp a lot. I mean, were the
Showboats like one of the most polarizing teams when it came to the logo and
the colors. There were so many people when they when they came out,
it's like, oh, I hate these, and other people are like,
oh, I love these. I love the color scheme is one of my
favorite color schemes in in the entire league. But I do like that they
put a little attention to detail with the UFL patch and the under armor patch
having cutouts on the yolks. Yeah, and and it fits there even if
it looks like, I mean, this is ocd read but that is not.
Oh my god, that looks like they taped it on. But I
mean that's uh. People, My wife has said I'm compulsive, But am
I mistaken? That? Is that a little No, you were not,
because it looks crooked and it looks like it's it's like someone ironed it on
crooked. It's not even like it doesn't even look like it's stitched on.
I didn't even notice that. Hey. Now, I will just say though,
and I tend to pick it here, but the fact because I'm trying
to get away whatever on the showboats page, Uh, they don't have anything
from either they had the two hours ago. We're talking to International Women's talking
about the best fans, but we don't have a lot of there's no uniform
things on here. And then we go back to Mars. So I wish
we we get a little bit of media day, but I would have liked,
Okay, we're getting a little bit. But that's okay. I guess
that's your best to look at the away Yeah, yeah, I don't and
I did. I did see some of these and I think there was another
video it might have been on Instagram that showed the away jerseys and they Yeah,
I'm not a huge fan of the all white and in fact, I
point out in the video it looks like a reverse La Extreme jersey from two
thousand and one. Yeah, I mean that's obviously the practice jersey. Philip
giving us ninety nine cents, appreciate that if you you know, Johnson member
joined the club ninety nine centsim on the marcast, subscribers on podcasts and I
can't fill half my face right now, you know what for show I'll be
paid for that. Help me pay for that dentseol bill oh boy pocket.
Yeah, So anyway back back to that, I don't know. To me,
I like the l on this. This is fine. I don't know
if I love this purple. I would like a little bit more like like
a show like a Jouser's purple here. But yeah, maybe that's the history.
I think they left that behind with the Pittsburgh Mallers. Yeah, I
get that, okay, which was one which was absolutely one of the worst
color schemes. I'm glad they actually changed it. It was hard and they
were trying to play late steal and it didn't work obviously. No, okay,
they see now here. If we're talking design language, so this one
go into what I think is, this is one of the best jerseys in
all of in all of spring football here with the Houston Roughnecks on here in
the USFL Conference ACCFL team. I want to look at it. I want
to get a zoom in on the patch here. But you get what I'm
saying. At least this speaks a similar design language. Even though now you
have nice gradients. Some people like gradients, some people don't. With the
numbering and all of that. But you know, it at least feels like
this might be in the same family. But what do you like in the
roughnecks? I like it. I like I said that. I think those
are called yokes. I'm not a uniform expert, but I like that.
And plus with the white and then you have the navy and the gradient numbers,
which I do love. With that helmet, which some people love,
some people hate. I like it because it looks different. It's like nothing
that's in any other league that I've seen. Yeah, I'm a big fan.
This is absolutely Houston's one of my favorite uniforms. And I'm not a
big fan of like the white pants, but I it just works with that
whole color scheme. And I will say again, just if we're ever having
spring football uniform releases again, just at any you know, I've talked about
this last time and the time before, having all the helmets with all of
them as well, this is good, right because they know, like this
is a standout. But let's get a side angle of this, right,
that this is one of the standout helmets on here, because even on the
side right, it's kind of like the three quarters or whatever. What do
you, what's your thoughts on the excuse me, what's your thoughts on the
patch? On here? Get in the little Does that feel more more on
the air lit? I mean it still looks like someone just slapped it on
there, like it's got double sided tape on the back. It doesn't.
Do you think if we pull that off, is there an XFL logo on
that? Do you? I think one hundred percent? Because if you look
at look at last year's last year's jerseys, I guarantee you you just take
that off, there's gonna be an xflor XFL logo under there. Let me
get this up here, Yeah, it's gonna be and it's definitely Uh where
do we have a good and I'm getting the XFL twenty twenty three? Well
here this will at least give us uh here, this is terrible podcasting.
Now, yeah, there you go, seeing they had the they had the
yolks cut or they had that cut out there. I mean it's gotta be
right. Yeah, this is I can't get and and the patch is navy
see because they couldn't. I mean you could just put that over the logo.
You couldn't just stitch UFL over top of the x fl Uh here we
go? Uh am, I yeah, here we go. Yeah, it's
yeah, I get what you're saying. Here you can see I think it's
I think it's definitely an iron on patch. There. I think that this
looks like something came from e Bay. But again, this, hell,
I'll say, like, because we got our this is how good of we
are. We got a knockoff cracking We got knockoff Sealla cracking practice jerseys from
China, but they don't come with the Starbucks logo on it. So then
we bought Starbucks iron on patches. Who we get iron onto our practicers.
That's commitment. But but anyway, but again, this, at least to
me, feels I gotta get back, can I? There we go.
At least feels like it's in the same design language. Here, I was
gonna pull up the rough next page. Here, get a little bit more
detail on that. I think it looks really nice. The color scheme is
to me perfect for it. And yeah, and they had some really nice
still photos from their media day on These are the same ones they had on
Instagram. Okay, man, we're rivaling our YouTube viewership with Twitter viewership right
now? This is our Twitter page. One hundred and thirty here on YouTube,
like another eighty five over on Twitter. So that's never get that many
on Twitter, so I appreciate that. Anyway, this is this to me
is great. I know Philip doesn't love all this, he's a rough next
fan, but you can you can't be too sad about that. Here,
I gotta get over here. This is another This photo could have used a
little work shopping here. I don't like seeing the laptop on here and he's
lapto up and the I mean, what is going on somebody's laptop in the
bottom, the marks on the floor. It just and yeah, it just
it looks amateurish. This is on the website. Yeah, wisdoms in the
show? Can I do this? I photo shopped here. I photo shopped
to l J mar Smith and all that for the for the thumbnail, Like,
yeah, is it? It's like Adobe doesn't for you now for free,
right, I mean you could at least just you know, you you
can use the generative AI on Adobe doesn't remove laptop from bottom of frame,
remove marks from the floor. We got Patris Stremo here breaking about streaming numbers
per usual. Patrick the streamer man here that's good. Uh, I don't
know. Defenders me never really fits in with the rest of the design landscape.
It's a lot of red. But obviously this is one that you know,
big fan base and carried over and all that stuff. The thoughts on
this, let me pull up their social I have a big I love the
Defenders whole the whole thing. It's it's simple, but it's it's like,
if there's elegance in a uniform, to me, it's the DC Defenders.
