Well, happy Friday, everybody back here another live episode. But I think
that's okay here, good catch up, you know, in an ideal world
where maybe we're sending out game ball press releases, not at five point thirty
in the morning, happy to go live and kind of do all that stuff
as it happens. We are timing this week. We had the rules come
out on CFL Free Agency Day and everything else, so we are here now
you're catch all all the UFL rules, the game ball merchandise, all the
transactions, AJ McCarron, everything else. We have John Lewis here looking snazzy.
I like his mice's studio. It's a shame. And then we have
producer Max here kind of keeping us on track today. I'm Max a part
of the work for us now clocking in and clocking out here. So Max
is here catching up on everything today and then I'll be out of town next
week, so knowing that uniforms and all this cool stuff will be coming out,
but in the meantime we'll do this. John came on back before kind
of ending the season. I think looking forward, I like to do a
welfare check before we get into everything. How are you feeling here, it's
like forty two It wasn't a cool number to you today, like forty days
to countdown? But how are you feeling here heading in? Well, I'm
feeling optimistic about this. I laugh because I think one of the times we
talked about, you know, if the merger talk, it's like, why
would they bother with UFL? Like what kind of cachet does the UFL have?
I mean, we all remember the old one, but I'm looking forward
to it. It seems like as you guys know, you know, it's
like there's this a trickle of information and then that turns into like someone open
a fire hydrant. So it's been it'll be interesting to see like what happens
within the next would you say forty two days or so? But no,
I'm I'm cautiously optimistic. I mean, I'm old. I remember the original
uf USFL. So if we can just you know, we've got two or
three seasons here so far, so I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm staying
positive on this. Yeah, I think, and I want to get Max
and Sids on this. I think in the perfect world, like there was
a ton of news this week, I wasn't really I was very whelmed by
kind of how everything came out. And I know we're kind of well,
it's you know, post super Bowl and we don't have a lot and Okay,
who really cares about Like I just I felt like anything this week excitement
level wise, it was kind of like the bar min. Okay, we're
getting everything out. We'll get everything out. Max, How did how did
it suit you? Because we got you know, this was the most information
we've gotten this week. I would say since kind of the initial merger talks.
It just it's like, oh, yeah, we have this thing,
we have that thing that we that we were finally having, But at the
same time, it still doesn't feel put together, like for example, the
shop uh disaster. Uh, we'll get into that later, the the under
Armor situation. Not a fan of that not being resolved either. You have
like Murky player transaction situations, and also you have the natural like skepticism of
yeah, all these things are confirmed now, but is it really going to
be as good as it was? Whenever you're taking away all these things that
made the league as the leagues as good as they were, taking away roster
spots, taking away players, taking away teams, it's gonna be interesting to
see how it all melts together. Yeah, and this is just for the
record, this is why we have Max and John today because John's a little
optimistic, is a little assess. I think together we'll get to all that.
Yeah, I it feels like we're getting there. Like I said that,
I still I want one of these and whether it was the schedule last
week or the rules, like I just want one of these to really kind
of hit and just I don't know, I want anything to spark, maybe
even the way the USFL stepped to kind of do its initial lunch. But
speaking, big News today warranted its own press release the AJ McCarron signing,
And this was weird. I know, John, I know you're off of
Twitter a little more on threads. There seemed to be like this big who's
gonna break the scoop of the A J. McCarran signing, Like even though
you know he was released from the Bengals and we kind of knew all this
stuff, and we had the Howard getting involved and Marty was talking, okay,
he's actually finally kind of signed out. John, on your level,
is this warranting the press release everything this morning? A J. McCahon returning
to the league. What do you think because we have the Matt carral stuff
as well. This week we're gonna talk about right. No, yeah,
I get it sounds like I'm missing a lot over there on Twitter. No,
I think it did because you know, McCarran was he was one of
the stars of the league. I don't know if he resonated outside of you
know, our niche of spring football, but I mean he got some attention,
and he was the XFL record holder. I guess there are a lot
of people that did that since there was only really one season of the XFL
and you know, twenty twenty three. But you know, I think it
warranted that because you make a good point there read about we needed some news
to hit you know the shop, as Max said, what's underwhelming and you
know the schedule that was fine and that that got a little momentum. But
I think it got It's not getting the outside momentum because this league has to
get casual fans. But I think for us, you know, you know,
us basement dwellers who liked spring football. I mean, this this warranted
a press release. I think that that's mainly who's going I think going to
the UFL site right now, I don't know that the casual football fan who's
just wondering, you know, what's next in pro football? Is the UFL
side that much? Yeah, Max, in terms of and I think there
was a different, uh narrative where I think people are excited. The AJ
mccarriy, the Matt Crow thing was a little more like, Okay, he
maybe it was washed out or didn't work out, and he's trying to revive,
Like what do you make of the agent and kind of that that differing
where it seems like there's two different narratives on these two different players. On
Corral, it just kind of feels like it's another guy who was a talented
player in college who didn't work out in the NFL, who was a decent
draft pick who didn't work out, was trying to sprintand the Spring league just
add another name to the long list. Right, he could work out,
he could not. We'll find out mccaren I mean, obviously he was a
statistical leader. He was winning MVP awards or the equivalent of Offensive Player of
the Year because the XFL did not want to have an MVP award because of
reasons uh and so. And also on top of that, it's it's a
BattleHawks player and arguably the most prominent BattleHawks player. So I think anything that
happens on the battle Hawks that's that is important to that team. You could
argue warrant a press release just because of the attention that team gets. And
so I think the reaction to mccaren is fair. And I get to like
the muted somewhat or less like positive reaction to Matt Carral because he's more of
an unknown at this level. John, Are we like I'm a little over
the battle Hawks hype right now? I'm just a little like it feels a
little like because the Stallions, I think obviously did a great job with the
USFL and building that fan base and you know, we've been out there and
you know we have tons of you know, hardcore like Greg Gray's of the
world that you listen to the shows every week. But like with the battle
Hawks, it's that way with the XFL, where I'm like, I'm a
little over this now. You know, it's not even like you won anything.
I mean, spoiler alert, you didn't even make the playoffs, Like,
are we over that? Are you kind of still numb to the whole
battle Hawks. I mean, you know, I'm alright with the battle Hawks.
They're fine, and you know it's not like I'm a fan or anything,
but no, I mean I get it. They You know, if
you're if you are the UFL, you've got to, like, you've got
to feed into the BattleHawks because they were the premier team even though they didn't
make the playoffs. You're right, you didn't win anything, but you know,
the fan support there and now to the point where most likely that's where
the championship is going to be. I mean, Max is guys, has
that even been official yet? Or is that another one? Someone's going to
try to break that one here pretty soon? Well RJ put it out right,
Max, and then took it back, So I think it's official,
and it's not officially now. It's Max that if I read that correctly,
I mean, that would be the logical assumption. I would not say it
is any more official than r J. Young put it in an article,
and that everybody else wants it to be true because people have been reporting that
it's going to be in Saint Louis since what last summer. Like everyone is
good, Everyone just wants to speak this new distance and like we'll find out
whenever. You know, we got we got plenty of time to word about
that. Yeah, But I mean, but you know, with the Saint
Louis the brand, I think it was a spring good spring football brand,
much like you know when you mentioned Birmingham too, And what are they gonna
do with all those quarterbacks down there? That's what I'm still trying to figure
out. But no, I mean, I get the Saint Louis hype,
you know, strike strike that while the iron is hot, because if they
come out and kind of flock, then you gotta wonder, like, where's
everyone going to go with this? Yeah, it's a lot you know,
it's a lot of pressure. Run back to you know, coach Back,
and I remember he you know, uh, well we have it where they
were changing the playoff rules and then they didn't really right and that's why we
didn't report that. And then I even remember when we had the schedule out
and we had the press release in front of us, and people like well
Coach Beck said they were changing it's this is the official release right now,
but a lot of pressure on that we had seen. I think it was
Wednesday before this came out Brandon Silver's also joining the battle Hawks. Max,
What do you make because oh, is that is that the big signing,
like this is the smoke of Berrs with ag But to have the Brandon Silver's
on there as well, does that even does he even make the roster at
this point in Matt love Brandon. So I have his signs, I've read
done my office, but I had a sign shirt behind me for many years.
I mean, Manny Wilkins hasn't played significant numbers of snaps and quarterback at
the quarterback position since what his preseason time with the Packers, So I'd say
by default Silver's is the backup unless there's like a massive upset on the part
of Manny Wilkins. So yeah, I don't think Brandon Silver is getting cut.
I think he's the certified backup and the veteran option behind mccarrn. H.
Well, we'll and we'll do. You know, we're kind of getting
in, like I said, head and end the break, we'll do kind
of full at training current previous. I know Pat is going to do quarterback
rankings and stuff on his channel, analyze and educate over the weekend. Pat
would have been on it just him crazy with work as well. But I
think we'll get past off, we'll kind of do deep dies of all the
teams. We'll figure all this stuff out. But uh yeah, and then
the where's corral? I is that Birmingham? Is that where he's going?
Right? Yeah? And I'm you know, I mean, how many quarterbacks
can skip Holts have down there? I know you want, you know,
some camp arms. But it seemed interesting to me, Like on paper,
I thought jbar Smith going in was gonna be the guy. And then you
know our guy, uh r, j He's got other ideas. And then
they add Matt Carrall to the whole thing. So yeah, I don't know,
but that, yeah, he's ended up there. It seems like the
a few people have said had said the phrase, yeah, the rich get
richer down at Birmingham. Yeah, but I think I don't know. To
me, that's a fine signing with him. I mean, I remember him
getting drafted and that was kind of one of the weaker classes here the last
couple of years. Like, I think that's fine. He's close enough to
having been on anything versus like we gotta get Johnny Benzel back or whatever.
Like I think I think he's kind of had been in whatever, Max,
because I know this will get the rust have you. We're seeing a lot
of comments at Canton for the championship game, not Saint Louis, like besides
Space. I mean, I think you'd wanted in the Dome regardless of it,
but that's Canton just because the USFL had a cup of coffee there.
I don't know if that would be my game plan. USFL fans want everything
done their way and it just does not reflect actually growing interest in the league.
Putting the game in canon would not grow interest in the league whatsoever.
It would not attract fans, and on top of that, the ticket prices
would be bargain bin basement prices, just like they've been in the past two
years. There's no logical reason to put it in canon other than to appease
USFL executives. The same way there was no logical reason to have the kickoff
be the way it is, but they did it anyway, the same reason
why they have four USFL teams and four XFL teams, even though one of
them is actually an XFL brand, because they just had to appease the USFL
executives and the coaches and the XFL side everything's half and half, you know.
