Well here we are back again. We didn't know if we were going to
do this or not, but we're here, back live, and the Professor
Andrew Murray and I Anthony Miller still alive. Right, We didn't do him
and I think he's up in moving. I think he's just writing the articles.
Yeah, maybe maybe he's a little, you know, a little hungover
by Anthony's here. Andy, We're back live following the UFL Championship game.
How are you? I'm great. How are you doing? If you managed
to survive the Hotel Shenanigans? It was good? Yeah, funny stories here.
We'll preface, get into everything, appreciate it, like it. Subscribe
if you enjoy the work. Like I said, live here today from Saint
Louis. We got people checking in. We'll throw up some comments here.
Yeah, not the greatest game out do We will get to all of that,
but live here Saint Louis. Hussy and I are going to be doing
our CFL recap show tomorrow, regular episode Friday, look for UFL Insider Mike
Mitchell kind of full season recap of the UFL twenty twenty four season. What
worked, what didn't work? But like it? Subscribe We added subscribers last
night. I think we had like thirty five hundred people check out the UFL
Championship pregame show obviously most watched. Again, with all that, I appreciate
everybody, but yeah, like it. Subscribe if if you're part of that,
click join. I had comments last night like how do we get back?
How you can do it? Thanks, you can do a super chat,
you can joined the channel the nine nine sents a month. But we'll
get the stories here. But first off, I can corroborate with talking with
some of the XFL execs that were at the hotel last night. We really
were in the high but not a great game and they know that. Yeah.
No, I mean just kind of bewildering, honestly and honestly, in
a word, confusing considering what one team did and another team didn't do.
But look this game, there's so much that really kind of compatch as far
as what happened. First of all, in the field, I mean,
Birmingham made a statement, they made history. You know, they've won three,
they've won three in a row. You know, blah blah blah.
Sin sammonton Eskimos, I'm not going to steal my Mitchell Stundard on that He's
talked about that plenty of times, but uh, just a tremendous accomplishment from
them. You and I were sitting in Birmingham three years ago, just the
beginning inaugural season in the USFL. You're sitting there wondering, well, how
many of these are there going to be? You know, how many games?
How many use spell gets? How does this hubed concept? Who's this
Birmingham team? We don't even know anything. We didn't know. You know,
how much should we know about Skip Bolls? Not very much? How
much do we know about Jmar Smith, Alex Magoo, all these characters,
and you've just seen this base parade of them the last three years. People
who come in have made contributions. Guys who've been on the team for three
years, Guys who were hurt last year, like I am Marlon Williams.
You know, he tears up his achilles last year and he comes back this
year stronger than ever, and he plays in the championship game. You know,
he was tweeting last night like, oh man, I can't believe I
have three rings. Think about that as a pro football player, having three
championship rings in a league. That's not easy to do in any league.
To do it three consecutive years, and changing formats and changing environments with players
coming in and out, and coaching changes that we even saw this year with
them truly remarkable. From their standpoint, I have to tip my cap to
them. It's really it just doesn't happen in a lot of sports, and
especially in pro football. It's so so hard to do, and I just
want to appreciate it for what it is. Yeah, No, I guess,
let's congratulate. Let's congratulate at Birmingham for three times at championship. Here.
Lots of excitement last night. Like I said, we were at the
hotel bar. We didn't even really know, like we had just booked and
then we kind of figured that out Friday or I guess going into salary.
Okay, we're at the Birmingham, but all the brass was there last night.
I shook Daryl moose Johnston's hand. He told me, yes, read
that we're going to bring back the XFL kickoff next year. Actually he said
he said, he said, hey, Mark, we're going to bring back
the kickoff next year. But no, I talked with Darryl for some football
execs there. Skip Holtz was celebrity number one there. Came in. We
ran into Gregory, Gregory Crawford, one of our longtime listeners. You know,
you love when you just sit down at the bar and you know us
and we run this podcast and someone walks up to in full Birmingham Stallion's regalia
and goes, do you know who I am? I was like, oh,
yes, Gregory. So Gregory was very nice and he's watching this.
You know, oh I was going to show here. We saw, we
saw one of our friends here. We ran into James taking photos, so
you know, we had a good time. Any standout interactions that you had
either before after the game. There were so many wonderful people. I just
want to say this was it was convention basically, and not only that we
were next to Convention Center. I mean literally, it was almost like a
convention itself in that there were so many different people from this space that we
got to meet. Obviously, there were league executives that were in the hotel,
fans personnel, just a lot of people that we've interacting with online and
we finally got to meet in person. A lot of characters that I've interacted
with over the last three years and that we've been able to finally see in
person. And Gregory Crawford was fantastic. He gave us a little bit of
a tough time, you know, with some of the things we mentioned about
Birmingham this year, obviously the attendance numbers, which I'm not good to to
really get into today. That's not mine. Oh we are going to talk
attendance here too much though, you know, but not you know, not
as much as a Glamne basson about it. But look, no, it's
been wonderful meeting everybody here. Really, the gentleman you sent me up sitting
next to me the entire game. Joh Jaw's on here, Josh checking in
on the show. Yeah, John was great, Childe Joh wherever he is
right now, he was awesome. I love talking to him and chopping it
up with him. Russ Julio came over and talked to us. He was
just super cordial, super nice. I really loved interact with him. Skip
Holds nice, just very hospitable and warm with this time, great gentleman.
Really wonderful to see him in that space. So yeah, honestly, read,
it's hard for me to really pinpoint one, because there were so many
great people that we got to talk to and really kind of share. You
know, this is a community, and this is a community that you and
I agree very much care deeply about because there's a lot of really interesting people,
and it you get to meet so many different kinds of people in the
space who just I think last night you just saw a giant celebration of what
was going on. So I really appreciate that, and I really hope I
get to experience that more, especially if I make the Great Cup this year,
you know, be able to experience the candidate side of it. But
I really love being able to experience this part of it, especially after the
last three years. Yeah, I got the father here, you can see
Holds, We got Gregory back here, you know. I mean, it
really was I'll tell you lots of I don't think that Skip Holds will ever
have to buy a drink in the city of Birmingham ever again, and that
he certainly was not last night, very well taken care of, very well,
you know and rightfully so like I said, a lot it was.
It reminded me and we weren't because last year we were obviously the Championhip game
in San Antonio, and I think we talked to the bar because like there's
a Dwinne and Danny of it all, and like I think she was in
and out, but a lot of the league execs right we're here. I
mean, Danny's off to doing whatever. You know, a lot of the
people are here. We know Russ Brandon's they're holding court talking to people.
You know, you got Darryl Johnson walking around. But we didn't see that
last year, but we did the first year in Birmingham, you know with
the Fox people, you know Eric Shanks and Joe Klatt who you talked to
everybody at the bar following that, And it was just cool to see that
again last night that it felt like this is a celebration. We're through this.
We saw a lot of the media people, Corey was walking around,
you know, ticket sale Corey from you know the Guardians and now with the
Stallions, and you know he's got a ring right or you get to hold
the trophy because of all that stuff. So it's cool to see, uh,
just really kind of exciting and just it felt, you know, like
just an accomplishment. It's cool to see that, Like it was just really
fun kind of eavesdropping and watching all that that nothing too, nothing too out
of the realm, and then lean here, No, they're not bringing back
the care yet, although I did, although I did talk to some league
execs involved in rules and regulations, and I say that, you know we're
gonna do that, right, We're gonna do that. So we'll see.
