Happy Friday everyone. That weird time today kind of the end of the week,
but I think this will be good kind of news roundup here. I
know, another live episode here. I had really promised myself going to get
back on the horse start scheduling interviews. Luckily a lot of the new USFL
teams have old like XFL team PR people, so that's really great. But
we were out of town last week and they get back this week. Just
didn't have enough time. But I'm going to get some interview scheduled next week
and then a big time I think a big time here guests scheduled here potentially
a week after next. So if you're intrigued, like and subscribe here.
You know, if we hit thirty five hundred subscribers before we make the kick
off here at the end of the month, you could get two free tickets.
Otherwise maybe we'll do the championship game. But like and subscribe, become
a member, you know, hit join, join the community. I think
it's a dollar a month here. Greg, not that you are not a
big guest, you are also a big time guest, but this would be
exciting for both of us. So how are you doing? Great parks at
ufl board here. Yeah, look, I understand my role, so I
appreciate you having me on here on this Friday night live show where you'd always
love going live with you and hearing from the viewers and the questions that they
have and being able to address some of them and talk a little training camp.
It's great to see players with helmets on, and I think the pads
are going on tomorrow, so really excited about everything we're seeing in training camp.
Yeah, it's good. It's kind of a weird spot here because it's
like, Okay, I want to get Anthony Miller or on here maybe next
week or the week after, like when we're you know, is Anty gonna
go kind of see some drills. I know you've been in some press some
you know team head coaching with Skip Holtz and all that, and I know
Mike's been doing that in pat and everybody, so we'll get kind of the
reports. It's such a frustrating because like I'm watching a Mariner's pre you know,
spring training this week and like you know, brocking soccer down there and
they're interviewing them. I'm like, I wish, you know, if only
there was a time here maybe where I didn't work and I could be there.
We're doing training camp in the city, Like, I think that would
be another cool way to do it. But you know, we're getting a
lot of videos and stuff coming out. Do you feel are you whelmed overwhelmed
with the amount of content? Because I think they're working hard. I think
the team social people are working hard. Absolutely. And my spring break for
school just happens to coincide with uh not next week, but the week after,
And I thought, wouldn't it be cool to be able to go down
to Arlington for a few days and catch a few practices and talk to a
few coaches and things like that, you know, not knowing what the UFL
schedule is going to be like next year, we don't know if they're going
to start the same time. They could start back at the old XFL schedule,
and if that's the case, I would kind of have to take time
off, which is hard to do. So, you know, I it's
something I'm really considering. I don't know if it's gonna be worth it,
because I really don't know. I haven't heard from enough PR people to know
what kind of availability there is even to just watch practice to report on that
stuff. Or not. So that's something I'm gonna have to do some digging
on probably this weekend. But yeah, I think the content has been fantastic.
Look, I never had an Instagram until a few days ago because so
much of the content for the teams was being put on Instagram. They're putting
some stuff on Twitter, which obviously I have, but so much of it's
being put on Instagram that I felt like I was missing out, so I
signed up for Instagram. I haven't posted a thing, will not post a
thing probably, but I'm following all of the team accounts in the league account
just because there's just so much video, so many pictures being put out.
And you're right, I mean, you couldn't ask for anything more in terms
of the content that the social media managers and the like have been putting out
since the day the players reported to Arlington. So that's been really cool to
see. Yeah. No, you know, friend of the show and former
Hub member j Noaks running wild there. I know Leah's doing that. I
know some of the people from last year, you know, got moved on
to other things. But exciting for that we have here a Evan checking in
here evening chance Whe's I had the same street this Greg Shandson, Rob Parafino,
and yeah, I wore this old school curd angle from this angle,
you suck. I thought you would get a kick out of that. I
pulled this one out of the closet just for you, Greg. I love
it. If I'd have known, we should have coordinated. I have my
the mizz Hello I'm Awesome T shirt that I could have worn, and we
could have matched wrestling shirts. But instead I'm wearing this whole thing, so
well, you know, maybe next time. Yeah, I and I know
what you mean with the whole I would love to have like the residency down
there, Paul and I back. You know. I I think what we
didn't really know maybe the scope of how big or little this podcast would be.
Like, man, we could like, yeah, totally take a week
and go and do your live shows and all that. Like I don't know
if the viewership is there for that like to take off, like and you
know, and with with the freelance life to know all that, but I
do think that'd be cool. I mean, Arlington set up in a good
way, and I think that you know, even lat when when the Arlington
announcement back for the original XFL here last year and I went down there and
Danny and Russ, Brandon and everyone, and they said, you know,
having the teams together like that is going to allow us to generate a lot
of that stuff and then obviously when we go play in the cities, that
will translate over are you feeling how are you feeling just casual market wise here?
Things are progressing. We will talk football here, I promise, but
I just want to get some wide range, like, you know, is
this resonating now? Because I mean this is the month. I mean we're
twenty nine days away. I kind of feel like XFL twenty twenty three in
terms of the marketing in the actual home cities. They're doing the these in
market sort of meeting greets with Moose Johnston there. Some of them have rouss
Brand and the head coaches. That's what XFL twenty twenty three did. And
you know you're not seeing the local press. I mean, if San Antonio,
for example, was practicing in San Antonio, you'd probably have a beat
writer coming up with stories every day because he'd be there at practice every day.
He'd be interviewing players after practice, coaches after practice, and he'd be
submitting them to the newspaper. The UFL simply does not warrant someone traveling even
from San Antonio to Arlington, let alone from Memphis or Detroit or anywhere else
to as you call it, kind of a residency in training camp, to
report on these things every day like you would if they were in the home
market. So I think that's really what they're missing out on. It's nice
that they're doing zoom interviews with the head coaches and things like that, but
you know, without having the boots on the ground in those markets at a
consistent basis, I do really think it's hurting. I see somebody mentioned Arlington's
event was very well attended. That's what it seemed to look like. You
know, Saint Louis's seemed to be there's just coming up. Actually, there's
another one recently that seemed like it was well attended. Maybe it was the
DC one one, yeah, or something like that. So you know,
these are markets d C and Saint Louis and to a lesser extent, Arlington
that have responded well to these teams in the past, so no surprise they're
doing well. But it's those other markets that, you know, the Houston
markets, the Memphis market, some of those places that may need a little
leg up to get to the fan response of some of their counterparts where I
think it might be really hurting not having them there. Yeah, I because
we had talked and that kind of spurred some of my discussions with some of
the team PR people this week that like, for example, the battle Hawks
very highly attended right media when they do the availability with coach back to whatever,
and like the Houston one was not. I think they had one person
I think, you know, on there terms of kind of getting that and
so it's it's hard and you know, like especially if you're Houston, you
had the team in twenty twenty, and then they went away and then it
was back, but it was then with the USFLVE and that was for the
XFL. It gets a little murky that way. And yeah, I've tried
to convey it as well. And again we you know, our i mean,
our target audience has kind of invested regardless. But I'm like, I
do think that it would be cool that we got to spread these coaches out
more. And they're busy now with training camp and people want to talk to
them, and there's always that balance of like, the time everybody wants to
talk to you is the busiest time where you. I understand you're doing the
football, but you need to be able to set aside some time for that.
