Well, happy Monday morning. Everyone here, holiday weekend, whether you're in
Canada or in the US, here getting ready for we have a big CFL
game tonight here, Monday Night Football with the Argonauts taking on BC Lions,
America's CFL team. But we are here today talking USFL. No days off
here, no week's off. I think officially safe to say that highest viewed
USFL Championship game a pregame show. It's kind of like election cycle. You
kind of got to wait for all the numbers to come in, but it
looks like maintain that most watch USL kickoff show, most watch USFL Championship game
show. So you know, people, if if you're with the league,
if you're with you know we're around here. We're kind of doing our thing,
but we're always here. A couple of guests today, you wanted to
talk about the hard work of this live from a rest stop, unable to
make it home, but could not not be on the show. Today.
We have Potrophina. First off, how are you doing? Has this felt
immediately drops out? Okay, we'll get pat On here. Pat was working
over the weekend, but I have here a special guest standing by is that
the professor's music, Andy Murray, how are you doing, sir? It
is all right. I am coming off the top rope. It's been a
while, hasn't it. It's been a while. I think we might do
something this week too. I'm thinking I'm trying to. I'm workshopping ideas here.
But Andy Live he was in anime con right in La here on vacation,
and he wanted to come on time the championship game. How are you
doing, SIRP Yeah, I've just been a while, wait for about a
weekend with my friend a little a little convention here in Los Angeles. The
weather has been great, but I guess I wanted to get off my summatical
for a moment to come and talk about this because I know I'm a little
bit out of my element. I don't have my normal attire, but I
wanted to come and talk about this since you know where, We've already gone
to the end of the season already. It just flew by. I don't
know about you, but it felt like this USFL season went by much faster
than the last one, and even faster than maybe the XFL season. Maybe
I'm just imagining that, but to me, I couldn't believe. I felt
like I was just watching your preview show with Rick Stella and everybody. Just
it almost feels like two weeks, not two and a half months or three
months. It's weird. And I'll bring Patt in here. I think Pat's
just having connection issues will get him on. But it's it's been hard,
right, And I think this is what everyone wanted, Right, We've talked
about this for years and the dream and year round football, and I mean,
this is one percent of the challenges the players go through, you know,
and the coaches and the staff and workers and everyone else. But it's
a lot. And I think that the overhang with the XFL kind of helped
make that USFL season feel shorter also, Right, It took really till week
four or five to kind of like, Okay, now we're just doing this
on our own. We don't have to you know, we're not you know,
like you're on or Pat. We're kind of trying to juggle all these
multiple leagues and all of that. I don't know, and I also to
me and this is just you know, maybe my twitters and stuff. USFL
still feels like it exists a little bit more in the vacuum. I still
feel like I see more XFL, and again, it could just be because
I'm following the matt Berries of the world, and thankfully a lot of the
XFL people kind of survived the cuts with ESPN last week. I know that
Jason Fitz wasn't so lucky, but I don't know. For whatever reason,
it kind of felt like we were mid season with the USFL. And honestly,
if you miss the games, if you blink and you miss, they're
kind of gone. I know, Pat does a really great job, you
know, obviously we talked the games every week, like you kind of if
you miss it over the weekend, I feel like it doesn't exist. Your
following coming into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, if that makes sense, yeah,
and your muted Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean both of them
are kind of like it seems like you could to accept one of them into
your lives and then displace the other. Right, And I suppose it's the
same way with the CFL too. Now we hear obviously at the marcass don't
discriminate. We get ourselves involved in all of them. So for me and
you and all of us, for most of us, I think it's not
really that different because they all overlaps together and it's all sort of this part
of the giant, amalgamated calendar. But for most people, yeah, I
mean, it can just be over in a flash and that's it. That's
their season and that's all they were looking forward to. So for me,
it's just been really interesting to see now with all these colliding calendars together,
just sort of this continuous flow of gridiron action. I mean, it's just
so funny seeing all these NFL reports and ups coming out and being like,
oh, well, you know, training camp starts, we'll be you know,
won't be without football for so and so days, And it's like we've
been living this for how many months now, I mean since February on,
and it's not really gone away, and it's not going to go away for
the CFL obviously, it's going to be here until you know, November.
So for us, I mean, our off periods don't really exist. Like
as far as if you're if you are exclusively a football watcher, if you
indulge in all leagues, there is no time off now if this is going
to be a continuing trend, But as far as an all leaguer, goes.
I mean, still there are people who have their alliances and sort of
choose which one that they decided to put their time them and money and investments
in. Obviously, so it's interesting just seeing how kind of people measure out
their schedules in that way. But for me, I mean, it's just
been the train has just been rolling the entire time. There we go.
I was trying to add the banner back on end of deleting the banner,
and that we again here, let's bring padd in as well. Here pads,
Like I said, no really no days off. Pads literally live from
from the truck stop here. I couldn't make it home with his work schedule.
Pat, how are you doing, sir? Do well? Apologic apologies
for the connection issues. I'm somewhat sorry right now, so not really no
issues at all. We appreciate Pat. What have you made of this?
We've done it, you know, we've been here every week, no weeks
off here. What do you make we? Finally? You know, we
crowned the champion stallions back to back. What do you make them all this?
Um? As far as with the season, I think it was a
good season. Um, you know, a lot, a lot of games.
I think we've talked about it with a little bit of football fatigue,
um, and honestly, like as people who cover these leagues, we just
kind of have to like, you know, I want to sound too simple
here, but man up and do it. You know, like their days,
I don't really want to watch for football games back to back to back
because you know, I'd like to go outside they or even better, take
a nap. But I mean, this is a commitment that we've made to
these players, to these leagues. And I mean, you know, I'm
glad that they can played a second season with the intention of coming back for
a third. You know, that's three years of opportunities for guys, you
know, in terms of the game itself. And we'll get Andy. I
celebrated the Mariners decided to go somehow get two miraculous wins here and gets to
the m of day raised after losing fifteen to four on Friday, and imagine
Andy, imagine my life. I'm sitting there. I'm like, I got
really good seats to these next two games here, just gave up fifteen unanswered
runs, won both games, celebrated, and then I went back. I
watched every snap of the USL Championship game last night. Don't add me on
that. So we'll go first Pat and then Andy Patton. The game itself,
I thought it was not nearly as exciting this last year. That wanted
to be too critical. What did you make it a game? I mean
when you start off last year the way like that Stars game and then you
add the parody of like the injuries, like you set the bar really high,
you know what I mean? Like regardless of the four and six teams,
Like we saw a good four and six team a couple of weeks back,
but with how good last year's game was, a lot of things had
to align. But um, I mean I think I think it went pretty
level to the season that we saw from both these teams. Alex Magoo made
a lot of plays. He scrambled a lot, you know through some you
know he did with Benda Nucci thinks Benda Nucci can do with way less interceptions.
And then you know the Maulers defense or excuse me, the Maulers relied
on defense, Troy Williams running and Chris blew its leg and we saw throughout
the season they had a lot of issues finishing and how many times did they
get inside the twenty I think two or three and they couldn't score, you
know, so, I mean, if you were the it fell in line
with the script to keep it a lack of a better turn. And you
know, they made a competitive because I think it was three nothing going into
like the middle of the second quarter, you know, and the Maulers are
away thing and that touchdown that you know Isaac saca Polo when he handed off
the ball forward, Um, that kind of changed the game a lot.
Like Randon, I don't think he was gonna score, but he would have
probably been within within the twenty five. But uh, I mean, no
real surprise. You know. I'm sure there was a lot of people who
thought the Mallers were gonna win, but I mean I wasn't surprised by this
outcome. I think I said they were gonna win like fourteen to twenty seven
or something like that. The Stallions pretty close and then yeah, I have
some does so Andy, what did you make of this? I mean,
it was the Alex magu show and it has been the entire season. He
was outstanding for the most part in the entire playoff run. You have an
accounted for nine total touchdowns in two playoff games. That's saying something. He
just was putting his improvisational skills on display constantly throughout the entire run. Now,
it almost got him into trouble during the game. He almost had that
just hideous fumble against the Maulers and where Boogie Roberts had the handoff and it
almost led up to a score. And honestly, for Boogie, you got
to know that you got a later roll that ball man. You can't just
hand that off. You get that's like football one on one. You can't
hand that off forward man. And if you had scored there, that shifts
the momentum completely for the Mallers. Instead, you're holding them into a field
goal and you don't really get a chance to get that momentum back. So
for the Stallions, I mean, Magoo just was outstanding this entire season.