But at least put the bug in the ear for all that. But I
really appreciate that. Uh yeah, no, Chris, that the Moose leaking
the expansion teams. No, but Moose was having a good time. There
was because we were there, lights came on, it was time to go,
Like, it was really fun. Nothing nothing out of the room,
but we did see you know, maybe maybe a knocked over beer to It
was kind of interesting. The kind of season people. I won't I won't
say, you know, it's it's it's really you know, it's a good
time when the entire bar collectively grows when they turn the lights on and tell
you to go home, you know, And people really didn't go home for
quite a while. I mean, I'm just so taking aback by the kinetic
energy in that room the last two nights. I mean, people were just
staying down there and just continuing to chop it up. Really just something I've
not really been part of it in a while, and especially in a hotel
bar of all places. But man, really just there was a lot of
energy in that room, in that lobby for the last two nights, and
you really felt it. All Right, so let's talk here, Let's get
the first out of the way that we'll talk game and then we'll kind of
talk about what's coming up next. But so, I you know, we
knew, we knew attendance was going to be rough. We talked about that
and the battle Hawks and all that. I'm curious, you're you know,
you were in the crowd. I came down, I started in the press
box. I wanted to see who was up there, and then came down.
Felt very anti Brahmas. The people that were there. It felt like
a lot of battle Hawks people that weren't mic Reports twenty seven and three ninety
six. This was the photo I at kickoff that I took. I imagine
that that is the distributed tickets. I imagine there was not a lot of
battle Hawks people that were there. We did see a good contingent at Birmingham
Sewings people including Greg Grate that traveled up but thoughts on that, and it
was just a weird crowd dynamic because it really felt like we don't want the
Brahmas here at all, but it's like we should this one last week.
I mean, that's the thing. It's a lot. It was a lot
of bitter Singulis fans and the ones that begrudgingly showed up to root against them.
You know, I give them their due. They showed up. They
you're able to do pay. You know, you buy your tickets. You
buy your tickets, and that's fine. I will say I did see a
lot of jerseys from a lot of the XFL teams that did see Roughdick.
Well, I guess rough X in USL now, but yeah, the jerseys
from last year. You know, I saw that Roughneck jerseys from last year.
I saw Brahm as obviously, we saw DC fans, You saw people
from other parts of the league. You know this this is becoming a thing
that I've noticed, especially last year too, where there are fans from other
teams that will travel and just say we want to support the league. We
just want to show up, and that's great. You need to have that
and continue to build off that because that's the kind of energy I want to
see, you know, a couple of some USFL fans here and there.
But I just, you know, I think there was just so much negative
rama energy that it felt like it was going to be the Stallion's party no
matter what. Although it was so funny because like certain players would get food
depending on like who got ordered for what. Like the player awards was really
a standout thing. You know, Adrian Martinez's MVP was not well received.
A lot of people weren't crazy about that. Also, do not mention Tom
Brady's name in the stadium because that's not going to go well. But he's
you know, obviously not on the field from a playing standpoint. I you
know, there's so many random people and so many different dynamics there where I
just I think the crowd was like trying to figure out, like where are
we going for here? And it was if it felt neutral, I'll say
that because everyone kind of picked their own corner and kind of sit in,
not just literally but figuratively too in terms of like what am I supposed to
be supporting here? So that was really interesting. But as far as the
crowd, the size of the crowd. I gotta be honest, I thought
the San Antonio crowd was a little bit bigger last year. I just thought
there was a few more people in there. I mean, not significantly so,
but it just felt that it was a little bit more filled out in
the All Low Dome last year. And those were people that you know,
there was none of this. You know, we'll get into this later,
but whether or not someone bought the ticket and actually showed up. I mean,
those people did actually show up in the stadium, and I can feel
that, but this this case, obviously there were some you know, missing
party members and it was just it was interesting trying to kind of sort of
sift through the energy in the crowd and trying to figure out what was going
on. Yeah, I mean I don't know why this cable is film we're
here. That's not the you problem, that's the cable problem. Yeah.
It felt it felt weird. And I will just say and I uh,
first off, never never say the league isn't listening. I you know,
came in on fry air, But when did we come in? Saturday?
I went to the went to the arch, did my cocorck cry babies and
all that. And I ran into a league executive walking out of the elevator
and they said, hey, read what about the concord cry babies. I
go, oh, you like that? They said no, not really like
uh, but I but I want to create a spark and I want to
say something because this is and this is what I didn't give about all this,
like when you're in the CFL, when you're in the UFL, when
you're in one of these leagues where you have these neutral site games, this
is what is part of the deal. I mean, And I said the
same thing. It was negative about the CFL the rough Rider fans two years
ago when they sat at home when Winnipeg was their their conference division rival,
and they didn't want to go like, I don't know that to me,
like you have to get over that. And I felt like last year,
for whatever reason, and I don't know, like there was because I mean
last year was a home I mean it was the San Antonio. There was
no San Antonio, but there wasn't that negative energy that there was this year.
And it was just really weird because we were there last year. The
press box in the Albumo Dome was wide open. You were in the stands,
but that to me felt more like a celebration where this, to me
felt like we're mad that you guys are here, or we're going to stay
at home to prove a point, and I just don't under like that.
To me, that's a BattleHawks issue, because fan issue, because we were
there last year and did not happen. So clearly there is that there is
a difference between well, the promise is kind of an like last year,
well they were kind of an OK franchise. They drew Fine, we're doing
the game here. It's kind of a tourist spot. We got a lot
of fans, it's kind of center of you know, center of the United
States. But this year it was totally different. And having been in both,
I will say there was a stark difference. You know, this is
the thing, and I think Gregory Parks actually brought this up on Twitter.
He said that basically, this is the risk you run when you put this
in a third party venue. What happens when you decide let's go for broken
just hope that maybe the team who was in this home stadium will actually host
it. And again, most people were banking on that happening. You know,
a lot of people really thought saying it was going to be here,
including me, including Mike Mitchell, including a number of people, and that
didn't happen. And this is the result of what happens. I look,
I can't fault fans for not wanting to show up when their team doesn't make
it, Okay, I can't. I can't tell them like, look,
your team's not here, would get over it. I understand that part.
But maybe it's a little more complicated in this sense, and that it's not
a league that you know, financially is booming in you know, it's not
having all their stocks go to the moon, right, So it's not this
case like but the NFL or some of the other established leagues orre clicked,
they'll be fine. You know that somebody will show up and fill that seat.
But in this case that's not necessarily the case. Like who else is
going to take that seat in the neutral you know, as a neutral party
member and take over that seat that you had allocated before and resold you know,
And I don't know if that's going to happen. Say with Saskatchewan,
we saw that it didn't really pan out that way when they didn't make it,
and they especially didn't want to sell tickets to win. I pay Blue
Bar fans who are their enemies. So and I'm sure, you know,
I'm not sure if Saint Louis fans would have felt that way. I'm not
sure if it's the same thing in America. But you know that's as a
fan, it's complicated. On one hand, I understand your emotion not want
to show up, but on the other hand, you want to see people
support the league and be able to support their product and just say, look,
if you don't show up, it looks bad on the on the league,
and it looks bad on on the support and looks bad on TV.
And we have to think more in a long term setting here. And I
look, it's I don't want to I don't want to call it selfish because
I understand it, but it is. There is definitely certain arguments you can
make both ways where and I you know, I know that's very centrius to
me to do, but it is tough because I can see it going both
ways. But in the one sense I understand in terms of you have to
be able to support it something that is not guaranteed to just be around.
That's the thing. It's not there's no promises like they might never get a
game back here Alahawks in for the league were standings or for whatever. I
mean, this might be the last playoff championship game ever in Saint Louis for
the next decade. You have no idea. You can't take that for granted.
