Hey, everyone, welcome to the Mark Cast. Here posts USFL show.
Be damned we're here. Then we don't just talk XFL in here talking USFL
as well. Busy day today, Kraken. In the playoff contention tomorrow against
the Alps, the Mariners are back at five hundred that Andy Murray's podgects not
doing quite as well here, but we'll get into all of that. The
c Dragons are one game away from clinching a playoff. We will get into
all of that. I finally can quantify what I like about the USFL and
what I like about the XFL. I think I figured that out, and
Andy has promised me lots of hot takes today. Andy Murray, the professor,
I haven't called you that in a while. Here we have the professor,
Andrew Murray. We're fired up today. I already got like twelve comments
here. People are checking in, how are you doing? I know we
go by Skipp and Shannon, but I see more of that online right now
than I do between us. Honestly, it's going to be made people calling
us Skipp and Shannon. No, I mean, you and I call each
other Skipp and Shannon. But honestly, I think it's more warranted between other
people online. Right now. That's good. Andy has promised me lots of
hot takes. Yeah, and I do feel like I kind of know now
what I like about the XFL and what I like about the USFL. We're
trying to debate here, Andy and I. Ratings will be in tomorrow.
I've seen some preliminary ratings for some of the USFL we're debating. If we
want to do an emergency broadcast tomorrow, let us stow in the comments if
you want to see that. I still like doing this Monday morning, but
if you would like to see they, I think they'll be hot takes tomorrow
about all that as well. Today is probably going to be a little bit
more philosophical. Andy and I like to break down all the games. But
you know, I watched Mariners yesterday. I watched it's like six football games.
Walk the Dog and He's got you know, lady friends. Now,
it's all very exciting. So lots of things going on. But first and
foremost general thoughts, what did you make of kind of this cavalcade of eight
different football games this weekend? I mean, it was overwhelming, it really
was. There was so much the key track of I had floated the idea
to our group that I was thinking, what if there was like a red
zone channel, you know, like a Scott Hanson red zone channel for all
these games going on the same time simultaneously. Because we've gotten to that point,
there's a lot going on, and when you see it's just so surreal
to see a USFL game in an XFL game going on at the same time
and realizing that they are in principle they are both springing football games, but
philosophically they're so different, and seeing both at the same time, it's like,
I guess it would be the same as like if you're watching a CFL
in an NFL game back to back, if you're watching those two things together,
I suppose it would be the same sensation. I'm not sure, to
be honest, I don't try that too often. So it's really interesting to
see that dichotomy kind of going back and forth, and it's just it was
surreal, honestly, and trying to keep up with all it was overwhelming because
there's a lot going on. It was exciting, though I felt like it
caused you know, and comment in the chat, like who I posted on
Twitter who won the weekend? And obviously the fans won. Okay, that's
fine, Like the fans won, the players are but who really won?
Right? Who did you like better? You know that that's kind of what
we get in do on here. But I felt like, you saw,
you know, Chairwoman Danny Garcia tweeting a lot, we saw the Rock tweeting
a lot like this is WCW and WWF were never better back in the nineties
when they were feuding against each other. Aw Now with ww it's all kind
of the same thing. And so you know, seeing like the Rock,
I think it's important, like the Rocks should be watching USFL games right now,
like what what do they have going on? What's happening with this?
Because I would put the over under at one the number of USFL games the
Rock had seen before. Hopefully this weekend. I would have liked to think
he'd watched a couple. I mean, I would hope so, considering how
much he was tweeting about it, and the attendance and the figures and you
know, DC Audie Field and the Battledome all that, and as right he
should trumpet all that. But at the same time as he just saying that
and watching the TV from his gym, which you know could be debatable like
that's the And also you know he wasn't doing that all the time throughout the
entire season. Occasionally you would pop in. I think he would trump at
something that was like a milestone or something that was really significant. But you
know, I think you want to continue to see that kind of involvement from
week to week. Obviously, Danny's always there. She's always there. I
mean, she cares very much about her guardians, who poor thing just cannot
get a win or put any sort of consistency together. I think she has
been pretty good at trumping stuff. I know she's been reacting to some of
your stuff as well. I know you've been finally getting finally have gotten her
attention at least, even if it's just a small modicum amount, and you've
finally gotten into her periphery vision. I I died, yeah that she was
the fake the fake punt to the he got the touchdown right, the guardians
it was the fake putt a long throw by the punter, and Danny tweeted
out, you know, sixty nine yards whatever. And I always have my
Adam Standler from Billy Mass at sixty nine and I tweeted that and I said,
you know, this could give me blocked by our chairwoman, and she
liked it. So I think Danny has got a good sense of humor on
there. Before we get into all this, just everyone listening while we have
peak kind of viewership here at the beginning, I want to get into this.
There's been a lot of discussion about the playoffs scenarios next weekend. We
were talking, we'll watch it. We were all watching the game. We're
watching the group chat, you know, and ESPN. And I don't blame
you know, friends of the show, Matt Barry and Eric McClain on here
or anybody else, any of the announcers, but whoever is doing the fact
checking at ESPN. The playoffs scenarios were wrong, is what they said was
wrong in terms of what was going to be happening here coming up on week
ten with the Battle Hawks taking on the Guardians and then the Sea Dragons the
last game of the XFL regular season with the Vipers, because they said if
the if St. Louis wins, they're in, and I said that's absolutely
not you know, straight up, and I said, that's absolutely not the
case. That, you know, Seattle, we'd have the same record and
all this stuff. So here is this is per the league. We had
some confusion last night. Some of the facts and figures were wrong. If
Saint Louis wins and Seattle loses, Saint Lewis is in the playoffs. If
Saint Louis loses in Seattle wins, Seattle's in the playoffs, that's straight up.
And then we do have some qualifying stuff down here with you know,
if one wins or they you know, if they both win, they both
lose, tie break scenarios. Andy, I just I just still see a
lot of confusion online. So do you think we finally kind of have this
all squared away? I mean yes and no. I mean it comes down
to who wins and loses. But then again, look at this, I
mean it matters as well as who loses. And also when you win,
how do you win. It's become that complicated. I didn't give it too
much thought last week because I know our guy Mike Mitchell was starting to put
out some of the scenarios, and I look, I foolishly went into the
belief and assumption that Saint Louis was going to win that game on Saturday.
They didn't show up, So I for one had egg on my face for
that prediction. But look, I think this is it's quite convoluted. We
knew it was going to be convoluted. Can you imagine if DC and lost
in Seattle. I mean, just think about how chaotic that would have been
if that had gone through a DC almost losing to Arlington almost brought back in
the possibility of winning the division. So it's almost could have potentially been even
more murky at that point. But this is, I mean, it's it's
just kind of fascinating to see the Seattle team just so defiantly, like despite
all the stuff, despite all the turnovers from bett In de Nucci and Jim
Haslet wants to kill him every time he does it, and all they can't
seem to, you know, punch it in when they really need to,
or they just have There's like there's a lot of that controversy, but just
kind a lot of talking points of like this team should be good. Well,
they showed up yesterday. I mean, that's why I said last week
they should be a playoff team. Unfortunately them in Saint Louis, one of
them is going to be on the outside looking in because they're both quality opponents,
they're both worthy of being in the playoffs. But someone's drawing the shortest
draw here because of the scenario that we have with the self division and obviously
they're being divisional playoffs. I it's it's fascinating. Yeah, Mike gets into
all this sometimes, and I love Mike, but Michael get damn these Well
you know, if if if the rene Gates winned, but then the end
they went on the road and they go up by two points, and and
I always give a little okay, Mike, like that's that's great, Like
it's hypothetical ball. I have got so much bandwidth and here like I just
you know, and God bless. But then you do get through this now
where this very much is and even I think even Max commented, I have
the wrong one pulled up. So this is the current one, because we've
had a couple of different one spoiling them out. But this is the one,
and they've got all the different points. But should be exciting regardless,
and we'll kind of move on from this. But what I like about this,
and we talked a few weeks ago on the podcast about USFL last year
end of the season, some of those games really don't care and you know,
stallions and doesn't matter at all that I like having all these games have
consequence here coming in, you know, to week ten. I think that's
very excited. Anything else on the c Dragon Saint Lewis right now, we'll
excuse me, We'll get into the game. But anything else on kind of
this before we do general thoughts, Well, that's a great point. I
mean, a lot of these games are consequential still, even for the teams
that you know are out of it. Listen, Orlando and Vegas tried their
damnest this past weekend, not for lack of trying. They were trying to
pull out all the stops to win those games. And look, I know,
at the end of the day, they're all professionals, they all want
to win, they all want to make a living. I get that.