He really stepped up. He was a different quarterback last year. I didn't
I honestly was saying during the champion not the championship game, the inaugural game
that we went to. I was like, I don't want this guy playing.
Yeah, I think I don't think he can throw. And I wanted
j R. Smith out there and J. R. Smith was the right
quarterback to go with the entire season. This season We'll never know because jam
R. Smith got her, but clearly Magoo got to go through leaps and
bounds of development and with the staff and with this offense, which again did
not have its full arsenal. I mean, there was no Bo Scarborough and
there was no um who I'm trying to remember the other receiver, Marlin Williams.
There was no Marylin Williams. There was no full arsenal for him to
deal with. And that was kind of thing I thought about did the Championship
game, especially in the second half, was Man, it would be really
nice if they had a running back to really grind out the clock here and
kind of eat up time. And Cjo Marrable is good. I like CJ.
Marrable, but both Scarborough would have been perfect for that situation for so
kudos to Scarborough for just being are sorry for McGoo for being on top of
his game, being able to hit his spots, just be able to improvise
running out of the pocket. He was outstanding the entire game. So I
can't say that the Maulers really had an answer the entire time. I don't
know. I want to get pat thoughts on this, because I you know,
I know Pat's obviously high agoo and he gets the MVP and he's getting
you know, you got to get gonna get the game MVP and all this
kind of stuff. To me, it felt and it might be if this
is my quarterback, maybe I feel different right like where I I am not
a Stallion's fan, so I'm like, oh, I'm kind of maybe I'm
jealous of this guy. Or he's got these big following locks and he's kind
of running around, But it felt like he was getting a little like high
on his own supply at the end, like during this game, like like
scrambling when he didn't even need to, Like he's like out running around and
then you're like, okay, you didn't even need to. Kind of like
it felt like he was trying to do a lot. I know there was
one where Skip called like the time out. They Alex was like no,
I like I was able to. I was I was gonna get be able
to get it off, like I knew what I was doing. And then
they came out and ran right into a wall and it's like, well,
maybe you should have listened to skip like maybe I felt like he's obviously still
learning. I don't know where he goes from here. They pointed out right
obviously the four touchdowns championship game record, you know, beat it over,
you know, Case Cook this slash year. What did you make of Magoo
here? Pat in that and just in terms of like him feeling like he
was trying to do too much and I don't know that that was necessary.
I don't know. It felt like he kind of got to a weird spot.
I think it comes out the film, and not just for Magoo,
but for all these guys. When you when you have the luxury of like
these all football leagues is we and we saw it is like every game means
so much to these guys that every game is going to be another one of
these guys, you know, putting their best foot forward, giving their best
effort, especially when you like, you know, when this isn't your end
goal. Like I'm sure there's some players who are just doing this, like,
you know, because they love playing football and they got other businesses.
In fact, I know a couple of these players have things going on.
But you know, for Alex, like every snap is I need to show
what I can do so I can get back to the NFL. Um,
it doesn't at this point, like for me, Like, what does Alex
have to prove in the USFL? Like last year he was a starter,
but he put together some pretty good highlights. Last year. Um, you
know, obviously Smith's played better, but then he had he came back in
the championship. He excuse me, he led the team back to a victory.
And this year he puts together probably one of the best, if not
the best season in all football history of of you know, I think he
had twenty five or twenty five total touchdowns, you know, fifth or six
in the league, and rushing like Andy said, this playoff run you threw,
you accounted for nine touchdowns in two games, Like that's uber impressive.
And then they go back to back. I mean, at this point,
Alex has most likely one goal and that's to get back to the NFL.
And I mean every snap for him is in probably his mind crucial, you
know, like every snap is a high is a highlight reel, or attempting
to be put on the highlight reel would be a better verbage for it,
but just stuff because we're seeing that we saw that with the XFL as well,
where how do you bou what's that? Right? How do you go
out there? Where we saw like AJ McCarron felt to be more calm during
the season, Just okay, this is where I'm at right now. I'm
accepted that where you got that with Benda Nuici, Like you said, every
single player like I gotta go out here, I gotta win every single game
on my back, and it just you end up getting different performances. And
I don't know if you got like the Scooby riots last year and where he's
like, I don't even know if I want to do this football thing anymore.
Like you feel a little bit more free where you get it just feels
like a lot heavier weight on some of these guys. Andy. Does that
make any sense? No, it does. And that's the thing. You
have to set your own expectations the goals going into these leagues. You can't
just be a loof. You need to know, okay, am I going
into the league or do I want to stay here and be comfortable. That's
and I guess for some players maybe that is trying to rekindle their love of
the game and maybe trying to find out if they really want to be there.
Like again, I go back, I've used them as an example again,
But like t J. Barnes, the defensive tackle for the Arlington Renigades,
was pretty sure he was not gonna play again, and then they gave
him a call because he plays really well with the championship ring. And now
he's like, all right, I'm good, I don't I don't need to
do that anymore. Sometimes sometimes just having an answer for a player really kind
of gives them some sort of closure and solitude so that they don't have to
continue asking that question the rest of their lives. Because a lot of players
don't get that chance. They just say, well, I guess I'm not
sure I could have done this. You know I could have. Every player
doesn't really want to become like Uncle Rico, you know, like I could
throw one ball over the mountains, and you don't really want to have that
for every player. I think I'm not saying every player does, but I'm
sure there's some sort of mental gymnastics you have to work through. So and
you know, it's interesting to bring up Scooby, right, I do wonder
maybe was this, you know, his last rodeo, because now he's going
back to back championships. He's been on a great team. Will it ever
get this good again? You know, well every better than this. I
mean, as a Stalis fan, you are spoiled. You've lost three games
in two years. As as a football team at any level, I don't
care what level it is. That's impressive. That's hard to do. And
for players that are on that team, with the staff there and the team,
you have to think about like, is this my chance to jump?
Is this my chance to go on to something else? Because that is some
excellent resume work. But at some point the train does have to stop,
you know, unless you know. Other USFL teams did improve this year.
I mean the North was a mess, but Michigan technically did improve. The
Mallers did improve. The South. I mean I thought the Breakers were formidable.
They just didn't have anything o their way and they got absolutely she lacked
in the Self Division championship game. But I mean Houston improved, Memphis was
better. You know, there will be teams that will make moves, and
these teams are always shifting the rosters, the coaches are changing. Somebody's going
to step up next year. So for Birmingham, I guess for the players
and the coaches, you have to ask yourself, all right, is this
the end goal or is there something greater? But I don't think I wouldn't
try to go into it thinking like, well, you know, I'll hang
around another offseason and what they will just be shooting on all cylinders again next
year. I mean this, I don't think that's the case. Yeah.
We talked with John Vogel kind of on our championship game pregame show, like
I don't know. To me, the year two the three jump is going
to be interesting. Fund if you're on a crappy team, if maybe you're
on the fence and you don't know if you want to go back, or
if you're coaches you're not sure. Some comments here and then I got a
couple of notes at Denzel checking in what's up guys, Mallers have bad game
plan? Talking to the Maller's offensive line as well. Jacob sent me an
email. Jacob's cataloged every excellent and usl TV rating here coming up. I
think we'll do something with this week. Sads had only six drives and the
Millers didn't do anything when they had the ball. Made it kind of boring
Mike checking in game was let down, especially when one team can't even score
a TD and thought they could be the Suns kicking field goals. That's kind
of my question here, and I have we have some things like Magoo or
p J. Walker, maybe we can get to at the end. But
the other the big story to me was this like kind of Ray Horton meltdown
with the referees kind of going into the into the halftime and then into the
second half. I know there was like the movement on the end zone the
TD one that the stallions that Ray was yelling at. I thought they had
a TimeClock violation as well. I know there's always weird like what's got to
hit zero? And then the RAF looks. But then Pat Ray Horten like
really kind of had this meltdown going in where they had the punt formation there
wasn't enough guys, and then even the broadcasters were noting like it seems like
he's overwhelmed with this in the second half and not really even paying attention to
the game. Pat, what did you make of kind of the downfall here
of the Pittsburgh head coach. I mean, I wouldn't call it a downfall.