Well, I mean, and I'll just you know, I don't want
to throw the name out there too much, but you know, me and
John were talking about last night. He just said, is this the last
time that we have it here? And I said it's possible. I mean,
they made May. Does the league decide and that's the thing. Does
the league kind of take this and decide do we just do neutral settings from
here? And I don't know, do we just go back to Canon,
do we do something else? Do we do a smaller venue? Do we
not try to run this risk anymore? I mean, these are mitigating factors
now they have to think about because they try this experiment and it didn't work,
and when the team that they thought was gonna win didn't win, you
know, and it's something that was funnily meant mentioned to me too a couple
of times. Was you know this if they really wanted to have the fix
in for this team and get them in the into the game, they could
have because guess what this replay system. I mean, basically, Mike Pereira,
you know, are god and you can do whatever you want. Basically,
I'm not saying they're like fixing games, but they really really wanted to,
they could have done that, and that's not but for competition's sake,
that's not gonna happen. So, you know, like this is because something
that the league's gonna have to think about going forward. Are they going to
have to go to more neutral settings and just decide, you know what,
whatever party party people we get if we have that big home crowd, so
be it. You know, we'll see what happens. A couple of comments
here, and then we'll get to the game, because I know, you
get have the people want to talk at tenants to expansion half of that with
it. We have a couple of questions here, and then I want to
talk to you all of this because my comment and then a couple of comments
here, I'm worried and I don't know if the league even cared. I
mean, we were talking about it last night, like the league really feels
like, Okay, we want to be a TV product and I want to
talk with Mike this week and not enough that's the title of the episode.
But like you know, is the UFL two folks on meing a TV product?
Because if that's the case, then you don't care, right, Like,
hey, we're broadcasting this nationally as long as we have some people who
were to make some noise. And I don't know if that's a good or
bad thing, because I think, you know, along with the tendance that
goes you know, we talked about the four people watching the games and making
it more appealing for people to buy, you know, the franchises and all
that. Like that all goes into that maybe they don't care. And I
would say that that's a bad figment if they don't care enough. Just a
couple of comments. Mike here says it was literally Father's Day, and that's
great. Like my problem is not the people they didn't want to go because
it was a holiday, the tickets. It was Father's Day whether or not.
The BattleHawks in there, right, So the people that we're gonna go
boday tickets knowing it was Father's Day, it was then we decided not to
go or sell our tickets or stay home or well I saw comments. I
bought six tickets and we went, but we couldn't get rid of the other
four. I mean we had a jaw won our tickets, but like it
was even hard trying to find people, Hey, okay, my schedule change
or this happened or that happened. And just the other thing with this was
doil do you think the league will do the best team host a championship.
I know it'd be added cost. I think it's just stadium availability. I
mean, you just can't. You can't hold that many venues. You have
to know where you're going to be that day. You can't say well we're
gonna wait and then the week or two before, like not that the Battle
of Dome's hosting the lobby. You can't. That's what you can't book a
stadium might be a week out, like hey, we actually need a championship
game next weekend. Yeah. Now there needs to be a little bit more,
just if possible, have a little more planned out for people so that
they could buy those sticks ahead of time. As far as the Father's the
Day thing goes, I mean they mentioned a number of times in the stadium,
and they also I remember that at one point they did the Simba camp
thing we hold your child up. I mean, look, this is actually
if your father is in a football this is actually kind of a cool thing
to go with your dad. My dad. I wish I could have bought
my dad here, but you know, he he's in love with the game
of golf too fort of golf too much to really make that sort of sacrifice.
But you know what, like I just I just wonder if there's gonna
be questions, is like who chooses what over whom? And look, Saint
Louis fans would have chosen this game, and they made it absolutely their choosing
to go here, regardless of whether Father's Day happens. It's it's the the
more spread out audience that makes that conscious choice of do I really want to
miss Father's Day for this game? And that's you know, that's consumer choice,
right, that's the choice that the consumer makes. It says, well,
I make that sacrifice. I'll have to go do this because you know,
I mean, this isn't like how people say, like, honey,
let's not get married on the Super Bowl Sunday, Like I don't want to
miss the super Bowl. You know, people like actually think like that,
right, and so there's there's choices that have to be made in that way.
So, I mean, it is funny. We've talked about this earlier,
like that they they played the XPEL championship game the day before Mother's Day
last year and this this case with Father's Day weekend, So you know,
are they gonna adjust are they going to adjust the schedule in terms of like
are we gonna have this even happen earlier? Earlier they've really experimented with this.
I mean, you know, the USBIL Championship game was on July fourth
weekend, and like they've always there's always this kind of like holiday weekend,
they try to go towards one war all day weekend. These are again continuing
like analytical questions they're gonna have to keep addressing if they're going to think about
logistically how many they're going to get people there in But like you said,
maybe they just care that it's it's you know, on TV, and yeah,
if there's enough people then that's fine by them. You know. Okay,
last comme I hear. We're moving on. Mike twenty seven thousand,
isn't bad for the battle Hawks, But there wasn't twenty seven thousand that was
tickets distributed, So that was like on the high end. Had there been,
I mean, obviously more battle Hawks people would have bought this week going
into it, but like there was not, I would say, I would
say, honestly, there's probably twelve thousand people there on the high end.
I mean, I was there upstairs looking down, I went downstairs, walked
around both pre kickoff, during the game, after the game, Like so
it's fine, I mean, and I'm not. There's a lot of circumstances
and like I said, maybe they don't even care. But there was not
twenty seven thousand. I know that's the number of Mike reported, that's the
number distributed, but that was not There was not twenty seven thousand people there
like a subscribe here, Like I said, moving on in terms of the
Brahmas game plan here, I tweeted last night there's a John Cena clip where
he just says the word ass and I said, that seemed to be the
Brahmas game plan going in here. What did you make? And this was
first shutout that we know of in kind of modern spring football histories. Never
happened. We were thinking about that the bar eye texted paraph. You know,
I don't know, and Mike there was also not twenty two thousand and
San Antonio. That's I'm just kind of the overall, like, the Brahmas
did not even get off the plane, and you said that last night.
Their offense certainly didn't. And I just didn't understand really what the game plan
was as far as how they were attacking that defense. I really thought they
would try to maybe just at least try some things downfield, or try some
trick plays, or try something that was at least getting the Bramis because the
Stallions were so on point with their tackling and with their focus, and they
knew exactly where the ball was going every single time. The Brahma's offense could
continue to make it a horizontal of passing attack. They could just continue to
attack the sideline and it just didn't seem to really go anywhere. They couldn't
run the ball very much. I mean, burning hands run defense was number
one in the league, so it was gonna be hard to run against them.
But you know, I just thought they'd be a little bit more creative
in how they implemented some of their playmakers like Anthony McFarland and John Lovett,
maybe just sub screen passes something they just could not. I mean, neither
team crossed midfield about twenty minutes into the game, and you're sitting here thinking,
are we gonna get any points before this happens? And you know,
obviously the Stallions scored eight points before the half was over. But I mean
it was just such a stalemate. But from the Brons standpoint, I'm just
bewildered that the fact that there was just really there was just nothing, absolutely
nothing. And I know some of it as well. They couldn't create a
turnovers, their defense couldn't really do anything. But you're stopping the Stallions at
every drive, like you got to do something with that. You have to
be able to move the ball, and it just it never came to fruition.
They absolutely could not get anything going in the passing game. I honestly,
I'm not gonna fault Garber's too much. I thought he played fine.