But there were points last year with the USFL at the end of the season
where it felt like we're dragging her feet a little bit with some of the
matchups and maybe some of the play and just I think maybe some people,
it seemed to me, had maybe checked out a little bit. I do
not feel that way at all about any of these games. People care a
lot, and it seemed to show itself. I mean, it was a
great slate of games. Really, it really was a lot of them were
fantastic. I mean, I know that last game obviously was an unexpected blowout,
but it still was entertaining from the fact of like, wow, this
is what the Seattle team can do. But all the other games were all
very close matchups, are all one score games. So yeah, it's it's
good to still have that quality even at this point of the season and still
seeing teams trying things out, you know, still seeing teams. I mean,
that fake punt throw was amazing by the Guardians. I did not see
that coming at all. That guy threw a bomb. I can't believe that
a putner would even have that kind of an arm. I've never seen I've
never seen a downfield pass like that from a Hunter. I've seen like little
dump offs or you know, like, oh the guys wide open ten yards.
No, I mean he threw that. He threw that down the field.
That was legit. That was like a legit NFL throw that he made.
Well, we famously, you know, the Seattle Seahawks, we famously
have John Ryan's most famous, Like remember he was through Yeah yeah, you
know CFL legend as well, but he had his scared face on there.
I think we're all okay, So I'm just making sure we're kind of bit
chats. Yeah, Mark's asking like in someone with more bandwidth breakdown. It's
not because it's all it's all points allowed to me. I just I would
let the games play out. I really wouldn't. Like. All I just
know is Saint Louis. It's not as easy as winning in uh, you
know, if they win and Seattle loses, Seattle win, Saint Louis loses.
Otherwise we can get all the macimations of all this kind of stuff because
there's a lot of other stuff going on. Andy, you promise hot takes.
I have a couple of little USFL things I want to talk about here,
thoughts coming out of the weekend. Well, it depends which league I
want to start with. There's there's both. I'll start with the XFL.
Sense we're still on the topic. Look, yeah, they got to get
the playoff scenario stuff right Like ESPN you're trumpeting this project, you gotta put
you have to put together the playoff scenarios correctly. We need to be able
to put this together. I don't think that, I know, I know
we do a lot of great work here. Obviously, all our media people
do a fantastic job getting that all those scenarios, you know, piece together,
trying to put it together ourselves like a little puzzle. But ESPN needs
to be better about that. They have to put that back on, you
know, they have to put that on the forefront. As far as the
officiating this weekend, um, I mean, it's fascinating, you know what
I've noticed. I think teams are going to start trying to keep their challenges
till the end of the games. You can't burn it in the first quarter
because Dean just has his rules, his ideas, and obviously doesn't appear that
everyone's on the same page with that. You know, Stoops was upset about
a spotting in the in the DC game that should look like it was a
good first down and it wasn't, and why because of the chain movement.
You had things like obviously at the end of that game, very crucially challenging,
that holding call which extended the game, obviously huge. Just a lot
of things like that. I think that's gonna be a big thing that goes
goes on moving forward for a lot of these coaches. But as far as
the XFL, that's good. As far as the NFL stuff, we needed
that later, but there are still a lot of broadcast related things with that
as well. I'm not sure if you had any thoughts on that. Well,
No, I fought with the XFL. I thought, so, I've
I watched Survivor from much of my life, right, I watched all I've
been through season forty and then I kind of fell off. But you know,
the thing with Survivor is people you learn as you go, right,
So you know, like the ILOL came out and then you know, people
didn't know what to do with it. Okay, now we can barter with
it. Like I think, I really mean this. I think we saw
not the breaking but the evolution of the challenge call this weekend. We got
this big, big touchdown whenever game changing. And then you see Bob Soups
are like, we're challenging. Something's got to be wrong. Someone's had to
have held here, there had to have band defense, you know, whatever.
There has to have been something going on, you know, And they
go back and like we know with the USFL last year. Uh, you
know, offensive lineman in spring leagues and a lot of these players, there's
always holding, there's always whatever, something's always going on, And I think
when you can retroactively kind of freeze the play and go there had to have
been something that happened on this played in the gate that I do think we've
seen the evolution of that challenge where we got to save it right at the
end and you got someone upstairs going, yeah, call holding. Okay,
there's got to be holding on that, and Dean's going to go back and
look at it, and there are nine times out of ten there's probably going
to be something there. Yeah. And I mean that's one of the points
that's brought up in every football game I ever watch, as far as when
when there comes to be a question about replay and refereeing, is a lot
of a lot of the pushback on having replay or instant replay on every single
little thing is one that slows the game down. And too a lot of
people say, well, you could slow down any frame of any play ever
and call whatever the heck you wat Well, this challenge is the manifestation of
that where you say, okay, I'm going to have this wild card and
I'm gonna play it as soon as I need it. You know, it's
or trump card or something like that. Right, It's something that gives you
that inherent advantage, you know in the moment. It's kind of like,
I mean, it's relevant right now in pop culture, but like you know,
it's like Mario getting a superpower up, you know, like a fireflower
or star. It's just like boom, got it. Okay, now we
got an advantage. Like That's kind of how it feels with the challenge.
Some of the coaches earlier the season. We're trying to use it early on
and it just or like early in the first quarter or second corner, it
just wasn't going well, and then they were lamenting that they didn't have it
later in the game. So I think, yeah, we're gonna start seeing
these challenges be really treated as like treasure almost like you gotta use it in
the exact right moment. Well, like you said, I think anything in
retrospect you can find anything wrong. And a lot of different players on that.
We're seeing a lot of comments here. Yeah, Wade Phillips was the
first correct challenge and they'll call call offensive holding that I know of. I
just you know, and I guess they didn't come back and win. But
then I just saw and obviously Becked isn't watching, and I don't I don't
know how that happened, but it seems like Ben Becked in the next game
had at least that even that knowledge as well, like, well, there's
got there had to have been, and then that one he got the no
call. But it felt like, I don't know, I just felt like
we're seeing the evolution of that, and I think that's exciting. In terms
of the USFL, we're seeing a lot of comments, you know, kind
of seeing the continuity year or two coming in and everything. I have thoughts
on USFL XL here. What did you make of the the USFL slate this
week? On the first four games? I like the slate. I mean
the first game Memphis and Philadelphia made a lot of sense, getting that first
new home market out there, kind of presenting them for everyone to see.
The first two the defending champions coming out on Saturday, obviously, I think
the matchups made just perfect sense. And as far as the comnuity goes,
yeah, you can see players who were holdovers from the last year sort of
coming to their own and sort of form better habits than they did. But
the very very limited training camp that they had last year, you can tell
guys like Hayse Cooks has been in the system now and he's really He came
out and he looked great against Memphis. He was really in tune with everybody,
you know. Chris Wallin was great, Matt Colburn looked really awesome.
Colban looked great. He looked faster than last year, I think, and
so like you had some of that little bit of development there, just more
chemistry, more camaraderie. That's great. Birmingham, I think, how did
it? Points? It was kind of hit and missed. Jamar Smith looked
good at points, he got a little bit nicked up, I know.