He is the first time head coach, so like dealing with that,
it's a different beast when you're when you're the guy, you know, like
when you're at your position coach kind of easier to be like just focus on
us. But when you say, have that mantra as the head coach,
Um, you know, focusing on us is all twenty two guys and got
guys on the field and whatnot. Um. I mean I understand that because
you know I was when I was rewatching the game, I was kind of
confused myself and usually keep the games on silent, so I had to like
go back and you know and uh kind of speed it all up. I
mean, I hope that's a growing pain. Um. I would like to
believe he handled it probably way better than Kirby Wilson would have personally. But
in the end, I mean, we could talk talk about formations, and
we could talk about questionable calls and stuff like that, but I mean,
you still got to put the ball in the end zone and that was like
the biggest bug of Andy. What do you make of that? I think
that's like, I think a connection issue, sir. Yeah, I think
the offensive game plan was just not good enough for the Mallers. They obviously,
I know they haven't had a lot going for them as far as like
that go to guy, I think it was interesting talking about one of your
one of the people on your show the previous show is talking about Bailey Gaither
and how his snap percentage was really low and he wasn't being utilized at all
despite him being a viable weapon last year. I just I don't really get
some of the offensive distribution for some of their playmakers. Try Williams is trying
his damness. I mean, he's running for his life out there, and
he had a couple of really good scrambles. But I just think that the
game plan of saying, well, you know, we'll chip away here and
there by you know, kicking field goals, that's not gonna work. You
just saw this team put up, you know, forty plus points in the
South Championship game. You think they're gonna just be able to hold him the
field goals the entire game. You're out of your mind. I just I
don't really like that they settled so much and to try and trust your kicker
to make all of his field goals. I mean, he missed one in
the second half that would have given them put him up to fifteen points,
and instead, you know, they're sitting at twelve still. It's just at
some point you just gotta put your foot on the gas pedal and just say,
look, we're gonna go for it, and we need to start doing
something because this is not going to be sustainable for Ray Horden. I mean,
like, I think his job this year was to calm the locker room
after last year's just complete debacle with Kirby Wilson, and he did that.
You know, he had I think I'm not sure if his personal goal,
but I think he accomplished that goal in that he was able to stabilize everything
after just the chaos that they went through last year. So in that rigard,
he did. But yeah, in terms of his management is clock management.
In terms of his ability to kind of game manage in the second half,
he got schooled by Skip Holtz. Holtz has been there, done that,
and holds to me. I mean, he's kind of the class of
the league at this point. I mean, he's really shown himself to just
be able to push all the right buttons. He's dealt with injuries, he's
dealt with egos. He's dealt with, you know, extenuating circumstances in different
games. You know, they they haven't been invincible themselves, but they always
seem to have the right answer to these these problems that arise in these games.
You know, last year's championship game and Jay R. Smith gets hurt
bringing Magoo. You're dealing with all these random you know, quarterbacks from the
stars. Okay, now you have to keep adjusting to them. And this
year, I mean, he's playing against an outstanding defense. And that's honestly,
like I said, Magoo just did his magic again. He played against
an outstanding defatil unit. That's the thing that's kind of shouldn't be lost on
people like the Muller's defense legit man like that. That was not an easy
performance. So for the Malers, you know, it is disappointing, But
I think it's just more of their offensive script scripting and then um just not
really being able to be aggressive enough. I think they went in with the
wrong game plan in my opinion. Yeah, I just don't get like a
lot a couple of things I don't get. Yeah, you're going in against
this science. We see this a lot in the NFL as well, you
know whoever is playing the Chiefs, and like, we're just gonna kind of
get some field goals here. It's like you're never You're never gonna beat when
Agoose throwing four touchdowns, You're never gonna you know. And I hate the
trading field goals for touchdowns or whatever, but very true. I wonder a
world that exists where Skipholds isn't with Birmingham and the USFL, right, And
I don't know if it's Skip is the greatest coach in the world, or
they just assembled the best team, or you know, the headquarters and he's
got more of a cushy gig there and they're kind of it's their home thing.
And I don't know all of that, but it's really worked out well
because I do think is as kind of tiresome as it is to have this
like dynasty of a you know what with our young call it here were two
seasons and but you need to have some you know factor kind of carry over
there. Let's bring Pat back in here. Pat was talking about kind of
the offense and Ray Horton and being able to being unable to capitalize and you
go for there, we go bad are you there? No? All right?
Andy thoughts on thoughts on Skiven Burman. I don't know Pats have a
connection issues. Pat's Pat's getting wooed by the rest stop amenities. Might you
know he's like thinking about thinking about all the great things in the in the
store. But no, you know, well, I wanted to ask.
I would ask ary to young Hud say, well, tell you what you
go ask the Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans if you think they're in the middle of
a dynostaur CFL fans, if you think the Winnipeg Blue Bombers under the dynasty,
because all I heard about before the great pick up last year was oh,
the three peak could happen, and this will be that this will be
the dynasty, not the repeat the three feet that they were about to embark
on that would be considered the actual start of the dynasty. Back in my
estimation, at any time that I've watched football in any way, shape or
form or any sport, back to back does not mean dynasty, and so
I don't really understand where that terminology is coming from. For just back to
back champions if they win three in a row, great awesome, Okay,
I get it. But it has to be multiple years of winning championships and
not just two in order to consider yourself a dynasty. I mean, that's
back to back to special. They could be wrong. That's amazing. That's
a great accomplishment. That's very difficult to do in any sport for any reason
whatsoever. But you have to be able to accumulate, like, Okay,
look at the Chiefs. I mean, the Chiefs I think are not considered
to be in a dynasty right now. They've been to three Sea Bowls and
they've won two. Now, they've been to a bunch of AACA championship games,
but I haven't heard anyone tossed around the word dynasy yet until they win
three. That's the golden rules. So I just I find I find RJ's
terminology to be humorous, considering that I've never heard that for any other sport
at any point. Yeah, a couple other notes here about the game,
and then I have some more like the actual championship kind of whatever. We
talked about that fumble recovery of the long you know, handing the ball off
forward, because again you're like Pittsburgh cannot score, they cannot score. Attention
so you're finally you're like, oh my god, okay, okay, let's
defense scoring, defense scoring. And then obviously it was called back to like
the twenty five or I think it was like the thirty thing. Okay,
then they don't score again here, like then we still kick a field goal,
that kind of thing. It feels like they kept talking, you know,
given Jared a lot of a lot of praise kind of for being aggressive
here on like third and long and really standing a lot of pressure. It
felt like McGoo, like I said, kind of at the top, a
little bit like playing with kids toys out here, and so I like to
see him struggle a little bit. I don't like anyone where It's like it
felt like he was kind of a level above a lot of the players just
in terms of seeing the game or kind of existing. Last night, we
had to miss oh yeah, then Gaither had the big drop with like seven
and a half minutes left, a big miss on that where he wasn't looking.
I really felt like it was over at that point, and it would.
I mean they knelt down and I mean it was going two and a
half and they got the first down and then you're like, I mean this
this went to batter Were you surprised? Like jack at one point was like
when now, remember you know in the USFL, we can still go for
one, two or three points, and like this is still kind of I'm
like, I haven't seen more than three teams go from two points the entire
season. Like, but it just it felt like the game wasn't a game
after about eight minutes left. I mean, I'm glad that Jackie's breaking up
the roles because I think it's easy to forget about because nobody does them.
I mean, nobody goes for those conversion points because they don't have to,
you see. Like I think that's what's so, in my opinion, so
intriguing about the XFL rules because you can actually be forced into doing it.
You've forced the teams to go for a one, two or three point conversion
and then you start playing with analytics. If you're giving teams the choice to
just get pat they're gonna do it every single time, and they're not really
changing the game at that point. You're just giving people the same tried and
true traditions and you're not going to really do anything different. So yeah,
I think that's funny that, like with the other malers. Really a team
that would go for two or three willingly like, is that really the team
even in Birmingham. Birmingham doesn't do it. Then they score all the time
and they say no, they're gonna take They're gonna take the point. That's
it. Every team is going to do the same thing. I find it
extra hilarious because listen, I like the place kickers this year were much better
than last year. Like, the place kicking across the board was just a
million times better. There was no controversy with you know, chips in the
football or put trotting punders out there trying to kick a field goal. Uh
you know, m Jeff Fisher, and there's no any of that going on.
