USFL Championship: What Did We Learn?

Well, happy Monday morning. Everyone here, holiday weekend, whether you're in Canada or in the US, here getting ready for we have a big CFL game tonight here, Monday Night Football with the Argonauts taking on BC Lions, America's CFL team. But we are here today talking USFL. No days off here, no week's off. I think officially safe to say that highest viewed

USFL Championship game a pregame show. It's kind of like election cycle. You kind of got to wait for all the numbers to come in, but it looks like maintain that most watch USL kickoff show, most watch USFL Championship game show. So you know, people, if if you're with the league, if you're with you know we're around here. We're kind of doing our thing, but we're always here. A couple of guests today, you wanted to talk about the hard work of this live from a rest stop, unable to

make it home, but could not not be on the show. Today. We have Potrophina. First off, how are you doing? Has this felt immediately drops out? Okay, we'll get pat On here. Pat was working over the weekend, but I have here a special guest standing by is that the professor's music, Andy Murray, how are you doing, sir? It is all right. I am coming off the top rope. It's been a while, hasn't it. It's been a while. I think we might do

something this week too. I'm thinking I'm trying to. I'm workshopping ideas here. But Andy Live he was in anime con right in La here on vacation, and he wanted to come on time the championship game. How are you doing, SIRP Yeah, I've just been a while, wait for about a weekend with my friend a little a little convention here in Los Angeles. The weather has been great, but I guess I wanted to get off my summatical for a moment to come and talk about this because I know I'm a little

bit out of my element. I don't have my normal attire, but I wanted to come and talk about this since you know where, We've already gone to the end of the season already. It just flew by. I don't know about you, but it felt like this USFL season went by much faster than the last one, and even faster than maybe the XFL season. Maybe I'm just imagining that, but to me, I couldn't believe. I felt

like I was just watching your preview show with Rick Stella and everybody. Just it almost feels like two weeks, not two and a half months or three months. It's weird. And I'll bring Patt in here. I think Pat's just having connection issues will get him on. But it's it's been hard, right, And I think this is what everyone wanted, Right, We've talked about this for years and the dream and year round football, and I mean, this is one percent of the challenges the players go through, you know,

and the coaches and the staff and workers and everyone else. But it's a lot. And I think that the overhang with the XFL kind of helped make that USFL season feel shorter also, Right, It took really till week four or five to kind of like, Okay, now we're just doing this on our own. We don't have to you know, we're not you know, like you're on or Pat. We're kind of trying to juggle all these multiple leagues and all of that. I don't know, and I also to

me and this is just you know, maybe my twitters and stuff. USFL still feels like it exists a little bit more in the vacuum. I still feel like I see more XFL, and again, it could just be because I'm following the matt Berries of the world, and thankfully a lot of the XFL people kind of survived the cuts with ESPN last week. I know that Jason Fitz wasn't so lucky, but I don't know. For whatever reason,

it kind of felt like we were mid season with the USFL. And honestly, if you miss the games, if you blink and you miss, they're kind of gone. I know, Pat does a really great job, you know, obviously we talked the games every week, like you kind of if you miss it over the weekend, I feel like it doesn't exist. Your following coming into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, if that makes sense, yeah,

and your muted Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean both of them are kind of like it seems like you could to accept one of them into your lives and then displace the other. Right, And I suppose it's the same way with the CFL too. Now we hear obviously at the marcass don't discriminate. We get ourselves involved in all of them. So for me and you and all of us, for most of us, I think it's not really that different because they all overlaps together and it's all sort of this part

of the giant, amalgamated calendar. But for most people, yeah, I mean, it can just be over in a flash and that's it. That's their season and that's all they were looking forward to. So for me, it's just been really interesting to see now with all these colliding calendars together,

just sort of this continuous flow of gridiron action. I mean, it's just so funny seeing all these NFL reports and ups coming out and being like, oh, well, you know, training camp starts, we'll be you know, won't be without football for so and so days, And it's like we've been living this for how many months now, I mean since February on, and it's not really gone away, and it's not going to go away for the CFL obviously, it's going to be here until you know, November.

So for us, I mean, our off periods don't really exist. Like as far as if you're if you are exclusively a football watcher, if you indulge in all leagues, there is no time off now if this is going to be a continuing trend, But as far as an all leaguer, goes. I mean, still there are people who have their alliances and sort of choose which one that they decided to put their time them and money and investments in. Obviously, so it's interesting just seeing how kind of people measure out

their schedules in that way. But for me, I mean, it's just been the train has just been rolling the entire time. There we go. I was trying to add the banner back on end of deleting the banner, and that we again here, let's bring padd in as well. Here pads, Like I said, no really no days off. Pads literally live from from the truck stop here. I couldn't make it home with his work schedule. Pat, how are you doing, sir? Do well? Apologic apologies

for the connection issues. I'm somewhat sorry right now, so not really no issues at all. We appreciate Pat. What have you made of this? We've done it, you know, we've been here every week, no weeks off here. What do you make we? Finally? You know, we crowned the champion stallions back to back. What do you make them all this? Um? As far as with the season, I think it was a good season. Um, you know, a lot, a lot of games.