And then Alex McGoo came in. McGoo actually looked pretty good when he was
running the read option and just completely baffling the General's run defense. So that
was good. I'm disappointed New Jersey didn't look better. I feel like they
should have, and they just kept turning the ball over it in opportunity times
and they just could not convert on their goal to ghost situations. They were
really bad in the red zone and that's something they got to fix. But
they you know DeAndre Johnson, he's I think he's the guy going forward.
But you know, they put in preu coop, they put it to code
to prukop and they put in you know, Mike Riley's going to have that
too QB system. Obviously without Luis Prez there, It's like, well,
how reliable is that because Prez, But it's just money. Last year he
was like eighty percent completion percentage, So I don't know how reliable that is.
But yeah, this overall like consistency of having more chemistry between these players,
it matters. It's the same thing in NFL too, Like once you
get people playing together from multiple years, you see how in line everybody is
with each other and how much chemistry gets built over time. It takes it
takes years. It literally takes years for this kind of stuff. Sometimes people
click, but you gotta expect it to be built over time. And that's
one thing that's going for the USFL. Whether the XFL plays on that same
note, I don't think that's their goal, right, Like they're just trying
to export people into the NFL, Like that's their whole gimmick like they want
development and that's great. So in that case, then how much can you
really expect, you know, chemistry wise between players if they come back or
if they're going to come back. That's you know, two very again,
That's what I was talking about, the two very different philosophies of the league,
you know, two different products completely. I would say USL was the
tale of two days Saturday. They looked really good the crowd Sunday, and
then we're still going to get bad. And I have thoughts on that.
Max has Max's pre cop was trash coach Sippin John Majuice. Haven't tried the
Stars for hummed? No, the tie Cats are always hummed. The tie
Cats are always humming. Not the Stars, the Stars, but the Stars
looks really good. I felt like, and you know, it's so fascinating
me. And I thought about this as it comes to attendance and ratings and
gameplay everything else. You know, we all based even you know, I
I think everyone USFL last year, everyone was still basing on XFL twenty twenty,
right, TV ratings, how many people all this stuff? Nothing's ever
going to give out live up to that, like ever again, right,
just because of the build and Vince and the comeback and the money they spent,
and you know, whether that was too much money, everything else,
all that whatever. Even now you have XFL and us both basically operating on
half everything, right, half players, half coaches, half TV revenue,
you know, networks, all these kinds of things, so you know it's
always going to be less than whatever that was. So we're seeing this,
you know, watered down, you know, whatever version of something going back.
And I do think and in retrospect, USFL was very harshly judged last
year on TV raiding and Caesar crap. Right, we're seeing what XFL has
now. Attendant stats crap, We're seeing what XFL. You know, if
XFL and USFL had both played last year, you know we'd be saying the
same thing about the XFL. But we all had this like rose colored whatever
in our head. And I do think now we're at least I am adjusting
to what is the new level of what we should expect in these spring leagues,
and it is very much less than what we saw back in twenty twenty,
if that makes sense. I really believe that the twenty twenty season was
the gold standard in a lot of ways. I mean, and you know,
look, I think some of the XFL players this year has actually been
better than some of it in twenty twenty. To be fairing didn't get to
be ten weeks. You know, they didn't get the full slate, and
they didn't have all the development that we've seen up to this point. But
yeah, the ratings are never going to be the same because, look,
you had both networks in on this. You had Fox and ESPN on one
league. That's the thing. And now they've split up and they've basically marked
their territory and they've said this is our league and that's your league. Like
that's kind of how it is. That's why you're splitting resources, you're splitting
eyeballs, you're splitting dedication to both products, because that's just how it is
now. It's not this shared entity that everyone had. Vince McMahon's not here
to like kind of bridge the gap between both the fact the gap is just
keeping getting wider and wider between the fans and between all the enthusiasts for both
sides or for just spring football in general. It's very splitting, right,
and Fox got that idea because it worked. It worked in twenty twenty.
They saw it and they said, well, why don't we try that?
You know, but we try it on our own terms, and it makes
sense, like it's just circumstances. I don't know if they would have done
that if COVID didn't happen. I think they would have still been here.
I really do believe that, because you know they were getting ratings. Why
would you give up a you know, two and a half two mill three
spot? You know you wouldn't, so I think, yeah, I mean,
it's it's sliding doors. You know, it's a it's a perfect world
where everything survives and everything keeps together. And we still have you know,
your La Wildcats and your New York Guardians, you know, and your Tampa
Bay Vipers. But you know that doesn't exist anymore. And so it's interesting
that you just have these two splits here. I have a lot of thoughts
on some of the attendants, though, but I'll defer to you first,
I'll toss, and then we'll get back. We'll get that. It's always
going to be an issue on here. It's always going to be an issue,
and that's sorry. And normally, you know, Andy and I do
well we'll get to games here kind of do the breakdown a little bit.
But this week there's just so much going on in philosophical I'm really excited for
the show on Friday. Mike's has come here. USBL trolls are laughing at
the xbld'd been with one point five million ABC Saturday afternoon would be something USFL
they abused under a million, or the primetime game on Fox after all that
promotion. I've i've I've seen the preliminaries. I'm not saying they can't go
up, but I have seen the preliminaries for the USFL. We'll leave it
at that. Texas Pete, there is room for both leagues, and they're
saying they, hey, yeah, I mean so this is where I want
to get into this. And then Andy has thoughts on the you know,
attendance, everything else USFL turning on. I watched the entire Showboats game,
I watched half the General's game, and then I watched most of the Gamblers
game yesterday, so I probably watched seventy percent of the USFL games this weekend
in completion, and then I caught up on the BCAUD highlights. It is
like putting on in the old pair of jeans Fox. I think their broadcast
is unmatched. I think it's stupendous. I think they have learned we're not
going to show the crowd as much. The broadcast is great, it's shot
great produced. The talent you got Kurt, you know, you got Joel
all like it is. You know, we got the music, we have
EO NFL everything, it feels so familiar. And I think if you put
on that show Boats game and you know, if you didn't know it was
a Saturday in April and you thought it was a Saturday in October, like
you know, I mean, yeah, crowd like I don't, it just
feels you know what it is, right, But it's it's no personality.
There's no personality. It's safe. This is what we have. It is
football on the field. You like football on the field. The XFL.
I don't always like the personality that they have right now, right I think
the XFL portrays itself is far too serious. It's far too serious of what
it's so removed from. You know, it was the extreme league back in
No One then it was like kind of the really fun like we want the
fans involved in everything now like we kind of want that, but we're also
like we're really serious, like we're really this is like, we're really professional.
I don't always like that personality, but at least the XFL has that,
And so whether you like that or not, that's kind of how I
see the differences I see. You know, Fox it's so clean, it's
so pol is like, this is what we're doing. We don't involve anyone,
you know, we don't need anyone but Fox where they where they XFL
is very much. It just more we're kind of feeling our way outs here.
We're evolving, what the challenges, we're figuring out the rules. ESPN's
not right all the time, like we're trying to work through any thoughts on
that, Eddie, No, I agree. And honestly, the quality kind
of varies from broadcast broadcast on ESPN because some crews seem to understand how to
utilize the audio feature as far as getting the coaches talking and getting what kind
of feed they need, while the broadcasters they're talking and some are not as
good at it. Fox is way better. Yeah, the Fox broadcast,
you could hear it. We're still getting the over it's like a zoom call.
We're still getting the overlapping on Fox where we're kind of hearing parts of
the calls and we're hearing all that stuff. Yeah, they mix a little
bit better there. And also, look there's a certain experience in ESPN or
experiments. Yeah, that haven't really worked. Like sometimes, you know,
talking to a fan great, awesome, getting the trowing to talk for an
entire quarter, I don't really need that. Like, I like him.