So no, I don't think Ken is a good idea, and I
don't think it has to be Saint Louis. But I absolutely don't think it
can be in a place where a team is not located, and it definitely
needs to be one of the more popular teams, Like I would really don't
want to see a title game somewhere where the brand isn't strong, Like I
don't want a Houston title game. I definitely don't want a Rice Stadium Houston
Townian to be horror. Right. It's it's hard because we're bordering on and
I know Birmingham had a lot of this, you know a season one going
into two of like okay, well they're the home team and they had you
know it was there more preferential treatment towards them, or then they have an
you know, is there an ascarsk there? And I know we're bordering that
way with the battle Hawks and just in terms of like okay, then we're
doing the press release Regie mccaarroon and we got back going that we're doing all
this stuff. Like I liked almodome. I thought that was great and obviously
I was at the Championship game. I don't think my wedding schedule will allow
us to be at the championship game this year. We'll probably do a show.
I just don't think I can get out Sunday morning to do it.
But I thought that was fine. Kind of a central location. I mean,
this time around, you know where most of the teams being central and
East Coast, obviously, I think Saint Louis makes a little more sense.
But I liked it, especially when you had Seattle in Vegas fans last time.
I thought the Alamo Dome worked well. We have a little bit of
a breaking news. I guess here what'll bring to him, Mike Mitchell?
This how the article out? Any other thoughts? John on the the and
we can always circle back later. But I'm the Mcarey and anything else,
uh No, I mean, yeah, I think Saint Louis is gonna get
some preferential treatment. And I think that some of the other teams outside of
Birmingham are going to try to are gonna have to maybe you know, earn
some some clout with all this. But you're right, I mean, I
can understand why they wouldn't want to put it in Saint Louis, and I'd
ask Brian Kennedy, who is a sports reporter at KMOV. I had him
on my channel and ask him, do you think that if the Saint Louis
BattleHawks aren't in the championship and the championships in Saint Louis, Like, are
you really gonna you know, they're not gonna you know, the guess is
they're probably not gonna sell the four hundred level like they're doing for these first
few games. My favorite was last not this last Great Cup, but two
Gray Cups to go. It was in Regina and the Rough Riders were not
in the championship game, but their rival, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were,
and a lot of the Saskatchewan fans that had bought tickets hoping that their team
would be in the Great As opposed to selling the tickets to Winnipeg fans just
out at home and it was like a half empty stadium, which I've got
with, you know, the great irony of like the CFL, like we're
gonna shoot you know, we're shooting ourselves in the foot here, like we're
so whatever, Max anything else. I got that article from Mike I'm going
to pull up. We have some training camp details, which is exciting.
Yeah, I'll make this one quick. So the other thing I really don't
want what the title game is. I don't want it in a stadium that's
going to be getting renovated soon, because you could get a much better experience
from that same stadium if you just wait a few years. For example,
the Liberty Bowl is getting renovated right now. Well not right now, they
just finished raising a significant amount of money to start renovating it soon. So
I would wait till like twenty twenty six or twenty twenty seven to put something
in the Liberty Bowl for example. Also, i'd rather they didn't stick it
in a large, open air stadium, and if they didn't put it in
Saint Louis, I really think DC's intractive option, especially when you consider the
attendance from the twenty twenty three X of L title game. If it was
like twenty two thousand, I think I think that was the number. So
I mean the DC stadium capacity is like nineteen thousand. You can take a
little less capacity, jack up a ticket prices, and you have a ton
of premium hospitality options at that venues, and it would be such a great
crowd experience at that facility, and I just think that's it's kind of in
the way it's the gem of the league in terms of the most quality atmosphere
you can get, ignoring the number of fans because even if you only have
like a three quarter full stadium, it's still super loud. I like the
DC hopefully they'll allow people in the beer snake section are DC Defenders fans,
and we don't know how that worked out. We had that comments here updating
the Saint Louis turf and everything. I will say in your I laugh when
you talk about doing a Hey, let's wait till twenty twenty seven, twenty
twenty eight. It's kind of like I have my merchandise comments yesterday. People
like, just give them time. Yeah, because time. That's the thing
that all spring football leagues is have wealth and a mount at this time.
This is interesting here, Mike. This is just coming out from the UFL
Sports Illustrated site here, which we're part of as well. This will be
on here afterwards. Appreciate that I got on the CFL side as well this
week with our ICFL free agency, but we have some training camp details.
This just came out X nothing really breaking. Its interesting. So the teams
will be practicing together down in Arlington training Camp beginning of February twenty fourth.
We've known that, but mike' scott the breakdown here where the defenders and we'll
be playing with practicing with the rough next year at Brahmas with the Panthers St.
Louis Balahawks and the Memphis Showboats and then the Renegades and the Stallions.
You know, kind of cross pollination here, whatever, Max, any thoughts
on this? You think this is interesting? I mean, I haven't really
cared as much about the alignments this year because the setup is so different and
all the history that we had before with like the oh we're going to play
a pair of the Texas teams together here or whatever that, and also so
you don't have the same like personal history the same way you you did before
some of these pairings. So like, I'm less interested in the pairings.
I'm more interested in the facilities. But I'm sure there's they're pretty similar.
If not, they might even be just the exact same ones they used last
year for the XFLUH. I haven't adaw though. Yeah. Newsom South Lake,
Carol and then the Old State the Renegade Stadium, and then there was
it was the Northwest ID one or whatever. Yeah, so as long as
it's all those ones, it's the same ones. But yeah, I mean
it all looks good, you know, hopeful. I don't I don't remember
all the exact details on the training camp Paigy, but I'm I think it
was still better than what it was for the USFL before because it's the carryover
rays on that contract, So it's it's the best compromise you could get out
of a bad situation. John, in terms of I would just a little
bit with Max in terms of like when we were doing the schedule Rundown last
week with Andy, like, uh, maybe not for training camp, but
some of these matchups on paper are exciting to me, right, Like obviously
we have the Stallions versus Renegades, right, Stallions versus battle Hawks when that
comes up, you know, kind of circling things on there, even if
the teams are finally kind of slightly different. Uh. I like having the
conferences. I kind of think that's kind of what we wanted it to be.
And then people were like, no, they can't do it. What
do you make of this kind of the cross pollination and building on at least,
you know, not the history between the two leagues as much, but
you know these you know, these marquee like the Defenders playing anyone in the
USFL feels like a big deal to me. Oh, I know, I
totally agree. And I'm glad too, because I think we had talked about
this before too, about how it would be a shame for the XFL and
the USFL brand to just go away. So I'm fine with the conferences and
then you've got you know, and it also makes a division between fans,
whether that's good or bad of the USFL lovers and XFL haters and vice versa.
I do wonder how much we're going to get out of train in camp,
though, I'm hoping that the UFL really kind of goes in on,
you know, sending out content and you know, I kind of missed the
United by Football Show, remember that the in I don't think they did it
last year in the USFL, but they did it the first year and it
kind of told a lot of the players stories and you really got some behind
the scenes stuff. So I'm hoping that maybe the UFL will do some of
that this year, and and I think that, you know, when you
tell those stories and those kinds of shows, I think you can you can
you can build some casual fans up like that. You know, shark Dog
became he was a he was a he was a minor celebrity there for a
while. Yeah. Well, I was trying to think of the other the
other side, Matt, what do you what do you make of that?
Well, I guess my question would be like, I feel like social has
been getting a little bit better, at least kind of from what I'm tracking,
you know, timing of posts and said. But I feel like we're
doing doing better. How do you feel like overall marketing wise going into this,
at least social media? Oh? Yes, me? Oh yeah,
so uh. I'm a fan of the fact they got the town halls going
for all the teams. I'm a fan of the fact that social media seems
to be largely put together. And by the way, I should have said
this earlier, I'm completely happy about excited for the games as much as anybody
else. I mean, obviously, but the lack of the promotion didn't feel
very strong. During the NFL playoffs, we got that nice pregame mentioned and
we got the moment with Jimmy Johnson and Dwayne that was good. We had
the game day moments. But then after that, like on a national broadcasting
scale, it's been kind of muted compared to where you would want it to
be, especially you know, spring football just got stronger or whatever, and
then your advertising muscle does not really feel like it's any stronger than it was.
In fact, it kind of feels like they're intentionally cutting back to you
know, say some some dollar bills. But you know, I mean that
at least the local marketing efforts that they had before carried over. I wish
it was at the standard where it needs to be instead of just where it
was. Yeah, I like the town hall seeing now, I know DC
just had one right seeing them kind of running around the stadium, I will
say, yeah, I mean tomorrow is this is kind of going out,
would be right XFL you know, kickoff date whatever. Certainly different here where
we have a month and a half. Yeah, I don't know where you
kind of slot in the marketing here coming up. I will say, like
the Rock is so involved right now in the wwe really kind of surprised just
in the last three weeks here and it really just has kind of become a
pivotal with john I don't know if you kind of follow any of that,
but like he's like turning heel and they're like, he's fusing with Cody and
I mean really as much as I've seen him devote to that. So I
don't know, you know, whereas the Rocks head at with kind of any
of this stuff. But you know, I just don't know where we slot
here, because the XFL did a good job kind of slotting you pre Super
Bowl going in or the USFL kind of I don't know where we air in
this stuff. And let people know now that there's a month and a half
to go, yeah, I mean, and yeah, I saw it.
And there are a lot of people that are starting to turn against the Rock
now. I saw some some social media chatter against that, like yeah,
and you know, and the Rocke hit. He you know, Dray Johnson
has said that he is as hands on with this league as he was with
the XFL, which is kind of surprising. But I do wonder if they're
you know, there's a little bit of a law right now, and I
wonder if you know, to Max's point there, if they start to maybe
uh, you know, do a little bit more of a push here in
the next I won't say a couple of weeks, but you know, maybe
some stuff comes out, uh you know, because social media is free,
so they can push some stuff out on social media through training camp. But
I think once March starts, I think that's a really good opportunity to start.
You know, you are a lot of the casual sports fan attention is
going to go to the NCAA tournament. But I think you can you can
squeeze in there and hopefully we'll see a little bit more of a push as
we get, you know, closer to kick off, which you know,
we've got a while, but yeah, I'm really hoping to see that.
I can understand the lull right now. There's really not a lot that I
think could grab the casual van and bring them in here, you know,
a month and a half away, I will say, And like I said,
I think that if you want a little bit of POI constructive criticism here.