So yeah, And it's not just the local reporters and things like that,
it's places like us like ufl board. You know, the only reason
I was on the call on Wednesday with skip Holes is because Mark Nelson,
the editor and owner of ufl board, happened to get a media advisory from
Birmingham's PR people. And that's the only one we've received from any of the
PR teams. They were really good. I know XFL twenty twenty three was
really good. When we covered it at cfl board, the XFL PR sent
out an entire list of Okay, he's here are the PR context for each
team, here's the practice schedules, here's the media availabilities for the entire training
camp. And we've received nothing like that with the only team that's reach out
to us with media is the Stallions. I would love to jump on these
media availabilities with these head coaches and these players and things like that, but
it looks like I'm gonna have to go seek them out to do that,
and you know, again, I know we're just a little old ufl board
and we're you know, kind of a drop in the ocean sort of of
what the league is looking for in terms of coverage. But you know,
it is important as well to reach out to as many media entities as you
can because any coverage that you get for a league like this is gonna be
good coverage. That's actually a really good point. I forgot that with the
Yeah, when the XFL last year and it was like, Okay, here's
all the people, you know, here's we're you know, we're doing the
Monday Wednesday. We're going to do the coordinators or whatever this day. I
also got the Birmingham one because obviously the us of belst have last year was
kind of wonky because you have like media people with agencies that were kind of
doing the hubs and stuff. I have if you want all that, I
sat down and pieced all that together this week. Yeah, because it's like,
okay, you know, Andy with the the Guardians is now with the
show Boats, but like what's their email and all that stuff so we can
get all that. But no, I think that's surprising that ufl board did
not because yeah, I had to do the groundwork on that, but obviously
I'm not with you know, hub or anything, so it made sense for
me, but certainly would not make sense for you because that would probably be
why there was really one person like at the Houston media availability is like maybe
you didn't know what was going on. Yeah, I think the Birmingham people
have done a really nice job because I think there were about twelve people on
the call, you know, not counting the PR people who were on the
call as well and Coach Holts. I think they were about eleven twelve media
actually on the Zoom call, and I think Coach Holts it was only asked
five questions because he's quite verbose. He likes to he likes to give very
detailed answers. So in the half hour or so we were on, I
was lucky enough to be one that that got to ask a question but didn't
get too many questions. But yeah, I mean, just being on these
calls and being able to write stories from being on these calls, I think
is very valuable for these leagues. I am Max Hear says, I mean,
technically, I guess I'm I don't want Mandy towards illustrating is having enough
to host the content that we do, and this will be on there as
well. Chris is talking about video freezing. I'm not seeing any sort of
tech issues on my end, and no one else is mentioning that, So
I just wanted to keep that in mind you when I'm when I'm at the
home studio here, I got the terribile you know, I'm I'm, I'm,
I got the gig speeds here. I'm pretty good. But I want
to talk teams and kind of thoughts now that we have all that, But
before we get are are you surprised? Uniform wise? I really thought we
were going to get a uniform drop this week because I was of course,
can be out of town on a cruise ship with no Wi Fi, and
I thought, well, this would be a wonderful time to do that.
But when the players patting up and everything, are you surprised? That's not
like we I mean, presumably at least the USFL teams are going to have
new uniforms or at least tweaked. Yeah, I mean, it looks like
under Armour is going to be doing a lot of the We've already seen some
of the players reveal there. I guess they're packs of materials that they've received,
shorts and T shirts and things like that, and that's all under Armours,
so we can assume that under Armor is also doing the uniforms. Look,
I just don't think there's enough time to do the kind of redesign that
would be necessary. I think a lot of it, at least for this
year, is just going to be take what the uniform was in twenty twenty
three and just transpose it onto an under Armor uniform. You know, it
feels like just yesterday read that they announced the league, So I mean things
are moving quickly and with everything that they've needed to do to get ramped up
here in the last two months, I just don't see any kind of real
thorough redesign as you mentioned. Tweaks perhaps here and there, but I would
be surprised if it's anything more than that. Yeah, I have those there.
Hopefully Fanatics is not the all. Yes, I've been tracking them.
If you I'm of your baseball guy, Greg, but Baseball is having some
problems with their uniforms. I see, Yeah, I quite a lot of
Yeah, my buddy was down there, I said, have you gotten any
photos of any private parts. I want to I want to know how bad
it is, but I don't know. I mean, you know, to
me, you know, we a lot and we kind of are. I
don't want to go too far down this spaget your thoughts. And they did
the shop. We're adding items on there, but it's still like, okay,
we have some hats and some of the old USFL hats and some of
the old like, yeah, I think people want to spend money here,
and I understand that there there's other priorities, but I don't know the combining.
You would just think like, okay, we have all the all the
fox people. Now we have rever people, like let's let's get this at
least going. I mean, you can't even buy the old. It's not
like I can go buy the old you know who? I want the Stallion
jersey or whatever right now. Yeah. The only the only reason, and
I would think that there might be a jersey or some kind of change would
be if we had color scheme clashes, Like if one of the surviving USFL
teams had the same or too similar a color scheme to a surviving XFL team,
that there may have to have been some kind of change to the uniforms.
But short of that, I really don't see anything. I know you're
a close watcher of the UFL shop, and I totally agree, like,
if you know people want to spend money on this product, don't stop them
from spending money. You know, put as much stuff as you can on
there. I remember your epic rant about the trucker hats that came out for
for the XFL in twenty twenty three, so that's that's burned in my memory
from one of the episodes we did together. So I know how close to
your heart the shop is for these leagues. But you know, I do
think you have a broader point that if you you know, people are going
to go to the shop the first day it's and if they see that they
don't have what they want, they might not come back. Like they may
not be paying attention and checking every two weeks to see what's being added piecemeal
here and there. So ideally you want to make a splash right away.