I'm glad he's involved. Maybe doing the sideline interviews is cool. Like when
he talked to I think it was Darius Slay, I think it was earlier
this year at the Houston game. Cool. I'm like that that was that's
good. But he's constant involvement in one quarter and trying to do play by
play breakdown. I don't you know, I don't think that was really much
of a success. So, you know, I know they're trying to feel
things out, they're trying to experiment, and that's the thing. It's so
very very much feels like a Petrie dish with them. It does not feel
that way with USFL. It's like they kind of knew what they were doing
from the beginning, even last year, and they had a plan and a
structure in place. Whether you like it or not is up to you,
But like that's kind of how it is. ESPN. They're still sort of
like picking and choosing and trying to figure it out as far as like what
they're going to do going forward, and so you're gonna have some hit and
miss moments, you really are. And I felt that way too. Were
the times where I'm like, really, do we really need to be hearing
this or do I do we need to be talking about this specific thing at
this moment, Like I've had that reaction a couple of times. Yeah,
I don't think. I don't know if we talked. I know I tweeted
about it. I don't know if we talked about the destroying of it all
of Like I understand he has five million subscribers. Find me some of that
has five million subscribers talking about your XFL league, and then we can have
a conversation here like I hate this Wwe did it for years and it's such
a like we're a niche thing and we're gonna bring in like Good Morning Football
did it. This year they gave one of their trophies to one of the
NBA commentators because like, oh, we can get a little bit of reb
Like I hate that. I understand wanting to broaden whatever. I don't think
one single person watched that show and said I want to you know, I
know, destroying, I'm gonna watch any of this stuff. Like I get
he's an ambassador for the game and all of that, but that's that's another
like XFL thing, Like uh yeah, USFL has to interviewed Doug Peterson on
the sidelines because his son is in the game. Xfls like please destroy and
like, please talk about this on your YouTube channel. We would really appreciate
that. Yeah, No, I mean it's it's it's catering and they're trying
to get other people involved. They're trying to get as many different kinds of
people involved. And I get that you want to grow your audience expanded.
And I complimented them on having him earlier in the year with the silent interviews,
But when it comes to the professional product, you know, like I
don't I know, I've made light of the CFL for not getting other you
know, the younger demographic involved sometimes, but at least I can tell like
there's a very professional attitude when it comes to their presentation of their product,
which you need to have. You need to be able to balance both.
You know, there has to be some sort of level of professionalism but also
have fun. And it's kind of trying to balance that out is really hard.
It's really hard to get both of those. I just had to come
here and I know you have attendant stuff, and then we will talk about
games. Smack says. At least he's showing it to actually made content with
the XL and that's fine. This was how us BELT felt like a church
on Sunday, actually felt like a party. That was the thing. I
thought the USFL very much one Saturday, if you want to call it that,
right, Yeah, the games were good for the XFL. You know
I'm looking on here. You know, the Vegas Houston game not not as
consequential, right as some of these. Uh and obviously we had the Orlando,
you know, the Brahma's game, but you know you had to kick
off here and all that stuff. Sunday, having both empty crowds for for
USFL with you know the party that was DC and then Saint Louis and then
throwing the pissie party over losing at home, which I really did enjoy you
could when when when Benda Nucci through that touchdown to Jakar Pearson, you could,
I mean you could hear a pin drop in that battledome And I tweeted
that like pretty damn quiet in here right now. What are your thoughts on
attendance? Andy, and then we'll kind of chat through shoot through some of
these games. Okay, So here's my thing. Listen. I I've had
number of occasions people referencing on Saturday the audio of Kurt Menifee saying, oh,
well, the mentis attendance was round thirty k. I'm like, that's
an accurate number. That's not an accurate number. I don't know where he's
getting that number from. We have had no confirmation of that number. I
haven't heard one thing about it being around thirty k in any way, shape
or form from anybody and any of our channels. I don't want to hear
about it being thirty thousand people in that stadium. I don't know what it
is. Because I look out a TV there seems to be a decent amount
of people. We don't have an accurate reading. I don't want that to
be gospel. I just don't want this blatant lyning of attendance numbers. Okay,
like the XFL has numbers. They have the attendance, whether you like
it or not, or whether you like how much people are going whatever.
You know, if it's lackluster, you can discuss all that after the fact,
But not why the USFL refuses to give these numbers out is kind of
baffling, honestly. And I get like they understand that there's not going to
be as many people at the games that don't have home teams, right,
that's just the fact in the matter. But you know, like that's just
how it is. Like you could I want you to be as accommonable for
each side and say, like, look, if you're going to announce those
numbers officially, then announce them or stay around thirty thousand, then say there's
around two hundred people in the game too. I know you're not going to
because you want to trump at your own product, But like I just it's
just blatant deceiving and I don't like that. I really don't like it.
And I don't like people following it and treat it like it's gospel because it's
not. And I don't like it. And also listen the whole attendancing.
It does affect the product, you know, like there's not as much energy,
there's not as much focused, there's not as much attention. Like you
say what you want about the XFL and their attendance numbers. Those people like
show up and care. Those people are maniacs, you know. DC fans
are mediac Saint Louis fans or mediacs. Even people in like the smaller stadiums.
You know, even though in San Antonio hasn't gotten as much, I
still see those people having a good time. They're still caring a lot about
the product. I see a lot of enthusiasm and energy in those crowds.
It matters a lot, and it adds to the product. When there's you
know, there's seventy people the stands in the USFL, it takes away from
it a little bit. That's just how it is support life. Sports is
meant to be played with energy. I don't go back, I really don't
go back and watch any like sports lights from twenty twenty, because that was
the time when there were no people in the stands. It was weird.
It was really weird, and it kind of reminds me of that a little
bit. Every time I see a game, that's just a matter of the
fact. I just I get tired because I saw that. I heard that.
I heard the through three thousand. I've had it sent and I know
like people are going to live gospel with that forever. And it's fine again
if it's I don't care if it's twenty thousand. If it's twenty it was
still a great crowd. And I get I see I always get a lot
of comments in here. I see a lot of comments, and people go
like, why does that matter? Why does this matter? This is?
This is why this matters. Is because when I put out the poll last
week, because the XFL or US are always talking you know, real football,
and we're real Football's coming back, and I tweeted, I was I
was drinking at the girls concert in Las Vegas. I tweeted. When I
think of real football, I think of and when you have thirty four thousand
impressions and almost three thousand people with seventy two percent of people voting for the
XFL, it is because the USFL does not have fans in their stands and
because they played in the hubs last year. Now they are working towards changing
that they're doing a good job. I guess I thought Memphis looks really good.
We'll see what Detroit looks like and can't and all that. But this
is why all they care about is TV. Didn't that It is because there's
a public perception, right or wrong, that the USFL is not real football
because they don't play in their home markets. And even if there's six thousand
people at Cashman Field in Las Vegas paying to watch the Vegas Vipers play,
they're at least paying to watch the Vegas Vipers play there. And that's what
people need to understand. I understand that Fox has a different business model,
but there's still the perception behind it. And that is why it's because I
mean, that's that way crazy. When I know, I was like,
I'll be lucky if it's fifty to fifty, And the next thing I know,
I turn on after the content, I was like, oh my god.
But that is why that is why it's important. Yeah. Then and
again, it's just presentation, right, It's about presentation. Look, at
the end of the day, this is an entertainment product. Now, we
care very much about the football. We care about the quality of the football.
We all do but at the end of the day, it's a product
that it has to entertain the public. You know, I say that about
the NFL. The NFL has become less about the football. It's become more
about the entertainment aspect of everything. It really has. Like that's just how
it is. They want points, they want you know, certain players to
get certain concessions over the others because they want their stars to play well and
they want their stars to get all the stats. Like that's just that's how
it is. And I think it's the same way we hear like, you
know, the XFL. I'll be honest, like I think they were maybe
a little lenient at the end with that Renegates game with the PI call and
then obviously like the challenge was correct with the hold. But I mean,
obviously they would love that to be a thrilling game to the end of like
a thrilling finish, and then you get into the overtime aspect of it again,
So you know that's something that they are they're going to trumpet and say,
look, here's our overtime rules to look how it works. You know,
this team had a chance, they were dead and gone. It looked
like they were out of it. They were down by eleven points in the
fourth quarter, and they figured it out and they won the game, or
they won excuse me, they tied the game and they went in overtime.