I now I think they wore did they wear all white away or did they
wear podcast red pants? Okay, because again this is one we have now
hearing this is from the Defenders. This is photo photo credit photo credit Jim
Jim. Are we the one? Are you the one that we need to
yell out about the marks on the floor in these photos? Like, is
Jim the official ufl or? But these are actually decent photos and maybe this
isn't Maybe this is this is Jim's work, And it is interesting that they
have Defenders on there, which I guess you know, they didn't want to.
It's not consistent. It's not consistent, right, yeah, they I
guess they didn't go with Washington d C or just d C that look kind
of weird. But yeah it's not, I mean, but still I these
some of my favorite uniforms. Traditional, yes, simple, yeah, but
still they look good. So we had a comment here stock speed tach glad
they got rid of that urban camera look last year, right, because didn't
I thought the defenders had a little bit more patterning in the white. Is
it just because we can't see it on here? Well, it's really hard
to tell from there now, I as far as I understand, because I've
not seen a lot of helmet pictures, I think they are in the helmet
okay. And also there was some there was some talking. I guess we'll
talk about the Birmingham in a minute. But it looked like someone had a
picture of the helmet and it looked like the helmet had a larger logo on
it. But now I really couldn't I couldn't tell. I didn't really go
back and look at it. I didn't break it down and analyze it that
much. Yeah, I'll tell you guys, God bless you. But like
when even when I think it was the XL last year, they had like
eight photos per team of like all really really helpful it really helpful kind of
looking at all this because this is what like, if you're doing this,
it is for the people to want to mark out and kind of super analyze
all this stuff. So that would be it totally is and it's like you
can you know you now, are people going to say, oh, I'm
going to watch March thirtieth because I saw this cool picture of a uniform.
No, but it's all about branding and it's about getting the word out there
and you know, this is what we are. And when you see that
picture, to me, it's like, if this is what you are,
people are gonna think you're a third tier football league. I just you know,
again, it's branding. It's just it's it's the perception that you send
out. And it's too bad because I think that's a great picture except for
the laptop and the marks on the floor. Yeah, because I really didn't.
When they came out today, I downloaded all of them and tweeted real
quick, and I really went back to look at them and I was like,
wow, this is I just I didn't even I was like that's interesting
anything. Yeah, So I don't see a DC say I'm looking through this
in Twitter. I don't see aything else from that anything else here on Defenders.
We want to move on. No, I think that's you covered it.
I just like I said, it's just too bad because I love that's
such a great picture and it's just ruined by all that other stuff in there.
I'll follow the shop, but here I can probably follow the shop at
live on the podcast. Probably now here this is where we get into a
little and I know obviously the pants are different here, but Stallions, you
know a little similar that way with that, this is a great photo of
jimmar What do you make of you know now, same thing, but just
with the ufl ago on it. Well, I would again, I would
love to see them put Birmingham on there. It just but I guess they
want to go with the traditional if you look at the you know, the
original Birmingham Stallions. Now they did change up the logo some not this year,
but from the original obviously Michigan Panthers really pretty much kept theirs and some
others. But I like the new streamline logo that that Birmingham came out with
in the new incarnation of the USFL. I like these uniforms, I mean,
you know, Birmingham was kind of my team. I love the numbers.
Some people don't like those square numbers. I love the numbers, I
think, and that those just look clean to me. Those are clean uniforms.
I think they agnize to me, this looks high quality, right obviously
under armour, similar material. All that was interesting to me is if you
go back here, because they're showing, yeah, these us so we dropped
the USFL. Obviously we're not gonna have the USFL logo on it, but
dropped the USFL logo on the center. And then you know, what do
you make here of seeing the front? I mean that's kind of the biggest
change of any of these, right is right? And and not like that
they they kind of kept the color code with the the UFL their logo,
they made it maroon, they kept the you know, they've got the kind
of the cutouts there. I think these are these are really nice looking uniforms,
even without the you know, the USFL played on the front. I
like that. Yeah, and again we get kind of a good look of
all that. I don't know if we got side angles of that. I
don't know if we get because that's the that's the practice run right. I
mean, I'm just trying to see if we have any different looks at the
away one. But again it's kind of hit or miss here, consistent right
on. And they had there was a great video today of I think it
was on Instagram with uh Matt Corrall who and they had a really really good
video of him that was officuely shot for some of the bumper shots that's going
to be on the broadcast. I thought it was. It looked really it
looked really sharp. H question here, where does the XFL conference come into
the uniforms. I don't think they have. I mean there's no delineation that
way at all. That's actually a good thing to point out. They that's
a good one. I think they could have done something that's actually a great
m rider here. That's a great uh day. You could have kept it,
kept the XFL in the usfluh and and and done something that way with
the conferences. But maybe we want to have a name, but not.
I do think that that would have been a way to help kind of do
something different this year. I mean, you know, even like NFL uniforms,
so you know sometimes they'll they'll have those on there or like I still
love the Kansas City Chiefs that have the old AFL logos still on their uniforms.
But yeah, I mean it seems like that would and it would keep
the branding going too that you know, you have to keep that. Although
the conferences are called XFL and USFL, it would have been really cool to
have those, although you got to wonder, would you want to put a
USFL logo on a Houston rough next Jersey might have been kind of weird.
The whole that whole thing is still weird. Do you think if they would
have kept the Gamblers do you think they would have done that? I think
they would. I bet that they would have. I think absolutely, because
they would have. Then you could have you would have had a USFL team,
which you still do. They are the Gamblers, but they're just called
the Roughnecks and they're an XFL team that's in the USFL conference. Yeah,
I think you're I think you're absolutely right. I think they would have done
that. Yeah. I think I say, hey, hey, this is
why you know, Zach hits the live shows. But this is why I
think sometimes having the live show is helpful because you can get feedback like that,
you know. But again now we're going to a totally different design language
again, which I really like. The running gates one I wish and I've
seen them obviously on the pants. Here we see the R. I've seen
more use of the cowboy, the bandit. We're going to get into the
murcher on the site in the second. If you haven't been you know,
excited enough with the uniform breakdowns here, but I like this, you know,
the you got the red inside the numbers here with the black. To
me, this is an iconic low jersey just because this is when the Rock
had for the kickoff. I mean that shot has been used a lot,
and let's get maybe and kind of all that stuff, but it was ell
fitting and didn't have the you know, did not look good on the Rock.
But to me, this is one of the standout jerseys for better or
worse from the ex foul. But it certainly does not fit into the design
language here. For going from the the Vermonhambover, I mean it looks like
two different leagues, not two different conferences. I do. I love that,
And it looks like from that patch it looks like either they've it looks
like they've either matched the color or they've just made it. Oh, I
think, yeah, that is so they did. Yeah, it's just like
it is either a blue maybe silverish. Now again I think too that picture
doesn't do that blue justice because it looks like it's a little bit lighter unless
they change something. But yeah, I to me, I've always loved this.