And again I think that's another victim of just putting this together so last minute
and just you know, trying to make sure you hit the field, and
some things get left behind and hopefully for next year. We say this all
the time, hopefully for next year, hopefully for next year, but hopefully
for next year if we make it there, that that will be something that
sort of takes care of takes care of itself over time. Yeah, I
mean, that's the thing. I'm going to come Like, I I have
like an addiction to find that. Like, I mean, it's really like
and I will say, if you a friend of the show. He was
on last episode, John Lewis Sports did a phenomenal unboxing breakdown of the football
and comparing the new UFL football because he like he has all you think I
gotta have problem with John's got a football problem. He's got because he's got
like four USFL balls just from the last and all this stuff and everything seems
so expensive. I don't, you know, the I don't know. I
look at the prices on there, and I'm like, I can't. I
can't in my own mind convince myself to spend that kind of money on some
of those products. I bought the non named XFL one last year and I
did my little video because I have I have, like I also have a
Jersey addiction, and yeah, it was like I had the return to them
like I can't. I cannot in my in my life justify. And it
took like it took like three weeks to like get a response back, and
I was like, I want to make sure we have like the time codes
on all these emails, because like I've tried to initiate this return process,
you know, and it might have taken sixty days, but I'm like,
you know, I want to make sure I'm not on the cutoff here,
like I'm trying to get all this set back. So in terms of major
I'm looking at the UFL site right now. Let me see if I can
get this on here. They have the major story they have football wise here
you know Pras Tamu a couple of days ago on here. Oh yeah,
we'll talk about destroying thank you Pat. Big big news here. How big
of a deal is this getting both of these guys back to me? Either?
Luis continues see the fire expectations, just because I would always think like,
oh, he's passed this prime now, I mean he won the championship.
Ask him, like, how big is it getting both of these returning
starts back for their teams? I think it's huge. And you add an
aj McCahon as well. And you know, I think the Big three,
so to speak, from the XFL coming back. I know there was some
concern at one time over how much money they were or were not paying quarterbacks,
and that seemed to be what the hold up was for mcaren, who
was very public about his questions about that the pay scale and things like that
related to the union and all, and then Tam it was was kind of
silent, but if you tried to put two and two together, you thought
maybe there was an issue with I mean, he's not exactly a guy knocking
on the NFL door, unfortunately, and I think a lot of fans of
the XFL and USFL would say he probably deserves a better shot than he's received
so far. But you know, for him to wait out so long without
really, you know, any NFL opportunities to weigh, you have to figure
it could be a paything. And then I think we always kind of assume
Louis Prez was coming back. I know when I when it was announced that
Louis pres and Jordan Tama were returning, I thought I thought Perez was already
returning, Like I didn't think that was news. But you know, Pez
is only twenty nine, and I know he feels kind of to us Spring
football people ten years older, just because he's been around the block so long,
and he's been around so long. But he is just twenty nine.
So I know people are already wanting to replace him on the depth chart with
Lindsay Scott and Holton Naylors and stuff like that, the quarterbacks that they have
on the Renegades team. But I think it's really hard to replace a guy
who walked in the door and was the reason that team won the championship.
I mean, he would have to fall flat on his face in training camp
to not win that job. So I think some of the people who projecting
Lindsay Scott as the week one starter for the Renegades a little premature on that
call. Yeah, I want because I saw yeah something came out. Alers
was like, oh, I'm I'm you know, I'm the last, the
lowest on the depth car right now, And that was like surprising, and
I was like, well, no, Like, I mean, I think
you bring in Perez at least it's his job to lose at that point.
And then Lindsay Scott, I think people have said, has a lot of
upside. But yeah, you certainly they'll bring Luis back. You know,
they have him sit back up immediately. Yeah. The other thing is for
the eye popping numbers that Lindsay Scott put up in college. You have to
remember he did that incarnate word, which is an FCS program. And I
know it's just the UFL, it's not the NFL, but it's even a
pretty big jump from FCS level to starting in the UFL. So give him
some time, you know, let him watch and learn from a veteran like
Perez. I mean, I can't think if you're Ailers and Scott to real
I mean rookies, if we're talking experience wise, I can't think of a
better veteran to watch and learn from in terms of preper and things like that
than Luis Perez. Pat has a comment here, Tamly, when prez are
stables of these leagues or then they go to the NFL or not, it
gives fans a familiar faith story to relate to. Yeah, I mean,
do you do you see it positively or do you see it like maw these
got like they're back again now? I mean, because I think you can
look at it both ways of that of like I mean, Tayamu has had
definitely had his shot that kind of latch on with the Chiefs, and I
think it was the Lions, right, Uh yeah, I think it was
the Vikings with Tayamu this year. But you know, I think it's sort
of the double edged sword that And Anthony beck To made a comment regarding this
last year as he said, you know, I would like to go into
twenty twenty four having to replace every player on my roster because I want every
one of them to go to the NFL. And so you know, there's
that thinking that's going to legitimize your league in the eyes of fans who may
not otherwise watch the league but maybe hear about it through watching NFL games and
hearing about UFL players having success in the NFL. Brandon Aubrey for the USFL,
I think that was very value for them. But the other side is
the actual fans of this league. You know, you want the Jordan tam
who's the Lewis Perez. I know Perez was at the Arlington meet and greet
the other day, so a familiar face for Arlington fans to draw them in.
And fans want someone who they can associate with their team and their city.
So I think for fans of the UFL, you want players the level
of tam We're not just named that carry over from year to year, but
players who play extremely well and good players who carry over from year to year.
But in terms of drawing new fans, I think you want a certain
percentage to graduate onto the NFL, so that fans of football who may not
have heard about the UFL or may not have otherwise checked it out, you
know, hear about these players having success in the NFL, and they may
decide, let me see what this is all about next spring. It's hard,
I think, I don't know. I kind of look at them a
couple of different ways here. I want to make sure I note to for
the cutdown dates, and I had this, like Mike was reporting, March
tenth is gonna be the first cutdown date for training camp, coming down the
partial rosters and then final rosters there on March twenty third, So maybe we
can do something there, like you know, the week of the eleventh or
whatever, kind of figure out what's a little more you know, semi finalized
rosters with these with these guys returning in with the aj mccerron, Like,
I think that's great for you know, if you're a holdover from this league
before. I just met like a big picture thinking like I just don't know
if the league is doing enough to incentivize new, you know, new customers
of this at this point. You know, if we've lost eight from the
two leagues and now you know we're bringing these Okay, these are the favorite.
Like, I just at some point, I don't know what the marketing
plan is to get outside people invested in this versus just like let's retain the
people we have before, right, And you're talking bringing new fans in,
yeah, Like I mean, yeah, are you like how bolished are you
for kickoff this year? In terms of like like you know, we can
talk rating a couple of weeks, like are you bullish for like a to
be XFL last year? Well, in terms of players, I don't really.
I'm not sure there's a connection there, you know. I know we're
talking about bringing Tayamu and mcaeron back, and you know, pivoting from there
to drawing new fans. I'm not sure if those two are necessarily related.