They lost, but like they had a chance. You know, you want
to be able to have things like that happened in your game. With USFL,
it's not really predicated on that as much. You know, it's still
about opportunities of course. But and that's the other thing I want to say
philosophically about the player roster construction. Look, as I said, we've talked
about all season. The XFL wants to get their players out the door and
into the NFL. The USFL, I feel like it's a security blanket,
like it's it's with players that know maybe that they need to have that job
security and they have something they can come back to if they get in the
NFL. Great, the timeline, the schedule, the calendar, We've talked
about that a million times. It's just it's a little harder for them to
get into these camps, get into camps and be able to contribute after the
you know, the USFL season ends. It was easier for them, honestly
to go into another league, like you know, the CFL or something of
that nature, but of course they have their contracts with the USFL, so
it's harder for them to transition. There's a lot going on with that.
But USFL feels like they're security in that right, Like there's an o y
for them to just kind of be able to come back and like, hey,
you know, you didn't make an the NFL. That's too bad,
but you know, we're always come welcome you back into the end of the
team. Like it really feels like that. There's why there's a decent amount
of holdovers here still in the USFL that I remember from last season. Again,
continuity is really important because now I'm like, oh, I'm familiar with
this person, I know who this player is, I know what they do,
and that's good, that's good for the league. But there's just you
have to consider that those are like the two separate things going on here is
maybe the philosophy of well these players are considering when they go into both leagues.
Darren Workman wins It Wins wins the Ward today for the best comment.
Darren. I want to I want to say, Darren, if you DM
DM me, your address. I'll send you a spring league warm up practice
squad Jersey here. Terren gets this one. I wonder if MVD felt at
home but no fans in the stands in Birmingham like it was BMA Field in
Toronto. Wow, Oh, Darren, that made me check on Darren,
That made me checko. Speaking of and I have I haven't here? What
did oh Andy? Do you have something I want to talk about McCloud.
No, well, I was gonna talk about McCloud, so you go ahead,
So no, so hey, yeah, how they how did my boy
McLeod do? I watched half the game. I turned it on. I
saw him get rocked with the sack. I saw him throw the ball past
the line of scrimmage, and then I saw Kurt Menefee make fun of him
for playing with the metric system because he is Canadian, which I did not
appreciate. See this is the thing, like I don't hate, we do
not hate on Canadian players like Kurt Menefee making fun of mccaud Beldo Thompson for
like playing with the metric system. That is NFL people making fun of the
CFL. So how how did mccaud do? Yeah, those are the people
the CFL people need to be going after, not usum. But look the
McLeod. You know what, I will say this, he was pretty inaccurate
at times. I mean he's obviously figuring out chemistry of the receivers. He
got hit so many times that offensive lines a problem. Great job by Rick
Sartella and Nick Vogl last week breaking that down because they were right this offensive
lines. They gotta fix it. They gotta find a way to get around
it. Now. So you know, as far as like completion percentage is
not great, But I will say this, and I know this seems like
a very like cliche statement, but he looks like a quarterback, Like he
looks very confident when he stands tall in the pocket, he throws that sucker
down the field. He knows what to do with the ball in his hands.
And I think a lot of that comes from his practice and all of
his you know, four to two to get through all of these times that
he had in the CFL and all these other leagues. He looks like a
seasoned veteran out there. Like I can tell immediately as he stepped on the
field, like, oh he gets it, Like he has the right tendencies,
the right attitude, he has the pedigree like it just I felt it
as soon as he got on the field, and you know, all things
considered, I think he ended up playing better than he started. And you
know, I think all that practice CFL really paid off because some of his
down field throws were great. That's some of the best throwing I've seen on
the Breakers since they started, you know, compared to what we saw last
year with them. So for McLeod Bethel Thompson, that's a great honestly,
Like that's as good as the debuts you could probably ask for, just based
on all the medigating factors of getting acclimated to a new team, a new
system, coming back to the States. Being with John d. Filippo,
I think hopefully we continue to see more development going forward, but I think
he ended up doing all right overall. How did how did the Maulers fair
here? Maulers that you are famously the worst team and in all of the
spring football history here, how did the Malers do? Yeah? I mean
they still can't block and James Morgan looked lost. They were just completely shot
on offense. I know they got a big punt return at one point and
they just I don't know, it feels kind of like the same team as
the last year. They can't really do much on offense, and I don't
know really how much involved in the game they are. I know the defense
made some big plays and they were able to get a couple. Like I
said, they just went after mclaude Bethel Thompson all game long, and he
got hit so much, but so did It's Morgan, so honestly, honestly,
I don't know if it really matters as much for them going forward as
far as like who their starter is. It may not matter a quarterback,
because they just feel like kind of the same team. And I feel bad
because you know, like obviously they're they're trying their damned this with Ray Hornen
in there as their new head coach. But I don't know as well.
I mean, I think not having the distraction that as Kirby Wilson helps,
not having that sort of in the background the entire time. So we'll see
if they can pull something together. But I don't know, them and the
Gamblers both just feel kind of the same place that they were last year.
A team that could improve a lot. As the Michigan I think the Michigan
Panthers can get a little bit better. Josh Love look really good yesterday.
But yeah, some of these other franchises they were in the basement last year.
Kind of feels stuck in the same same mold. I had to come
me here, Kyle says. At least at least macau can measure. I
just I'm just seeing a lot of Eric's kind of going crazy here in the
chat. Eric's talking about bias and you're not a football fans determined to watch
a game best on how many people are in the stadium. I will tell
you many football fans, and I, of course play with them in the
last two years, very much decide whether or not they enjoy a game.
Of that, I am glad that you don't. I know many people that
don't. I also know very many people that do. So I would not
say that you were, I would not qualify anything of that you were not.
But this is funny, John Christians, are you still a fan of
the drone camp? Definitely noticed there was no drone cam in Memphis and that
the second we got to Birmingham, I totally forgot. I'm like, oh
my god, oh my god. The drones back. I don't think they
need it. I think I thought the camera work in the DC game yesterday
with the back and forth, I thought that was good. I think if
ESPN, I think Fox did. I guess it did well. With the
Memphis game, I think you can get away with the drone. I don't
think we need that, and I think that the Memphis did a far better
job of photographing videographing that stadium without showing. I think the drones just shows
too many empty shop It shows too many empty seats, It's too loud,
it gets in the way. Like, I do you have any thoughts on
the drune. It still sounds like I'm at my dentist office. Every time
I hear that drone, it just sounds like worring machines in the background.
Yeah, it really does. That's the first thing I thought the first time
I heard it, and I still think that. I think you've got to
save that for games when there's actual fans, you know, I really do,
you know. I mean, if they had it during Memphis, I
guess it would have been okay, But like, maybe you have it more
on the periphery, on the outside, so we don't hear it. On
the field the entire time. Maybe you don't have to have it behind the
players the entire time. I do still like the camera that they have on
the player helmet that when he makes a play, like I think they had
that in the Birmingham game where a guy got a fumble recovery, it's just
like, oh, the balls on the ground, like this is what like
the process of him like diving for the ball. That's kind of cool.
I still like that a lot. But yeah, they could do away with
the drune camp. But look, here's the thing again, Like I'm not
trying to criticize the football at all, Like the football is of good enough
quality. It's just I'm telling you about the overall presentation of the product.
Like that's just how it is. Sometimes it's just a little it's a little
strange not having the people there to cheer on and having also fake crowd noise
pumped in, which still drives me nuts. Uh. You know, for
once, I actually agreed with with you know, Michael Baldsley about something because
he was going after it this weekend about their fake crowd noise pumped in for
two hundred people and in the Breakers game, and you know, like I'm
not. It's it's not a presentation like thought something I would put in the
presentation. But I get their idea of like trying to establish atmosphere, but
it just feels fabricated, you know, And that's something I I want the
USFL also to be a little bit careful about their slight fabrication of certain things
like you know that. And also again the around thirty k attendance thing.