This is one of my favorite uniforms too. That see. To me,
that's the blue that I think when I think you can really see it
there and the red numbers in the black outline, I think that's just so
sharp. Yeah, this is probably just the color thing, but that's a
great thing to point out, because again this is and I'm not I am
not a product photographer, but this is something that you do need to keep
into account too, is that different colors translate differently and kind of maintaining that
across so at least it looks the way way in the press photos. Yes,
because this is definitely a darker blue. Thank you for pointing that out.
And you can see the same the uf ufl logo on there. Yeah,
you can really see it clearly later. But yeah, that's such a
good color scheme and the and the helmets. Even though I would have liked
to see maybe some outline on the r on the helmet. It's very nitpicky,
but the the black in the middle and then with the way that that
lays out kind of with the jersey, Yeah, those are I just think
those are just sweet. Yeah, you know, I'm not the biggest helmet
guy. I mean usually when it's just like I liked it when it was
what was it the seat and the dragon's back and they had the painted on
part of it, and I think the panthers had part. You know,
if you're you're doing a little bit more that way. But sometimes just like
the different stickers on there is always kind of interesting to me. But yeah,
again, we would like to see helmets for all these difficult to kind
of look that way at least for getting a little bit through that. Yeah,
I mean I feel like a forensic scientist when I was trying to break
down and like zoom in on some of these helmets to see if there was
some kind of change, it was just really hard to tell when you did
even see a helmet in some of these pictures. It was Yeah, and
I wonder, like, okay, why would they not have the helmets out
whether they did for that one obviously, but like, why wouldn't they show
them off a little bit? Yeah, I don't know why. Let me
just see if I can refrigure. I don't know why it's asking me to
upload more on there, but yeah, anyway, yeah, they're not would
like to see the helmets on all of them. But yeah, there are
this anything else that we'll get to shop here and new things and then we'll
get to broadcasting and all that stuff. Any other thoughts on the Fox and
the uniform, Well, I have mixed emotions because there was part of me
that was hoping there would be a uniform release and it would be like,
look at what we did with this uniform and look what under Armour did with
this. So that was a little disappointing. But then there's another part of
me that said, well, I'm glad they didn't radically change and we didn't
end up with Barcelona dragons looking Jersey so and and because those kinds of things
they just they don't look great and they try to they try to be two
different So I would say mixed emotions, but I'm overall I'm happy with what
we've gotten there. Yeah, I just I know there's just not enough time
and somebody, and I know that we're this is long ranging here and we're
trying to get through the season and who knows what's gonna happen. But you
know, if you don't do it now, like I just I don't see
this being their priority moving on kind of you next year or whatever, like
Okay, well now we're going to reprount. Like I think if you're gonna
do it, I think you're going to do it now. Am rather there
just a couple of comments here. There should be an actually out shield.
I think that would have been cool. I think that would have been really
cool. Obviously you want to have the underarmoored patch on there, but I
think I don't know, do you put you put the ufl logo kind of
lower on the hip there where you kind of have the fanatics or something,
put them on the bumper. I think that would have been really cool to
put them like on the you know, on the front. You'd have an
xfl up there, usfl up there. I think they it looks like they
put ufl on on on all of them. Yeah, and then Philip here
says, I like that all the unis are different, AUDI shudn't be similar
with just different colors. I know. I just like them to be at
least kind of in the same design spot. Uh R David best Roughnex howmesterpic
they have the best unis ever. I love those helments, love them,
love the under Armour merch So God, that's better than previous release. I
think that. I think that the quality is great. I just want that
to translate into something I can buy now because I see, uh, they
look really nice and this is not it's not what you can buy on that.
So along with that, we have the announcement today we now officially under
Armour is going to be part of all of this stuff. They are going
to be you know, multi year, multiyear deal here with the little we'll
see how one that. But anyway, have new released. We have some
merch on here you can pre order. I don't think it's shipping till mid
mid season here at least after the kickoff. But thoughts on this because I
just have a couple of click that we know this isn't going to be a
deep dive. I mean, to me, these look like I love the
Breaking Tea stuff. Don't get me wrong. I think the Breaking Tea stuff
is solid and I've got and did order a couple that actually came in.
I really like them. But under Armour just makes such well fitting, like
really well made shirts that are you know, the I guess Nike is the
dry tech or whatever. But I've got a few like we were talking about
at the top of the show. Here, I've got a lot of under
Armour stuff like pullovers and long sleeve shirts and the cool gear and the heat
gear and all that. I just I love the fit of them. I
really like the look of them. Now. I don't know if that's a
thirty five dollars hat or not, but if it's got under Armour logo on
it, you're going to pay about three prices and I get it stock speed
Tech here. You know, NFL, the uniforms are now on the same
across the board. Very different. I agree with that. We also have,
you know, decades of history and yeah, the Seahawks is very different
than the Browns name. It's very different than you know, I mean,
you have a lot of different. Yes, I agree with that, but
I think at least coming out and launching, Yeah, I see both,
I see wanting to maintain it. It's so different where it's five and three
and it's not four and four. I think if the gamblers have been hear
it over, I think I would have been a little bit you know,
different about that kind of stuff, having the four and four with the different
logosh. I will say, yeah, so so some of my I like
how they let me see if I can get out how they tweet. Oh,
hang on here, I wanted. I wanted to get this pulled up
the XFL because I thought this was funny coming out. You know, hey,
we have new merrigs kind of all this stuff. Yeah, here we
go in here, so let me see if I can share. I actually
closed out. So I thought this was funny that you asked we delivered because
they because remember we had the big tweet the other week about they're not having
enough merchandise. And I like that they use the salute signal. I like
never getting that mainstream here and so I I responded somewhere and here I said
that, I said, there you go. I asked it, I asked,
you delivered. I will say, so now we have, Yes,
we have hats that you can do. I probably will not my not my
style of hat, but we have hats on here. I know you're going
to buy a hat read come on, I don't know. It's a really
hard I'm a big fitted guy. I have lots of these. I mean,
like, you know, I have like this, this like Harris Tweed
Mariner's hat. Here, this is a this isn't adorned by anything, but
we have had I like that, we have shirts that have the actual logos
on them. That was critical about that before. The only shirt that you
could have had the helmet on there and not, you know, not the
actual logo. You know, this is kind of what They had a different
version of that, but you had just the helmet on there. These are
odd, though. These sweatshirts are really weird. Yeah, what I can't
even what is the logo? I like that it's got the big R on
the back. What's the log is that? The this this is nice?