I don't think he was really him. I just don't think the scheme really
fit anything. And this stalin seem knew exactly what they were doing on every
play and they had him stuffed out in the beginning. It was just honestly,
it was bewildering to see it happen. Well and I and obviously we'll
watch kind of I want to check out the broadcast and kind of the replay
here and now, you know, obviously we were in the stands and watching
that, like I wanted to see the whole sock change thing we had early
in the game, or whether it was the Science players that Daryl made him,
you know, a violation of that. But I texted him when I
moved down because I didn't even really like, I don't even think. I'm
like, oh, shoot, I'm sitting there in the sands. I'm like,
oh, there's brock cuor like. So I said, I sent him
a message and I was like, hey, you'll see if we can get
him on the show this week. He said he's traveling, but I said,
man, this is not because I saw his face and we were laughing,
like, God, is he trying to talk? Because he was on
the Brahmas sidelines. We were over there, and I'm like, he don't
wank like he wants to talk to anyone. It doesn't look like anyone wants
to talk to him and I messaged him he goes, this is a volatile
sideline right now. And we even saw I think it was RJ tweeted,
which I don't even know if r J was at the game. Between it,
like Wade was throwing his headset down and people arguing and the defense screaming
at the offense because they're doing their job and leaving the bench, like really
just felt like just an utter collapse. I mean, I can't even think
of a better way to phrase it. Yeah, a lot of resentment on
that sideline. And look, that's what's gonna happen when the defense is doing
its job and the one side of the ball is doing its job, the
other one isn't. It's gonna be a lot of resentment on the sideline.
And it's unfortunate because this Promise defense, I actually thought, played a really
good game. Actually, I mean they did give a lot of running yards.
I mean, the biggest tell in this entire game is the fact that
the Stallions ran for two hundred and ten yards Brahmas ran for fifty two.
I mean, you're basically quadrupled the number of rushing yards they have, and
that physicality really came through and it just wore down the Brahmas. I mean,
the defense was just on the field way too much, especially in the
second half, and it just wore them down eventually. And I'm sure that
it's spilled out on the sideline because the offense was just doing absolutely nothing.
And you know, it's unfortunate this team kind of losing it's cool and just
emotionally. I mean, the most fight I saw from them was when they
were literally fighting the other players from the other sideline, like when they were
literally getting in altercations. We had an action later in the game. I
mean, just just a lot of just emotional pieces there. And for the
proms, they just completely lost their cool. You know, way Phillips spikes
his headsec at one point, like he's just not having a good time.
It's just frustration all around. I could see. I remember watching Brock you
and I both watched Rock. You were trying to approach it and it was
like trying to walk towards the hornet's nests, like an angry hornet's nest,
and I think he just realized I got to cut my losses because this is
not this is not tenable to be around right now. But just to see
them lose their cool so much like that. It was it was honestly disappointing
because they've just been so cool and levelhead of the entire season. You know,
even when the offense wasn't doing much, they would find ways to like
win games or being games. But they were just out of it, especially
in the second half. Yeah, we have a couple of comments here,
and I will say, yeah, with the Brock thing, it was like
it was like I'm playing like Frogger or something like I'm trying to like walk
into like traffic and I'm trying to like I don't really know if I want
to do that. Where's the log? Where's the log? He was?
I mean, it was just wild and just you know, Anthony was in
the post game and he said that Wade didn't want to talk a lot about
the game, talk more about the season. We're proud of the guys,
and that's fine, I guess. So we've got to make sure we're talking
about Adrian Martinez year. We have some comments from Zach I want to pull
up, but I want to see general thoughts that if the BattleHawks are here
instead, obviously ill other things change, but do they fare any better,
Like I don't. I mean, Birmingham it felt like, you know,
especially when they scored that first touchdown, it was like, okay, this
is over right. Then they get and then they got the scoot you know
what was at the fumble whatever, and I'm like, okay, this is
totally gone. I mean, it felt like two scores and then three was
insturramble. But with the battle Hawks, would that be different if they're there?
I mean, I think they actually score for one, they at least
put up some points. But I don't know if they really fare that much
better because it all boils down to age mccurran's health and his ankle obviously was
just shocked by the end of the season, and I don't know. Without
ages leadership and his ability to kind of the mobile and be able to really
command the offense that he had earlier in the season, I don't know.
I mean, I think this the Stallion's team. They're just look the Stallions.
They're a great team. They have all the assets. This team has
lost, as Anthony said yesterday, four games in the last three years,
and they have three championships. And there's the reason why their defense has always
been quite exceptional. They've always been able to find a way, you know.
Like I said, it's remarkable that they managed to get through this,
especially with all the coaching changes, they managed to find a way to just
come back and have this kind of effort at the end of the season.
So, to be honest, like, I think maybe the BattleHawks would have
put up a little bit more of a fight on offense, but I don't
know. I think the same result would have happened. This Stallion's team was
just ready and I think they were ready for whatever's strong at them. And
I think it was just betigating circumstances. Like do I think the XFL Conference,
I honestly believe this the XFL Conference as a whole was probably stronger than
the USFL Conference, but Birmingham was by far the best team. I mean
that's they're like clear head and shoulders about everybody else. Yeah, we talked
about that too, walking Yeah, I think like generally talent level XFL conference
higher, but the Stallions, I think is in another tier above. I
think if they're the S tier, I think Ballahawks or you know that a
promise maybe that you know B plus a minus, right, but there there
there's such a jump between I think any team and the and the Stallions.
Yeah, I mean, and it beared out that way. But I do
think Saint Louis could have put up more of a fight. But I'll say,
well could have been the bless but true, oh well less could I
can't. I don't even want to think about that, honestly, But I
mean that was the thing. We had a comment earlier from this is like
way at the beginning from Marsden and I loved him, and we talked in
Hamilton last year Regina that he said, you know, the first half of
Suborne had to turn it off and we'll get Randy and tomorrow we'll see all
that. And you know we had said I think one point three and one
point four would be great. But yeah, like if you were turning on
that game, that was a horrendous first half. To try to like entice
anybody to watch, I mean, we're selling. I mean I was watching
the Mariner game on my phone in the press blot this is brutally I sent
a picture into the chat. I think it was a picture of a skeleton
and a scene I said, waiting for someone to score, And it really
felt like that. Sometimes I hate you know, I hate feeling that way,
but I could say that the collective crowd felt that way too, where
it's just I mean, everyone was begging for a ball to be thrown down
field and that really didn't happen. Speaking of which, by the way,
I want to give Adrian Martinez his due for winning the MVP in this game,
but I'll say this, if you had told me that Adrian Martinez was
gonna throw ninety eight yards to the air, I would have thought you had
a fantastic chance to win, and that didn't happen because this ground game was
so brutal. I really think that Ricky Pearson a person, really may have
had a good chance to win the MVP award. He had one hundred two
yards rushing, but he ran like Marshall Lynch. He just absolutely bodied people
and threw him in to the dirt or the turf in this case, and
was honestly probably the best player on the field on offense. And I really
believe that he set the tone for Birmingham to kind of break out of their
le and be able to do something on offense because the the Brombas pass day
was really really good. They kept everything in front of them. Nobody let
him big plays happen over the top. They made sure that everything was kind
of in front of them. They just got worn down in the run game.
But yeah, it was it was, lack of a better word,
it was brutal to watch in the first half, just because there's just nothing
happening. Again, not crossing midfield for twenty minutes in a game. It's
really tough. Like that's some of the most like stagnant offense I've watched in
football, not only in person but in general in quite some time. Yeah,
what did you think of it? So we had the Adrian Martinez,
we had the you know that, we had the MVP, we had the
Tom Brady. Obviously we were there and didn't see I saw the clips the
Brady presentation, like well, Adrian, like this this is a good trophy.