Also a couple of things that Darren Johnson talk about. You know, look,
I didn't get on about this last week, but the guy apparently,
you know, I saw that guy get after the kickoff rules about the XFL
and call them really you know, not not not um you know, basically
not dogging the entire kickoff, which is funny because he wasn't doing that three
years ago when he was involved with the XFL. So for him to change
changed to it is very interesting. I know he's trumpeting in the USFL,
but it seemed a little disingenuous. And I'll say this also about the kickoff.
I don't like it the USFL kickoff. It's too far back. It
feels like those yards are just free, those are free yards for everybody to
play with you can get to the forty yard line like it's no problem,
and it feels it doesn't feel earned. You can say what you want about
the XFL kickoff and the rules of it. I still feel like there's a
strategy and there's an earning of those yards on the field. The USFL kickoff
is too far back. Twenty five was fine, you know, twenty five
is okay. Twenty is too far back. They got to put it back
up a little bit because it just feels like, like you said it,
I think our group chat a couple of days ago, like it just feels
like, you know, I don't think I think Chris Rowland was touched and
tell like the forty yard line a couple of times in the Philadelphia game like
that. That's really tough for a kickoff un a kickoff coverage and it feels
like just almost getting the midfield almost every single time it happens. Yeah,
I hate it. I hate the kickof off. And that was something again
I don't you know, I am and I've said I am not the football
expert, right, I bring on smart people to talk about all this up.
Yeah, I'm like, okay, that makes sense, Like it's you
know they want to do it. They don't, you know, like they
don't want to do the l which is so weird because like we want to
steal all these other rules, and it is you know, it's stealing,
it's borrowing whatever. I want to borrow all these other rules from the XFL.
We don't want to do the kickoff because that's their thing. We can't
do that. We're moving it. Yeah, I was. I was dming
with the creator of the XFL kickoff over the weekend. I think, did
you see that the USFL is kicking off from the twenty yard line? And
he said, wow, that is that is very interesting. I said,
yeah, they're literally able to get like the thirty five yard line without even
being touched. And then whatever else you get from that, Uh, it's
fine. I mean it creates what I think they need to say is not
we want to go from eighty percent to ninety percent you know kick off,
you know people returning kickoffs. We want to inflate our offense, and by
starting teams at almost midfield, that ensures we're going to get a lot more
scoring. Like that is why they are doing it, right. Player safety
that might be a bystander kickoff return completion. Now that might be a bystander.
They're doing it to inflate offenses. They do, you disagree, No,
I agree, they do. I mean it felt especially felt that way
during the Michigan game. During that Michigan Houston game, it felt like everybody
had a free, free start at midfield and just could go down the field.
And it's tough. I mean, it's tough on defenses now because it's
like, oh, they're giving up all these touchdowns, all these points.
It's like, well yeah, I mean it's like it's like starting a runner
at second base, Like that's that's tough. And I feel I feel for
the defenses and I feel for the special teams units that don't really get like
that kind of practice it because like once you get to the NFL, that's
not gonna be the case. You know, first of all, there's no
kick like, no one returns a kickoff anyways, which I understand you want
to see more kickoffs, great, but don't just give them yard. It's
like that you we got to still earn it, you know, you still
have to earn the field position that you get. So yeah, it doesn't
feel like and it makes drives in my opinion, a little less special,
Like it's really special when a team, you know, drives ninety yards,
Like going from ninety yards or eighty yards, it's really cool. When a
team is able to drive the length of the field, it's you know,
it's debilitating for another team when you're a road team, Like seeing Seattle have
those sustained drives against against Saint Louis in that game yesterday, and also just
those big plays is like, whoa, Like that's demoralizing, it's it's and
so I want to see more. I just wanted to be a little more
organic in terms of like seeing longer sustained drives, but sent for some of
these offenses. I get you want to have kickoffs. That's fine, there's
nothing wrong with that, but you know, the percentages of like we need
to have more kickoffs. I think Metafe was saying about that on the broadcast,
Like last year there's eighty around, like eighty percent I think, and
then this year they want to get up to ninety percent. It's like,
okay, but also what are the quality of the kickoffs? You know,
that's the other thing. Let's consider that as well. You want more are
great, but what is it doing for the product. You know. Again,
that's my whole point in a lot of the rule changes, talking here
about holding all that. I want to get to because we talked a little
bit about the Malers. I do want to get to. We talked cook
Us off the Top and the Stars. To me, they look like the
strongest team so far, right Case and obviously he bounced around going to the
NFL. He was on the show, you know, I guess it was
a week or two before kickoff. We have him on thoughts, any expanded
thoughts on Case, the Stars, the show boats, you know, I
thought they looked decent in there are any other thoughts on that? Yeah,
No, Like I said, Cookings looked great. He made an excellent sideline
throw for his third touchdown. I want to double check who it was.
I'm not sure if it was Jordan Swool, I have to look. I
have to look it up again. But just an amazing touchdown throw by him.
Later, Oh, I think it was Devin Gray. I think that's
who was. Yeah. So he that was incredible. Like again, he
just looked really confident. He ran a lot. I was surprised by how
much he ran, especially with that knee injury that he had last year.
He clearly wanted the show that it had recovered and he looks great and if
he can run, If he can run, I mean that adds another element
to their offense now because now you have to worry about that. And it
really threw Memphis off that he was able to do both again. I mean,
he can thrive in this offense, and a guy like Brian Scott was
going to thrive in that offense last year, but he got hurt and so
now it's cook As his turn to really take advantage of that. You know,
I really like the Stars offense showboats. I don't think Rady White's it
man like. I mean, he should have thrown more picks that one.
This to Channing stribbling was like a Christmas gift, Like it almost looked like
he was trying to throw it to him and not his own player. I
don't think this Raady White experiment it works. But Cole Kelly was fine.
I mean he's a big boy, but I don't see him really factor in
the offense. Again, Where's Ryan Willis? You know, we need to
keep asking this question and over and over again, where is this guy?
Because we've talked about him so much for a guy that hasn't played a snap
in the XFL and has not played a snap of the USFL yet, and
obviously played really well in the spring league. What's going on with him?
We need to figure this out, Like is he gonna get an opportunity at
some point, because it's just bizarre considering how much we've talked about him and
how much it seems like he's worthy of having it, having an opportunity.
But I don't know if that's going to happen. Michigan. Like I said,
Jordan Love played great Josh Love and not Jordan Love, not Green Bay
Packers quarterback, but Josh Love looked really good. I hope that Carson Strong
can get involved. He was five for five, so hopefully he can get
some more playing time. I hope his knee holds up. You know,
there's still a lot of players left to be considered. How much play,
how much of these quarterbacks are going to come in and out of these games.
It's gonna be interesting. Obviously the XFL it varied, like some teams
had to and some teams chose not to at all. Like obviously, if
you're Sat Louis you're not taking aj McCarron out of the game, right if
you're the Sea Dragons, you're not taking Ben to New she out. You're
not taking some of these quarterbacks out. So we'll see what happens. But
overall, I mean, I think he was a decent start to the slate
and I'm just curious, like, I still think I still think mccad Bethel
Thompson has a chance to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league just
based on his pedigree and based on his knowledge of the offense and his skill
set. I think he can still do it. So it might be him
and Cooks maybe at the top of the heat by the end of the season.
I had a question here. Lots of comments about you have the Showboats
and do we like the I think a lot of people say the Showboats Brandy
and favorite Brandy, and then Dorothy walks in and she goes, that is
really ugly, So where do you land on that? And then I have
I have my more serious question because I had a question I forgot and that
was my follow up. But I do have any more serious football question.
No, I'm fine with it. I mean, it's I like it just
based on. It's like it's a color that doesn't really match with a lot
of other teams, and I like branding. I mean, it's sort of
similar to the fleet with like the whole maritime theme that I had with the
San Diego Fleet. But I like it overall. I actually I'm fine with
the uniforms. I thought the uniform matchup was actually pretty good with that in
Philadelphia on Saturday. So I don't find it the ugly at all. It's
just a matter of can can the the fan base, you know, buy
into the Memphis brand again. You know, it's been four decades. Let's
see if they can get back into it. I'll get Yeah, two things.