This is this is uh yes, I can't even get into it to do
Yeah, here we go. Yeah that's there. What's very odd. I
there's no way that ships that way, right, it's going to be a
different that's what. That's how they all are. And people thought that that's
that's you know, that's the men's We have the women's here. I mean,
this is across the board. Wow, let me get down here.
Do the Stallions have one like that? Yes, there's just a handy yikes,
I do you know. I like the the long sleeved shirts, but
they have it looks like you got it in like a marathon or something,
because it's got like it looks like a bunch of sponsors down to the side.
Oh yeah, and I think it has a date on it too.
Yeah, that's so. Yeah. So you have d C, you have
the helmet, the DC helmet, something twenty four, the UFL logo,
the under Armoor logo, and then there's something else there. Yeah. I
do agree with that. It's like I did the fun run, I did
the uflun I just I you know, I would love to like this is
clean, that clean. Yep, it's just like normal. I just felt
like normal. I would I would do. I mean in pricing, I
mean, this is fine for you box t shirts and like I said that,
you don't want to know what that Harris tweet hat costs. But but
some of these things, like you know, really really sharp, like the
black color of that I like, and that's like a youth like I would
fight, I would fight a child for that. Sure, but I just
to me, you know, I trust under armour and kind of the creative
process there. But this this feels better of what it was. But yeah,
still some of these choices like the yeah were I do like that,
Like I ran the marathon. I mean, it's just it's cool, I
guess, but it just that's too much. And I maybe it's just because
I'm cheap. I don't like T shirts that have the dates on it.
I'm not just I don't know, I'm not a fan. Well just says
twenty twenty four, which is kind of odd too, like you know,
if it was the I don't know, I guess if it was the kickoff
date. But you know, they have the limited they have those limited really
scheduled T shirts as well. So how'd that go? Well, yeah,
not very well. I think this is really nice. I mean some of
these use stuff. I like the new kind of how we're doing these new
like the the hoodie kind of the neck I like like the modern take of
the The Kraken has a lot of cool stuff with this as well, where
they have kind of a new modern take on on the hoodie neckline, which
I think is you know, have a you have a Seahawks one like that,
and I really it's like it's super comfortable and I like the look of
it. It's not just like a hoodie where it's like bunched up behind you.
You have Seahawks merch. I do. In fact, there's two Seahawks
cups down there. Why do you have Seahawks merch? Because I've been a
Seahawks fan since the Steve Larger days. Probably discussion probably not. That's funny
though, this is nice, like this one. All right, So you
have the Michigan Panthers. But then so then do they have do they have
the little m one as well? They must? Yeah? See then they
have the lead, but that's the women's I don't see. I don't see
a I see a Panthers football. I see that. I don't see the
little M. I will say, then that's the only switch that they have
for the man, Like, why do they get that one? Yeah,
that's odd and it's and that's not a youth. Yeah, that's like the
that looks like an adult. I will say that. The blue T shirt
though, that's that's sharp. Yeah. See like Brahmas, I like this
shirt. The alemacy here you got the white with tiny Bee and then you
have the women's at so just the Michigan one. If you're Michigan, you
get that big Brahmise has that. But that's the difference. That's the youth.
See I go through here. I love the Ballahawks, this alt logo
the Ballahawks. I do like that. And I'm very sad that that the
long sleeved T shirt is white because I can't have white T shirt. I
can't have a because it would end up with I'm too much of a sloppy
eater. Yeah, it just wouldn't. It doesn't work out. I'm pretty
sad. Yeah, all right, anything else about the the merchant here,
we'll get into broadcasters that, at least the ESPN side of it. Yeah,
No, I think you know, the under I think the under Armor
is a huge boost to that shop. I mean, I think that's the
bottom line that there was. There's some stuff and it's funny. There's stuff
that's on the breaking Te's website that is not you probably hear my cat now
and she's had enough of this of us talking about T shirts and football.
It is a huge boost. And it's interesting that there are UFL shirts that
are on the breaking t site that are still not on the UFL shop.
I just thought that was that was kind of odd. Yeah, you kind
of get that moving back and forth on here. I don't know, it's
always kind of it's never really consistent that way. I do think it's again,
I don't I don't know if that's an under armour thing or if that's
the UFL thing. I mean, sometimes you're dealing with that with suppliers,
but you would think that, like we have this, you know, the
same eight skews or whatever across all eight teas right right in terms of I
have the Sports Illustrated article here. I don't know they sent out the nice
graphic and all of that. But I again, so Mike Mitchell had reported
here this week and they were going to unvel the broadcasters, you know,
doing the analysts and the color commentators and all of that. So we got
the ESPN, ABC side still waiting on the Fox side, which you can
presume some of those names, the ones that were involved in the in the
you know, the USFL ride. I would imagine the Kevin Coolers of the
world and Joe Klatz and Kurent Menafees and all that stuff. But we got
the ESPN side weird with the United Football League that all of this would not
come out together. It is I do want Did I not see something recently
that it was good that at least Fox had talked about the A team was
still gonna be. It was gonna be Kurt Menafee and Joel Klatt. It
seems like I it seems like I saw that, but not the rest of
the broadcasters for five Yeah, I imagine that. And like I said,
Kevin's always a part of that stuff and he's been great and he'll come on
the show and he's been part of this since the spring league days and talking
for all that stuff. So I is one of my absolute favorite plays.
It's so funny, and because he ends up calling a lot of like Seahawk
games a lot of the times. I love like seeing then like texting him
and being like fly safe home and he's like, oh, don't work.
I mean, I just love having like just that and like he's so cool
that way, just that little two seconds of interaction and like, hey man,
I hope you have a fun time and seat like, oh yeah,
it was great, Like you know, yeah he was. He would respond
on Twitter he was like he was great. And I have Sunday ticket and
I watched Seahawks games and I was like, oh, good, Coogler's doing
the game. It's cool. Uh So here at some of the some of
the ones here, and you know they're getting some new in here. We
got the sam Achos he was on here before. Excited to see Tom Lougan,
Bill come, Eric McLain, h Cole, Kublak, Stormy kind of
all friends of the show at that. I like, at least where it
was before, it's easier getting ESPN people onto the you know, for the
Zachs of the world that like the pre recorded interviews, it's easier to get
ESPN people on. Yes, Fox people like Kevin used to be able to
do whatever he wanted to do and then like when he when it was the
last USFL season, he's like, you gotta go through Fox. Colms like
sorry, like you know, I'll do whatever. ESPN people like I could
just send Stormy message and she's like, oh, I can come on whatever
in that time. So I do like that at least from a read and
obviously these are all talented people, right and like that. I think ESPN
does a good job of having like kind of male female, diverse voices and
different kind of all that kind of stuff. But I like it, at
least from that from an access point of view, because I like having people
mid season like Okay, you're doing the coaching calls and not that, like
you do get the point. Sometimes I think Pat or like Andy or Avan
could probably speak as you know good. I mean, it gives you that
bump to have an ESPN person kind of on there. Any thoughts on kind
of the broadcasters, you know, kind of familiar faces. Yeah, I
was. I was disappointed that Tom Hart wasn't part of the play by play
crew because he got it. I mean, I just remember when they were
the whole Lemons thing started to happen in DC, and he was talking about
the beer snake and he was laughing at the whole thing. But he was
laughing as a fan. He wasn't laughing at look at these idiots doing this.