Onto that, Like that was weird. They saw the clip of Tom
like, you know, they really need to get the ball downfield. I'm
like, I'm we amused that, Like I'm so glad, like three hundred
million dollars, Like this is like the Keen expert analysis. I'm staying I'm
throwing the back here. I think Brady, I don't think it makes it.
I think you get one of it was like, what ways say that?
Who is it? The Orleans guy Drew Brees? They did it for
a year, right, and then they get there on your arrow. I
don't know, we'll see about that, but that that bad. It was
interesting. What do you think of Tom Brady? What we saw? And
then what do you think of Yeah, Adrian Martin is getting the MVP.
I mean it's not like there was a lot else. You can't give it
to the whole you know, Bringingham defense. Well, I think Tom Brady
is obviously exceedingly knowledgeable about football. I mean he'll he'll know ten times as
much as I have in my entire life. But but how do you translate
that on television? That's the thing I think as a color commentator, you
really have to actually paint the picture for everybody and be able to describe it
in a way that makes sense and is able to teach people certain things.
I mean, that's why I really love someone like Joel Platt. I mean,
he's very colorful, he understands a lot about the game, but he's
also able to present it in a way that makes sense and teaches you something.
And I think that's something Brady's going to have to learn. Whether he
has the acumen to be in that mold, we'll see. But you know,
like I think you get nervous, especially at the beginning, because you
want to be safe. You don't want to be controversial, You don't want
to just be opinionated, which I understand, but you have to be able
to push put yourself out there a little bit. See me personality is different
than obviously your normal life personality, and it's something that you have to kind
of work with, involved with. But I don't know how much of the
belief is going to be given. And I'm sure. I mean, obviously
it's three hundred million dollars leash next to him, so the Fox will give
him as much time as he needs to, but it's up to him if
he's going to be better. But I do believe that Brady will work out
it because Brady is a workaholic, like he's a he will want to get
better at that. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing her. Yeah. Brady
was like, I mean, this is a said for a conversation, like
I would just stick with Greg Olson, Like I don't. I don't think
you can tell me that like, I don't think that there's twenty percent more
people tuned in to watch the game because Brady's on the call. I think
you're going to get that the first I think you're going to give that out
the first week. But regardless, Yeah, Jenny here says the game was
not fun, that Chris was brital. I mean now in the chat,
like, is that is that? I saw comments on the Twitter like this
ruin the season or this like what a terrible way to end it? Like
do you do you feel way? And put it in the chat? I
mean is that? I mean? It is what it is? Like I
said, we were talking with the league execs, like, I mean,
you can't. You can't. It's live sports. I mean that's the difference
in when I used to always watch Dev debe Is. I'm like, you're
able to script the perfect end every single time right where here in the obviously
real life sports you can't. But does that ruin the season for you?
Does that ruin the season? That? Let me know, I'm gonna say
no, I don't believe it actually ruins anything for me. Is it disappointing?
Yeah, of course it is. You want to have a much better
game and a better product to showcase than this, and you don't want it
to be so lopsided too. But no, I don't believe it ruins the
season at all. The season was compelling enough in its own way. I
do think it was funny that Mike was still emerging to have overtime so badly,
and you know, if it had happened, that would have been wild.
God forbid if he is zero zero overtime, because there's thoughts of that
starting to happen. But no, I mean, look, it just it
is what it is. One team showed up and the other one had a
unit that didn't get off the plane. I know that's harsh to say,
but like the offense just really just couldn't. The Bramins offense really just disappeared.
And I just don't think it really, but I don't think it ruined
the season for me. Yeah, Like so back to the problems thing and
like the AJ of it all. We've talked about this and you know,
even going into last year and injuries and stuff going into the end of the
season. Like, I mean, I love AJ. He's been on the
show twice, well at least once, if not, I can't remember.
If I can't remember forgot him on this season, but like, is that
is this an AJ thing too? I mean, it just felt like we
saw the same play over Nomber. I know you talked on the top about
that, you know a lot of slam were going back and then so this
way, I just felt like there was no attempt at all, and is
that him not trusting Garber's And we had a comment here like is Garber's trying
to get an NFL opportunity that hinder Why would think you'd want to play better
in the championship because because of that? But was that you know, because
if Dormandy came in, we saw Megan's the plays like was that what's going
on with AJ Smith? I guess, well, it is interesting how they
control the offense so much more with Chase Garber's and look, everything made a
good point, he said. Ad Smith said before the season that this guy,
Chase Garver's is who he thinks of as his PJ Walker. Well,
PJ Walker threw the ball down the field. Darvers doesn't really do that.
He's very much more short to intermediate routes. And that's fine when you're controlling
the pace of play. But they weren't, and they needed to be more
aggressive downfield. Dormanity were better or worse? Is going to do that?
He's he going to throw the ball in arms way, yes, but he
is going to push the ball downfield. And we saw that that one drive
where they finally got into the red zone at last. They didn't score,
obviously because they were desperate and they were trying to go for it, but
at least there was something going on in the passing game and they were finally
plays being made that were beyond five or ten yards. And I just you
know, there's maybe two different kinds of games you can play with those those
sorts of players, and maybe Dormity would have just been a better fit.
Are you going to get some risks, Yes, I know you don't want
to be risky, but it felt like the Broms were playing not to lose
and stuff to win, and that, to me is what really was emblematic
about the way that Chase Garber's played. And then what happened when we saw
Dormany out there, well, I think yeah, I think even Mike and
we were talking in the chat and obviously, like you know, Brady's and
trepid kind of stuff too, about well the teams are feeling each other out,
like uh yeah, it felt like that for a little bit. But
they felt like the Brown has never gotten into second year at all, where
they're just like, oh, we're kind of just like he's playing not to
lose, And it felt like there was no risk, there was no imagination,
there was no creativity, and like at some point they know what you're
gonna do and they you know, they were trying to get interceptions something like
when you're doing the same play over there, I'm able to read that and
kind of react to it. Just it felt like very weird and either to
put the play on Wag or aj like it's certainly not the team that we
expected to show up. No, not at all. And I just again,
I don't know if that would have meant that's that Dormandy should have been
switched in earlier. I don't know if that would have saved them at some
point. I mean, as a coaching staff, you understand the game plans
just not working, and it was just too little, too late by the
time they switched out uh Garber's dormany. We had a comment here at Jenna
Jenna's man Jennis man Birmingham carry the USFL. Birmingham was leasing that we would
support. It's not fixed. I will say we joked last night there were
some smiling faces in the in the hotel bar, like I bet that person's
happening that the USFL won. I mean, it's interesting that we make those
jokes about all that stuff. But like, I think that gives relevance to
a lot of that I you know, maybe does it give a boost now
that Michigan madeto the playoffs? When you want these teams to have success,
it's really hard to get people to go to Memphis or Houston games because they
stuck at least Birmingham. I don't know. I mean we saw people.
It feels too predictable. I mean, you gotta win. You can't blame
the team for winning. But I do think that Birmingham Stallions being successful helps
that conference. Yeah, absolutely, No, I mean they're carrying the torch.