And I'm not sure if you mean for them to be related or if you're
just kind of jumping off to a new topic. But it just kind of
came to my hand. It's a slight swerve. Okay, that's fine,
No, I agree. I don't you know, there's I think there's a
lot more commercials about the UFL than there was for the XFL. I think
it's closer to being on par with what we saw ad wise from the USFL
in previous years. I thought they did a really significantly better job in terms
of marketing with commercials than the XFL did in twenty twenty three. You know,
part of that is the league, but part of that is also your
TV partner willing to put those ads on the air, and with Fox owning
the USFL, obviously they had a bigger stake in it than the ESPN did
for the XFL. So that seems to be really the way that they're going.
I don't know if there's any kind of viral marketing. Certainly destroying being
on one of the teams may attract fans through social media and through YouTube that
otherwise wouldn't. But you know, I think putting the Rock and ownership on
College Game Day and on NFL on Fox, I think was good, but
they really haven't done much since then to appeal to a wider base of fans.
And I think that's even more necessary now because you have this space where
there's no football and you have to kind of remind fans that, hey,
football maybe over for the NFL, but we're starting up here at the end
of March. Whereas you could kind of connect those two with the XFL,
it ran at the end of you know, the week after the Super Bowl,
you maybe didn't need to do so much reaching out to fans the way
you have to do now to sort of bring them back into football once again.
And I just I haven't seen outside of television ads, I haven't really
seen a big push. Now. I'm not in a city that has a
team, so I cannot speak for the whole markets and what's going on there,
but I haven't seen a significant amount of push beyond those television ads.
Yeah, I'm just I'm worried in just to kind of relate to it,
you know, because like we got Tamu and then it's It was interesting to
me because they narrative with them coming back was like, oh, these guys
were eternity, but then he had someone like Matt Carrall coming in and he
was like, oh, well, this guy, this hat couldn't make it,
and now look at him, he's going to the Spring. He's like,
You're getting different different narratives there, kind of from the you know,
the at least what I'm seeing on Twitter and the more of the casual fan
base. Do you think like highlighting someone like him right he's with Birmingham?
I mean, is that going to be Is that a better way to showcase
to bring in you guys, like here's a guy it was like just drafted
just in the NFL a couple of years ago. I think so, But
I don't think as a league you can hang your hat on that as a
way to market, because ultimately it's up to each individual team as to who
they sign and who they bring back and who they think is the best fit
for their team. I think Spring football, at least for the first few
years, is always going to have that problem of the casual fan kind of
snarking on social media about players quote unquote slumming it in the UFL. I
mean, that's that's a stigma that you're going to have to shake by being
a successful league, and that's going to take time. You can't expect fans
like that to take you seriously your first year when they've seen so many spring
leagues come and go, and you know, so that's something that you're just
gonna have to grit your teeth and get through until you get to year three,
four five, to where you're taken seriously as an actual pro football entity
and not just oh, this guy couldn't make it in the NFL, so
he's, uh, you know, he's playing in the UFL. Now you
have a comment here, Gary, I do have two friends and up and
followers have either have asked me when the UFL started to me that suggests or
at least to where I have some interest. I also, I was just
picking up my car at the shop. I had to get excuse me,
in my oil chains and the lady came back here and got my keys,
and she goes, oh, is that like I saw your car head the
dragons, because I like the old dragons. She goes, like they're they're
gone now, right, but like that's merging, like they're getting together.
So I mean she kind I mean, you know she's not. I I
said, I gotta go, I gotta get home here can you give him
my keys? So like Z about this? But so yeah, I mean,
you know, I guess that's, you know, anecdotally, two different
examples here of that working. You were talking about Destroying and him, you
know, kind of the viral, you know, bringing him in, and
that's gotten a lot of traction. I've seen a lot of YouTube videos and
stuff. Pat was shared this today in our group chat, destroying. This
was on his Instagram. I have to share a locker with another kicker and
a Frannie face and he's obviously with matt Amandela there with the so like,
I don't know, that to me doesn't speak very well. What do you
think about that? I don't know. I don't want to read too much
into it, you know, I, like I said, I think he
can be valuable for reaching out to fans. I know, you know,
I've seen the YouTube videos where you know, this isn't just a gimmick.
I mean, he was a kicker in college and you know he's been working
on his craft. This isn't something where you know, they just sign him
and it's it's just a gimmick so to speak. You know, he's been
working at it, and he's been training and he worked out for Mark Littlebridge,
san Antonio's general manager. And so I don't know. This tells me
san Antonio has too many players on the roster. They got to have seventy
five players. What's what's the deal here? They should have enough lockers for
everybody. Are they trying to sneak an extra player or two on the training
camp roster here? Sam and Sam Chase where it said I they probably only
he's probably sharing because he's only going to be there for a couple of weeks.
Anyway, that doesn't necessarily matter. Maybe doesn't. Maybe maybe that's what
the frownie faces for. Maybe he knows that too. But I know,
I mean, because you know here, I'm someone here, I'm very invested
in the NFL combine right now. And with the words that Caleb Williams has
spoken here over the last couple of days, like and you know, so
you got to read in all this stuff, and if he's coming in here
and it's I, I don't know, you don't want you want people invested
in this. And if he's coming in and they're like, oh, I'm
holier than thou or whatever, because I have you know, four million YouTube
subscribers or whatever like that. To me, that would rub me the wrong
way if I was another special teams member there or anybody else on the team.
Well, I mean, and that's the thing about a league like this
where everybody's getting paid the same amount, Like, you know, those kind
of mistakes get you cut and teams won't think twice about it because you know
they didn't. It's not like they spent a high draft pick on it.
It's not like you know, you have this roster bonus come up or if
they cut you, yeah, they have to eat a bunch of money on
their salary cap. No, I mean this is this is UFL football,
So everybody's everybody's in the same boat here, so you really have to mind
your p's and q's. Yeah, Denzel check and then what up? Late
mean that's like I was talking through it. Yeah, I know. I
think it feels like a gimmicky signing. To me, it feels like he
was involved before. I mean, he's got to win a spot there in
terms of talking teams and kind of you know not I don't believe the whole
like power ranking this thing here. But you were on the call with with
you know, coach Holtz, like Birmingham to me, is coming in with
the most momentum, even compared to the Renegades who won the you know,
they won the exit of them Like you know that we can get into all
that losing record, all that stuff going through. But what do you make
here of the Stallions coming in and if they pants, you know, the
Renegades opening weekend, I think that would be very interesting to kind of engage
in the online stuff after that. Yeah, I may have to log out
for a few days if that's the case. Look, I think the Stallions
have one of, if not the most talented roster in the UFL. They've
won the UFL champion or the USFL Championship two years in a row. They've
added to that this offseason. I mean they've They've been one of the winners
of the offseason just based on the personnel that they've added. Beyond the players
that they've brought back from twenty twenty three. I mean, you talk about
a Matt Correll, you talk about a Slade Bolden, that wide receiver.