It was much better across board. Still, there were a fair number
of pats that were missed from teams. So it's still funny to me that
that's the default option, even though they're playing from as far back because they
would be in the NFL, which means you're going to have some miss pats
and so I, you know, I wish there was more incentive for these
teams to go for two and three. They're not going to do it unless
they're absolutely forced to, So I do find that interesting. But yeah,
the other point um that you brought up about Bailey Gaither dropping that pass,
it's not not eerily reminiscent to Chris Blair dropping that pass for the DC Defenders
in the championship game for XFL with the same and it had that same feeling
of like, oh, this is over. Like as soon as he dropped
it, the error got sucked out of the building and that was that was
it. It's kind of it's remarkable how similar that was. Well, and
it was like Gaither wasn't he wasn't even expecting it, like he kind of
he barely They was like, wow, he didn't even didn't even see it.
I mean he kind of looked like he saw it turned over his shoulder
that at the end. But it was kind of weird. The thing with
these with these two and three point conversions, like you said, where if
you don't give them, the default of kicking with it is you know,
like you look at the Muellers, we can barely score touchdowns, right,
so we you know, to go for that. It was like the Elks
here this last week when they or plan I think it was the Red Blax
game on Thursday. It doesn't feel like it was that long ago where they
finally got a TV and then Chris Jones is like, we're going for two.
I'm like, you guys score like three touchdowns the entire season, Like
we're really going for the two point confert here, Like I would take the
points to move on. But again, you're rewarding. It's not being lazy,
but you're rewarding, like, Okay, you're gonna kick it. The
idea with the XFL and you have to you're going for it whether it's one,
two or three is you're still going for that play, right. Yeah,
it has to be a mentality thing. I mean, I go back
to when I was in college and i'd watch Chip Kelly and his offense operate
with Oregon. The gimmick with organ was that they'd always score a touchdown and
then they'd go for two on the first touchdown, and more often than not,
they would get it on the we call it the swinging gate. So
it'd be like kind of like a quarterback RPO or like the putter doing a
sort of run sweep option and they would go up eate nothing, and it
was kind of sending a message the other team like, you better score touchdowns
today and keep up with us, otherwise we're going to run away with this
game. And they, more often than I would score forty fifty points and
go on to dominate. So it's almost like a mentality thing that they do
it from that standpoint. I mean for a team like Seattle, right,
the Seattle Sea Dragons, I mean, June Jones is a mad band and
just just says I want to go for three because that's what analytics says,
and he probably thinks he can get three every single time. You know,
again, it's your mantras, your mentality is an offensive play caller. With
USVL teams, they don't think that way. That's that's not their gig there,
for lack of a better term, more conservative when it comes to that
approach, and they just want to be able to get any sort of points
whatsoever. But there's no that level of aggression is not something that I think
permeates in any of the teams. The only thing that it might work with
is maybe the Stars. The Stars are the only team I would think that
would try and take the advantage of that with bart Andrews' offense in the air
rate, But on that. I don't see that being the case for a
lot of these teams. Yeah, and Jane Jones here running into trouble over
the weekend, so I don't know. I know the report had come out
that he had been on some Hawaiian radio saying that he was angling for the
XFL Las Vegas Vipers head coaching job, and then obviously getting suspected DUI arrest
and posting bail Friday night. So we'll see. I don't know what that
means for June Jones. I know that, you know, when you're a
position, like you know, you're in sports, here's one of the head
coaching positions. I don't know how leagues look at that. We'll kind of
see how the XFL wants to handle that be at June might be out.
The thing like with that with June going for three was yeah, I'm sure
the analytics are telling him go for three, but like your team is not
good enough to go, like, you know, this is like an XFL
team, no offense, like this isn't you know, we're not running you
know, Mahomes and Kelsey out there like we're running d Nuji and you know
whatever. A couple of other things and then we have some questions. We
have a lot of stiff to get you six sacks by Birmingham. I thought
that was great. Good to see Willie Yarberry with the Stallions kind of get
the game ceiling fumble recovery there. I attract Willie all the way back.
I was he with the Generals back in the Spring League, and I remember,
I think it was the first game. We're sitting there watching this San
Antonio and I'm like, he had I had a crazy I can't remember if
it was like a block. I think it was like a blocked path.
I mean, this was like three years ago. But good to see what
kind of Willie still. I don't know. He's someone I've always tracked on
here. The other interesting things to me was crowd. What do we make
of the crowd Andy. I'm told that it was a pro Muller's crowd.
I suppose based on the audio that was coming through my DV speakers that would
indicate that was the case. I don't know if that means that there's going
to be more Muller's fans and supporting the Cannon market. I don't know what
that means, but I mean it didn't seem like there were nearly as many
Stallions fans or as many fans period as there were last year for the championship
games. So for me, I mean the crowd was I think it was
just cannon fatigue at that point. I mean, you've gone to what twelve
straight weeks of going to games in that market. That's a lot. I
mean last year, the novelty of having it'd be the championship game in the
playoffs was nice because it was a field that you didn't see very often except
for preseason the Hall of Fame game. And now all of a sudden,
here you are and you're trying to play. You're trying to play all throughout
the season to trying to encourage your market. That you have two teams in
there and not really getting much support for either, and even though one of
them is in the championship game, you still don't really draw that much support
from the Pittsburgh market. I mean it just the energy, Like I'm sorry,
but like I had to go back and watch the highlights for the XFL
championship game, the energy was just different. It was different for both both
games, just a lot more louder, a lot more electric. I know
it was the Almo Dome, so it was obviously encapsulated sound, but they
just sounded more. You know, fans are sunding more engaged in the x
FUL Championship game that it did in the USFL game, and that just stood
out to me. As far as the TV product went, if it was
in Birmingham, I think it would have been fine, like that would have
been fun. But as far as the can market, I think it was
just fatigue from overall just having so many weeks straight of football in that stadium.
I think you all right, it was like raining before. You know,
it's supposed to be like funder Starman's round kickoff and you have those forecasts.
I mean definitely down. I didn't see any any attendance figures being like
touted or a lot of you know, some of the normals, you know,
kind of posting about that. I thought it was really beautiful. You
had the sunset going. I think it was when the Stallions were driving over
the one corner. I thought, man, like this is great. Like
they reuse a lot of the obviously the championship game last year highlights, and
I mean anytime the Stars since Tallion's played right. We heard a million times
like did you know these teams played in the champion two game last year?
But they use that footage a lot. You know, this to me looked
beautiful and I would see that, but it certainly wished there would have been
more crowd. I think people were invested in it though, like he said,
it felt like to me, it felt like the energy was there.
But what was interesting to me was so brock Heward a friend of the show
here, right, He's been on and we've been trying to work him coming
on this season, and you know, he did the kind of kickoff,
and he took a bunch of weeks off and then then we've got Mariners and
Seahawks to hear, you know, training camps and kind of everything. But
I was under the presumption that he was going to be at the championship game,
because he had told me earlier in the season like, Hey, I'm
not going to be doing this for you know, I'm taking some weeks off
and then I'll be back. We'll do the playoffs in championship he was traveling
the week before. I couldn't do that, and I expect I mean,
they had no sideline reporter, right, they had the woman like uh,
it was it was a weird name like Zoa. It wasn't Zoah, but
it was. They had a lady. They had a lady doing like sideline
reporting that was just a voiceover that was basically just they you know, they'd
show her face kind of lower bug. But I thought that that was odd
that for the Fox Championship game. I mean it was on right, it
was on NBC. I watched on fubo it. Yeah, that's the thing.
It was the Mbassy broadcasters. So okay, so then you wouldn't have
Brock on, so I didn't know. I thought it was weird that you
wouldn't have you wouldn't have anyone on that. I don't know. It was
weird to me then. So that so I'm answering my own question with why
Brock wasn't there, But I don't know why there wasn't an actual sideline reporter
there. Well, I just think that set up a brawl is just so
interesting. The fact that it wasn't on Fox, the you know, the
company that owns the league itself, it's not on the championship game. I
find that to be really interesting because I wonder if they're trying to do this
kind of like dual network showcase like they do with the Super Bowl, right
where they put it on CBS or they put it on Fox, or they
put it on NBC in a rotation, right, Are they trying to do
that too? I don't know what. I'm not really sure what the get
of that was. And look, I like the NBC broadcasters just fine.
You know, Ja's Garrett's fine, Jack Allensworth is fine. But I don't
know if that's necessarily what you want for your championship game material no offense.