They haven't carrying the torch for three years. They are by far the
stalwarts franchise, and they at least give it relevance because otherwise, I mean,
there's some tough ball to watch there in the USFL. In terms of
the Memphis and Houston teams like Michigan a lot. Maybe they're not the most
prettiest to watch on TV, but they are a good team and they've been
a better team in the last two years. That first year was really rough
when they were coming out of the gates in the Hub model. But you
know, like the USFL from a from a TV standpoint, I think has
some interesting playmakers. It's just there's two teams that are really strongly in Memphis
in Houston. But yeah, like Birmingham, Birmingham is compelling just based on
what they've done. Again, this is this is a tremendous thing and there's
people now, there's fans from opposing teams that want to see them lose.
Like they're teams that are saying, Okay, we want to give you our
best shot and take you down. We want to be the ones that take
down in Birmingham. And it hasn't happened yet, and it's I don't know
when it's going to happen. It really depends on you know, Skip Holtz
stays around and continues to build on this dynasty. It'll be really interesting.
Yeah, a couple of things. Yeah, I mean it feels a little
bit like the CFL with Winnipeg the last few years, Like you're going to
have in these smaller leagues, You're going to have teams. There's going to
be a talent out there. I mean, there's just not the parody that
they want. And so yeah, I mean it puts a bullet on his
shoulders or a bullet on the whatever, target on the head whenever you want,
you metaphore you want to call it. But yeah, it does feel
like Skip entertaining the room last night. Feels like Skip's in a good place
right now. Like if I'm Skip, I don't know. I mean,
do I go anywhere else? I mean it, I don't know. If
it gets Yeah, obviously you can go make money more money to do whatever
we were talking. Okay, you go to college and you deal with nil
and all this, Like here, you work three four months out of the
year, you do some showcases during the summer. Like, I don't think
it's a bad gig. No, And if he wants to go call it,
you know, maybe coach a college or somewhere else for maybe a season,
that's fine too. But I mean he does have the best gig in
talent. He really does this Birmingham franchise just absolutely adores him. It's fans
adore him. As you said, you'll never have to buy a drink in
the state of Alabama maybe ever. Again, I just don't know, Like
going from here, the thing is with these franchises, what do you think
of as the franchise that has to succeed it's better for the league. Like,
for example, one of the things I saw last night, Saskatchewan had
another comeback victory. You can see Hamilton, sorry Jason, but they came
back and they won, And I saw a lot of comments saying, oh,
it's good that Saskatch one is good, you know, because this is
good for the league. And I don't know belief this conference has that.
Now, maybe you could argue it's probably Saint Louis because of the attendance that
they get. Probably you want Saint Louis to be successful because of how many
people they get. But I don't know if that's necessarily the case for other
franchises in this league. I don't know if they really have that. So
because there's a lot of leagues where they said the same thing. They say,
oh it's good that this team is good because it's good for numbers.
Overall, and I'm not sure that's necessarily the case in this league yet because
I don't know if anybody has that wagon to hitch themselves too. Yeah,
as I think that's a good point. I mean, yeah, I don't
know. And we've seen the radians people, okay, but Michigan draws more,
Birmingham draws more. Whatever. I maintain it's a lot of the time
slots and the networks and kind of what's going on with that. But I
don't know whenever the rading is, I don't know if you can get a
bigger TV radio shay at the Ballothawks are in there. I mean, obviously
you think you get more people in the stand, but I'll be curious.
I think that there's a four right now for a four and a slightly higher
ceiling for spring football, and I don't know if in a different combination yesterday
would have made that better. I think you had had a better in game
experience and maybe that translates to TV, but I don't know. I don't
know if there's another half a million people that are tuning in against the Ballahawks
are in there. I don't know about that either. I mean, as
far as being a fan that wants to go to the games. Yeah,
you want that team to be good and be able to have that energy.
And the Battahawks have always been good, like they've always been a team that
seems to always be about five hundred. So that bodes well for them,
at least in terms of their reputation. So that's good for them. But
as far as everybody else in the league, I mean, are people really
get to care, like suddenly that the Roughnecks become fantastic. I don't know.
I don't know if that really draws the number, If Memphis suddenly becomes
fantastic, I don't know. That's the thing. I don't have that answer.
That doesn't I'm not sure if that's the draw that everybody is expecting.
I mean, we see Birmingham is obviously, you know, their dynasty,
and the numbers in their stadium haven't really changed. I mean, obviously,
their TV rating is very high. They're Birmingham TV rating is great. People
watch them in the in the area, But as far as like getting people
into the stands hasn't really shipped the needles. So I don't know what that
means. I just sad. A couple of things here, Zach here,
this came to be a league, a parody Birmingham silly. No one can
compete with them. I wonder what kind of kool a they're drinking. I
want something I like that, Zach. Yeah, we didn't rune into Zach.
I think Zach said he was in the suite yesterday, so we tried
to see. You know, I say what I say, Yeah, I
come to Saint Louis. I can always see the people that want za Zach's
ye flouting here in the suites. But I will just say, like when
you have these smaller leagues, and we're talking the elitis of Birmingham, like
the CFL, it feels like there's like six pretty decent teams and then there's
like two or three kind of duv teams. Right like this year, it
feels like the Edmonton's kind of going to be asked. It feels like all
the what like. But I feel, you know, in six teams make
the playoffs, and like I feel like that kind is that way where I
feel like in this league there's like one or two good teams, then there's
a lot of ass teams, Like you know, it's it's kind of like
Birmingham Aley, you need to flip that. I want I want to have
five or six of nine good versus you know, two or three of eight
good. Well, it's just more can a team recover when things aren't going
their way? And I do believe that Saint Louis sometimes can do that.
They don't always do it, but I believe they can. Birmingham obviously,
any turmoil they go through, they managed to figure it out. Unfortunately,
we saw the Bromins last night that wasn't the case. When their offense went
that was it, that was it was game over. That's kind of my
biggest thing is can these teams have another way of adjusting or be able to
figure out something that will help them win win that game, or be able
to uh be able to join that upper epsalon of teams. I mean,
we saw that the CFL last year. Even you know, we dogged Montreal
the entire season and said, well, they're kind of a mid team,
they're not really, they're not fit to be a team like BC or Toronto
or in a pig And they went out and prove everybody wrong because they were
able to ascend and like you could tell that there was at least competition there,
and it was. It was shocking, of course, but that that
competition, that reality of oh, this upset could actually happen. That always.
The thing is, I don't always feel like that in spring football.
Sometimes I just watch a game. It's almost a formality, Like I don't
think, Like I watch Birmingham games, i don't expect them to lose,
even when they're trailing to a team like Michigan, I'm like, yeah,
they're gonna figure it out. Like it's just there's no there's no suspension of
belief that believe like they're going to basically lose this game. Like that never
comes into play. And as I think as a sports fan, you want
to at least have a little bit of doubt because it keeps you on edge
and it keeps you interested because you think this may not work out for us,
and you need to keep that in your head. A couple of things
here, Denzel, I'm worried about the XFL side being able to keep coaches
because you pay structure. Then I think we're gonna talk with Mike about that
this week. So I guess I again subscribed on that because I want to
get Mike Stotts, and he was one of the report that Heine's Ward last
year, and that's how we got Wade Phillips with it. You know,
spoiler Elier. I don't think heine Ward's brom is making to play the championship
and I don't think they fear any better against that. And Mark here,
I don't want the UFL to become this gallion's playing the role of globe drawers
versus generals every season. Paradise needed. I agree with that talking just real
quick like adjustment. It's kind of all that stuff. Are you surprised?
Obviously we saw Dormandy late in the game, but I mean it was like
halfway through the fourth quarter. Like I just to me at halftime, you
make like, what the hell are we? I mean, what an't we
be waiting for here? And there's no like even oh, we don't want
to offend anybody person. I mean, it's free football, and these guys
might not be back next year. I was just surprised it took that long.