It was like and I think he even said in one of the broadcasts,
let him have the beer snake, come on, And he just got
it. He's such a good play by play guy. I'm a big college
basketball fan and watch a lot of college basketball, and he does a lot
of SEC games, So it's really I was sad to see that, and
just you know, personally, selfishly, I was sad to see that Katie
George was not going to be part of the ESPN broadcast because Katie and I
used to co anchor sports together here in Louisville, And in fact, I
was just talking to her recently about you know, when this came out and
I saw it and I had talked to her, and I was like,
oh, man, I'm sad to see you. You know, you're not
part of it. But she has so much on her plate now. She
does NBA game, she's on the a crew of the College of College Football,
so up for ESPN. So yeah, it was just I think there
was just so much going on that takes nothing away from what we've got here.
I was very happy to see Stormy back and Cole and a lot of
those guys. Now, I think Drew Carter is part of this. I
think I have socks that are older than Drew Carter. I take nothing away
from him, because good for him. This guy has like rocketed from Birmingham,
Alabama into being a play by play guy, So I think that's really
cool. But You're right, there are a lot of good voices, a
lot of diverse voices. I think it's an ESPN To me, it felt
like that they did in twenty twenty, I thought they didn't do I thought
that they did a good job with the XFL, but it felt like Fox
did the much better job as far as the broadcast win. It's like really
putting like it opens together. ESPN would just sometimes kind of like, hey,
you know, welcome to Houston. Here we go kick off, and
but Fox had a lot of extra things. I think ESPN to me,
and Fox did a lot more that with the XFL and USFL last year.
So I think this is really cool. I have like no complaints. I
just I hate the Tom Hart and Katie George Hart part of the crew.
Well, and this just reminds me was also Vicente is it's not vis Vincente
here. Greg mclroy, I wasn't always the biggest stand of him, but
also pointing out I know Matt matt Berry, a friend of the show.
Matt Berry was I was disappointed. Now I'm just realizing this because I'm kind
of doing the math, and obviously it's this I've been dealing with my you
know my Denzil stuff all week. But yeah, no, Matt Berry.
I liked Matt because I thought, and this goes back to my point,
but I liked Matt because Matt really got all of this stuff. And I
will say, and just to shout out, my wife here watching, I
think from school. Here Dorothy giving us a dollar ninety nine. Here,
nice giving us a super chat so you can do that, you know,
not even married to me. I will say this. The people that,
at least from my experience, the people that ESPN you know, this side
has doing it, they buy in, Like I think that, at least
to me, there's kind of a thing of like, hey, we want
you to be involved in this, and you need to buy in to do
this right everything first. And I talked to you from Stormy and Eric and
Cole like they all got got the process, wanted to be involved in it.
We're excited about that from my experience, at least listening to the games,
because again Fox wasn't as hey, come interview all these people like I'm
trying to kind of work around to get the Kevin's of the world. Like
it felt to me a little bit more like you have to do this like
this is a part of your contract or like, hey, why don't you
go practice on these games like the Michael Robinson's of the world and kind of
doing that and then we'll figure out what else you can do afterward. Where
it felt like there was more buy in And maybe that's just me, and
obviously brock Huwor is a standout from that. And I do not think that
Brock will be a part of this. But Brock, uh, you know,
I don't think so because he was only partially involved in the one last
year. We'll see. I mean I could, I could send him a
message and see what's going on. I he that's another one I sees me
I knocked my desk, Like I can text Brock and be like, I'm
really upset about the mirrorders today and He'll be like, I understand, brother,
Like yes, you know, I just my little I just like you
know, I don't get a lot of big connections. But I like that.
But I don't see Brock being involved. But he got it. But
to me, am I wrong in that? It felt like goes a little
bit more like this is part of your contractual obligations? Yes, agreed,
I mean, you know they continue to make Kurt Menafee the number one play
by play guy, and I just, you know, it just feels like
sometimes he's not super prepared, and but he's the number one guy because he's
been at Fox forever and there are super cuts of him blowing calls in the
XFL. I mean, it's in the in the USFL. And so I
mean nothing, I mean, I get it, but you know, that's
just it sometimes for these broadcasters You've talked to a few, I've talked to
a few. It's just something else that's on their plate, like you said,
But there are other guys like Matt and like you said, like with
Brock, Yeah, they I felt like they really got it. Kevin Coogler
one hundred percent gets it, and and Brock is really good. Uh.
He did say he was doing Seahawks preseason games too as well, and I
so I really enjoyed, like you know, listening to him on all these
things. Uh. But yeah, you're right, it feels like some of
the ESPN people and you know, and I mean I'm not talking out of
school here, because I talked to Katie George you know, on you know,
on my channel, but also like you know, talking back and forth
and she really enjoyed it. And there was never a push, I don't
think to her to say like you have to do this. This was like
we want to put you on this and have you do it, and she
said it was a great time. It's just it's a lot of work.
I mean this. You know, when if you if you've not worked in
television, you know both of us have worked in television, you know,
it's not all glamorous all the time. It's a lot of work. And
then when you have things that are piled on top of you on that,
then you know you have to understand that. It's like you can embrace it
and have fun, but it's also a lot of work. Well, and
there's two I remind me of my comment on and Cougler being prepared, but
yes, I will agree the other. You know, even if you try
to do a good job, you might be someone like Matt Barry that's anchored,
you know, hour of TV every day and doing this and doing these
games. And then yeah, you know, as much as you want to
be prepared, uh, you have a you know an exit or a USFL
fan or this would have been an EXELL fan that like I know every second
of everything, and you say something wrong and you're like and like they don't
understand, Like yes, But to the other point, like Kevin Kruger Cougler
would say, back when he was on the Spring League stuff, you know,
I mean, you know, you're calling Patrick Mahomes and the Super Bowl,
like everybody knows the storylines with that. Whereas if you're calling the Spring
League and you're calling you know, AJ mccherron or someone like, you gotta
you know even if people know, hey and are reminding people or hey,
this was this unsigned guy from the school and it's coming in and he was
you know, left out of this and played overseas and was en Now like
you got to kind of know all that background, and it is a lot.