A lot of these guys who are being brought in can be difference makers.
And you know, if you want to compare it to Arlington. Certainly,
Arlington I think has a strong roster, but how much of that momentum can
carry over to twenty twenty four, that end of year momentum. They were
not able to put it together for an entire year the way the Stallions have,
So you know, I hate to lean too far in the renegade direction
when you just haven't seen it on that same consistent basis the level that you've
seen it with the Stallions. So Stallions are every team got stronger this offseason,
I think out a doubt just based on how these rosters were put together,
how the other teams were dispersed amongst the eight surviving teams. But I
think even you know, even admitting that every team got better, I still
think the Stallions got better than at least half the league. Probably. I
think it was Bob Steubes had a comment that maybe Ama was Anthony that shared
it, but like, yeah, these are like all star teams right now,
just because the cohesion of the talent that way. And I've known even
obviously the CFL teams happy that some of the players, you know, there's
not as many players tied up down here so they can get it. You
know, when these cuts come, it's going to be you know, I
think it's going to be alarming for a lot of these guys, even if
you've been carried over because you're now like, okay, we didn't know we
get spot and I'm on here, like there's just to me, it's like
that you're on the boat on the Titanic and there's so many tickets, right,
You're just trying to make sure you're one of those in terms of have
you enjoyed now because I know you were more exbell have you have you enjoyed
deep diving into these USFL rosters now that out of all this is cohesive.
Of course, you know, I'm still trying to get used to the coaches
and the players and things like that. And you know, there's there seems
to me to be a very limited amount of information online that I can really
dig into from the USFL the past couple of years. You know, there
wasn't a situation that I could see where, you know, like the XFL
last year had every week and all the team and each game by game stats
and everything like that. If that was out there for the USFL, you
know, shoot me a shoot me a link on Twitter, because I haven't
found it, and so it's been a process. It's going to continue to
be a process. I hope people are patient with me because you know,
it's it's going to be a full year of learning and then you know,
you kind of take what you learned this year and what you watch this year
with your own eyes and you get a better feel for it heading into twenty
twenty five. Probably again that's you know, it's tough here because it's like,
how how much do we invest in this? I mean, I know
that we talked here the casual media going in, I mean even from this
like I don't you know, and like the Sports Illustrated thing kind of spurred
my into you know, because I'm like, you know, really okay,
you know, and I mean and we're we'll be there, you know,
we'll be there in Arlington and I have all that booked and we'll you know,
I hope you or whoever wants to zoom in and I'll be there.
But you know, it's hard to even as a fan of one of these,
to be like, let's get and so especially to have to like deep
dive and relearn kind of all this stuff now doing way more worth that you
guys and Mike and Anthony and Pat do you know writing articles and stuff like
I just I couldn't imagine trying to get that on it gain now, Like,
who knows that this is going to wind out? Yeah, I can
tell you that. And I express to you my weariness last year with all
of the ratings stuff. And you know, you're you're living and dying week
by week with the ratings because you truly don't know what the future of that
league holds. And I can tell you that at least for now, and
maybe it'll change once the games actually start. But I don't feel that same
weight of the future that I did for the XFL. And maybe it's just
because the XFL letters are no longer there aside from being part of the conference.
And that's something that you know, the idea of the XFL and what
it stood for has attracted me for you know, ever since two thousand and
one, and that's not there now. So this is a spring league that
I'm covering that features former XFL teams, but I don't feel as invested in
it at least yet that I that I felt about the XFL. So I
think being able to keep it at arm's length is going to be good for
my sanity and good for my mental health and everything like that, and hopefully,
you know, it's kind of like, if you want something to happen,
do the opposite. So I, you know, wanted the XFL to
survive, so I was all in. So maybe if I back away,
then this one will actually last, you know. But you know, I'm
covering it, and I'm churning out articles and analyzing the rosters and teams just
like I would with the XFL. But that internal feeling, it doesn't feel
the same. It definitely feels different. And so again we'll see if that
changes the closer we get to kick off. Yeah, I think we're and
I've said on here, but kind of adjusting, you know, coverage,
and I said, trying to do some more pre recorded stuff next week and
get some player interviews and stuff. Yeah, I think I think the days
of the of the sixth interview two and a half hour mark casts are probably
you know, I mean, just just for sanity's sake of being able to
kind of cover this and stay stay excited about it. In terms of I
think you put Birmingham number one of all the eight teams, right, now,
and I know we still have cuts and everything and figuring out, but
just kind of now that you've had a chance to kind of simmer with the
rosters, I think so I think they're number one. You know, I'm
not going to go through the whole list or anything like that. There are
plenty of power rankings out there if you want to find them, and people
have their own reasoning for it. But I would say Birmingham based on winning
the championship in the USFL the last two years and then improving as I see
it upon the roster heading into twenty twenty four, I think they've got to
be number one in terms of a team you might be a little bit weary
about right now. I know Arlington is showing a blow on the list,
but I mean that was I mean there's quarterback concerns I think across a couple
of these teams right now. Yeah, And I think that's why, as
Mike Mitchell reported, you see some teams have reached out to Kellen Mond and
to Trace McSorley, who were NFL practice squad players. And you know,
it's intriguing to think about which teams right like with you look at the quarterback
rooms of all these teams and you're like, oh, they probably don't need
them. They probably they might need it, you know, so you kind
of in your mind imagine what teams reached out to these players. But you
know, Houston's Houston's a team that I'm not really sure about that that I
have some real questions about after going through especially after the dispersal draft and and
things like that. So I'm I'm wondering how they'll play out that. That's
that might be my biggest question mark right now is the Houston team. Why
I'm wanting to pull up the roster so I can kind of refresh myself.
But yeah, I mean it's a weird situation because it's where we're bringing in
that you lose, you know, you had a lot of the momentum I
think that the Houston team have and that replacing with the XFL, Like,
what is it about Houston besides because I think marketing wise, I think they're
going to have a tremendously difficult time as well. But just in terms of
player wise, why are you so concerned? Yeah, I think there's some
depth that's needed a lot of those positions. I don't see a lot of
names that jump out to me. You know, when I look at these
rosters, you know, I look for the names that have had that NFL
experience, that have been in NFL camps, that have had even success in
the NFL. And that's not always the players who stand out. I mean,
you look at our Tavis Briant, who had like fourteen catches with the
Vipers last year. So NFL pedigrees don't necessarily always translate over to a spring
league like this, but you know, that's that's where I look. And
there are a lot of unfamiliar names to me on that roster, and you
know, not to toot my own horn, but I'm familiar with quite a
few players that have come out of college in the NFL recently, So if
there are names that are unfamiliar to me, that's kind of what gives me
pause. And then you know, depth at certain positions as well. But
you know, it's certainly not writing them off or anything like that. There's
plenty of time to continue to add players throughout training camp. I think when
we see cuts come down both to I think fifty eight is the number the
first cut and then the final cut to fifty. You know, these teams
are all practicing together, they're all watching film of each other, They're going
to have numerous scrimmages against each other. So if there is a player who
is overlooked by a team or a team just has tremendous, tremendous depth at
a certain position and a guy who otherwise would have made the roster gets cut,
you're gonna see other teams pounce on them. And so you know,
this is this is a good situation to be And if you're a player who
gets cut because you're being seen very closely by seven other teams in the league,
well, especially where at least right now with training camp, the teams
are sharing like they're all you know, two of them are eachhar and fields
like you know, there's a good opportunity there and these coaches stas is kind
of go back and forth. Anyway, here what you have going on.