You know, Garber's did not have a great game and then Dormandy.
Are you surprised it took so long? It's always tough playing those politics,
but yes, I do believe it. It was kind of surprised that Dormany
didn't get a shot earlier. And look again, I don't think Chase Garber's
was really the problem necessarily. I just think the game plan was not conduced
to his strikes. And really what they were trying to do they needed to
put the push the ball down, feel it a little bit more. And
that's the thing Dormandy is going to do that. It's gonna take those risks
and he's gonna be able to take the high volume plays that are going to
be very volatile. But maybe that's what you need. Maybe you need a
little bit more gusto and what you need. And look, coaches are not
afraid to do this, like we saw this last week with Skip Boltz.
You know, Martinez was not playing well against Michigan. He said, I'm
putting in Matt Corral and crowd played well, and I had that in the
back of my head. Today I thought Martinez doesn't play well, started playing
better. You know, there were parts in this first half where I started
to thinking, I don't know raid his way and kind of get into this
game. He never did, but you have to be prepared for that to
happen because things aren't going well coach. At the end of the day,
the coach wants to win. The coach wants to win the game. And
that's what kind of again sort of shocked me about the promise, that there
was just such a lack of urgency, like there was no It's like they
weren't even trying to hit the panic button. They just said, no,
you know, this is we'll figure it out. It'll it'll, it'll start
to even out eventually. It just never did. So I don't know.
Again, the reticence to even try something with Dormany until it was far too
late just was puzzling. A couple of comments here Wade is gone. People
talk about it's not good for I mean, this is just my whatever.
I think you're going to see an extra this of the XFL side we were
the deal was that they were on the contract for the two years. Uh
so they're all the x OFFL contracts are currently on a higher pay structure than
the USFL contracts. That's why heinz Ward left because he they said, okay,
year two, This year you're gonna get paid, but then next year
you're going to get the drop and for whatever reason. Heinz Ward, this
is Mike Mitchell's reporting, and said, I I don't want to do that.
I'd rather leave. I said at the time, I would take the
money right now and then figure out. You always you always always take the
money now and Okay, I'll figure that out next year. But he said,
no, that's why waits here. But you know, if these coaches
get dropped down on the half of whe they're getting paid or more, I
think there's going to be a big drop. I'll be curious. Do you
still get a Bob stoops doing this? Do you still get whatever? I'll
be curious. I'm not saying Wade's gone, but I think that you're going
to see it shifting, at least on the XFL side, because the USFL
coaches, I mean, unless they get rid of like Curtis Johnson because hey,
you're not good at this or whatever. But like I think from a
pure merit of getting paid like that, by not morality, but that feeling,
you know, like the self worth of like is Wade Phillips coming back
for whatever the heck they're gonna pay the next year. I hesitate to say
yes, because, as you said, the pay scales are really a big
batchorate. Again, I mean, I do think the coaches love doing this.
I think Bob Stups likes having a short, you know, short term
job here. I think Wade loves coaching. He's going to coach until wheels
falls falls off. And for me, I mean I hope that a lot
of these coaches don't leave. I mean, you want to see somebody get
their chance. A lot of people yesterday were asking like, well, you
know what, Adre Smith might get a head coach job. Well, we're
not sure. Now after I know, I don't know, Maybe not the
best time to kind of bring that up, but you know, the people
want to see guys get the opportunities and be head coaches, right, And
I will say this about these leagues, the XFL, the USFL, and
UFL. We've seen plenty of guys get their chances. Some have panned out
and some of you know, some haven't have been spec catholic successes and others
have been catastrophic failures. But you want to at least to try that out
at LEAs you want to be able to at least, you know, be
able to bait attest that and say can this work? Can this guy get
a program together and can they do something. I mean again, Skip Holds
is somebody that I paid a little bit of attention to in college, and
now I pay a lot more attention to because of what he did in this
league, because of this tremendous accomplishment. So you can really uplift the profile
of somebody who even has been a head already. But maybe they just need
that right opportunity to really shine and to show their assets and their acumen for
the game. Chris here Wade loves coaching. He do it for free.
I bet you he would. I would bet you I would bet you that
he would not do it. You gotta pay bills. You gotta pay bills.
Here. You can your wishes and buds and candy and nuts. It
doesn't it doesn't pay all that. We got about ten minutes left down here,
and then we're going to pack up and head to the airport. Make
sure if you have any comments, questions, get him in here before we
get out of here. Make sure we do all that. And then,
like I said, Friday episode coming up with Mike hopefully, and then we'll
have Hussy on tomorrow. We'll do CFL stuff. I got it. We
have another game today or did they end yesterday? I got to know all.
I guess I'll catch up on all that stuff when I got home.
General thoughts, anything else that the championship game, you want to make sure
we touch on and then we'll figure out what they boy everyone else wants to
talk about. Well, I just wanted to say, you know, first
of all, like I said, the gate didn't go according to plane,
but what did go beyond my expectations was the people I got to talk to
on this entire trip, and I just wanted to say, and look,
I know we get a lot of comments. Me and re both get a
lot of comments about how we review things. I did get some comments,
including from some a couple lead people yesterday about you know, Andrew, you
have some interesting perspectives. I don't know who's agree with you in your negativity,
but I appreciate your perspective, and you know what, to me,
that made it worth it, because that's all I get care for. I
Look, I'm just grateful that we have this, and that's my biggest takeaway
from this is just I'm grateful to be at a championship game. This is
two years in a row that we've been able to do this, and I've
got I've also been able to see another part of America that I had I
didn't know when I was going to see it. You know. I get
to go to a city that I had on my bucket list for a long
time, Saint Louis, and really just kind of explore more of my country
and more areas that I hadn't had a chance to go to, you know.
And so for me, I'm just thankful to be here and really be
part of this so and to really do this show again for an entire season
again, just you know, to make it by the end. That's really
my biggest takeaway. And just to be around people who care. I mean,
I ran into some DC Defender fans downstairs and their their thing with me,
and they said, they're like, you know, we're just following the
league. We want to go to the league gos, we want to support
this, and there are people like that in the space. I believe there
are people like that in the space. I just want them to be given
the opportunity and new people to be given the opportunity to be part of it,
because I really believe in that, and I believe that energy is there.
I just I want to see that taken care of and fostered. Yeah,
No, I was just I got this up. Yeah, I got
to see the arch. Gotta been on Twitter. I got to celebrate all
that stuff, calling out with every I was cool. I have that fall
everywhere Lewis. You know, maybe we'll see that. Maybe we'll do a
barcar with that. I don't know, like at calls to come back if
Birmingham comes back to Saint Louis, so I might have to read I might
have to come here in your stead. No, but it was fun.
You know, we'll talk. I had a comment here that flew out of
my head here, but kind of moving into oh and that's I want to
say, I'll be here. What I'll be curious now is kind of what
happens in the off season because we talked through the Great Parks Yester down the
show and he was saying, like, you know, he doesn't take expansion,
and they would announce that already. It kind of would have been this
week right the same way, like you know, what was it the XFL
announced their coaches the week the USFL kickoff was We're trying to like I think
there would have been some sort of buzz this week about all that. We'll
see. Darrel said in the interview that you know, they were in his
interview the newspaper a couple of weeks ago, like, you know, the
cities are set, that's the plan. We're working on expansion. But you
know, do we see a bunch of layoffs now season knowing all that,
or we're keeping people on, Like does Corey have a job for the next
six months trying to get people Like I'll be curious what that looks like because
this needs to be a three sixty five year but at three six to five
a year league. But like we've said before with Fox and do they value
that or they just valuate this is this is products that we can put on
and we're moving stuff next year already to make you know, to make room
for racing and that probably pays more money anyway, Like, it's interesting to
me and that they're already redlegating that stuff to Friday next year. It kind
of shows a priority. Yeah, yeah, that's true. I'm curious to
see what's gonna happen with the schedule. I don't think there's gonna be an
expansion. Sorry, guys, I don't believe that's gonna happen this offseason.