I know we'll talk about the merchandise here coming out, but uh,
I think the teams are doing really good and we've had like the schedule releases
and we can talk about times, you know, times a day and all
that. I joke online right like because it's hey, it's five in the
morning. We have my but you know, it's like joking here. The
main XFL account I think could do better because what happens and I follow,
I have it turned on where I get the notifications fro you know, when
the league posts, I don't have all the team ones, and the teams
will do all this great stuff all day, and then whoever is running the
XFL one will log on like at noon and just retweet eighteen things and then
log off again and then log back on like at three and retweet eighteen things
and then like so, I think I think overall the league one could do
a little bit better that way, kind of spreading out and parson. But
I think the teams, I mean to kind of round this out and then
we'll move on to the game ball and stead. I've been pleasantly surprised with
the team stuff right now. Yeah, I mean they seem to be keeping
attached. I just the way the team accounts, not the team becounts.
The league accounts are set up right now still bothers me because it's like we
have yeah, yeah, except for that, except that it's the XFL priantasies
UFL or whatever, Yeah USFL for this is UFL And they won't get the
gold check for the other one, but they'll have the gold check for one.
And it's only going to cause more confusion. And it seems like their
logic is we'll leach off o our arch spot and the algorithm by holding on
to our names. And it's just like you're you're only going to be able
to play this this this tightrope so long before eventually it's it's going to confuse
people so much that you're going to have to make a decision on committing to
this brand. Because currently this brand is nothing more than what's on the league
balls, they say on TV and what's in the advertising. Like there's no
outward pushing on all their posts. It's like that whenever you see your account
name, unless they have a hashtag that's the UFL or we are the UFL,
or this is the UFL schedule, you wouldn't even know if it's if
it's a UFL account, if it's coming from the league, because it says
US, it's going to say USFL or XFL. That's the logo you're going
to see because they still have the logos on there on on I think one
of them, at least I think both of them. So that's the USFL
account. That's still USFL, right, the FL one is that the USFL
is still the USFL account. Yeah, Like the logos are all not in
conjunction with each other. It's it's a mess. It's it just disturbs me.
For if you're going to push a new brand, then commit to it
and they don't. They don't commit to it, and it bothers me.
Well, I'm still like this when I post the Twitter thing and then like
hashtag UFL, hashtag United Football League hashtag HL like I'm trying to get the
name thing. I'm like, I still kind of go back and forth,
Like if I just call all this the UFL rules, Is that enough cache
now? Or do I need to have parentheses? You not in football league?
Like, I don't you know, I don't really know. We'll get
it into the rules first up lets, because I think we'll get a little
bit quicker through this. So we have at the league ball right, This
is always exciting. I know Seth was order number two on the site.
John I think was after as well on the top I was number eleven,
number eleven, Uh this week, like we showed this when The Rock was
on Fox. But then I feel like this is different in the back now
where we have the the conferences and all of this all all defer to Max
first on this that thoughts on the game ball, what do we make?
It's simple, it has a logo, and I'll say this, it doesn't
look ugly, which can not be said about some spring football footballs in the
past, like the AAF where the ball legit was ugly and looks like a
college football was what a wrong opinion. Max would going, Sorry, it's
a ball that's completely bland and has no style and also has a really expensive
chip in it that you can't that the fans can't touch, so you know,
I don't like it anyway, This one at least has some reflective material
on it, no signature, because this is the United League and now Danny
can't just you know, push herself all over this league like she could the
XFL. So take that for whether you like it or hate it the whole
like, oh yeah, we're gonna have each conference on that and not even
have a logo. A just text is kind of bland to me and disappointing.
But I like that they have the team logos on the balls, So
that's all I got. Yeah, I like me personally. I mean the
XFL ball was the coolest. I mean, in my opinion, I have
it somewhere here with the tip on the end. It was supposed to whatever
I liked the USFLM before, where at least we had like the stars on
just anything that may it be a little more different. I saw comments on
the ball talking about the large amount of the paint on it potentially making it
slip more slippy trying to catch the ball. I don't know if that if
that's the thing, But John, I'm not the biggest fan of this logo,
so this is a hard sell for me anyway. But what do you
think? Yeah, I mean I like it and it but it also goes
back to you know, USFL and the XFL were supposed to be fifty to
fifty. There you go. Yeah, I mean that was good, las
I mean, this is this is one percent and what you can't see,
like you can see there, but if anybody looked at the actual detail of
that ball, the grip on it, you know, it's I mean,
it's incredible, the little x's on there. I mean, I just that's
that is probably my favorite spring football and I've got a few, but it
just seems like, you know, the XFL ball was the same way as
the USFL with the shiny logo and kind of, you know, kind of
a simple design. I was hoping for a little bit more of some color
in there. But I did order one, and I what I was,
well, and I know we're going to talk about the shop, but what
was interesting was that's the ball that you're showing there. That's the one that
I ended up getting, I think today or either later that day. They
added where you could get the different team balls, which I you know,
which is fine. I mean I might have gotten I don't know who I
would have gotten, if it would have been Birmingham or Saint Louis or you
know, somebody I don't even know, Renegades because they were a champion,
I don't know. But yeah, I mean I did. I've got the
league ball, so I'll take that. But I mean it was just those
are so much nicer, and I do like the you know, the the
subtle logo on it, with the teams I saw, so does the back
It sure would be nice if there was a picture of the back. Does
it have the does it have the conference layout on it? Like where this
is is out on the back side of it when we have the team.
It's a good question. I don't I don't know if you even if you
can click on there and see. I don't know. I don't want to
criticize too much, but I do you know, because like here you can
see the battle Hawks, that's obviously the underneath. There's no there's no other
photo of that, so don't I don't know. Does it's a hot stamp
complimentary conference marks, so that's got to be on the other side. So
it looks like the ones sold out already. It looks like the Brahmas has
sold out already. Max one hundred and seventy five. I some people going
crazy, but I think that's the price. This is like an official game
ball. I thought that was the price of like the NFL one as well.
I can't remember the cost of the NFL one. I thought it was
like two hundred, but I think that's for like over two hundred. You're
right, the authentic one is over two hundred. And then there's like a
replica version that's like I don't know, one hundred or less. I don't
know. I don't know how much that one is. But if these are
authentic balls, then one hundred and seventy five is fair. If it's not
an authentic ball, then one hundred and seventy five is absurd. So and
it doesn't really say it just has official ball, but that doesn't mean it's
authentic. That just means it looks exactly like it. So, and it
comes from Big Games, So I want to I want to give them credit
because they they do really good work with these, and I'm thinking that for
one hundred and seventy five dollars and it being big game, that that should
be an authentic ball hopefully, But you know it's it's the league's discretion,
so what kind of ball they want to sell? So no way to know
until you get one in your hands, you know. Yeah, I the
logo thing is fine, And man, I know they did that before.
I prefer like we said, how the XFL did it? I don't,
you know, it's pretty simple. The silver I don't know, it's not
it's not super inspiring to me, not that I think that you want things
to be outlandish, but like I to go, I've had the XFL ball,
had enough to make it stand out. Again. We'll get to the
rules here at the minute. I like having things that are a little bit
differentiating. When we were talking like, hell, what's the deal? Well,
you know, because this ball they got the tracking thing on it,
you know, and then they you know, they can do the kickoff or
whatever. Like I like having a little different things so they can kind of
do that. Anything else on this we can get to the shop in general,
Max, John, do you have anything else on the ball? No,
I'm hoping that it'll get here sooner rather than later, and I'll give
you a report on it. The only thing I have for you is that,
naturally, as long as these leagues try to angle to be embody in
partnership with the NFL, they're going to try to make their ball look like
an NFL ball and feel like an NFL ball. So this bland look does
not surprise me at all, even if it's disappointing. So this is a
Max sent me the Okay, we have other photos of the of the ball.
Okay, So in terms of the shop itself, here and you know,
so this went on yesterday because I really, let's just get like whatever
up here. They've added more stuff today. John was pointing out they have
the UFL I like this with the black and gray, with the logos and
all that stuff. Because I was just so annoyed yesterday when the press release
came out at five point thirty that that was kind of all I focused on.
And then when I got up, I go, okay, let me
kind of look through all of this stuff. And I had put out a
tweet where I was talking where I was very kind of underwhelmed by, you
know, by the quality of the teams, and I didn't want to be
too harsh, but I just, you know, we're kind of launching all
of this stuff. I just I found the options here and just to kind
of if people are on Twitter, the balls are obviously added. The only
Renegades sure that you can get with the renegadst logo on. It has the
schedule on the back. I've been told two of the schedules are in fact
incorrectly marked, so to take that for what you will. And then the
other options you have are with a helmet with the Renegades, so you can't
get just Arlington Renegade's thing without that, and then obviously you kind of have
this polo, not a lot of options for sweatshirts and crew sweatshirts and you
know, black shirts, white shirts. Ever tweeted that out. I heard
back from the league and they wanted to know that, you know, more
items would be coming, and I certainly understand that the things I'm looking for,
even like hats. There's no XFL hats on here. The only hats
you have are the carryovers from the USFL. But we don't count the gamblers
because now they're the roughnecks, and so we really only have three teams.
I'm like talking just a black flex fit. You know, I got a
lot of hats. Max's initial thoughts on kind of the shop because, like
I said, I said a lot of my PCs yesterday and I I was
told it felt like my opinion was heard, but maybe not appreciate it.
So what did you think? It's not enough stuff, It's not enough interesting
stuff. And on top of that, some of the stuff they have is
straight up poor quality, like having mismatching schedules is very bad form, for
example, and then also like none of the stuff they have or at least
for the XFL teams. I haven't looked at all the USFL style stuff,
but it seems they've retained a lot of the stuff they had, and some
of that looks nice. Some of it's a little bland, Like I'm not
a fan of the cameo hats. Sorry, but this is like stuff they
had before, right, I mean, this is this is I mean they
had this show. But so it's not we didn't make anything. Yeah,
yeah, it all like I said, until I see otherwise. It feels
like they're doing their most to avoid making as much stuff as possible so that
they don't have to spend as much money, and until it's proven otherwise,
until I see some more stuff other than if they just make all this new
era stuff for the XFL teams and make nothing else, that's not enough.
So unless I see some under Armoor stuff or something else that's distinct, maybe
something from home Field that makes a lot of college sports uh T shirts and
hats, those are really nice. If they make something like that, I'll
be interested, but otherwise I'll just be Disappointedest kid here as a comment,
Hey guys, you're doing the best. I totally understand. Again, and
this is I never do it. And because we'll talk rules in stuff here
as well, and I talk social media like I never try to criticize without
giving what. You know, what I think is something that is easily done.