It's funny. I was looking here just with with CJ. Johnson, I
was I had this bio pulled up here with the Rough Texes. I've enjoyed
this, Like the the UFL is the premier Spring Football League, which is
funny because we've started calling ourselves the premier CFL. Podcast America's Premiere CFL podcast.
I can't remember there was some I had some feud with someone in the
CFL a long time ago, but we've always been in America's Premier CFL podcast,
and I like even in the bio here it says again. In twenty
twenty four, he was named head coach for the Houston Roughnecks at the UFL,
the premier spring football platform for by the merging of like even in the
bio, like this is even in the press release, even in the bio.
We gotta have that. Yeah, that's funny. But in terms of
se seems a little insecure maybe by the league. Uh yeah, no it
in terms of team building here at least we kind of have people that have
gone through this before and now right where I think we had like and you
know, I love coach back and all that, like we had some guys
back before, like okay, whether we do with here, like we've all
kind of been through the platform here, even if it's on you know,
the Filipo, switching teams and all of that, but you feel like at
least now we had kind of set rosters. These guys kind of know how
this operates. Because I think it's a totally different beast kind of trying to
build these you know, teams up over you know, what is it,
four or six weeks in training camp. Yeah, And I think it's going
to be interesting to see how that plays out on the field. I know
the USFL had some carryover from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three, and
I'm not sure, having not paid that close attention to it, how much
the on field product improved because there was that level of carryover. I know
they they did have to replace four head coaches, I believe in the second
year, so you know, maybe with offensive systems changing and things like that,
maybe there wasn't as much carryover as there might be otherwise. But you've
got a lot of head coaches returning in twenty twenty four to if not their
team teams, then they've brought a lot of players. Wade Phillips bring a
lot of roughnecks to San Antonio, and same with coach flip In in Memphis
bring a lot of New Orleans players over. So system wise, there's a
lot of carryover on these teams from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four,
and it would be interesting to see how that affects on field play, because
you would think that it would improve it. Obviously, the the on field
play is going to be improved just because you've gone from sixteen teams to eight
and you've condensed and you've taken the best players of the All Star teams,
as Bob Stoops called it. But I am curious to see how much cleaner
the game is. You know, you had if you watch the XFL last
year, you still you had a lot of you know, Luis pres was
still trying to get guys lined up in the right spot in the championship game
in Arlington, and so you know, there was a lot of that.
There was a lot of pre snap stuff going on that you hope gets cleaned
up with these guys so many of them having a second year in their team
systems and sometimes a third year. Now in terms of it, we did
Indeed, I don't want to deep dive on the rules, but if someone
are you, I want to get your thoughts. They especially now that they're
talking the NFL Commission and the committee, the rules committee talking about like,
hey we might look at the XFL kickoff, and we had Darryl Johnston talking
like that, didn't look like real football. We're not using that them getting
rid of that because I mean that was like the standout aspect of any of
these leagues. No, I agree, I was pretty and I wrote a
pretty deep dive on the rules on UFL board, and I was pretty eh
on most of them, Like you know, you know, take the USFL
rule, that's fine, Take the XFL rule, that's fine. But for
me, the biggest miss was not keeping the XFL kickoff and the idea that
the NFL and I don't believe that the NFL is going to implement it.
I think it's you rarely see the NFL take such a drastic step and change
on field play in such a drastic way as this would. So I think
they'll find a way to probably incorporate the kickoffs more into the game, but
without such a drastic move. But even the fact that they're talking about it,
the fact that they're considering it, kind of makes Moose Johnson look a
little silly for saying, ah, that doesn't look enough like football when the
NFL is considering it. I mean, come on, now, so you
know, I don't know, if you don't know how much is going on
behind the scenes in terms of a tug of war between the USFL people and
the XFL people and how many people are counting rules. Okay, we had
five XFL rules, and for you that means we have to get one more
us You know how much of that is going on, because that's certainly what
this feels like. This feels like, Okay, the USFL equiesced on a
couple of these XFL rules, but now we want our kickoff rule because we
need to have a USFL rule in there and we need to take out of
it. So you don't know how much of that is going on behind the
scenes. But look, ultimately, all of that said, ultimately, the
goal of this play for a spring league like the UFL should be to a
decrease injuries and be increase returns. If the USFL kickoff does that and doesn't
compromise the integrity of the game, I know I've seen people speculating that by
moving the kickoff back to the twenty, you're basically, you know, with
a return giving the team the ball of the forty forty five yard line.
I mean, which is you know, that's that's a bit artificial for my
taste. We'll see how it ends up playing out. But if this increases
returns and decreases injuries on the kickoff, that's the whole point. And so
I'm ultimately okay with it, even though I think the XFL kickoff was really
And I also made this argument that when you are a spring league, and
I've made this argument on social media too, and I know some people don't
like to hear it, when you are a spring league, you have to
have something that differentiates you from the NFL. You cannot be everything the NFL
is only with lesser players because people aren't going to watch that. You need
to offer something different whether and and you know they're doing that with the broadcast
innovation. I know the you know, I don't know what's going to stick
around as far as broadcast innovations for twenty twenty four. But we've seen the
coach to quarterback communication. We've seen the mid game interviews on the sidelines,
things like that. But I think that also extends to on field play and
you know, some of the rules of the fourth and twelve rule or whatever
it is this year, I think is good to keep that sort of thing.