We talked about it yesterday. What was gonna happen, you know, with
the investment from Metwork Capital, what's gonna happen there, What's gonna happen with
some of the assets going forward? Are we gonna see any you know,
coaching movement. Are we gonna see what like again one of the things that
we don't want to see really so much stuff this league just disappears for six
months and then comes out of the dark. We want to see, you
know, at least some attention. I know Fox has in NFL they have
to worry about, and there's obviously, you know, big, bigger things
that play here. But I do want to see that they they are at
least keeping this unconscious and are able to be able to get news out about
it, be able to build on this and continue building towards it. Also,
please hopefully try to get some of the tickets sold a little bit earlier
for some of the some of the teams next year. That would be I
think a huge tremendous thing that they could do and just get again, just
get more people involved. There's a lot of questions the off season. I
don't know if those questions are really going to be addressed for a while.
I kind of am a little bit worried about the timeliness of which some of
the questions are going to be addressed, but you know, look, that's
just how it goes sometimes with these leagues. But I agree that I hope
that there's more. I just wish there would be more people that were kept
on full time because there are people that I want to be dedicated to this.
There are people that I want to do this for a living, and
I hope that that there's a way to make that a reality. A couple
of comments here, Abdul says, you don't think Saint Louis Holt's hosts next
year's championship game? No, Like this was your shot, Like that's why
I did all this stuff and yelling at the people, and everyone got like
this was your shot. You don't get to sit out this year because you
weren't in it, and they expect them to bring it back next year.
I mean sorry, Like that's like you had the girl at the bar you
were talking to and hey, can I get your Like that was your opportunity?
Like I don't I don't see them coming back. I want to get
your thoughts on that, Vincent says Veale. Back to San Antonio Almo Dome
is the best stadium of the league playing Canton. Don't agree with Canton because
the as Mike Mitchell pointed out, the capacity of Canton is less than even
the report of attendants yesterday for the Saint Louis game, so that would not
happen. But I think the Alamo Dome is probably the best option. It's
close enough to Dallas that you can bust. You know, you can bust
the players there. They were on charters last night trying to get out.
That was interesting. But you know, it's central enough in that way.
It's hard to get people to go to Migieia if you're like I think San
Antonio central and not if you're able to get a lot of people into that
curious enough to me, I don't think Saint Louis gets it again next year.
I think you miss your chance. No, I think, and I
don't think again. I'm sorry Mellahawks fans, but I don't think it showed
well to the league that people didn't show up, and I think that's gonna
be a big long term factor here in terms of that they even think about
coming back here again. Uh, san Antonio, Well, here's the thing
read, So this is what I was bringing up earlier in the show.
Do you look to have more neutral settings? Instead of trying to play in
a stadium that's being played in already by one of these teams, you try
to go to a different stadium and say, let's just be here, let's
just have a neutral spot. Do you play somewhere somewhere in Texas for example,
do you play somewhere in I don't know, I guess like Tennessee,
like Nashville or something like that. Like do you pick a neutral setting?
Do you just put a pin on a map and say, let's just meet
here and we're not gonna worry about it if we're gonna sell tickets or not
because that team is not gonna make it. I mean, I know San
Antonio did last year. But again, I just think that the vibe of
the Spell was so much more different. It was different, It was different.
It just it was a little bit different. And I really believe that,
like people were just not worried about whether, you know, they weren't
worried to like, oh, my promise didn't make it. I'm not gonna
go Okay, people were worried about that this was so much more of a
bigger deal, and I don't know if the league wants to run that risk
again. I think they just want to be able to just have a nice
neutral setting. So for me, I'm gonna say this, I think they're
gonna seriously consider just not being in a stadium from one of these teams again.
I think they're gonna just say, let's just do neutral sites from now
on. It's so weird. And just to round this out again that it
was different last year and it wasn't it would be different this year if it
was. Okay, this isn't even inner conference, right, we're booing the
stallions, right, hey, we're the exit, Like no, they were
booing the brahmas. I mean, this was we are upset, and I
don't understand that because this is a you know, it's play the wins sport
and you lost far and square and that is what it is. But that
is the difference. It wasn't even like XFL on USFL crime. It was
like, no, we're mad at like, we're just mad. And I
totally different vibe, You're right than last year, totally different. I find
that fascinating too. How many times have you heard the last years about both
of these leagues, both these conferences, people comparing them. That's the value
is the film. Which one's better, which you know, better players,
better coaches, which one gets more fans, blah blah blah TV ratings,
Like there's been so much juxtaposition of like which one is better? And then
here's the opportunity to support a team from your league, and that's just not
how it wins. The vibe was not there. I really find that fascinating
because people have made such a big point about supporting NEXTICO conference and now I
kind of saw a little bit of a division with that yesterday and said and
people just said, you know what, no, you're here, I'm Matt,
I don't I don't even want to support the conference. I just I
just want to be against you. And that I don't know, that really
surprised me, considering some of the interactions and just so much of the grand
stating that people have done the last two years. I really I really was
kind of almost confused by that. Well, I just just to be done
with this year. Becau, we're gonna get off here and just the grand
staying that the BattleHawks fans and we're carrying all this stuff, we're supporting,
and like I just I was very shocked last week and my Twitter when I
got a lot of negative and I've had a lot of BattleHawks people and follow
me and that's fine, and like, uh, you you can't you know,
shout caught cough from the rooftops for the last three years and say that
you're the cats pajamas with all this stuff, and then when it comes time
to put up, you sit mad at home like I don't. And it's
not wasn't some weird fluky and a tiebreaker and it went down to the points
score they get like you lost, not even I mean you made the playoffs.
It wasn't even you guys didn't make it. Like I just, I
I'll never and I said, I don't think they'll do it here, and
and it's it's shame on them. I mean, sorry, wow, anything
else here, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna log off anything else
or anything. Thanks everyone, like I said, for you know, checking
it out. Congrats to the Stallions, Congrats to everybody. With the league
and both conferences and all the exacts and everything. I got a lot of
that, Like really didn't even congratulate them whatever, last couple of years of
congratulations everybody, anything else. And before we get out of here, no,
like I said, super happy, you have to do this. I'm
allowed to do this again with you in person is always a treat. I
again, just really enjoyed my overall experience. Overall, I definitely want to
try and come back here again for another game and be at a ballot game
when people show up to the stadium. I would like to actually experience that.
But like I said, you know this Dalans thing, who knows.
I mean they're gonna go for number four next year? Man, I mean
this is this is immense. I really felt like we were watching history last
night. So you revolutions to them again. We'll see what happens going forward.
But always be just thankful to be part of this and be with you.
Yeah, thanks for taking part, Thanks for making the time. Andy's
on here there, that's good. I appreciate it. And thanks Anthony,
who's I'm sure furiously riding the way right now getting it all his step up,
Zach Channy, everyone in the chat. We appreciate it. Like I
said, check in Friday, we'll figure all that stuff out. We're gonna
get back on the plane here and we'll see you guys next time. Thanks again