It's a tremendous more work than just the exes and those of kind of
knowing the player stories of all this, sure, And I think that's what
a lot of the of a lot of the good play by play guys and
gals do. They tell the story. And you know, these spring leagues
are full of stories. And that's honestly why I kind of got involved with,
you know, doing YouTube and doing some of these things, because the
stories are so good. I mean, you're gonna get good stories on every
level. But you know, some of these guys who are you know,
trying to make their path up, or other guys who have come down trying
to make their path back back up, or just you know, some playing
for the love of the game. It's just there are a lot of cool
stories, and I like there are good broadcasts that tell those stories. It's
not all about x's and o's. Yeah, I'm not gonna say Jimmy's and
Joe's because everybody says that. Basically say we'll curious with the Fox and they're
staying here. Kevin burke Cart, Greg Olsen back called for the UFL.
Is that what you want or is that what's gonna happen? I guess I
can't imagine Kevin Burkhart and then Greg Olsen. I mean that was the eight
crew on Fox. Now, is that going to happen? Probably not Greg
Olsen. I don't know what he's gonna do. I mean that that which
was you know, that's a whole thing to it, that's a whole podcast.
I can't imagine that that's going to be the case, especially if Kurt
Menafie has already been announced as a guy. Well, I don't know.
I mean I love Tom Brady and all that, but like, like whatever
four million Greg Olson's getting paid the years it worth thirty to get Tom Brady?
Like, are you increasing viewership by you know? I mean they're obviously
they're smart people doing the math, but right, and I'd like to see
the I want to see the streaming numbers on Apple on this dynasty uh documentary
series on the Patriots, which is incredible because it's based on an incredible book.
It's like, but it's got a lot of time Brady in it.
Is that what's drawing people? Or is it the story? So yeah,
I don't but thirty million dollars or whatever it is with Fox, as we've
said before, like sixty million dollar loss for the XFL and Redbird Capital,
that's a big deal. A sixty million dollar loss for Fox is a rounding
error. So it didn't make that much difference. Are you surprised? And
just kind of piggyback on all this. Mike was on Mark's channel last night
kind of coming back and just a couple other talking points here before we get
out. I think we've kind of potentially is everything I wanted to If you
have any other comments, I know you know, no United My Football this
time, no Player fifty four, know anything outside of last time we had
the ESPN kind of the what was it? It was the online streaming,
pregame and all that stuff, Like nothing really outside of obviously better broadcast windows
and we've done the whole schedule breakdown and all of that. Other people are
interested in that, but I'm curious that that there's no with all of this
broadcasting power than nothing outside the norm. That that was really shocking. And
I think when I was on with you and Max talked about like I really
missed United by Football. Those those were so good. And then the Player
fifty four, which really got into a lot of the player stories, that
was based more around like for those who haven't seen it, United My Football
was more of a real almost like a reality show that was entertaining, and
I don't like reality shows, but Player fifty four was kind of that way,
but it was more based like it was a you know, in training
camp, and I thought that was just uh again we talk about missed opportunities,
but man, those stories connect with so many people and it was a
great pregame lead in for the USFL and I think some they played it.
It was on uh, I know it was on ESPN. Plus you could
watch the player fifty four stuff. Yeah, you've got Fox and ESPN behind
this. Why would you not do some kind of and maybe they're gonna announce
it later. I don't know. It just seems like that'd be a really
cool thing to do leading up to some of these games, even if it's
just a pregame, and and even if it you know what was because the
one was just online, right, it was like on the ESPN YouTube channel
with Scooby Scooby mcgiza and kind of all that, because Scooby was on the
show as well. I mean those guys got it as well. I think
anyone. Oh yeah, I did not. And I had a lot of
the ESPN people on, just going back to the broadcasting thing, I didn't
have anyone on where I felt like I wasn't fully invested in all this stuff,
even people as busy as you like. I mean, I think that's
cool because I'm like, I always feel like I'm the nerve, like could
you come on and talk about whatever? And then like when they get it,
you feel like, Okay, I'm not that, and you can tell
I'm sorry, Red. You can tell that when they're on your show,
when you're talking to them, it's like they're enjoying talking about, you know,
the league and talking about the stories and those things. It's not just
like, oh yeah, you know, thanks for having me and whatever.
It's like there they are having a good time with it. It was like
I had on and they dropped off and some guy was doing it. I
think it was like an XFL Seattle podcast or whatever, and he was coming
on like all he wanted to do was talk about like Johnny Manziel and I'm
like, okay, you're not like and this was like last year, right,
I'm like, you're not getting kind of where this is going. Speaking
of the player of for before and then we touched on this at the top.
I wanted to make sure we're circled back Rock on Dayton that. But
like Danny Garcia seems gone from this world. Yeah, I don't know what
was going on because she was the face there for quite a while along with
the Rock and now it seems like I don't I've seen her like post some
other things about different businesses and but it's never been there's been a little bit
of the of the UFL stuff. But you know what's fun you talk about
Daytona. Uh after that appearance, I don't know how many people like texted
me like, oh, they were talking about the UFL on they watching,
you know, the Daytona five hundred pregame. So you know that connects with
people who don't even like what's the UFL, Like is that happening this year?
But yeah, I was kind of surprised with Danny Garcia just kind of
haven't seen a whole lot of her, and you know, maybe it's just
it's been all Rock And I do like that Darryl Johnson, you see him
at all these you know, at all the the socials they call whatever,
those you know, the little community get togethers. But I think that's cool.
But yet it seems like the rock has been like this is the A
tier. I'm gonna be on the broadcast, Darryl Johnson is going to be
kind of the grassroots local And then I don't know a good question what happened
with Danny. Just let's here on the YouTube channel. We have one hundred
and sixty people right now. We are one away from a thirty three hundred
subscribers, So if you wanted to, if you're not subscribed on the channel,
if you wanted to be a part of that, you know, maybe
we could. Ok, I got stuff I could send out, but maybe
we could do that and you can say, hey, send me hey,
Red, that was your thirty three hundred subscriber. But that would be cool.