I think we've talked about it with a little bit of football fatigue, um, and honestly, like as people who cover these leagues, we just kind of have to like, you know, I want to sound too simple here, but man up and do it. You know, like their days, I don't really want to watch for football games back to back to back because you know, I'd like to go outside they or even better, take a nap. But I mean, this is a commitment that we've made to

these players, to these leagues. And I mean, you know, I'm glad that they can played a second season with the intention of coming back for a third. You know, that's three years of opportunities for guys, you know, in terms of the game itself. And we'll get Andy. I celebrated the Mariners decided to go somehow get two miraculous wins here and gets to the m of day raised after losing fifteen to four on Friday, and imagine

Andy, imagine my life. I'm sitting there. I'm like, I got really good seats to these next two games here, just gave up fifteen unanswered runs, won both games, celebrated, and then I went back. I watched every snap of the USL Championship game last night. Don't add me on that. So we'll go first Pat and then Andy Patton. The game itself, I thought it was not nearly as exciting this last year. That wanted

to be too critical. What did you make it a game? I mean when you start off last year the way like that Stars game and then you add the parody of like the injuries, like you set the bar really high, you know what I mean? Like regardless of the four and six teams, Like we saw a good four and six team a couple of weeks back, but with how good last year's game was, a lot of things had to align. But um, I mean I think I think it went pretty

level to the season that we saw from both these teams. Alex Magoo made a lot of plays. He scrambled a lot, you know through some you know he did with Benda Nucci thinks Benda Nucci can do with way less interceptions.

And then you know the Maulers defense or excuse me, the Maulers relied on defense, Troy Williams running and Chris blew its leg and we saw throughout the season they had a lot of issues finishing and how many times did they get inside the twenty I think two or three and they couldn't score, you know, so, I mean, if you were the it fell in line

with the script to keep it a lack of a better turn. And you know, they made a competitive because I think it was three nothing going into like the middle of the second quarter, you know, and the Maulers are away thing and that touchdown that you know Isaac saca Polo when he handed off the ball forward, Um, that kind of changed the game a lot. Like Randon, I don't think he was gonna score, but he would have probably been within within the twenty five. But uh, I mean, no

real surprise. You know. I'm sure there was a lot of people who thought the Mallers were gonna win, but I mean I wasn't surprised by this outcome. I think I said they were gonna win like fourteen to twenty seven or something like that. The Stallions pretty close and then yeah, I have some does so Andy, what did you make of this? I mean, it was the Alex magu show and it has been the entire season. He was outstanding for the most part in the entire playoff run. You have an

accounted for nine total touchdowns in two playoff games. That's saying something. He just was putting his improvisational skills on display constantly throughout the entire run. Now, it almost got him into trouble during the game. He almost had that just hideous fumble against the Maulers and where Boogie Roberts had the handoff and it almost led up to a score. And honestly, for Boogie, you got to know that you got a later roll that ball man. You can't just

hand that off. You get that's like football one on one. You can't hand that off forward man. And if you had scored there, that shifts the momentum completely for the Mallers. Instead, you're holding them into a field goal and you don't really get a chance to get that momentum back. So for the Stallions, I mean, Magoo just was outstanding this entire season.

He really stepped up. He was a different quarterback last year. I didn't I honestly was saying during the champion not the championship game, the inaugural game that we went to. I was like, I don't want this guy playing. Yeah, I think I don't think he can throw. And I wanted j R. Smith out there and J. R. Smith was the right

quarterback to go with the entire season. This season We'll never know because jam R. Smith got her, but clearly Magoo got to go through leaps and bounds of development and with the staff and with this offense, which again did not have its full arsenal. I mean, there was no Bo Scarborough and there was no um who I'm trying to remember the other receiver, Marlin Williams. There was no Marylin Williams. There was no full arsenal for him to

deal with. And that was kind of thing I thought about did the Championship game, especially in the second half, was Man, it would be really nice if they had a running back to really grind out the clock here and kind of eat up time. And Cjo Marrable is good. I like CJ. Marrable, but both Scarborough would have been perfect for that situation for so kudos to Scarborough for just being are sorry for McGoo for being on top of his game, being able to hit his spots, just be able to improvise

running out of the pocket. He was outstanding the entire game. So I can't say that the Maulers really had an answer the entire time. I don't know. I want to get pat thoughts on this, because I you know, I know Pat's obviously high agoo and he gets the MVP and he's getting you know, you got to get gonna get the game MVP and all this

kind of stuff. To me, it felt and it might be if this is my quarterback, maybe I feel different right like where I I am not a Stallion's fan, so I'm like, oh, I'm kind of maybe I'm jealous of this guy. Or he's got these big following locks and he's kind of running around, But it felt like he was getting a little like high on his own supply at the end, like during this game, like like scrambling when he didn't even need to, Like he's like out running around and

then you're like, okay, you didn't even need to. Kind of like it felt like he was trying to do a lot. I know there was one where Skip called like the time out. They Alex was like no, I like I was able to. I was I was gonna get be able to get it off, like I knew what I was doing. And then they came out and ran right into a wall and it's like, well, maybe you should have listened to skip like maybe I felt like he's obviously still