I mean current Menafee and Joel clad I think are the guys that you would
you'd want to have in that position, just like last year. Those are
your kind of like you're a team in a lot of ways. And so
I'm a little I'm just kind of not sure what Fox is trying to get
done here in terms of just putting it on NBC. And as we've seen
also sometimes with the ratings, somehow NBC ends up drawing better than Fox a
lot of the time, which is really the most ironic part. They get
more of the viewership that way, so maybe it's trying to get a ratings
boost that way. I'm not sure the whole relationship with NBC is really interesting
going forward because they're gonna have to figure out, ay, you know,
obviously if it's going to continue afterwards, or what kind of shares that NBC
has in this league, if they have any, because again it's owned by
Fox, and what their plan is as far as distributing all these all these
games outside of other networks like FS one or USA Network all those kinds of
things. It's I'm just I'm not sure if I really understand what the what
NBC has involved in is here besides just besides getting a ratings boost, because
I would think that Fox would try to prioritize having those biggest games on their
network again well or I don't know why, you know, maybe you try
try to do a simulcast there. I'd have to look back and see what
Fox was airing their Saturday night. But yeah, it's weird where you get
NBC draws the higher rating has the weaker. I don't love Jack and I
know he gets a lot of like I didn't know Chris Collinsworth was calling this
game, but it's a weird, like it's someone doing that Chris collins Worth
impression like it's a really weird I don't know, and it seems I'm nature
like his voice coming out of his body, like it's just an octave too
high, like I don't I don't love it. Well, that's the thing,
Like I think Jack doesn't have his voice yet. In my opinion,
I don't think he knows exactly what his niche is, or what his stick
or what, like his entire mantra is supposed to be on a broadcast.
Chris is you know, one of one, and you know who he is.
He's he is very much in his own category. You know, his
father has done this for decades and knows what to expect of himself and what
to do, and during a game, Jack is still figuring this out.
I still think he was better off as a sideline reporter for NBC, you
know, doing his his pregame action and leading up into the games on Sunday
Night Football. As far as broadcasting goes, I mean, he's still greed
and he needs more experience, and so I don't think that putting him in
that role as the Championship game play by play isn't necessarily the best move for
Fox in the USFL. I would have preferred to have Menafee and Joel Klatt
because I believe that they are most equipped for that. Overall, they are
again as I mentioned, they are the A team. They are the ones
that have the most experienced or even Kevin Coogler Kevin Cooler would have been great
too. I mean, he's obviously had a lot of experience as well,
done multiple games for Fox. I'm maybe they just weren't available. I don't
know what the scheduling was, Like you said, maybe brock Heard wasn't available
and they decided to go switch just say, you know what, none of
the Fox guys are available, let's just go to NBC instead. We'll never
know, but that that's that to me just seemed an odd fitting for that
sort of a game that didn't seem to have almost like it just for some
reason at the end of the game, when they were all running on and
shaking hands, it didn't feel as important as it should have. Does that
make sense. It didn't feel like there was as much gravitas, which why
and between what was happening on the field and what was their presentation, Like
there wasn't that immediacy or that kind of like this is really important that we
finished our second season. It just kind of like, oh, yeah,
we got through a second season, austome. Well, anyways, we'll see
you next year. I guess maybe they expect that, but to me as
a if you're a casual viewer, you want to be given a reason.
Again, why is this important? We have some comments here. I'm trying
to think, Um, James says Fox was here in baseball because I was
trying to look back, I'm like, what the heck, what's going on?
Mike says, yeah, Fox Air the regional MLB. Other networks here
runs US and L and NBC was illest rated out of vaud the network Saturday
night. I was gonna say that as well. So pre lambs have come
out obviously with the fourth of July and everything, we will probably get final
ratings on Wednesday. It was a one point oh four four million, So
the top of the kind of whatever the prelimbs are going to be that they
generally go up. So I would imagine, you know, one point one,
one point two. I think I had kind of predicted one two,
one three xfl A drew one four back with all of that. Uh,
the other one was, oh, Gregory here was saying, I like said
yeah, because they like they want to alternate, like they at some point
they said, like, I guess this was part of the plan to get
what what what caused that plan? We don't know, Andy, did you
have a comment on that? I mean, okay, if it's buy it,
that's great. I just for me again, it's just in terms of
like the ownership of having that that product in your backyard and sort of continuing
to promote that product yourself. I get that they're trying to do the rotation
of the championship game like again with the Super Bowl, but who knows,
I mean, is NBC going to continue to be involved going forward? We
don't know. There's that there's that sort of term limit with them in terms
of their buying with the broadcast rights, and I don't know how much longer
they're going to keep going on and after that and say, for example,
if they just think, you know what, this isn't really worth our time,
well then what is Fox going to do after that? Are they going
to just try and put all their games on on their network and USA network
and FS one or do they find another broadcast partner? NBC is so interesting
in terms of what their involvement is because again, they're more niche, you
know, they're more niche in terms of what they products they put on.
They don't have baseball, they don't have basketball, they don't have hockey anymore.
They only have NFL Football. As far as the big you know,
the big ones, they have Premier League, which is getting more popular.
They have on Peacock, but they don't really have you know, the MLS
deals through Apple TV. So NBC has always been kind of more in terms
of like addressing the niche audience as opposed to addressing the wider audience, even
though they get better numbers on their network. So I'm not sure what they're
playing in their sporting department really is going forward Again, They're they're handing out
contracts left and rights, people in the in the in the football crew,
giving money. Everybody else well ESPN just you know, keeps cutting bait.
So that that is really the biggest question on my mind is also the shifting
landscape of the sports personalities and where are they all going in these networks,
because we're seeing that it's drastically altering just in the past few months alone,
where all these people are. You know, some of these people going to
Fox because they were cut by ESPN are going to NBC because they were let
go by ESPN and ABC. So it's going to be very interesting to see
where all the talent flows to going forward, and what is priorities given to
all these leagues and where they want to be present presented going forward. So
NBC, I'm not going to say they're a lynchpin in this whole thing,
but they are an important component to that's moving forward as far as whose product
they're presenting and how they're presenting it. Yeah, dang here, I was
thinking this as well. NBC. There had been a rumor I saw every
weekend too, Yeah, NBC wanting to do Sunday night basketball as well.
Kind of it's ready to do that. So maybe trying to dip their because
it's weird with these layoffs, like and I know it's not all connected,
but seeing it was whatever the basketball player just signed, like the five year
or two hundred million dollars deal or whatever like Saturday night and then we're like
laying off these guys and you're like, there's clearly enough money in this space.
I mean, I know, it's different forms and how would help flows,
but it is hard to have, like you know, Matt Hasselback getting
let go from ESPN, but yet like Deshaun Watson's getting you know, and
I know it's all different, it's not not all all the money is coming
from the same pot, but it is interesting there. I had a couple
of comments here, um fooseball fan, they had flyers for twenty four twenty
four dollars down payment on next season and next year's season tickets. I guess
they're committed to season three. That's interesting because we had Moose on the was
it the the media day when we were kind of doing our stream talking,
I'm like, we're doing the hubs but we don't really know yet, and
they're selling the Canton tickets but we don't really know yet, Like what are
you make it? I think we might have a longer than discutching this week
about you know, the USBL's future. But while we're on here today,
like it's kind of weird, you know, we're you going to figure this
out now? Well, obviously they are baffled by their ratings drop, which
a lot of people would take. Umbradge with you on terms of that wording,
but that is something they have to address moving forward. Where are the
ratings going to come from? And who's going to indulge in this product?
And it's just so weird to have them try to get people to buy into
some of these ticket packages when we have no idea where they're going to play
next year. Let's be fair, we have no idea who's going to play
where and what and when I know it seems like the Memphis market is there,
the Detroit market is there, the Birmingham market is there. The can
one is just kind of a mystery. We don't know who's going to play
there. They could change the names of the teams in the cities tomorrow.
They could just say, you know what, we're done with the New Jersey
Generals. We're just going to make them the you know, Nova Scotia Pirates
or something. I don't know. They're going to just change their name in
their city completely, in just or a country and just say forget it,
We're done with this. I joke, of course, but but they really
seem to treat these properties. It's just sort of interchangeable parts. Same thing
happened with the bandits right, Tampa Bay just got transformed into Memphis overnight.