It'd be cool to hit that. By the end, I appreciate that
if we ever get to thirty five hundred, I will give away tickets to
something. So we were going to do that, and then, uh,
you know the I would say the UFL US I would say, neither the
XVl nor the USFL season last year hit the mainstream audiences, I think clearly
from the merging of everything now. So we never really hit that, but
we'd love to hit that. You know, get thirty three hundred here,
but yeah, let's get to thirty five do a ticket give away all that
stuff. Yeah to me. You know, Danny and the Rock have Max
has a comic here. We'll get to Dany in the Rock. It seems
like they transitioned their names to like founders. We taught you Danny's not on
the football anymore, Like I don't know. To me, it just feels
like we're getting rid of that. The player VI before really felt like it
was in marketing, like this is a biopic about you know, Danny RC
and the Rock buying the Football League versus I mean, it was a good
show. I watched, like the Rock going back to Hawaii and like crying
in front of his apartment. That was That was really good. That was
good. It was great. But that wasn't about the XFL. That was
about the Rock. Yeah, and he's the one of the biggest stars in
the world, so why not cash in on it. I would love to
see I'd like to see them do do something something that is in addition to
you know now. They did have as you mentioned on ESPN, there was
I think it was streaming. They had the XFL pre game and I watched
some of it and I thought it was good. I was obviously not the
target audience. They did a lot of stuff, and I was just like,
I don't know about that. But hopefully there will be a lot more
of this and it won't just be like, oh, top of the hour,
here's kickoff, you know, on on any of the channels. Well,
here we go. I can proudly say anyone decides to go way,
we have cross. Yes, there you go. Whoever I was part of
history, I feel honored. John was part of our first ten dollars super
chat. You're a part of the cross subscribers, John's been a part of
a lot of stuff there, so I appreciate that. But yeah, say
subscribing. Here are lots of work. Love more UFL stuff coming out.
Obviously, I got teased at the top of the show. Uh. Big
interviews next week already have one fan favorite played in the XFL, played in
the USFL and now is back to see if you can get to that is
sweetheart of a gentleman. And then a couple of big name, really big
name interviews, one returning big name I'm working on, and then it would
be a new a person as well, So big time on there. But
that would be exciting. So I appreciate that. Max has a comment here
speaking of the rock no project Rock merch for sale justs bye players wearing the
merch puck in the weight room. Yeah you know you see. Even the
interview I did yesterday, this gentleman had a really nice sweatshirt on, like
I would love to see that go for sale here, like you know,
they're obviously manufacturing that. But I also heard like rumblings from yeah, let's
say XFL last year from some of the team people, like sometimes it was
a little bit of like, oh I need I'm taking that merch or I'm
taking like sometimes there wasn't necessarily enough merch to go around, if that makes
sense, like, hey, I need to collect enough things so I have
enough like under armour things to wear. I don't know if it's his abundance
people think from looking at the social thoughts on any of that interesting, Yeah,
well, I mean it's again you talk about it. Seems like merchandising
could be huge for this for this league, especially from you know, idiots
like us who buy who will buy almost anything. But if you have some
cool under armour stuff, which I think is gonna that could be good for
the other fans. They'll see that's a really cool sweatshirt, that's a cool
logo. I think. Yeah, it's just it's too bad because the UFL
shop, I'll say it myself, the rollout was very poor. And I
don't think that's a secret to a lot of people who tried to spend money
on there. It's been almost a month since I ordered a shirt from there.
I went on there and it said order unfulfilled. And as I told
you, I am also unfulfilled because I like to have my UFL shirt.
It just there's I would almost rather that they had And we talked about it
before when we'll go keep killing them on the shop thing, But I almost
wish they had already had full stock before they opened the shop back up.
Yes, I agree that it is. You know, it's also like it's
three like we got to put this online. I mean, we can't.
You got to have the shop open. But I remember the sadness of last
time. I think it was the USFL started it, the XML continue of
not having the jerseys ready by by opening day. That was. That was.
And I remember this is what like I was in because I wasn't doing
the podcast for the XFL twenty twenty. I was a fan and I was
in Vegas working, and I was filming this event at the Ferris Wheel and
I was literally in the Ferris Wheel refreshing the page because they were announcing all
the jerseys that night. And I remember I remember getting to the airport the
next day and walking back and forth and listen to Mark Perry do a breakdown.
I think it was what was his name, Connor Folk, I think
was on there too, but doing they had done the live But like,
that's how invested I was in all this and to make sure I could order
it, and I was on trying to make sure I could order it,
order it, order it, and then get it ready to go. And
it came like Christmas eve Day or something before the kickoff. But it was
such a part that being a fan of this, and I just think,
like they don't. They just view that as one more thing. But there's
so many of these things that are like a paramountal part of building these fan
bases and getting people involved in Like then, because then what am I gonna
do. I'm gonna order something from China. I'm going to make my own.
And we did the kickoff last year for the Renegades, there was tons
of you know, DIY kind of stuff and at that point, like,
I'm not going to go back and invest one hundred and sixty dollars in New
Jersey halfway through the season. That's not even gonna ship till the end of
the season. Well and that's the thing. We're gonna kick off as we
tape this in what twenty two days? Is that? Right? Am I
doing the math? Right? So it's like, are you going to you
know, I've been waiting almost a month for a shirt. So if I'm
gonna go to you know, one of the games on you know that weekend,
am I gonna have my gear or not? So I you know,
I just and I know they're trying to They're gonna sell some stuff locally,
so if you're in those markets, I guess you'll see those on the shelves
somewhere. But yeah, I just it's the rollout was pretty weak, I
will say, because my wife was like, we're gonna go to a BattleHawks
game here in April, and she was like, well, I hope that
they'll eventually put some women stuff on so she can buy a shirt to go.
They finally have it up there. I guess. I don't know if
they win. It came on, but that is online now as we just
saw. Yeah, lots of women said, I just you know, this
is different, going through the different you know, when Paul and I had
our drop shift account, but I remember like, uh, you know,
you could just go on, and I remember asking Dorothy like, hey,
Paul's going to make a tank top, like what kind of She's like,
I want to race your back top, and I'm like, I don't even
know if that is. I'm like, okay, like we can go make
that and put a logo on and kind of all that stuff. One hundred
and seventy five people on here right now plus whatever on Twitter. Appreciate everyone
checking that out. John, anything else you want to make sure we touch
on here. I'm going to post the episode when we get off. Obviously
they'll be back on the Sports Illustrated the website. Appreciate that, and I
think that that's helping to scan some of these subscribe as well. But yeah,
having passed the thirty three hundred today, which is exciting, that's very
cool. No, I think we covered it all always. You know,
I could go another hour with you, as we know. We can,
you know, go back and forth talking about the UFL and there. I
know there are people that say, yeah, you guys are really nitpicky,
and we were, but we do it again, as I said to you
before, we do it because we care and we want this to succeed.