And I think the XFL kickoff, it was lauded by people who didn't
even care about spring football. There were people saying, hey, that's really
cool, and so I think you need that to attract lookie loose as you
kind of column to people who are going to tune in to see what this
project is all about, and that they see something different and cool, they
might decide to stick around. And so taking that out I think really hurts
that aspect of just trying to be different than the NFL, which I do
think you need to be to a certain extent. Yeah, it was funny
just talking about the It does feel exactly like you said that they had we
have to have equal numbers, even as much as like, well it's four
and four, but it's we'll move to one XFL teams ESFL really feels like
we're counting all that. It was funny too talking about the kickoff. Tom
Pellasara was on today because he's at the combine with the NFL, and they
were even talking about doing like a fourth and twenty. At some point,
I'm like, oh, it's like flip the field challenge, just like the
AAF and the FCF and all that. Like, these are good, these
are good ideas, But I agree with you, like That's why I always
like, you know, and I watched wrestling for a long time. I
was never like the technical like studying the craft of all of it. But
like you know, something like the elimination chamber, you're trying to get friends
to watch. I know that just happened in Australia and you're like, hey,
do you want to come? Like, oh, well, what's like
it's this big pond and they're in all these cham that sounds awesome. I
look like you need to have and yeah, I agree they have, Like
well, it's it's the football the players in the spring, yeah, and
it's not quite as good players. Like that's what kills me when the NFL
season starts with all the CFL guys and they're like, well there's I'm like,
I thought the whole point was your game was different because it's all the
like, so then the there's no need to compare at all, because if
you have enough differences, it's just a totally different game. We didn't,
you know, we didn't compare Danga Chow football to like when they it's a
totally like a video game, acount, like you you need to have some
differentiating factors here and Max has a comment, yet league marketing screams, no
identity, we play football, Like I agree with that, yeah for sure,
And and it's early and they haven't played a game yet, you know,
so the the identity is going to take time, and you know,
your identity is going to be paired with the teams that are successful, the
coaches that are successful, the players that are successful. That's going to be
in large part your identity. And since we haven't played it down in football,
it's kind of hard to do that. You know, you can kind
of manufacture what your identity, what you want your identity to be. And
I agree with Max. The UFL hasn't gone out there and done that.
They haven't said, you know, we're spring football, but we're this.
They've said, as you've pointed out, we're the premiere Spring football League.
Okay, well what does that mean? Like that? That means nothing to
people who don't already watch spring football. So yeah, they're behind. I
mean that's when you announce your league in January and you're kicking off in March,
like, you're going to be behind on some of these finer details.
And you know, we can quibble about what's a detail on what's a major
part that we think is important. I mean, there are people who think
that marketing and creating an identity is an important part of year one and before
you kick off, and there are some people who may look at that and
say, hey, we just got to make sure we get these players out
on the field. Like that's the marketing and the identity, that's that's a
detail we'll deal with later when we get to year two or three. So
yeah, it's it's frustrating because we're in this space now where they're having training
camp and you're just here, you know, unless you're following these teams on
social media, you're really hearing nothing about the league itself and the kickoff.
Yeah, I don't like you said that kind of a the top, like
I don't know what you know what that would have been job to incentivize someone
from a market outside of Arlington to go. And I mean I remember even
you know when because I used to work at Fox, Like I don't I
don't work there anymore, but I have friends that work there still and like
when when the Sea Dragons, like I don't think Aaron Levine was running you
know sea dragon spots on the Sunday, you know, qu it up sports
or whatever, like I don't I don't know, you know how how much
that kind of played across here. I had we had another comment out.
It wasn't much. Yeah, they talking about just talking about the inflated I
think that to me was the problem with the USFL kickoff was inflating back.
You're untouched to like the thirty five yard line, so you know, it
kind of gets there. Tim Caper pointed out UFL Week five will be going
up against the af the a FLS kickoff on the NFL network. That would
be that will be the big rating is till that week. Well, I
hope that that Fox is able to draw a better rating than NF network,
So maybe it'll be a small discussion point that week. Anyway, we'll talk
about that. We'll wrap up here at the top of the hour. If
you guys have any more cautions or comments, get in. Max had a
comment and I want to just talking a little more football here about the Brahmas
and just kind of their quarterback kerfuffle right now. You know, kirbn Kirk
like publicly announcing like I'm not doing the XFL again, even though he kind
of did that before with Dormandy on there. We signed Tom Flacco and then
Chase garber Is like, that's the team, that's my team. So that's
why I'm more invested in this as well. But that to me, you
know, I don't know what A. J. Smith's going to do with
Are we high Tom Flacco? Is that the next coming? No, I
see Tom Flacco as the number three. I think it's if there is a
competition, it's more between Dormandy and Chase Garber's and I think Dormandy may have
a leg up on that, even though Garber's was more recently in an NFL
camp. But I really think, you know, with the AJ Smith offense
and the run and shoot, I think it's really more what quarterback is able
to adapt to that. He certainly didn't run that last year, you know,
Garberge didn'trun it when he was in an NFL camp or anything like that.
So they're going to have to learn a little bit of a different language,
I think in camp this year. So I'm not sure what spots are
up for grabs and what aren't. But Dormity certainly showed toward the end of
the year in Orlando last year that he has the makings of a starting quarterback
in a league like this, so I would not be afraid to if I
was the Brahmas to go into week one with Quentin Dormody as the starter.
So yeah, that remains to be seen. I think there's a lot of
camp battles going on at quarterback out there that we just don't know all that
much about because nobody's writing about the ins and outs of everyday training camp like
you get in the NFL. I mean you pulled up the UFL dot com
website and there's nothing about anything training camp wise. I know we're only on
day three or four of on field workouts and such, but you know,
they don't have anybody writing articles for them on the site or anything like that,
so we're really left to kind of pick out the Instagram and Twitter videos
of what's going on at training camp that are posted by social media admins,
which is not a great place to be. But I guess we'll all be
surprised when cuts come in when depth charts are released. Well, and that's
the problem. And we needed I forgive me, I forget in his last
name because he was on the podcast. We needed the Josh gentleman that was
that was doing that. This is the week in the XFL. And remember
he was right in the art like he was kind of their rider that they
brought in kind of midway through. We need we need that here, and
we've talked about that before, you need something. The USFL struggled with this
as well, especially being in Birmingham, but like having Yeah, because I
totally agree with you. The cuts are going to come out. We're going
to have no context for why any of this happened. Yeah, And as
someone you know, I'm very much attracted to the personnel side of these leagues
and doing deep dives into the rosters and the players and the depth charts and
you know, everything like that, and you know kind of feel like you're
getting hung out to drive by the leagues because you have no idea what's going
on with with any of the teams or anything like that unless you get on
the immediate availability with a head coach and you know they're not gonna say much.
I don't think in terms of and again it's very early, so you
know, I know coach Holts mentioned in terms of the quarterbacks, they're they're
all he doesn't have a depth chart right now, which understandable. But you
know he's seen jmr Smith for three years, uh so he knows what he's
got in him. And then he's got a couple of new quarterbacks in there,
another holdover I believe he's got on that team as well. So yeah,
it's it's just a waiting game now. Yeah, Joshua Lewin, Yeah,
that was the guy. And I do I think that too. And
I think when this this will get deeper in and you know, you'll have
like I'm a pad that's like the BattleHawks calls and stuff like that. But
I do think a lot of the casual guys, like most of the mainstream
media like don't even wouldn't even know enough for carrot, Like it's it's still
more about like, okay, tell me about this league, Like tell me
about like what is the vision for And I remember when they were used to
do the the the USFL stuff, and like they would have all these guys,
you know, they would send never to us, but they would send
them to whatever, you know, big mainstream and like I would love to
watch any USFL or XFL podcast. For the first five minutes of the interview,
isn't explained like this is what the XFL is like, it'd be really
cool just to come on and be able to ask, like the same with
the coaches, you know, they're still like, well, what's it?