That was it, end of story. They could do the same thing to
the Generals. I don't think they're going to do it to the Mallers now
because they just went on a championship run, so I think they're probably just
gonna have to go all in on Pittsburgh. I think the Generals are your
next team that are probably eligible to be changed, which again is so weird
because that brand was there in the TSL. It's one of the most recognized
brands in the USFL and the old regime, so I don't really see a
lot of benefit the changing it. But also I don't know if the New
Jersey demographics are engaged in it either. That's the thing We've talked about that
with Mike Mitchell too. Is that market really involved with this team. I
couldn't tell you, but it doesn't seem like there's an overwhelming demand from people
I've talked to, So it's just weird. I don't really think that there's
a lot of answers, and we're not going to get any answers until last
minute again like we did last year, and I don't think we'll know any
not even this calendar year. I think we really literally won't know until we
turned into twenty twenty four, and that's just gonna be another weird offseason of
mystery, speculation and no notes from the league until then. It's so weird,
Like, and We've talked about this a lot on the XFL stuff,
and I'm curious what media reception, you know, Danny and DJ and everyone
was expecting with the XFL right going into the season and then kind of seeing
what they got, right, like, Okay, who's covering us? Okay,
well, you know I saw you know, Danny was very complimentary to
the media kind of at the championship game. Okay, I really appreciate you
guys kind of being with us all season. You know, it's hard.
It was hard for like the New Jersey and the New York Guardians to get
media coverage in twenty twenty playing in New York. Like I think the New
Jersey General's playing in Canton, Ohio. The residence of that in the Greater
was at the Greater Try State whatever they call like that media market, Like
I think it is like close to zero. And so it is weird to
think, like you're going to get rid of the most recognizable and Trump and
all of that. But I don't know, I don't know. I don't
know who's hurt about that. You know, who's who's getting their feelings hurt.
It's so weird. And I remember having and we had on ray uh
what the ray from the al dot com? What was his name? Ray?
Uh? Oh? God are Birmingham or Roy Roy Roy whatever his name
was, and um, you know we're talking like, hey, I think,
you know, I think the Birmingham's downs could get like fifteen to seventeen
thousand in the game, and I think the other teams could probably get you
know, seventy eight that whatever the numbers were, and then you know the
non Birmingham teams were playing and it's like, you know, one hundred fans.
I just I don't think anyone anticipated like not calling the team the X
team, right like Canton. You could go enjoy these games all the time,
but just because one of the teams isn't called the Canton whatever, Like
why I don't have any interest now, Like it's just it's so weird to
me, but I guess that's human nature. Like I'm I watched watching Commander's
football every Sunday, and I don't live in DC and have never made to
a Commander's Game live. But I think I am maybe the outlier here where
I think people for whatever reason can't can't get a connection that. I think
that maybe usfl overestimated that or underestimated how big of a deal that was.
I think so too. And just you know, again, if you have
any confidence in what the pageantry or the camaraderie of these leagues or these teams
identities are going to be, then you have to think that you're going to
get as much mileage out of that as possible. Just on the branding alone,
well, we've seen the limit with that. I've seen the limit with
how far that can you really take you as far as your media exposure,
as far as your exposure to other markets. Look again, I think it
just boils down to people who actually who chooses to willingly engage themselves in this
products because they actually believe in it. And let's be frank, a lot
of people don't because they see it as another league that's going to go away,
or they see it as lesser football, or they see it as some
product that's just very either bush league or is mediocre in a lot of ways.
And I don't necessarily agree with all that, but I do think that
you have to be able to convince people that this is going to be something
that's worth their time and investment in, because otherwise, as I said,
maybe just an hour ago I said it, I think in our group chat,
I was like, you know, people are going to sit on their
ivory thrones and tell their meet the fools, and they know that they are
going to think that they know better and that this is not going to last
or this is not really worth their time. You have to convince people that's
not the case, and that's going to be hard work for all of these
leagues. It's convincing people that this is a viable product that's worth investing in.
And you can't just rust on your laurels and say, well, we're
here. So people are going to engage in it, well, some people
are. There's a base level line, But again, are you more concerned
with the floor as far as how many people are you going to get or
are you more concerned about the ceiling? Can you get more people involved and
how many people more people can you get involved in this? Otherwise I mean
you're gonna have the same results as you did and maybe even slightly declining numbers
like the USFFL did this past season, if you just continue to have the
status quo, Well that's the thing is, you know, And we have
a couple of comments here about the moose being baffled and kind of all of
us have. Yeah, Greg said it's roy S Johnson. I put that
in, but yeah, roy S Johnson. I was like, I've had
a lot of guests on the show in the last three years. I appreciate
it, right, But if you're I thought when Greg Parks was on we
did our post XFL championship game, the recap, the kind of the TV
radius and all of that. Greg had all the numbers. That was really
interesting. And this is not you know, trying to be a home or
whatever. If you're the XFL next year, I think there's very easy Like
these are really easy things that we can do, you know, at pay
more than the market, right, better TV slots, better TV windows,
more consistent, Like, these are things that we can do if you're the
USFL right now, save four, Okay, we're going to add a hub.
It's like we were Saturday and Sunday every year we had twenty six network
broadcast games. We had more consistent time slots. We really marketed, We
ran a lot of ads. We you know, we're we tried to be
more invested in the communities, and we had guys in Birmingham and doing stuff,
and Memphis doing stuff in Michigan, like you know. Besides, you
know, and that's what they always say. Okay, what they're gonna add,
you add a city, adds city whatever like, but you know,
just just having better time slots. This year, eight with the XFL on
Network TV compared to twenty six with the USFL pretty equal ratings. And that
shouldn't be the case. If you're on a third of the broadcast windows on
network TV that the XFL was in the USFLU, you should not have equal
ratiings and the x I think the USFL massively underperformed this year. Like you
said, we had the comment, you know that the Moose baffling Mike here
says, and Moose was mipped by the XFL beating the USFL the raids for
the regular season. He's really going to be miffed when he sees USL championship
lost with the XFL championship. I mean, it's I think that it's not
surprising to me. And that's where I posted on Friday. Anybody that's listened
or read anything that you and Evan and Pat and Mike Mitchell and Sam and
Matt Lyons and everyone said like, you should not be surprised at US and
LTV ratings are down this year. But what do you make Handy. I
mean, again, I think part of it is fatigue, right, people
that have just said, you know what, I'm good on football for a
while. I'm not going to engage in this until the actual season starts,
the NFL season starts, I should say. So that's part of it.
And the other part of it is last year. I mean, the USFL
was the only game in town, right, that was it? And same
with the XFL in twenty twenty, that was the only game in town.
Same with the AF in twenty nineteen. You know, I have to keep
bringing that up with like that's something that was standing alone by itself. A
yeah, recipees, right, But I think that that that's part of that's
whole, that's the whole part of this thing. Right, This is uncharted
territory, This is uncharted waters. There was no dual leaks. It was
it's really been interesting for me kind of doing this like Scott Hanson thing where
like NFL Network Red Zone channel thing where I'm watching multiple games at the same
time, of multiple leaks, I'm watching a CFL game in the USFL game
at the same time, Like that is unfathomable, just not too long ago,
and yet it seems this is where we're headed as far as just having
oodles of content for people to dive into. But at some point you're gonna
have a threshold of people who are just you know, checked out and saying,
I'm I'm good, I don't need any more of this. I'm gonna
wait until I need a break, you know. I need to have summer
off. I need to have this season off. I can't keep doing this.
And so, I mean, that's just that's that's the nature of the
Beasts, and that's going to happen. And again, can you give people
reason to indulge in that product and can you give them a viable way to
invest in it, because otherwise it's just going to be the same thing over
and over again and it's going to be monotonous for a lot of people.
So for the ratings, I mean, Fox did all they could. They
put on all the network games, they promoted, they had a Super Bowl
ad, they did as much as they could to try and promote it,
and it didn't seem to work in terms of the TV ratings. Maybe in
terms of having a few more people show up, you know, obviously being
in home markets helped that, but even then there's just so much more work
to be done and trying to get people to buy in. But it can't
just be based on nostalgia, and it can't be just be based on well,
this worked last year and just worked in the past, it should work
again. The markets changed and after going through the pandemic like we did,
it's clearly changed a lot, and that needs to be taken into account.
You know, say what you want about these leagues, and you know the
CFL or kind of how they interact with their fan base. You have the
XFL here, you know from the beginning, and I remember the first the
first interview Danny did with um who was it. It was right when they
bought the league and she goes, I want to make this league be accessible
to everybody. I want women to be able to do this. You know
a lot of females that watch sports. It's only because you know, my
dad watched it or my husband or whatever. Like I want people to be
able to buy in. Right, you have the Rock and okay, it's
player fifty four and I know that gets old. And we're kind of doing
this thing and you know, this is our league and this is our you
know, all the all the promo everything, this is ours and we're kind
of in this and whatever usfl all through this season, real football comes back.