And I'm just you know, we're I'm cautiously optimistic as we were about three
weeks away from kickoff, so it's always fun to talk about, you know,
the UFL and and kind of pick on things that we wish we're a
little better or a lot better. Well, and you know, I get
that, right, So I get one hundred percent that, but I also
don't think that there is any gain of being another bashed cheerleader for anything right,
right, and and you know, and I've we've had long conversations this
week with a lot of you know, with the Mike Mitchell's of the world
and Pad and Evans kind of everyone else, because I I do air on
more of the uh negatory side of things, right, like even talking and
I have my cracking right, haven't had the best season and we're trying to
make a push and even like my season ticket holder friends or like really like
we need you know, you got to be optimistic here about and I'm like,
I try. Just things that have been through my life and not that
I've had the most challenging life, but there's been things that have kind of
caused me to be I'm a little bit more of like the realist, pessimistic
sort of things. But the reason I do it is because I do want
things to be successful. And so it is hard when I get like YouTube
comments of like like you know, like why do you even care, Like
just it's like, no, we do this because I do care, because
us not carying is just packing up the shop and not doing it anymore,
right that is, you know, turning off and not doing the podcast.
And it's the same with doing these live shows and stuff right now. It's
it's a way to kind of continue doing this by keeping myself saying because I
don't think that you had a two and a half hour pre recorded, even
though I do think we'll have a good episode next week. But yeah,
that that's why I do that. So it's hard when I and I understand
people feeling that way, but like, this is why I'm doing it,
is because we want this to succeed. Because I've lived through and you've lived
through, like you and Mike and all, like we've lived through all of
these different things, and it is because we've seen so much of it that
we want this to work with I mean, it's not been that long ago
where there was the big news conference with Charlie Eversol and the whole thing with
the with the Alliance of American Football, and I'm sitting there watching it.
I was so excited. I mean, I'm watching the unveiling of this and
the you know, announcement of this, and I'm like, man, we're
finally going to get a spring football that's gonna you know, they've got it
all together, and then you're disappointed again again and again. So we just
don't want to be disappointed. Like you know, you said you could just
pack it up, because the opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy.
And if you're just apathetic about it, you're like, you don't care.
We care, That's what. We just want things to be good because
we care about the product. And and just my last thing on this because
I you know, and we're still peaking viewership heirs. I appreciate that because
I don't want anyone to be like this idiot needs to stop talking. But
we just saw this week that like fangtro Football, they're bringing back there,
like I think they're trying to launch again, but they're bringing back there weekly
they do like a weekly YouTube show, and they were gonna have some big
announcements and I'm like, I remember when the season one of that came out
and Paul and I sat here and said like this is wrong and this is
wrong and this is wrong and and they got mad at us, right,
and we would they would like they'd come on the show and like, well
you guys, I'm like, you're just you're just hating, Like you're just
hate. It's like no, like I'm watching eight hours of your twitch streams
every Saturday, Like I'm not hating it. I'm watching this. Like you
know, the people that say, like, you know, spring football is
stupid because these players suck are the same people like the CFL, Like that's
not real athletes, Like those are the people you need to get mad at,
not the people. I mean, Pat and I our recapped every single
UFL you know game the entire season. Like I said, Paul and I
I watched all those stupid fans show football, Like I am not the enemy
here, the person that's watching and giving you constructive criticism of things that they're
easy to change, and then seeing your and then's like seeing your league go
away because you didn't do that, like you know, basically being like this
is why this is gonna work, and then it didn't work, and like
then them trying to do NFTs and being like that's that's never gonna work,
and then it didn't work again and it went away, Like but yeah,
but I'm like I'm the idiot, Like, oh, you're the smarter,
Like their CEO would be like yelling at me on Twitter like you're just an
idiot. I'm like, okay, like i I'm here, Yeah, you're
not. I mean, and I think I don't want anyone to fail anything.
You you hit, you hit right. It's constructive criticism because you are
the target audience. You're you're this is what you want to see, and
you think that this would be good and it's not out of the you know,
realm of you know, oh I want to see you know, Patrick
Mahome's playing in Fan Control football. No, that's not what you're saying,
just like you'd want to try to get this off the ground because you care.
People who call other people haters. It's like that is like the laziest
thing, because if it really is constructive criticism of something that you hope to
succeed, it's not hating. It's like I'm trying to just say, like
it's like watching someone that you you know, that a friend or something that's
being self destructive. It's like, you've got to stop this, and here's
why you have to stop this. I can see it well and I will
just say that when and then when I you know, when I get feedback
on my feedback, at least it feels like my feedback is heard, right,
Like, I mean, I have heard from you know, the league
about things, and like that at least speaks that they value my opinion in
that way, right, And they don't view me so I don't care if
anybody, I mean, at least they don't view hopefully view me as some
big negative nancy like at least because that is my goal. I have been
through a lot of so anyway we all have and that you're right. I
mean, we could get on here and be fanboys, but like who want
I mean, they might like to hear that. I don't think the people
that are watching right now want to hear you raw ra or hear either of
us. Just raw raw And everything's great, but damn way to recap.
I am excited big time next week so everything else, but I do I
gotta go. I mean, I think this is the last go around we
have, so I mean we're I'm full speed ahead, gonna be retweeting everything,
being to be sharing everything, all the stuff everything. There's a lot
of good being done right now. There's things that could be done, but
it is fun to go on to kind of nipick this stuff. But lots
of player interview us the next week. Appreciate that. Lots of training camp
coverage and then we'll be live March thirtieth here and hopefully John and I think
Greg Parks and anyone else and Andy's talking about trying to go. I have
a great spot set up. We'll have a cool background and everything, so
anyone that's in town at least talent wise, can come hang out and then
we'll be at the game and then obviously anyone that wants to call in John
plug your channel. You said you have uniform rankings coming out, which will
be exciting then because John does like the good bite size, because I like
you, I'm on here. We just ramble for an hour and a half,
but then you do like this is my targeted seven minute thing, which
is good. That Yeah, it's John Lewis Sports. That's all you have
to look up on YouTube, and I appreciate you letting me get the plug
in. I just do, and it is I'm going to have some uniform
rankings. I'm gonna tell the whole and this is a story for another day,
but I do I do have want to kind of get into the background
of Matt Carrall because I think he's a really good story for the Birmingham Stallions.
So hopefully we'll have a video on out on that out soon. And
I'm sorry about the grade that I'm going to give your San Antonio Obamas uniforms,
but that is ah, that's the point that should come out this weekend.
John Leu Experience and John Rarity dropped down from three or three hundred subscribers,
so our rant, our rand got this the way we lost it.
So that's folklus. We had hit. We had hit thirty subscribers. We
made someone mad. If you want to support the show, like and subscribe
one hundred and ninety five people watching us here at three twenty on a specific
here, I'm going to go rest my gums, crack and play tonight.
Let's hope for that and that John appreciate your time and that everyone's watching and
hanging out. So it's been fun. It has been fun anytime, man.
Thank you for having me on. Yeah, we tried Wednesday, we
tried Thursday, and then finally here end of the week. So we get
we got it, We got it all right. We'll see you guys next time.