Like I said, having black white shirts with the team logos that they
added with the league logos, having black black spit hats. I'm not doing
this as as a commercial on here, but this is the mark. And
no one has ever bought like Paul and I used to buy something you know,
we would make like uh, you know, this is just me on
a like you know, you just and I know this is like a drop
shipper and they send it, you know, and you gotta do they're going
through like you know, I should not my podcast it sells no merchandise that
has no you know of any kind like should not have like better or more
robust options, and especially with when you're launching this because like John said,
oh I went back today and they have more footballs. If I was someone
that I went on yesterday, I'm not checking again today and tomorrow. Oh,
like what did they get in that? Like I kind of go on
and look. I sent it to my friends who were Sea Dragon's sticket holders.
They went on and looked and they said, not a lot of options.
Seems overpriced. Like, I'm probably not going to look back again,
John, you're the optimist here, so what do you think? Well again,
I mean I was. I had the credit card out and logged on
because you know, our boy Seth there, as you said, he sends
me an email like at you know, eight o'clock local time in the in
the morning is like the shops open. So I'm like, I immediately log
onto my computer, get the credit card out because I knew I was going
to buy a football. But I was like, okay, I love long
sleeve T shirts, so I was like, I'm gonna get a UFL long
sleeve. I'll get a Saint Louis, I'll get a Birmingham. And they
didn't have and they had no I didn't see except for a polo. All
they had was a UFL branded polo, none of the UFL T shirts.
And another thing, I noticed they don't have any women's clothing either. So
I'm, you know, not that my wife is really you know, dying
for any UFL merchandise. But I mean, you know, it's not ninety
it's probably ninety nine percent men, but you know, you would think that
there would be some women's merchandise. That's why I think with especially with the
under Armor, as Max pointed out, with under Armour, I think there's
got to be some more merchandise coming. So we've had some added today and
then So I did buy a UFL T shirt today and then had to pay
shipping on top of what I paid for shipping yesterday, but I begrudgingly did
it. So but now you know, I'm reluctant to go back on next
week and say, oh, well, there's three or four more things I
want to get and I'm gonna have to pay shipping again. But I'm really
hoping that they will continue to add and add, and I'm hoping the T
shirts are good quality. I think it's from I think Breaking Teas are Well.
Is the merchandiser for this, I'm not totally sure, but that's what
it looked like, and I think they make pretty good stuff, so I'm
optimistic about that. I just I'm like, I'm looking here, like I
have I have two Kraken hats like right here, next like I am like,
I am your target demo for all this. I think I probably have
fifteen washing commander hats. Don't tell them what. But like I am,
I am your target demo, so like that's why I'm just like I you
know, these are the people and and this we had David had the comment
here, you know, you only have one chance to make a first impression.
We'll hide that sweete Mexico. And that's all I'm saying. Right,
And I understand more sparciality out in, and I understand that we're working through
all that, but uh, you know, I don't I don't know how
the XFL had their shop and the USFL have their shop and then when they
merge, now we have less combined. That's just hard for me to comprehend
Max anything else. And that's because here go John, Sorry, I'm sorry,
read. I was just going to point out, you know, the
stuff that you have on your site is probably what is that shopify or one
of those things. It's like a job ship. So I get it's not
you know, it's not Apple Staples. But nevertheless, you if you went
on the old XFL site, they had the same kind of stuff. They
had, the tumblers, they had, you know, the plastic cups they
had the slides, they had, all that kind of stuff was up there,
so that's what now, if I remember correctly, they ended up adding
a lot of that stuff later on, So maybe we're going to kind of
see the same thing here. And if I'm not mistaken. Also, the
old XFL shop is still up there, and I think it is a Shopify
shop. Yeah, And it was always weird with the XFL because like the
wwe was still fulfilling orders like through that and it was going through all that,
I will say, and because I had, like I said comments yesterday,
you know, give them time. The best piece of merchandise XFL twenty
twenty ever did was the starter jackets. And I have one that's you know,
got the dress, the dragon's logo and everything on it. That came
and I got it to me the week the league shut down because of COVID,
so like, and I understand different circumstances, but you don't always have
have all this. Well, we've got nine months to get all this going,
like you know, if you're so cash started max anything else on this
because I don't want to be the negative Nancy, but I didn't want to
say. I'll say two things. First off, I don't know if all
of them are made by Breaking Tea, because all the ones that I saw
that had Breaking Tea or named Breaking Tea and have helmet on it, So
I don't know if any of the other ones are Breaking Tea or not.
I haven't really bought anything because I'm not really buying tons of merche right now,
but don't I don't know who else makes the rest of those. Second
thing off my grace to a league who is owned by a massive media corporation
and by a private equity firm that has billions of dollars in money to spend
and the rock whenever they can't get more deep stuff in a shop than like
a limited selection of T shirts and not even hats for like a significant proportion
of their teams about a month before kickoff. My grace for that is pretty
low. So if it would be one thing, if they had the basic
selection they have for those USFL teams, for all the teams, then I
would at least be like fine. I would still not be happy, but
I probably would not be bothered. But you can't. You can't give a
pass to a massive corporation just because they have a hard time. It's your
fault. You're not dedicating the resources to let your shot be better, to
have enough employees to have the resources you need. And I'm willing to give
all the benefit of the doubt to every employee in the league. I am
not willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the owners. They have
proven with the way they have run both of these leagues over the past couple
of years, that they deserve to have everyone be skeptical of them after how
they treated us these past couple years and how they treat their players and their
coaches and their employees. They deserve that. Yeah, I just this is
basically becoming like read show and tell here, But I mean this is I
mean, this is you know anyway, either words, I agree, And
like I said, I think that the I think the team that the people
that we know that are working kind of hand in hand and the social and
all that stuff, I think they're doing a tremendous job. I just think
overarching, you know, I did not hear one person that was super like
you know, the people either so like oh it's fine and more stuff's coming,
or like they were disappointed. Big the other big news here and then
we'll get the comments and question all that stuff XFL or you. You have
UFL rules coming out. Wonderful timing for me, like half hour before we're
going live for CFL Free Agency opening, and here's the rule. So like
only okay, so the one day you don't do the five thirty press release,
you do it like at eleven. That's okay, guys, you gotta
I gotta get one or the other. Here. Big takeaways. Right,
we're doing the USFL kickoff, which I think is a mistake. I'll voice
that in the minute. We're doing the XFL extra points. We'll go to
max first on this. Big big takeaways from the from the rule books.
You it's another case of we got to have everyone's perfectly and half and no
consideration on what's actually a smart decision. We gotta appease Darryl Johnston. We
gotta have the USFL kickoff, We gotta have certain technology used a certain way.
We got to get rid of the ball spotters, even though that made
everything more efficient and it didn't cost that much, and it was just a
logical choice to make all so that we can appease both sides of the equation
as much as possible. No one gets to have more pieces than the other,
because God forbid, we actually try to build something better instead of just
trying to smush two things together into some soup. And with that being said,
most of these rules were things that we've already liked from past leagues anyway,
and so other than those small things that I have bripes with about philosophy
and small choices that I don't like. Whatever, if you want to go
against the NFL themselves, who themselves is looking at the XFL style kickoff,
be my guest, you're gonna have to implement it anyway if the NFL cho
is to use it, or else you're gonna look really weird. So have
fun with this mess while you have it. I get, I get one,
and I get like, I understand what Max is say because it does
feel that way we're trying to marry these two and like, you know,
you too need to work together here, like we're gonna duct tape your hands
and kind of you gotta work through all this. Uh where special teams are
We've just seen with Kamani Turbain like, and that's a mode that we're going
to get players to the NFL having to kick off. The more mirrors that.
At least I do get that that they're saying that, and I'll have
more thoughts about that. I will say. If he's now at Amazon,
and people that follow Sam Short seen on that Sam's been on twice in the
past. If you look at the channel kind of you can just search the
channel his interviews. He would come on again at Amazon, and there's all
clearances and stuff where he can't. He's like, I can't do NFL or
you can't. It's like I can't do any podcasts. But interesting private thoughts
with Sam kind of about all of this stuff. But if you want to
know his thoughts, we did the XFL or the we did the him on
after this everything collapsed and then we had them on again talking to USFL rules
so interesting deep die of like forty minutes each time with Sam kind of talking
about all that stuff. John what did you make of the rules here?
Yeah, I agree with Max. It felt like it was there's a fifty
to fifty split, and I maybe I'm in the minority. I don't know.
I love the XFL kickoff. I think it was safer. I think
it looked cool, But Darryl Johnston said it doesn't look like football, so
they he really wanted. He wanted that. It seems safer to me.
I do like and I know, you know, you know, Brandon Aubrey
was he was the big story last year. But to get rid of the
extra point kick. It's like the old World Football League's action point where you
have like the tiered system, and XFL did that as well. I really
like that. I think it adds to the game. You're never out of
the game and you can add those points. So, you know, I'm
fine with the rules. It was the whole like on side kick rules,
so to speak, where it's either you know, fourth and twelve from the
twenty eight or the thirty three. I guess they made some kind of they
made. I'm kind of a compromise with that, But you know, I
like the rules. I think they're fine. I think they're different enough to
distinguish this league from the NFL, but they're similar enough that people the casual
fan out there who wants to watch pro football, they'll understand it. And
you know, and I think the NFL can always take away something like Max
said, the NFL was looking at the XFL kickoff, So I'm okay with
it. I like it. I I hated Daryl Johnson's comments about how the
kickoff did not look like football, Like you you can think that, you
just don't. You don't say that, But I mean, Daryl's the same
when that came out, It's like, I'm befuzzled why our ratings are so
terrible. It's like I also probably wouldn't have said that, Daryl. So
I mean, I appreciate the transparency and the honesty here with that, but
like I've said before, when you have one of these, like what is
the elevator pitch for this league? And that's probably what I look at,
like, you know, you're talking with people like what's the deal with the
XFL, Like well, like the Rock owns it, you know, and
you can go for three points and then they have a unique kickoff, like
you kind of got to have a couple of things right because you know double
forward pass that that you know that works, but that's not you know,
we saw it with what the Landry Jones infamously and all that stuff, but
like there's not and so I don't like getting rid of things like that.
I also hate the USFL kickoff, and David has in the comments you're like
because it does art officially inflate the yardage back and you're just we're just kicking
the ball further back and that's not letting players get untouched to the thirty five
yards line or whatever. Isn't exciting. And I think I understand why they
do it because hey, let's kind of give these offenses a get go here.