So now I have two follow ups for that. So I did.
I like the fact that we are now going back, like we can talk
about the old USFL right because last year we have the lawsuits and we can't
talk about all that suff So I like that. But then it's also so
weird. Were like the Showboats score and then he goes, this is the
first Showboats touchdown in four decades. You're like, I don't. I don't
like I like showing the staff and like, okay, we're back here.
We have history of all that, but you know, like we're we're you
know, we're carrying over stats or like you know that this is the first
professional I think this is the first professional football that's in Memphis in like four
decades. You're forgetting XFL O one cfl AF like, so you know,
we want to really embrace history to what do you make of that? And
this now we're like, I do think we're gonna be like all in on
history of this year, like we couldn't do it before, We're gonna be
all in. If I'm not mistaken. I believe the Titans also played a
game there before they actually officially moved to Nashville, So let's not forget that
too. That's what I'm talking about with the USFL thing. It's just like
a racing history. It's like revisionist history. I do not care for it.
Like you if you don't want to like specifically talk about a certain thing,
fine, that's okay. Like the XFL doesn't talk about XFL two thousand
and one at all at all. I barely mentioned twenty twenty. Like they
almost don't even acknowledge that. They treat themselves as the new entity, but
they're not going on being like, oh, this is you know, the
first time since this or this has never happened before. It's like, no,
it clearly has, like we know it has. We're not dumb,
like we can look it up. And that's the thing about the USFL.
They really treat it like they just there's like no previous history of like professional
football in any way, shape or former capacity. And I just think it's
it's it's silly, like just don't try to blatantly erase it. That's that's
all I ask you to do. If you say, like, oh,
this is the first Memphis Showboats touchdown in four decades, Okay, that's fine,
no problem with that. I get it. That's cute. I get
it. Now. You can acknowledge that history. But don't say it's the
first professional like score than four decades, because that's not true and you can't.
It's it's just not straight up. My other question, my real football
question. So we you talked. You know, we're doing the Dueling Quarterbacks
ride and some of it's by design, some of it's to give them play
time. And it's week one, you know XFL. We've seen some of
the team's ride. You know, we got to new to all of this
stuff. You know, XFL, they're they're really talking. You know,
we want these guys to get back to the NFL, but so is the
USFL has really had that monster right and we were champion. Come on,
teacher, but do you see are they the same, better, worse?
And these coaches, you know, are are we playing for competition or are
we playing for tape? For these guys, it's I mean, I think
it's both. Um, I mean, there's still tape. Obviously, you're
still getting opportunities for players who need to have them. Obviously in USFL does
have a handful of guys like that. Obviously we talked about Carson Strong for
example, he needs to get back into onto the horse. But you know,
I mean, you do want to win. I mean the XFL.
That's the interesting thing. I still feel like in the XFL they still want
to win, Like they still are very adamant about winning, despite you know,
some of the concessions about like okay, well some of these guys are
gonna move on. I mean, again, as I've said a million times,
Anthony Back talked about that in the showcase in Arizona. But you clearly
see that he wants to win with Saint Louis the USFL, I mean,
I presume it's the same thing. Obviously, you want them to have that
same level of competitive spirit, and you know, I think it's just a
matter of like how how are they conducting themselves, how they running the show.
I mean, I'm sure Birmingham's proud of their championship last year, you
know, but I still think that it's just a matter of how do you
treat yourself in conjunction with the other league. You know, like how much
are you really trumpeting the players that you have and where they're going? You
know, the same thing with the CFL. The CFL I still think struggles
with that too, where you know, they want to so desperately keep high
end talent, but they have to concede that they're going to go somewhere else.
And the Nathan work thing last year obviously was really tough for BC fans
because it's like, all right, well, we want him to do really
well, but we also really want to hold on to him and like keep
him forever, but it's like that's not going to happen. The USFL needs
to like think about that as well. Where where do they stand with in
terms of like being competitive, being successful, but also wishing the best for
the players that move on somewhere else. It's it's a fine line, and
I think every league is still kind of struggling with it a little bit,
some of these lower Okay, I shouldn't say lower leagues, but like other
leagues, like I don't see that problem in like Fan Control Football, for
example, they're like, hell, yeah, our guys doing great in another
league. Awesome. You know, it's a very different mentality. I don't
feel that way with CFLUFL, XFL. It's kind of more like, oh,
they're they're over now there now, you know, it's not as much
trumpeting about that player. So it's it's a lot to consider. Yeah,
a non MFL, minor league, American football leagues. We're not getting into
the CFL here far on. No, Yeah, that was wild with that,
That was really run. I did see a comment we'll get into this.
I know you gotta get out of here. We did have a comment,
Um, Fox does not seem to be talking as much about players wanting
to go to the MFL like the XFL with that has been the complaint all
season, Like, well, this guy did like it does seem like Foxes
where we're playing this game that you know, come watch that. I want
to get any final thoughts on h you know, we tied a little bit
Birmingham Generals. Uh. I was surprised, and we'll get to football that
there was not nearly as many people there come around the especially after hoisting the
we had the banner, we got the trophy, and the thoughts on that
and then and then the game. I guess said, were you Generals who
were missing Louis Press any other thoughts on this game? Yeah, I was
quite frankly, I was surprised there were so many tarps in the stadium.
Yeah, those were not there when we went last year, you know.
And yes we did go there, by the way, for anyone wondering,
we were actually there in person, in the flesh, just reminding everybody.
But I don't remember there being as many people there on Saturday as they were
last year. That's fascinating because you think like home opener, defending champions,
your two of the league. You've got players that you remember from you know,
coming back, both your quarterbacks, a lot of your defense, you
know, Scooby Wright, some of the receivers like I mean a lot of
familiarity, and yet it didn't seem like there was as many people there and
the home opener this time around, which is fascinating. I I don't know
what's going on with that. I thought Birmingham was like all gun hoe that
they had their team back. But I don't know. Man, It's it's
interesting. I I but you know, I'm sure people will tell me that
there were like forty thousand people in the stands of the entire year or so.
I'll have to just take that with a grain of salt. But I
think it's it. I just I wonder what the enthusiasm level of these markets
is. You have to consider that every single time. It's really funny considering
like no, the XFL, as soon as we see one bad we see
like one bad crowd, We're like, get him out of the team,
you know, get him out of here. We got to go to a
different city, Like yeah, like a port mission, We're out of here,
and and and and. In the USFL, it's not that case.
It's just more of like a you know, they'll show up eventually. Like
it's it's more it's start again. It's such a different attitude and different philosophy,
and I'm just kind of surprised that there was more people in Birmingham.
Memphis. Totally get it. You know, you're you're getting those people back
into the fold. And I think it was a decent crowd. You know,
I give it was one side of the stadium, but you know,
so Orlando Guardians did that too. There's like the one side of the stadium
for visual components. I get that. But and it's also very round,
you know, very big rounded bowl there, the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.
But yeah, I don't know what's going to happen. I'm really curious to
see how Michigan shows up because I've been told that Michigan is supposed to be
a really supportive you know, like the numbers, the social media numbers,
the fans like, it's supposed to be really supported. So they'll be playing
at home in week three. Let's see how the Panthers do at home.
Ken. I don't know, it's weird because they're not really in either of
those markets, not really, you know, like that's that's kind of what's
weird with Pittsburgh and New Jersey. But we'll see. I just I want
to see if that enthusiasm level is going to continue. I have a comment
here. I'm not even gonna put in that, but there they said there's
about forty one thousand fans in Birmingham for today to stay up. Holds four
or forty seven thousands. If you think there were some only six thousand empty
seats in that stadium. I have and there might have been six thousand seats.
Is covered in tarps in the one end zone. There anything else on
this, I don't want to hold you too long. People are excited to
hear any other thoughts anything. It's just excited. I mean, I don't
want to like poop poo on all of this. Like I am excited.