You know, like heines Ward was always gonna what was it? Feel like?
Coaching, it's like why don't you ask about the team at some point
versus like, okay, what's his you know? And obviously he's gone now,
but you know what, but those I mean, those those mainstream all
let's know their audience, right, and they know that their audience isn't familiar
with this league, so they've got to kind of set the groundwork in their
own articles for what this league is. Because you know, if you're covering
the san Antonio Bramas, you're talking to hines Ward about the ins and outs
of the third wide receiver, someone someone reading this article is gonna be like,
wait, san Antonio Bramas, what the heck is that? Like?
So, I mean, the idea of you know, who's winning the third
wide receiver in camp is going to be so far removed from what a lot
of the people unfortunately reading that article are going to be interested in are going
to be thinking about, Yeah, well then and then this is what are
we doing here. That's why we're here, to provide a little more in
depth knowledge for those who seek it. It was funny that woman that was
getting my keys, and I was like, yeah, I gotta get like,
oh, like shit, you must be like no a lot, you
must do it. No, no, no, no, no no.
I talked to very smart people. I just asked the question, Hey,
hey, you're very well connected, and that's just as important. That's just
as important. Are you surprised just rounding out quarterbacks? You surprise boy Brandon
Silvers? Is he? Are we just aged out? Uh? He's with
the Battle Hall, is he? Oh? He's the back He's like okay,
that's right, okay, okay, okay. Are you surprised that he's
not in a more prominent role? No, yeah, I thought he was
with that I did. That was like a late night Friday thing. I
think that was right before I'm on the cruise and that that was. That
was Anthony Betts had been teasing a big, big addition and then they released
the Brandon Silvers news and people were like, what that's right, that's right.
No, But look, I I was really you know, for as
well as Houston did last year. At times, I was not impressed with
Silver's body of work in that offense, so to see him come back as
a backup doesn't surprise me. Now, Saint Louis is gonna have a very
strong backup quarterback. I mean that is that is a really good one two
punch. I mean, Silver's I would say average starting quarterback. But when
you when you talk about him as a backup, I think he's gonna be
one of the best in the league, to be quite frank with you,
So a good addition for Saint Louis, but as a backup, not as
a starter. I just remember doing that interview with him, and he's just
like, yeah, I'm in the truck, like I go fish here on
the weekends. Like I think, I bet he's in a good spot.
I mean, I think it's a far cry from the XFL twenty twenty fan
event when he was announced and stuff and I have my signed shirt somewhere,
you know. But yeah, I mean he had his time in the sun.
His happened quarter what was it quarter million from the XFL twenty twenty.
I mean, you know, you think about it those four years ago.
I mean he's four years older now than he was then, So you know,
being you know, transitioning from starter to back up in that time is
not you know, completely unusual. Yeah. Yeah, well Greg will wrap
up here Comic Bins. They're going to check it out last night. That's
great. Yeah, weird time. I appreciate Greg making the time later and
I want to keep him up too late here on the East Coast, but
I appreciate it. Like I said, I'm doing more, try to get
some interviews this week now that kind of everybody's there, we've kind of on
board, but it's it's every like I deal with this with the CFL Tunic.
We're so busy. I'm like I understand that, like this is but
this is when everybody wants to talk to you. So but we've tried to
do that, working on big interviews for that coming up here in the next
couple of weeks. And then like I said, you know, maybe we'll
do once like we get through the combine, like maybe John Logo can come
on or something and talk about some cuts once we get through the roster.
That was like this week, I'm like, this is horrendous because like a
lot of football people are you know, like the Rick Sarah Tello's of the
world. The John Vogels are like doing combine stuff, so thankfully we're not
in the weeds that much. I mean, that's like their real jobs.
Yeah, it's kind of that. I know, when I'm done talking to
you, I'm going to go watch today's workouts for the combine. But you
know, it's kind of that rough period because there's you know, for the
UFL, there's training camp, but again, we don't have a lot of
news to talk about coming out of that. So it's it's not we haven't
quite reached cuts yet. We're after the all the roster additions, but we
haven't reached cuts yet, and there's not a lot of news coming out of
training camp. So we're kind of for the UFL in a little bit.
As much as there is still going on, it's a little bit of a
dead period for news and things to talk about. Anyway, Well, Greg,
I appreciate you tiptoeing here for an hour as we kind of talked about
news. Kind of didn't but I think that would be good. I appreciate
it. Check out all Greg's on UFL board. Really, I mean,
I know Martin Nelson's, but really the one man show there. It's kind
of like Mike and the Anthony on the Sports Illustrated Like I just I hope
that that is appreciated by the leagues. Like the work doing I mean,
I I come here and talk for that. That's not a challenging like the
work that all you writers are doing. I'm always plowing away by all that
and just the time spent. So I hope that that's appreciated by any coaches
or players or league people, because it needs to be said. So of
course, you know, I do it because I love it. I enjoy
writing, I enjoy analyzing and covering football, and the second it stops being
fun, I stop doing it. You know, it's it's not my livelihood.
So I'm kind of doing it as a side gig and I'm enjoying it
and getting as much out of it as I can. So yeah, I
hope everybody checks it out ufl board dot com. I have a couple of
columns every week and check them out. Well, thanks Greg, enjoy the
combine. I'm like my heart, I'm on this Caleb Williams train right now,
and I don't know understand, And then Drake May is going to be
a bust and then I don't Jane d Annuals is two pron like I'm really
this is like all of my mind right now. This is yeah for the
Commanders. Man, you're into over analyzation season at this point, and from
this point forward until the draft, you might as well just tune out every
scouting report you hear it because it's just gonna be contradictory information. It's going
to be uh, smoke screens, it's gonna be all kinds of stuff,
and you're not gonna be able to live and die with every one of them.
So just tune all that out, man, every because every single one
because like I've never i mean Seahawks and we never really lived there, you
know. I was never as hardcoreus now, and like He's like, every
single one is different. It's either gonna be like then, oh and now
I'm hearing Caleb's the bus and he's gonna he would be should have gone in
the fifth round. So yeah, the truth is always somewhere in between.
So we'll see awesome, Greg, thank you so much, appreciate everybody,
and we'll see you next time. I'm not s