But I don't like that so kind of a multitude of reasons. There
max any thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, I think it's just
a way to artificially inflate offense. Also, also, the idea that the
XFL kickoff doesn't get touchdowns isn't true. It's just a smaller sample size because
you only had half of one season and that and for one of them,
and they had a full season where you get one touchdown, but in the
other half season you had two and a half season. So the idea that
you can't get touchdowns out of an XFL kickoff just isn't true. It just
relies on creativity instead of just giving away yards. And that bothers me that
Daryl doesn't say it says doesn't look like football. Whenever he participated in the
league that originated that kickoff and was totally pumping it at that time, but
now that you know he was competing against the league that used that kickoff,
he just wants to slide it. It's their two faced and is one of
the many many reasons I do not like that man, and I will be
very clear about that because I do not like him what one bit. I
do not have my greenex in him anyway. But other than that, you
know, I'm interested to see. There's still some things that are unclear,
like technology wise, are they going to be doing the automatic first down line
thing? Again, I don't think that's been confirmed. The USFL and XFL
crews are mashed together, so you have that new factor going on to everything's
still pretty happ and half there and then the oh one more thing, the
fourth and twelve, which was I believe was closer to the USFL style.
A J. Smith is looking at chops right now thinking about how he can
just he can just hog the ball whenever he's coming back, because he can
just if he was curved converting four to fifteen, and it's like crazy,
could you image him going for fourth and twelves? You know, Anthony Beck's
probably licking his chops and like, I'm so going for it in the first
game, just like I did last year. Agent mccarren's looking his chops.
I feel like we're just we're just we're inflating offense to such a degree to
where it's going to make things look impressive until you realize it's because we're intentionally
making it easy. So take that for residue. Doesn't it feel like they're
taking the punters out of this a little bit too, because if I understand
the punting rule correct, you can't cough in corner punt. It's it comes
out to the twenty five? Is that right? Am I right about that?
Or am I wrong? Yeah? It was similar. Sam was talking
about that to me. He doesn't like how they He's like, I feel
like they're not really understanding some of the rules that they were there before.
Max. Any thoughts on the punny I haven't checked the yard lines for the
coffin corner kicks, but in the twenty twenty XFL was the thirty five from
what I remember, for the coffin corner all right, because they really didn't
want people kicking the ball out of bounds or doing touchbacks. They wanted to
guarantee your return. So twenty five touch backs the kicks on the twenty five,
the punty goes out of bounce inside we'll get there to say about.
Yeah, so that that's more how the XFL was. They trying to take
a little bit more of that, except it's less strong of a punishment,
and honestly, a lot of teams will just take that and take the twenty
five just fine, whereas in the old league with thirty five, teams legitimately
were afraid to do it. They would pooch kick it on purpose and make
it land at the twelve, right, So good point. That's a good
point, whereas this version it's basically just saying you can have it. It
won't be you won't get an extreme benefit from a coffin corner kick, but
you won't be punished. And I want teams to be punished because I want
returns, Because it was like six over sixty percent of punts were returned in
the twenty twenty XFL, and I'm pretty sure the twenty twenty three way it
was pretty similar. But this is going to result in a lot more punts
without a return, and that's disappointed me because the whole point of this is
that we need more plays, we need more action, we need more excitement,
we need less dead plays. So this is another case of your appeasing
the USFL people just because and it's not actually helpful. It just makes your
produc more boring. But that's just me. I'm just my opinion. Don't
don't fight me. We have dealing comments here. Just Max hate puppies,
Max hate skins. But then we have someone asking for you to be UFL
president because you're speaking the facts, very very very divisive here on the other
I will say this, you know, and I remember when the who Max
who was the guy that had the leaked podcast at the bar that was talking
about all the like they're changing the rules and talking through all that Mosley or
something. No, no, it was Monos Jimnos yeahmo and ns. He
was like an old Bills guy or something, and he was talking about Truvisky,
not risky, Nathan Peerman and all that. So that was funny,
that was yeah. But the thing with that was they were trying you know,
even the XFL originally right, they like and Sam talked about this having
an interview, like you know, when we're doing that, and I like
that they're doing the one, two, and three and you have to run
the play right, because it doesn't incentivize anybody to go for two or three
points if I can just kick a free point every time, but if you're
forcing yourself to, you know, the teams to run a play after the
touchdown, you're going to get well, we might as well just go for
two because you know, two versus five or whatever. But there was debate
and Sam had talked about that, like, well, how much do we
want to remove kickers from all of this because obviously, you know, you
can still do the field goal, but you have this and like John said,
with special teams obviously kind of the puncher limiting. And we had a
comment here, you know, how would that How does that help any pund
make it to the NFL? Kind of having this so differing there. I
do like that you have to run the place You're like the XFL feels.
I'm glad that that stuck around even if we lost the kickoff. What do
you say, John? Yeah? Again, as Max continues to point out,
it's all compromised, so I you know, and I'm people don't tune
in to football games to you know, watch the kigging game. So I
get that to a point, but I just, yeah, it just feels
like and that's that's a really good point. A lot of you know,
it seems that the at least you know us, it's been a small sample
size, but it's the special Teams players who have had the most opportunity to
move to that next level, not just because of these tryouts or going into
training camp, but they get into training camp because they what they what these
teams have seen on tape. And I just it feels like you're you're taking
some of that out. And this is supposed to be another league of opportunity
and all that, and you know, the player fifty four and all of
that. So that's a little disappointing because I think it does limit some opportunities
for Special Teams players to move on to that next level. Just live hinted
the player vidy four. Uh that Moge with the BC Lions was down at
the he was at Vegas for the super and he was doing interviews and he
the rock just happened to walk by, and it was right when they were
getting ready to do the Rock and run and rains and kind of all that
stuff and He's like, oh, you know, Rock, Like you're really
taking the Battle of Alberta to another level because obviously rum and rains. He
had a cup of coffee with the Eskimos and then the Rock. I'm like,
we're really pushing the narrative here, like like now we're like moving the
CFL stuff in the Rock and all that. I do like the the two
feet I've seen a lot of USML people now like that's what makes it better.
I think the two feeds better. Max, any thoughts on that or
anything else on John's comments, I'd rather they inflate offense with one foot catch
for safety and for quite frankly, helping college players develop into NFL players because
you're a lot of young players. Then have two feet catch and make it
just as hard as the NFL is for receiver right out the gate, second
off. Just to go back to the punt rules really fast, because this
is stuck in my craw Okay, listen, If the punt rules didn't help
players get to the NFL, how come Dan Willy made it. If the
punt rules didn't help players in the NFL, how come the increased degree of
difficulty made it more impressive? Their ability to punt the ball d if.
I don't buy that argument, because the results are in the proof is in
the pudding. If anything, the difficulty helps them keep the ball in bounce,
It helps them roll the ball in without getting the end zone. It
makes them more precise, It makes it more challenging, it makes it more
frustrating. But I'd rather have trial by fire than them not being able to
make the cut, So you know, I don't agree with that notion.
I think the idea that a rule being hard inherently makes it worse for special
teams guys whenever they need to have difficulty and precision and repeated reps is bad.
Whereas if you have extra difficulty for a receiver whenever it's so hard for
them just to focus on running routes and catching the ball to then on top
of that, put on the two feet difficulty whenever they're just trying to make
a camp. No one is really worried yet about an XFL receiver USFL receiver
being the to the toe drag swag guy and making fantastic catches and starting consistently
that that's not a realistic expectation for any XFL USFL UFL even CFL receivers for
the most part. So that's why I don't like that. David says he's
going to customize the team jersey with a punter on it. Uh. But
they say you want Trabot fire respecial teams. But then you're okay with the
one you know, you want the one foot it too, Like I you
know, that's I justify my reasoning. I justified myself. John any other
found f on the TV because I I I like that. I think what
Fanka til Football did the one or I can't remember what they their rules were.
I did laugh. They the NBA was showing like a led floor that
they're going to use for the All Star Game, and like bankatl Football sitting
there like, damn it we have. But I think the two feet's good.
I'm okay with it just because that's what these receivers are going to have
to do to get to the next level. But I will say, being
Devil's advocate, and you know, as Max was saying, if it cuts,
if it starts to cut down on offense, you know, then you
might want to revisit that because you don't want seven three games as finals.
Uh. That because that's not going to catch you know, I keep saying
casual fans, but I really believe that for this league to succeed, it
can't be us, you know, just watching this. It's got to be
some some outside people and they don't want to watch seven three games because people
already scoff at spring football. There's a lot out there. It's easy to
do because of the many because of the history of spring football. But if
you if it's if this will work and it will get guys to the next
level and you can have the offense, it might be a lot to ask,
but I'm but the bottom line is I'm okay with it because I think
that's going to help these players more than anything. Yeah, I don't again,
just surround up my you know, someone that covers the CFL as well,
and they deal with a lot of like, you know, are they
better than the NFL or they worse? And the talent level And it's the
same with this, like when it's obvious the talent level is not the same,
right, you know, by and large, I appreciate having differences so
you're not as focused on like, uh, you know, oh, well,
like clearly these guys like having I just I like having not like bells
and whistles, having a little more like the CFL game, you know,
completely different and trying to change that. Like I like having enough differentiating things
that you're concentrating more on just that being a unique, unique game versus like
the USFL last year, which was like this is the NFL light and they're
played in the spring and they use the same music, but they just have
less people in the stands. Like I like having a little bit more.