I liked watching the USFL, I really did, Like I said, watched
the show book. I felt like this is back. But you know,
I mean, this is what this show is. Like we you know,
we talked football and then we kind of talked this other stuff. I'm here
and I will tell you we got a lot more comments today about this kind
of stuff. Did we do about you know, Carson Carson Strong, you
know as a completion percentage or whatever, like you know, this is kind
of what these shows are. But any other real football talk, any other
non football talk. I again, you know, it's going to come down
to what happens in a couple of weeks with the playoffs. And also,
by the way, oh my god, there was so much going on sports
wise this weekend. I mean the ratings, that's the other thing we need
to think about. The ratings. Like the NBA playoffs started, you know,
that's the other thing. You had playoff games going on, you had
baseball going on. I mean, it was just a avalanche of stuff going
on this past weekend. This is the thing with spring football has to consider,
like there are other fans watching other things. You know, football is
king. I totally agree, But also, oh my god, there's so
many things going on simultaneously for a lot of people. And that's that's just
the nature of the beast. As far as trying to get eyeballs, it's
gonna it's gonna be a thing going forward. Still, I think the XFL
is just content with where they're at as far as what the ratings they've got.
I don't know what the USFL standards are this year. They seem to
be happy about them last year. Let's see how they feel about it this
time around. If you know, if we're looking at subone mill or sub
two mil. I don't know what the number is gonna be on on Saturday
or Sunday. We'll see, but I don't know what their standards are going
into the year two. So you know, the TV ratings debate's gonna be.
It's gonna go on until we die, Like it's gonna be go on
till the end of time. It's gonna be excited. I am most I'm
really excited. And it was so funny. We were sitting there yesterday because
we're watching the BattleHawks game, and you know, we're I'm like tweeting and
Matt Barry like DM and them like Matt I talked talked to him about the
playoffs scenarios and I'm like, okay. I was like, when when is
that game next weekend? When is the Vipers Sea Dragons game? And I
realize, Oh, that's like I'll be a bad game. That's the last.
So yeah, because we've missed so many whatever crack in our playing,
Sam Shady is here is in the sport and I think we're playing Sam's avs,
but we're playing them on Saturday and Monday. So I'll be at the
game on Monday, but I'll be at the games Sunday for the XFL.
I think that's exciting. I think the fact that you have I was I
was scared, and I was very scared when when we saw this USFL stuff
and hey, we're gonna be on Fox and we're gonna have all these games.
I'm like, some of these games aren't even gonna matter for the XFL
at this point, Like, what are we gonna do? We have two
games next weekend that they're really going to matter. With that, I think
the USFL slate is good as well. Let me pull up on here just
before we get out. You know, we got you know, Gamblers Breakers,
right, so we're gonna be at Protective. We're gonna see the Birmingham
Stallions back in Birmingham, and then is this do we finally get So we
get the Canton games next weekend? Right, so that'll be week two.
We'll get Canton and then we don't we get to trade week three, so
that will be exciting on that. Well, we just had a big shot
of the viewers here Andy any other big hot takes. So we have our
we have our plethora of seventy six years latch you right now. Well,
I was gonna say about that Seattle game. That's a huge matchup on Sunday.
It's the last game of the season, so it's kind of like the
Sunday Night football thing, where like in the NFL where someone gets flexed in
at the last second for it to be like the most important game and of
being deciding a playoff spot, I mean that literally decides a playoff spot,
Like your game has become incredibly important and it's the last game of the season,
and that's honestly for ESPN, that's a win, and if for the
XFL to win, because it's up until the last moment that it's really important.
So that's that's something that I'm looking forward to. Obviously, Vegas is
still playing a spoiler role. I said that last week they tried against Houston.
Man, they really did, but they got in their own way unfortunately.
Oh here's a hot take for you. Actually, as far as as
far as the Vegas operation goes, I'm not sure this Rod Woodson thing is
working. Man Like, it's it's not going well. He's he's talking down
to officials, he's constantly upset about stuff, and he's just not having a
good time out there. I don't know why. We talked about it last
week with Rick Santortella. Why didn't Jylan McClendon, you know, start earlier
in the year. He looks confident, he looks cool, he looks composed.
Why wasn't he there earlier? Their whole operation is unfortunate because again,
they have the talent to play with anybody in the league, and they just
cannot finish games. For the life of them. They just cannot do it.
And I don't think it's gonna go well for them on Sunday. They
might have a lead early in that game. They might be really frustrating in
Seattle for about three quarters, but I don't trust Vegas to hold onto a
lead. I really don't. And they haven't beaten the North opponent yet.
Do you like that trash stock that they had with the Valahawks, for you
know, Vegas said like, oh, congratulations of your first point versus the
North that say, list said, well, at least we have one.
I will say I like that Ben is playing with some of the brado right
now. I know that some of the actually lost like battle Hawks followers yesterday,
because I think I was trash talking so much on that. But I
was texting with our friend Haley, you know that helps run the you know
that runs the Dragon social media. I said, I like b D Ben,
Like I like that energy. Like Ben is walking around right now like
bae bye bye bye. You know, he's got his gun, the holsters
and all that stuff. I really like that. Yeah, I don't like
Rod Woodson talking down to female coaches and then continuing to kind of do all
that stuff afterwards. Um, guys, we're gonna get out of here.
Let us know if we want the emergency breaking news TV ratings once tomorrow,
I think do you think we could fill an hour with that? I mean,
do you think there's enough to talk about? Like I said, people
are talking about it until they die, So I think I think I think
you could if you really wanted to it. Thumbs up, thumbs up the
video, thumbs up the video here on the YouTube. If you want us,
we'll come. Because here's the deal. The radians will be down,
should be down right about seven fifteen am tomorrow, so then we can still
do you know, the A eight thirty whatever I'll post, but we can
still do that if people want it. Okay, Yes, we have good
viewership right now because we kind of ride the wave right now. It was
we were hot at the beginning of the season. And I just want you
to remember your boy Read and Andy here every week doing this show. I
sick as a dog last week, and then Vegas at the lock store or
two and all of that, anything else before you get out of here.
We survived. We got through one weekend. Let's do it again next weekend.
Always looking forward to it. Man, Yeah, JK or JJKKK,
says Murray eight wrong the professor at wrong about what everything? You're not wrong.
You're not wrong. You're not wrong. Guys like and subscribe. Like
I said, we're going to be given away either the XFL Championship tickets,
which I do not think we'll hit by the XFL Championship game, or else
the USFL Championship Game tickets for that if you would like that at Canton,
Ohio. We will get be given the way two of those if we've hit
thirty five hundred subscribers. I am looking into a guided tour of the Alamo
as we speak. I was looking on there. I'll do a headcount here,
but I think we can request a private tour guide for us at the
Alumo if you would like to be a part of that. For the San
Antonio and I'm trying to figure out. I don't know if we're gonna do
a location or if we're gonna do the hotel for the live show. I've
been corresponding with a bunch of the restaurants. If like we're if we're just
having like Mike Mitchell and stuff call in anyway, we might just do it
at the hotel. But we'll kind of figure that out. But Andy will
be a part of that as well as everybody else. Yet the reals and
heels, we will be in the basement of the ALBUMO. That will be
the lot. Yeah, come to the live show in the basement of the
ALBUMO. I thank you guys all so much for watching today, Andy,
anything else. Before I hit the goodbye, I have to know exactly what's
your condition is going to be on Sunday and if we're going to have another
Vegas situation the next day on Monday, I gotta I gotta be mentally prepared
for that. So just let me know how it Sunday goes. Yeah,
and you need to be mean when we're in there. We're down at San
Anton. Yeah. Andy lived through quite a wild time with me in the
live show last of Monday. Anyone that watched that, that was a fun
time. Okay, I think that's it. Ox is all right, Thanks
guys. All right, look for an episode tomorrow. Should be fun.
We'll see you next time.