We're real football. Every week I get the emails, you know,
real football for real fans, you know, real pros. Every week.
I would get the email preview in the games and coming up, and you
have all this stuff. And I've said before it's it's the b d E.
You know, like we're Fox and like we don't need anybody. And
then you come out and you're like, well we can't figure out why our
ratings are down. It's like I because I think you're pretty standoffish all year
and you're like, we don't need anybody, and got you know, dang
it, this is this is kind of what we're doing in this Like,
well, we can't figure out why why no one wants to watch our sport?
Why no one wants to watch the game. It's like, maybe because
you've been really standoffish and you have you know, alienated anybody that that maybe
wasn't you know, only an XFL fan. I was like, Oh,
I'm gonna check this out. Well real football for real fans. Well I
was watching, So what does that make me? Like? Am I an
idiot? Am I had? Dummy? Like it's a weird energy too,
And I know it's marketing ploy and I know what's kind of all that stuff,
but this is this weird energy to roll that all year and then that
moose come out like, oh I just can't figure out I know. So
I don't know. I was. I was very entertained by that headline on
Friday. Not because I want the USFL to help to fail, but I
want there to be some sense of humility there. And I think that the
XFL went through a learning process this year. We're coming in, our expectations
are here, and maybe it's a little bit more here that we're going to
build up. And I think the USFL right now is like we don't know
what are we going to do? I mean, what do we do?
What's our next ploy? Do we rebrand? We have to comment here from
Mike, you know, saying you know, you rebrand another team. You
know, you get rid of Tampa. Now, okay, we get rid
of it, you know, we get rid of the general Like I don't
think you know, Moose said on there, we're not expanding until we have
eight teams in eight markets. So what does that mean. It means you're
gonna you gotta rebrand or bust. I mean, there's no I don't know
what their next step is. Well, I mean, how quickly do they
expect to do that? And do people have patience for that? Does Fox,
you know, the network have patience for that? I know they Again,
they own the league and that's up to them. But at some point
you have to be able to make sound financial decisions and you have to say
to yourself, is this going to really work in the long run? And
are we going to be able to get it out into all these markets?
Is this viable? You know, at some point you have to put your
your money where your mouth is and you have to be able to do it.
And just again, expecting people to show up because there's football going on
doesn't always work as a product. You know, it's it's not it clearly
hasn't been the case in some of these markets where it's just another team that's
not from that place, that home market doesn't really draw the same amount of
attention, and why would they, you know, Like I would be kind
of confused, Like if two NFL, I guess, I mean, I
know it's it's a bigger product, but like if two random NFL or MLB
teams were playing in one of my stadiums in my town, I'd be like,
that's cool. Why I like, it would be a little strange to
me unless there's like championship game or something of that matter, which again didn't
even see the matter for the Can market that much for the playoffs. So
there again, you have to get buy in. You have to get regional
buy in from these markets. Work with that first, and then you can
start to work on all, right, let's care about other teams, let's
care about other entities in the market, and then you can start moving it
out and pushing it forward. But until then, like you have to be
able to buy in, and I Fox just hasn't done that yet or they
I don't know what the hang up is as far as getting all these teams
out to their markets or I know they're doing a slow build, and I
know that's their mantra and all that, but how much longer or how much
more time can you afford to that? And also how many more markets are
you going to move until that actually becomes to fruition. And also if you
get to a market it doesn't go up to standard, or if you don't
like the crowd, are you just gonna move it? Like what if at
some point you just say, you know what, actually we don't need the
Detroit market, there's not enough people. We're just gonna move you. Then
what does that tell your fans? You know, like, at some point
if you're going to keep doing that over and over again. I get that
sometimes nit movement is necessary, but there's only so many times before people will
actually want to sustain themselves or be able to buy into it. Otherwise they're
just gonna see it as a good pole. Why that Memphis was a great
examp, Well that I thought Memphis grew over the season, and I thought
they did a really good job there, and I heard that they were doing
a lot more work in the area there, and I know, having you
know, one of the hubs here and stuff like that, that to me,
Memphis was the success story of the year. I know that Michigan didn't
have as much success at home, and you know, the Showboats were a
little bit sexier of a team with being kind of the new franchise. But
I mean that to me proved we can build here. I don't know if
that stadium is the best, but I don't know if they have any other
options there. But you know, you you positioned it the right way and
you kind of charpet like. I thought that looked good. And I thought
Memphis was one of the you know, one of the not few, but
one of the goods kind of success stories of the year. I think Detroit
needs to work on that. But I think then you deal with the same
stuff spring leagues. Yeah, I mean I read the Bill Shaves of the
World and everyone going to the to the Detroit games, like, wow,
this isn't the NFL. Like it's like yeah, no, no, kid,
and it's not you know, it's not that you know, it's something
to cover this time of year. And I don't know, I'm seeing these
layoffs across the media, you know. I mean Bill Shay a lot,
you know, got laid off from the athletic this year. I'm like,
I would be happy to have kind of any sports to cover at this point
if people are you know, and I don't want ill will of anyone.
And Bill Shay is in front of the show, but like you get that
mentality, you know, people hating on us or you know, us having
critical opinions like we are we are boughten at this point, like we are
invested in wanting this. You know, you get these fly by neither is
coming in and like the Mike Flourios of the world that don't you know iv
Iv emailed and corresponded with like probably half a dozen times, trying to get
him to come on the show, right and like he's nice and he writes
me back, and we've you know, we've had discord about it, and
it's like, you only want to cover this when the ratings are down and
you want to post your article and you want to move on. You don't
want to you don't have either there's no investment here besides, oh, I'll
get a few thousand clicks here because the XFL ratings were down or the you
know, the XFL lost sixty million, or the USFL ratings are down or
whatever, like, that's what that's my problem is. You know, we
are not the issue here, it's the people that are. They're kind of
flying in, poo poo on it and then move on. They had that
was it? The Anthony the Anthony, the guy from he's one of the
guys with the sports visitor or whatever as well where he was he was pooh
pooing on that as well. And I'm like, I don't like this that
you come in and kind of what the heck was his name? I'll figure
it out anyway, any any thoughts. I mean, that's the thing.
It's always going to be a fly by night situation with these smaller leagues and
entities because they don't cover it day by day, and then when there's something
that's controversial, you want clicks and you want exposure and notoriety on your channel.
So you're gonna cover it for that day and that's gonna be it,
and you're gonna be out of there in a moment, just covering the native
points. It's kind of how news cycles works such a sports That's how it
works in news too, where say, oh, well I'll go at this
strategy over here, it's like, well, what's going on with this community.
We never covered this before, what's the story behind this? And no
one really you know, wants to put in the work of the effort to
actually do that because that would require work and effort. So for me,
I think it's a really big deal with the football leagues. I mean,
it's the same thing with the National Arena League and the whole all of any
Empire debacle with Antonio Brown owning the team and that you know, that story
blew up, blew up on so many different channels. Pat mcabebe talks about
it all these like different you know, Twitter kids are talking about it,
and it was just so funny to me and watching our colleague Sam just got
put out fires like he Sam is in this every single day and has been
first of all, talking about the story the entire time. So if you've
been following him, you would have known the lead up to this entire situation.
There's no surprise if you're following r right, We're like, yeah,
we knew this was going to happen, but like everyone else was shocking.
And then say, you know, secondly, it was you know, the
league itself and where it's going and what they're planning to do and moving forward
with all the Arena Football League and all this, and so it was just
kind of funny. But like that's an example, right, that's just one
thing to be picked up because it's so shocking and it's got this one figure
that everyone knows that it's gonna, you know, get picked up and be
passed around. But all those people are going to go away and not actually
care about the National Arena League because that's you know, that's not their beat.
So it's it goes across for all leagues that don't have regular viewership or
regular fans involved, or at least a number of fans that you need in
order to have that you know, constant exposure. We try our best,
obviously, us and our group tried to at best to get that information out
about all these leagues. But you know, there's just there's people like that.
They're just gonna you know, be touch and go. They're gonna be
here for a minute and then they're out and tell the next big thing happens.
We'll start riding up here pretty soon. I got nothing to do day,
Dorothy's out at the lake. I have a wedding tomorrow. But I'm
sure Andy wants to go do other things today on his vacation, but good
viewership here. I appreciate. If anyone else has any questions, we'll probably
start wrapping this up here and get out. Hope Pat makes it home safe.