Again, I never I didn't always like with the XFL what they wanted their
kind of uh persona, but they wanted their brand to be. But I
at least appreciated kind of that they have their brand, max their brand,
and they really leaned into gambling. I noticed that like the NFL ESPN,
really they did not shy away from gambling. It was it was Ian Fitzimmons
today that he was a cashman field and he and for the second half of
the game talked repeatedly he had to overrun or he's like, oh I have
my receiver. I'm like, I am so tired of hearing dude about your
about your bat here homie, Like I understand this not the most exciting game
right now, Like that's how you make those kinds of games exciting. Yeah,
because Vegas didn't have a lot of excitement. They did not. Okay,
I'm going to pop a shot now. If you care so much about
gambling, why don't you release accurate and consistently time depth charts. If you
care about gambling, why issue you can't criticize the end because we don't know
you. No, no, no, But this is about this is about
the past. This is about what happened in the past. Because you talked
about how the old XFL cared about so much about gambling, and then they
drop the ball and they and then they say, and then the social media
people talking about how depth charts don't matter and injury reports don't matter, and
we're only going to give it out to the media. We're not going to
post on our website, We're not gonna post on social media. And then
when people wonder why it's so hard for people to be involved in gambling and
fantasy football for spring football, and it's pretty obvious why So you know,
if you would like to actually use that and leverage that as for your marketing,
then you need to commit to it instead of sucking at it, but
whatever, maybe they finally gotten the message now, but remember and then it
was because the extrav that would do that. Then the USFL like was it
Sam got Sam Shady got one of the depth charts and then they're like you
need to take that down? Like you can't both. It was like,
okay, whether we if you have any questions here, we'll round this out
here pretty soon. Then we've touched on all the major points. I wanted
to if you have any questions, put them in the comments. Do we
know I know you talked about the technology. Are we doing chipball? Do
we have chip gate again? Is that what's happening? Or are we still
TVD on that. I have not heard anything about that. You might have,
Max, I have not heard anything on any kind of technology like that.
I haven't heard anything. I hope they keep the first down line.
Actually thought that was pretty cool, the automated first down line. I thought
that was awesome. I hope they keep Bolt six for replay reviews, just
like they were using in both leagues. Other than that, I don't want
a whole lot of extra technological influence. I don't want them to try to
test anything terribly new right now. I want that to be for way down
the road. The other thing I wanted to talk about, because now the
A. J. McCarey transaction is final, I thought since we had a
few minutes, so we could kind of give our thoughts on the just briefly
on who you would predict to start for each team before camp starts, to
give it five minutes and then let it rest, because now we kind of
have a full picture of who's going to get the quarterbacks in these leagues.
Well, I got that pull up? Do we have rosters here? Pulled
up? I got a list on my phone I can share with you if
you want real quick, I can tell you this. I'm still trying to
figure out. Like I said earlier, the Birmingham situation. I mean,
it's like who again you know? To me, J Mar Smith is the
starter. I mean, I don't know how I could go against that.
But then they ring in Matt Corral and then they had the draft pick.
So yeah, I don't know. Is it league here at League Rules Careers?
Where is the rosters here on the website? I'm looking at their teams?
Am I am? I slow here? So I just pulled it from
Wikipedia because someone made like a draft page and they update it, but some
of the ones are hidden, so you don't only be able to find it
if you went to the twenty twenty three season version. But I made a
list of like all the ones that are like potential starting candidates, and I'm
just going to text them to you. Right now. Someone's saying UFL newsroom,
I'll give them a I'll give them a newsroom does have like a draft
like page that they update with the rosters. But you know, it's not
like it's to the minute, like the league is supposed to get it first
or whatever. I don't want to get any spamware going to this site,
Steffan, So just I don't. I don't want teams USFL UFL teams,
Arlington Renegades. Well, hey, if they got it on their coaching staff,
oh want it? Okay? Were this okay? All right? You
know broken clock here? If we got it? So we got renegades here.
I like this quarterback lease Prez Lindsay Scott Holton Taylor's uh, you know
the least Perez rides again there, John, What do you think one hundred
percent? I mean I think that Lindsay Scott is, you know, maybe
has a chance. Holton, it was funny that Holton Naylors said, you
know, they pretty much instead we that he He said on a podcast that
the coaching staff and management told him, well, we really want a younger
quarterback to come in here and challenge Louis Perez and maybe win the job.
So it's a I don't know if they don't have a lot of faith in
Louis Perez, but man, that guy's got such a track record. I
don't know why you wouldn't. So I'm gonna ride that Perez bandwagon all the
way. Max. I'm still amazed at that. Man. I mean,
good for Louis Perez here, but what do you think here? I love
Louis, but I think you gotta you gotta bet on talent. And I've
never been more impressed by an FCS quarterback that's you know, not NFL level
since Louis, Since Lindsay Scott. I mean, he said all the records,
he won, the Walter Payon Award, he did all of it.
He you know, so on talent, I have to pick Lindsay Scott just
for that. But I do think it's going to come down to the wire,
just because of all the experience Perez has and his adaptability is so far
ahead of and he's typical spring football quarterback, especially who else is in that
room. I'd imagine the learning curve for Scott will be tougher, and that
in the early days he's going to struggle, and then as he gets settled
in at the end, the talent's gonna show and they're gonna have a tough
decision. I thought Alors was gonna make the cut. I really thought he
was gonna make the cut with the Seahawks. Read sorry, didn't mean interrupt
you, but you're you know. I'm a Seahawks fan, So I watched
a lot of the preseason. I thought, man, this guy was pretty
good. He was very fun to watch when he's coming to there. I
mean, obviously he's playing against fourth and fifth stringers, but he was fun
to watch when he got in. I yeah, I was trying. I
didn't try to. I tried a little bit more of the Commanders preseason,
presently enough, but we were at the game, Drew Locke was there.
I think Aylor's played a little bit. We did. We did theg Go
to one preseason where he beat the Cowboys, which was probably the Seahawks,
you know, play off win in the height of the season there that poy
It does make sense like what you're saying though, with Lindsay coming in a
little bit more inexperienced pushing at least, well, it was like Louise is
gonna have no issue with like competition and he'll be happy to like if he
lose his a happy to mentor and kind of all that. Souff. I
don't see Louise as having an he's heard of the ego of any kind of
like let me help kind of make this guy be better. Max. I
will just say like this, this is I like this roster man. I'm
not trying to like this, trying to show for UFL newsrom but I like
how this is laid out. Yes, it's solid. You know, they
gotta they got to keep the website maintained at the least so that people will
keep coming back. Uh. You know. The thing with Alors for me
is he was not my favorite American Conference quarterback or anywhere near it. Whenever
he was playing. I was a bigger fan of Seth Henigan at Memphis,
who's still there because he's got like six years senior, fifth year senior or
whatever is going on with COVID years stuff. So but I wasn't. I
wasn't that impressed with Hulton Aylors comparatively at ECU, compared to like even Tanner
Mordecai when he was at SMU. I was more impressed with than Holton Alors.
And he's you know, completely shlubbing in at Wisconsin now. So I
would not expect Alors to be anything more than a backup for this team.
And if Scott does win that job, just watch Perez get traded again and
end up on another championship team by the first playoff. Just watch it.
I could totally see that before we move off and the Renegades and Philip had
a question, the Renegade is going to have a banner hanging ceremony. Can't
imagine that? What else is doing? I mean, yeah, but I
hang it in the corner. What else are we doing? I mean,
I think they could hang one and then you know, stick it in a
closet till the team comes back for another year, you know, but you
know, it's funny. We could hang both. We could do a banner
hanging ceremony and like because it's the it will be the champion versus champion.
Just do a ceremony for both teams at the same time, be like the
Battle of the Champions, bring out the trumpets or whatever. I don't know.
Birmingham did it, Yeah, yeah, they did do. If if
the Lakers can raise a banner for their in season inaugural tournament win, I
think that we can hang a banner for the Renegades. I will say that.
All right, let's go here, Stallions. Uh so we don't have
the updated on here right because we're missing Corral right here. So uh.
J Marsmith, Jayla Moore and Adrian Martinez will go first to John here because
this is right. You're are you all in on Buckham, are you Stallions?
Oh yeah, totally. I'm I'm giddy up on that on that side
of the conference. But I think, I think to me J. Mar
Smith, because he had you know before, I mean, you got hurt
in the first game of the season, so he was already named the starter.
And then of course Alex Magoo took over and blew up. So to
me, he's the guy. But you know, there's been a lot of
talk about Adrian Martinez, who I believe Birmingham drafted so and drafted early if
I'm not mistaken. So Max you might know more than that. But about
that, but to me, j Mar is the starter. I don't know
that because I think he just has so much talent, and I think Skip
Holtz has a lot of faith in him. There's a personal bond there with
j Mar that doesn't exist with most other players on spring football teams. With
that being said, the talent Corral had coming out of college is clear.
However, once you were been in the NFL for a period of time and
your confidence gets shot, you don't know what you're gonna get coming out the
other end. Sometimes you get Bend de Nucci and he lights it up,
and sometimes you get guys like Cole McDonald, who are you know, as
as we would say it went fire or whatever. Uh, So you know,
it's just you don't know what you're gonna get. So we'll see.
But I certainly think there's gonna be a lot of conversation and hype, and
I don't think it's settled that Jmr's starter, even though he probably wouldn't get
favorites, because I don't think it's settled at all. No, are we
surprised that the Nucci right decide? He right? He signed back on with
the Broncos, right or we right? Am I making a fever dream?
Yeah? He did, But I'm not surprised at all. I mean,
he was the one and down that he's like. I don't He was blatant
the entire time. The only reason he was here was to get back in
the NFL. And he's just gonna hang on into those coat tails until he
gets kicked out again. And you know, when he does get kicked out
again, he's still young. He's got a lot of time left to come
back and do an aj mcaerron type of season, if you wi Jay DJ
pieces, I wonder who the Brahmas charter will be. We're gonna, we're
moving through and we're getting there. We're gonna anything else that John here.
I mean, we'll do I said, we'll do full roster breakdowns when I
get back from vacation and we'll get on. Maybe John could do the burming,
you know, whoever, we'll get all that in the pack battle and
all that stuff. We'll figure out that out, all right, going to
the defenders here, and this doesn't have Taomu right, because he's official official
official back now, right, Max? Or is it still not? They
haven't announced it yet. I thought they did announce it. I know Mike
posted about it. Have I not announced it yet? And oh and then
Jake Russell co confirmed with the My I don't think it's officially yet, but
tayom moves back. Mike's reported that Jake Russell with the Washington Post, which
God blessed. Uh, I'm like, Jake, you worked for the Washington
Posts. Like why are you dealing with like ufl impressions? Like anyway,
we'll go first and maxure on this. It's got to be Tayomu right,
it can only be Toyomu. I don't even understand why the other two guys
are really on the roster. Honestly, you gotta have backups. You are
gonna have better options than those guys. If you want backups, you couldn't.
That looks like camp arms. You're right, Yeah, I'm sorry.
I don't like either of them, and neither of them perfectly really fit the
Derek King mold either. I mean, Francois definitely doesn't and McClinton is is
like a weird slower but taller version, Like you could make it work with
him as a running quarterback, but it's not gonna be as as shifty as
Agile, as impressive, as threatening as Deeric was in any way. So
maybe they're just buying their time. Maybe they're hoping one of these guys can
really take a boose, because I was not impressed with either of these guys.
And I think the hype for Jalen Mclinton in particular was completely Yeah,
Like I don't even know where that came from, because you look at his
PFF grades, you look at his film and you're like, there's nothing that
stands out, and there's a lot of there's not that many great amazing decisions
either. And then Francois was a complete wreck both on and off the field
last season. Well, I was gonna say, are we surprised he's even
here still? I Mean, the thing I remember about him is when he
got in the huddle and told told him to shut the f up. That's
the one. The one thing I remember for me last year the dormity controversy.
Yeah, he was the one with the dormandy right. They said that
he was given away the playbook, right, So there's this classless I'm sorry,
but I can't. I can't support this that situation. But I love
Reggie Barlow and he did a lot for de Eric King and now he's the
quarterback coach at s m U, and I'm happy for I hope that Reggie
spoke to him about that and give him some advice because I think Eric's gonna
have quite a seat learning curve on how to be a coach. For the
first time, I was just peruising Twitter here, this isn't this isn't handjum
and this is Colin Coward. That's a losing Commanders winning the division next year.
That is probably the greatest tweet I've seen in my life. Very excited
there, uh in terms of yeah, the francois thing like I just I
feel like we've done this. So here's the what like DC brings in someone
else? Are they still I mean they have I mean it wins the cutoff,
I guess to get someone in there. They mean they've got to have
a few weeks. I mean CAM doesn't start for another week and even and
there's always guys that get brought in after the start of camp, so there's
time they can find somebody. There's always somebody, you know. I wonder
where Eric Dungee's up to right now, for example, I don't know where
he's at. But there's got to be a better option than Jalen mcclemon and
DeAndre francois your backup quarterback? And if there isn't the trade for somebody,
because some of these teams have four quarterbacks, you got to find someone,
all right, John, anything else on that, well, we'll put through
here. We covered that one. Yeah, all right, we'll get here.
We'll roll through this and track it out here. So there were the
rough necks here, Phillips saying, bring back PJ and the PG is coming
back. Ken, you be hard reads in that, Jared one and Tanouh,
we'll go what do you think? What do you think? Max?
Ken? She got cut? So I don't know why he's here. Okay,
Well, so hey, we're not we're not criticizing PFN. Hey,
Ali says, I don't know why he's here. Got anything else say in
that, I don't know why he's here. He's got cut anyway, Well,
I like Jared Garantano has had quite a few cups of coffee on NFL
practice squads and training camps, so recently like on again, off again,
all during like a rookie year, he's on again, off again, So
clearly there's something. The NFL seasoned him, and you know, the XFL
had him with their Palmer camps and he was always a Jordan Palmer guy from
his draft prep onward, So clearly there's things people are seeing in him that
hasn't played out in his performances on the field in college. And he had
a few impressive moments in preseason play with the Cardinals, so maybe he can
put up a fight. But I think what Reed Sennette showed in that one
game before he got injured, which was tragic, he was by far the
most offensive engine that they had at quarterback for the Brahmas that whole the whole
season, and then after that immediately became a struggle until like the very last
game, they put up all these points against the defenders, and then Barker
Romo, who was perfect on the year, misses the one kick that would
have sent that would have put the pressure on the Renegades to actually win that
game instead of basically play like it didn't matter, and then everyone acts like
Perez had a bad see them in the Renegades whenever the game didn't even matter
or whatever. Yeah, right, yeah, I think Guarantano Guardantano is It's
interesting because, yeah, you mentioned he was kind of at Tennessee. He
was just a disaster lare so. But to Max's point, the NFL has
seen some things in him and that that might be one of the more interesting
quarterback battles. They're, you know, of the eight teams. But yeah,
maybe Sennett might be the guy, but I'm interested to see what Gardontano,
if he might have a chance in that. It's funny you just tied
like this is all coming back because he's like we lived through a whole CFL
season after I'm like, oh yeah, remember the missfield but you know,
it all comes back to me like a fever dream here anything else with the
Roughnecks? Max, Now all right, let's get in here, all right,
the show Boats. Remember when it was Andy and I on and we
had was that Bill here, Like you guys are hating on you hate You
didn't even know how good the showbox are going to be? Right, willis
here, Cole, Kelly, Troy Williams, Case Cookus captain. Okay,
you know chef case Hoever, we'll go to John first on this one.
They got some options here. I think I think the chef's going to be
cooking down there. I think there's a reason that they wanted to bring him
in, you know, I think what de Filippo wants was he it was
like it almost felt like he's trying to put together like a USFL or XFL
All Star team down there. I just I think if they can find an
offensive line to give case cook us some time to throw, I think he
can be a very very very good quarterback. Max go to you, uh
Crime if I'm wrong, But I think for the backup quarterbacks spot is interesting
because you have Cole Kelly, who was there last year. I don't know
why Ryan Willison is here. He was cut on January twenty sixth uh so
I don't know why he's on there. So again, I just that's truth.
I don't always here. But case cook is definitely a favorite to start.
But I'm intriguting a backup race because Cole Kelly, he's got the physical
specimen talent to him, but the performances just weren't up to par. And
Williams I'm interested treat by because he was in that he was playing in that
title game last year for the Mallers from what I remember, so, I
mean, yeah, you gotta say he has some experience. Maybe you picked
the guy that's been put in those pressure situations as your backup, and even
though they're both like relatively young players, so it's not like you're mentoring,
but you picked the quote unquote experienced guy I guess as your backup. Max.
Remind me with Kelly was did I know they were like they were kind
of a five hundred team. Did did he was he replaced or did he
replace the start? He replaced the starter there? Right? Yeah? Yeah,
he took over like a couple games into the season, I think,
from but his performances just weren't that good from what I remember, it was
you right, are we surprised Case hasn't been able to strike more here?
Back again? I mean, he kind of feels like he's just kind of
resigned to this life now. I mean, what do you expect. I
mean, it's very hard for any quarterback from spring football to stick. I
mean it's Denucci who's sticking around. It was PJ for a bit and other
than that, I mean mcaren I guess made it back, but he was
already there. This was just a he chose. He chose the UFL.
Max, he said, I don't want to play in the NFL. I'm
coming back until his season ends. And then he picks up a practice squad.
Chack. I was told he chose. He's choosing both He's doing he's
doing it both ways because he knows that he can get picked up halfway into
an NFL season. He doesn't even really have to be there for camp anymore.
So he's getting he's getting all the money he can get. Well,
he's showing his kids what he can do on the field because he's just that
cool, which is fine by me. Uh anyway, gimme case cookies all
the way and hopefully he gets in their shot. But it's just an uphill
battle for anyone that isn't a completely dominant player anything. No, there's nothing.
Yeah, I'm I'm on the I'm on the chef wagon there. Uh,
David's cheek here, Max and anyone cut here before you got on this
list. Uh no, all these guys are still there. Uh. This
is brutal. Yeah, John, go first, this, I mean,
this is this is brutal. I think I don't they. I really thought
that the Panthers were going to find another quarterback. I mean, I don't
know. There are some people that are on the Danny Etling wagon, and
I get that, but I just you know, I think Davis Cheek played
maybe two plays last year, and you know La Wurki, I don't know
that he played at all. I just this is they don't have a starter
there. To me, I mean, they someone's got to start. But
to me, they've got to bring somebody in. I like Davis Cheek.
And also, we'll let you go. But I just want to make sure.
I mentioned because there's someone missing and I was checking to make sure e
J. Perry is missing from this list. Uh, and he's talented enough
to start. So we'll see you anyway. Read it's your turn you go.
Oh no, I was just gonna say, yeah, this was rough
on. This is crazy to me, briand worry. I still still floating
around here being all this stuff. Yeah, I'm john super not impressed here
with all of this. But you they had issues last year, right,
I mean, so what do you do? Who do you see me?
Yeah? Uh yeah, So, I mean I liked Davis Cheek. When
I was watching his film from Elon, I was impressed. Uh, there's
still question marks over you know, how that's going to translate from Elon to
here, and also how it's going to translate to Mike Nolan's system. Uh,
and they're the way they run things. But E. J. Perry
has been so lauded in NFL circles as like a like a sleeper guy whenever
he was coming out of the draft, and things just didn't work out for
him in the NFL. So if he can stay healthy and get playing time,
because for whatever reason, he was on the Panthers last year, but
he just didn't get played that much. I think he had one start and
then he I think it was either injuries or something else happened that he wasn't
able to play. And then he got picked back up on the NFL and
he got let go again and now he's back here. So I would like
to see Perry win it because I think he's the most talented player. But
I think it's really between Perry and Cheek, unless Danny Ettling has some kind
of weird career resurgence that I don't expect because I don't know Danny Etling's one
of those guys like, are we sure he should still be sticking around the
NFL, But he's kind of somehow find a way, So maybe he'll prove
me wrong and then he will have a big parade for him, you know,
John, anything else here, we'll get the last TEW teams. We'll
get out of there. I'll say that if you really right now to me,
if you want to look at the Panthers offense, you need to scroll
down a little more and start looking at those running backs, because it seems
to me like that's the only way that these guys are gonna get any offense
going. Yeah, okay, this is our team, your team of the
marquast the Brahmas here can't don't really want to buy any of the merchandise yet,
but we can talk about the team. I know this list has been
updated because right, Kurt's gone, Uh, Cone's going, right, CON's
gone, Jackson, Max, I know you were happy that that Jack Cone.
You know, we don't like to see anybody get that's also gone.
By the way, I don't know why he's here. He wasn't he wasn't
even on both wasn't he on the site for Houston too, so they double
listed set. Okay, observations. Sinnett gone, he's in Houston, Okay,
so he's in he'ston okay, so so ignore that. So we got
Quentin Dormanty and Chase Gerbers. That's my and I think he said Gerbers was
my guy, right. I think Garber's is the favorite, just based on
talent. Yeah, Garber's and his brothers college. I'm sorry, Yeah,
and his brother is playing for u C l A right now, so they're
kind of like a football family going on over there. But I mean,
just based on talent, based on the NFL experience, the pet, you
have to go with Garber's. But Dormandy is not going to go down without
a fight. You know, he was an established starting quarterback and the XL
last year and he wasn't terrible, and also he was in a bad situation.
So maybe he can shine with some better structure, with some better talent,
with some better decision makers, and maybe he'll prove me wrong and maybe
he isn't just a doormat. You know, we'll find out. But you
know, it's it's it's it's it's really between those two. It's two horse
rates. I'm so disappointed. I was really hoping, you know, and
Kurt had this big like I'm choosing not to like he had this big I
really wanted Kurt to be on this team, and then I could, like,
I could hate my quarterback. I mean, this would have been pure
drama all season, right, It could have been like a few and then
I could have like requested to have him come on the podcast, and then
he could say no, and then it would be, you know, be
like a Brian Scott thing all over again, except that was a different situation
because he was you know, we all remember how all that worked out.