I guess I know he was having connection issues. I appreciate him and
kind of worked out here and Andy being able to have time and otherwise I'd
probably be sitting here talking about myself for an hour. So I appreciate that
Andie make it this time. I mean, like I said, no,
Pat doing his best year, trying to get back from his crazy, crazy
work schedule. I know that Pat's kind of had this whole recently. I
will say, if you want football tonight, four o'clock Pacific, seven Eastern,
free for anybody, because I wanted to check and see here what win
the game's on. But uh, CFL plus and if you go to CFL
dot com slash or CFL dot c A slash plus, I just google CFL
on the plus signe. But BC at the Argos tonight, I think it's
going to be a really exciting game. BC really hot right now, burning
and all of that. So just that's my little plug. If you want
football today if you have nothing going on, you know, if you're holiday
in or you know, if you're here in the States, and it's kind
of weird, like some people are working to day. I think we have
good viewership right now. I think some people just have the day off.
But today for Pacific, I think that's gonna be a good one. So
it's completely free. They don't even show ads on there because I don't think
they have the rights on that to just google CFL Plus. But it's gonna
be on today, argos BC Lions at Argo's going to be exciting there.
Anyone else has you questions, any anything else from you, because you know,
we could talk all day we figure out something for this week with what
we want to do for the show, but I just don't want to belabor
anything today. Yeah, just do things actually in two different leagues. So
first of all, I agree with you, tonight's matchup for the CFLs gonna
be great. I love that. Argos BC just first of all, the
color scheme, that orange and blue, the cabridge blue and the bright orange.
I love that contrast. Potential great Cup preview depending on what happens.
I love the idea of Vernon Adams junior going against Jack Kelly too, really
outstanding quarterbacks for two leagues. I think you and Mike need to start getting
some like rolling bets going on during the season because you guys are gonna match
up multiple times, and I think you need to continue this trend of,
like you know, jabbing each other during this during the season. But this
is really wonderful to see this matchup early on and undefeated matchup. BC's defense
is awesome. They're playing on the road third time out of four games,
so I wonder if at some point does fatigue set in with them being on
the road so much, or are they just going to continue rolling like they
were in Winnipeg for Arlington. Arlington, there are Goonauts. I think it's
weird that they are not favorite at home. I find that really intriguing.
Again, I think getting the plus three at home, it's really interesting because
they were not favorite against Hamilton and they actually slack them and so that that
trend continues. But I think this is a great matchup, maybe one of
the best early season matchups of the season. I look forward to you and
Jason talking about it on the channel. Again. You guys have been doing
a great job talking about CFL content every week with that, So I'm looking
forward to that game tonight. My last thing before I go is my line,
Yeah, it's not dang it, it's not someone just that cold posted
because it's not so if you're out of the US. If you're in the
US, it's got to be on here. It's on CBS Sports Network.
So I completely like because I'm like, oh, it's showing to hear them.
Of course, like once I click the link, if you're in the
US, get on your YouTube or your foobo, it's gonna be on CBS
Sports Network. Man, I totally bust sell. Okay, well that's good
because that it records for me, so that's better. That's that's much better.
But yeah, so CFL contents could be great. I mean that's the
thing. It's that there's no off season for US. It continues here,
but as far as the USFO goes. My last point is just like just
just be more accepting or if you're going to rebrand, just be more you
know, real with yourselves and really understand that there are other people that need
to be involved, or you don't treat yourselves as some like special entity that
is separate from the rest of the ecosystem and doesn't deserve to have other people
involved because they don't get it. That's not the right messaging. I didn't
like that messaging from day one about real football, real fans. I think
it's it's conceded, and I think it's completely out of out of line with
what the ethos of people's attitudes towards spring football and a football is. I
think it's ridiculous. They need to get out of that mindset and they need
to move away from that brandy because I think it really hurts them this season.
They need to to really look at themselves in the mirror and be realistic
about their expectations next year until they start making some tangible changes with their markets,
their team branding, and where they're going. It's as far as their
talent accumulation, as far as to competing with the XFL and the CFL.
For players like you need to be able to account for that. This is
a different ball game. There's people involved here. You need to step up
your game or else. Who knows. You know. If we're coming up
on year three, it's a really again another big year for them and to
see where Fox goes what they're going forward, but I want to see subtantibal
changes because quite frankly, it just felt like more of the same this year
and they need to really step it up next year. Gregory here has a
question football question before we get out of here. You want to see the
rate the following Stallions players. J Serberger, Davien Davis, Dean Kane,
Michael Pedway, Young Kane based on the Titler game was insane. I mean
that was the one catch he had. There was like three Malers guys draped
on him there and he threw that down. Any thoughts on this, Gregor,
we wants to talk real FOOTBA before we get out here. Well,
Kane was outstanding as far as the specialties player, as far as the wide
receiver goes. I think he was an excellent signing before the season. I
loved him being added to this team, and quite frankly, he was very
crucial considering the people that they lost along the way. And Michael Peway was
great too. I think they're receiving cores. Jase Sternberger, I mean he's
I always thought he was going to stick in the NFL and he just never
did. He just could not get the consistency that he needed to have,
especially when he got drafted by Green Bay. He was He's I think he's
kind of still in that Cell Canella role, where like, you're a good
target, you're big, you have decent hands, but I'm not sure if
you're gonna be able to elevate yourself up to the next level. He may
just be a spring football lifer for the rest of the ref of his career.
But he's good. I think he fits well in this Birmingham offense.
But as far as all the people on that list goes, I'd say Dion
Kane is probably the most important as far as game breaking. You know,
he's he's gonna offer you speed, he's gonna offer you versatility, and his
routes. I think he's somebody that you want to keep around if you can,
But who knows. He might get another call from a NFL team.
But that that receiving corps is pretty good overall. Again, considering all the
injuries they had and the people they lost, I think Birmingham has to be
pretty pleased what they did, especially collecting this personnel well. And I didn't
Dan have three touchdowns in the game like he had that one. It was
like the one corner grab and they went back a review. It was funny
because he gave the ball off to the fan and the stands like, this
is gonna be pretty embarrassing this game. It's like we went and saw years
ago. I don't know if you know the band Sugar Colt. They had
you know, Stuck in America and on bounced off the walls again. They
were in the Van Wilder movie. They had their song in there, but
they were a punk band and they got it hit, they got you know,
they hit. And they were playing at the show Box here in Seattle
and they you know, they play their thing whatever they do, their little
set, and they threw off all their drumsticks and everything and they walk off
the stage and you were all chanting on Core, on coren Core, and
they come back out and they go, so we've we've never actually done an
encore before, we've never headlined their own show. So we're gonna need you
guys to throw back those drumsticks playing am I. So then my buddy Nate
ended up catching it. Then they threw him out again and he caught it
the second time. You know, the end of the show. And that
would have been like Deon Kane handing the football back and being like, I
actually know that that play. I thought that was funny. I go,
that's pretty balls and you'd better rather be pretty sure you got that in then
that yeah in bounds there to hand that ball off to the standds. Yeah
yeah, no, I mean you might want to tagger receipt to that football
next time you hand it out. That was like when Brady handed off or
someone handed was at Brady's five hundred and someone handed off and then they had
to get it from from the face in the stand and weel, no,
it was they tried to auction off. It was like they also had an
auction where it was like, oh, the handoff, well it was the
handoff, but also like they had I think his last touchdown and passed or
his last in that playoff game against the Rams, and thought it was gonna
be his last touchdown pass ever, and someone was trying to auction it off.
And then the value obviously after he was sold it was decreased significantly because
he ended up renouncing he was coming back. So that was a whole that
was a whole ordeal. Yeah, needed to get in on that sand market
when they were auctioning off the sand from the beach where he retired. That
would have been the move. Oh my god. Yeah, until until that
doesn't work either. Well, here we go. I appreciate it. Like
I said, Jason, I will be back tomorrow, same time, nine
am. We'll be do in our CFL recap Big Game tonight. We'll figure
out this week. It's just weird because of the fourth and the holidays and
all that. I have weddings Saturday Sunday or Friday Saturday, so we will
kind of figure out what the show looks like on Friday. But appreciate everyone.
I appreciate Andy, how Pat makes it home safe. Thank you guys.
Like I said, like and subscribe here and that where as my stuff
here. We'll get out of here. Thanks so much. Nine sho