But John, what do you make of this? Because yeah, I was
more excited with with some of the guys let go, but obviously Dormandy,
And yeah, I like Dormandy. I don't know that he'll be the starter,
but yeah, as Max saying, when he when he had the opportunity
to play, he was just in such a bad situation in Orlando when he
had the opportunity to play, I thought he was really good, So I
would like him now Again, I'll defer to Max on on Chase Garber's there,
because I'm not sure. Yeah, but Max, he texted me when
Coma's gone. Excuse me, he said, when Coma is gone, he
said, Garba's is your guy. Okay, I don't know if he's my
guy as much as he is like my the the guy, real quarterback,
the guy, he's your quarterback read and he's the guy that it would be
the expected starter based on pedigree and based on you know, whenever you you
have coaches talking about how they want to bring in talent at the quarterback position.
In the Atlanta guy like this, you know, he was fringe,
fringe, seventh round, undrafted, up being undrafted guy went to training camp.
You're you're going to expect that guy to be the favorite compared to a
guy who was very unimpressive in college and did not make any kind of mark
on the NFL. Quinn dormity. So all right, go ahead, and
now I'm going to tell you ahead of time actual you're gonna get triggered when
I switch over to this Patriots and just giving you that. So we got
the valaax here, Tiano gone, right a J and then Brandon Silver isn't
here, Manny Wilkins agent, I mean we talked about this off the time
for a J. Right, yeah, I mean it couldn't be anyone else.
My only my only curiosity is whether Anthony Becks wants to use Wilkins and
a Derek King kind of role more frequently now that he's had more time with
the team, because I think they could mix it up with him. A
good bit that Tiano cut to me was I mean, I guess it was
ahead of maybe they knew that that mccerrn was coming back, but I was
kind of surprised that that he that he got waived. I wasn't because they
brought on Silvers. I knew they were. We knew they were bringing Silvers,
and Silvers is a much more experienced in establish quarterback. And Tiano is
not the kind of guy who's gonna want to be a third stringer who's never
playing because he's he had his own like decent you know, pre draft CAMPI
and he he has some talent and some it was impressive. I remember Argo's
guys were in love with him whenever they brought him up to camp. So
he doesn't want to sit around on a third stringer, and he doesn't have
any special ability to be used in certain packages like Manny Wilkins can to be
sort of a kind of running quarterback, So it just made sense for him
to go. I hope you've laying on his feet somewhere. Are you surprised
no one's picked him up? There's still time, you know, DC give
a ring ring, you know, and then you know in Michigan, right
yeah, yeah, right, yeah, he should be on a on a
zoom with Mike Nolan anytime. Yeah. I was gonna say here, all
right, anything else here, John, BattleHawks? Uh no, you know
the Max Borghy thing that I think for the BattleHawks. I mean we're talking
about quarterbacks, I know, but you know they're running game. I mean
they've got some and they got some questions there, so they might need Aj
mccerrn to have another twenty six touchdowns or whatever this coming season. Uh,
well, here we and then finally we have it. We got a superchant,
very rare superchests here cards Nation cock Haw order Baby appreciate that. Don't
get a lot of sup I listened to my postgame Cracking podcast and like every
and they only get you know, they got like five hundred viewers for the
postcancer. Oh thanks for the superchant, Thanks for the supers. I think
I'm like, I don't I get like one every four months off. I'm
lucky. So I mean, I mean, I know a little reason I'm
on here is because I'm a ninety nine cent a month subscriber. That's the
only reason I got this invitation. I appreciate it. Yeah, you can
become a member. Ninety nine cents gets you a membership. You know,
it makes me feel good. I just when I look at my little analytics
and I see my little pitoful rad Ad revenue, I'm like, oh,
I got you know, got got a third of ninety nine cents here for
John Liz from bult my Way onto the podcast. That's five dollars and thirty
three cents to you. I like that joke. That's funny. Max.
Anything else here I know other than gotta love the ninety nine cent Army read,
you gotta love it. Uh. And you know, despite all the
frustration and the irritation, I'm just glad we have a season this year.
You know. It really felt for a long time like anything was possible and
like we could always still lose it at the top of a button. So
hopefully the ownership realizes their mistakes and appreciates the potential this this lead these leagues,
these players have and truly make something great and commits to it. My
experience in the past tells me they are not so committed. I want to
be proven wrong. Hey, you were, you were there, you were
almost to a positive comment there, Max, and then you let it trail
out at the end. I gotta keep it real. It's I have hope,
but reality says I should not. Well, I will say, and
I'll toss to Johnny. I will say this. And it's interesting to me
that I I was always the big USFL hater or I was what was I?
I was the XFL hater when I said that they weren't they were going
to get delayed, and then they got delayed, and then I was the
big USFL hater from all the us other people. But now that they're all
right, we're all like, hey, we're all you know UFL. Now
now like I'm the big everything you know, I'm always right Like now I'm
the big UFL hater. And they're read so negative about the merchandise and need
so negative about this, and I'm like, again, I just I want
this to work with Russ here, super sick. Now we got I got
three here, man, oh, Yeah, here we go rolling. I
am rolling. I'm gonna go. I can buy the Snickers part at the
store. But like that's I've I've seen all of these from a fan or
on the podcast. Like I've seen I've lived through all of this. I
was like nothing, nothing but me wants this to work. But when I
see things that are again with Max and I've talked about this for years,
like unforced errors, right, Like there's so many things that go against like
all of this, and it's the biggest about so like the unforced airs of
like having the UFL T shirt on the shop of the day of the inside
I launched. Just like there's just stuff like that. That's what I'm nitpicky
about because I leave the football and all that stuff to all the genius you
know, you guys and Pats and everybody, Andy and everyone else that comes
on it from from just the fan perspective. That's where I can talk about
here. And we'll go to John now. But our ship, my father
in law, my when my ship comes in. Our ship has come in
here. I think we've ever had it. We're going to another a couple
hours, aren't we. But John, anything else here, We'll round it
out and then I'll get my found on Praie, we'll get up. Yeah.
Read, I think you make a good point. There's a reason if
we didn't care checking in Sorry, all right, checking in here, let's
go. But you know, if we didn't care, then that's then you
know that that's where that's where when you start to get apathy from people who
want this to work, that's when it won't work. That's when it dies
off. So yeah, okay, we're going to complain about Yeah we wanted
uh some more T shirts. Yeah, we want some more merchandise. It's
because we want these things to work, and we're kind of, you know,
monetarily invested, but we're also emotion invested. We want these things to
work. We want to see these players move on, and we want a
little something for ourselves here. We like it's it's great Spring entertainment. So
yeah, uh yeah, I'm and Chris is telling you there. I mean,
I know you hate these Spring leagues. It's why you talk about it
all the time. But uh but no, I mean I'm more optimistic.
I think though, kind of circling back to what we talked about to start
off, I'm more optimistic with this because of the financial backing that it has,
because of the outlets it will be on with Fox, ABC, ESPN,
but also saying that I know that if this does not work this year,
I don't know when we're going to see spring football on a level like
this or on a scale like this again anytime soon. Yeah, I agree
with that, and I think I don't know. I I this is this
is the best chance because I'm hoping that like anything that they like, if
you've learned anything at least the last three years, like at least maybe of
it. But again, you know, we still see some of this kind
of coming and going to out of the maxiny any final thoughts on here,
I want to add it with but we're all we're all up to here with
the BS right now about how these leagues are being run. And also,
by the way, speaking of BS, no uniforms either, Well, they're
gonna come out next week, I mean because they're going they're going to training
camp, so they're gonna be next week. I will be on the cruise
to the Cobos. Hopefully they're out next week. I mean they just cause
they they should be on next week doesn't mean they will be for sale.
It will they be only a registered for an email list, and then you
have to wait till the start of the season to actually pay to order one
who knows anything's possible. But doesn't it make sense for them to roll out
those uniforms right before training camp because say, hey, look here's what these
teams are going to wear. By the way, training camp starts this weekend.
Yeah, yeah, they'll be any it'd be great if they operate a
based on what makes sense. Too much sense, right, Let me just
say this, Well, you know, we'll see it like we're paying.
We're a premium we're paying for the premium cruise experience. I'm alloted like four
Wi Fi devices. We'll see if there's even there it comes out of there.
But I haven't feeling that it's going to be kind of the same.
Whatever. John, I hope you're seated down here because you're really gonna lose
your mind here he sat down here, Chris ten dollars ten chat whether we're
doing that's my age here, that's crazy. Keep out the guberger get hear
you? John? And Max Anti the president, Hey, we're not that's
we don't need to make fundamental health but I do appreciate the super chat that
was worth ten bucks. Come on, this might make more money than our
Now, John, I was gonna say, because I know that John,
John, I hold the record with John for the most view video on your
channel. I don't know if any of them. I think our Gray Cup
Show finally beat all of that with the sixty seven thousand. But I think
you have a good You have a good long run there for a while with
the King, we end up with about twenty fousand. I thought it was
good. It was good. It was good all right. So, like
I said, Rownding now here, appreciate the super chats, Appreciate everyone like
and subscribe. We'll do training camp stuff when I get back. We'll figure
out you know, you know, forms out of though. But otherwise and
this is a good round out. We got everything that we did here three
thirty on the Friday. So appreciate John. Go check out his channel at
John Lewis Sports. John does a lot of great shorter content. Right.
The more that we just ramble on here for like eight hours, John is
a lot more like targeted, like let's talk the quarterbacks, let's talk this,
let's talk the team legacies, and kind of all that stuff, Max,
anything else from you, No, I've already said my piece on everything.
I'll save one opinion for you whenever we get off, because I want
to finish the point. But everybody else knows it already. H And you
know, I'm just so glad we're here, you know, despite it all,
despite you know, if feeling kind of gloomy because of everything that's already
happened up to this point, there's always a chance to turn around. There's
always a choice, and if they just make the decision to commit, anything's
possible. John, anything else, I didn't want to make sure you got
anything was no, that was it. I appreciate. I appreciate being on
it and being able to talk to you. I've listened to YouTube talk a
lot, and I was glad to be part of the conversation. That was
a lot of fun. Well, this's for thanks to everyone. Have a
safe weekend, get ready to training camp and all that stuff. We'll see soon.