learning. I don't know where he goes from here. They pointed out right obviously the four touchdowns championship game record, you know, beat it over, you know, Case Cook this slash year. What did you make of Magoo here? Pat in that and just in terms of like him feeling like he was trying to do too much and I don't know that that was necessary. I don't know. It felt like he kind of got to a weird spot. I think it comes out the film, and not just for Magoo,

but for all these guys. When you when you have the luxury of like these all football leagues is we and we saw it is like every game means so much to these guys that every game is going to be another one of these guys, you know, putting their best foot forward, giving their best effort, especially when you like, you know, when this isn't your end goal. Like I'm sure there's some players who are just doing this, like, you know, because they love playing football and they got other businesses.

In fact, I know a couple of these players have things going on. But you know, for Alex, like every snap is I need to show what I can do so I can get back to the NFL. Um, it doesn't at this point, like for me, Like, what does Alex have to prove in the USFL? Like last year he was a starter, but he put together some pretty good highlights. Last year. Um, you know, obviously Smith's played better, but then he had he came back in the championship. He excuse me, he led the team back to a victory.

And this year he puts together probably one of the best, if not the best season in all football history of of you know, I think he had twenty five or twenty five total touchdowns, you know, fifth or six in the league, and rushing like Andy said, this playoff run you threw, you accounted for nine touchdowns in two games, Like that's uber impressive. And then they go back to back. I mean, at this point, Alex has most likely one goal and that's to get back to the NFL.

And I mean every snap for him is in probably his mind crucial, you know, like every snap is a high is a highlight reel, or attempting to be put on the highlight reel would be a better verbage for it, but just stuff because we're seeing that we saw that with the XFL as well, where how do you bou what's that? Right? How do you go out there? Where we saw like AJ McCarron felt to be more calm during

the season, Just okay, this is where I'm at right now. I'm accepted that where you got that with Benda Nuici, Like you said, every single player like I gotta go out here, I gotta win every single game on my back, and it just you end up getting different performances. And I don't know if you got like the Scooby riots last year and where he's like, I don't even know if I want to do this football thing anymore. Like you feel a little bit more free where you get it just feels

like a lot heavier weight on some of these guys. Andy. Does that make any sense? No, it does. And that's the thing. You have to set your own expectations the goals going into these leagues. You can't just be a loof. You need to know, okay, am I going into the league or do I want to stay here and be comfortable. That's and I guess for some players maybe that is trying to rekindle their love of the game and maybe trying to find out if they really want to be there.

Like again, I go back, I've used them as an example again, But like t J. Barnes, the defensive tackle for the Arlington Renigades, was pretty sure he was not gonna play again, and then they gave him a call because he plays really well with the championship ring. And now he's like, all right, I'm good, I don't I don't need to do that anymore. Sometimes sometimes just having an answer for a player really kind of gives them some sort of closure and solitude so that they don't have to

continue asking that question the rest of their lives. Because a lot of players don't get that chance. They just say, well, I guess I'm not sure I could have done this. You know I could have. Every player doesn't really want to become like Uncle Rico, you know, like I could throw one ball over the mountains, and you don't really want to have that for every player. I think I'm not saying every player does, but I'm

sure there's some sort of mental gymnastics you have to work through. So and you know, it's interesting to bring up Scooby, right, I do wonder maybe was this, you know, his last rodeo, because now he's going back to back championships. He's been on a great team. Will it ever get this good again? You know, well every better than this. I mean, as a Stalis fan, you are spoiled. You've lost three games in two years. As as a football team at any level, I don't

care what level it is. That's impressive. That's hard to do. And for players that are on that team, with the staff there and the team, you have to think about like, is this my chance to jump? Is this my chance to go on to something else? Because that is some excellent resume work. But at some point the train does have to stop, you know, unless you know. Other USFL teams did improve this year. I mean the North was a mess, but Michigan technically did improve. The

Mallers did improve. The South. I mean I thought the Breakers were formidable. They just didn't have anything o their way and they got absolutely she lacked in the Self Division championship game. But I mean Houston improved, Memphis was better. You know, there will be teams that will make moves, and these teams are always shifting the rosters, the coaches are changing. Somebody's going

to step up next year. So for Birmingham, I guess for the players and the coaches, you have to ask yourself, all right, is this the end goal or is there something greater? But I don't think I wouldn't try to go into it thinking like, well, you know, I'll hang around another offseason and what they will just be shooting on all cylinders again next year. I mean this, I don't think that's the case. Yeah. We talked with John Vogel kind of on our championship game pregame show, like

I don't know. To me, the year two the three jump is going to be interesting. Fund if you're on a crappy team, if maybe you're on the fence and you don't know if you want to go back, or if you're coaches you're not sure. Some comments here and then I got a couple of notes at Denzel checking in what's up guys, Mallers have bad game plan? Talking to the Maller's offensive line as well. Jacob sent me an email. Jacob's cataloged every excellent and usl TV rating here coming up. I

think we'll do something with this week. Sads had only six drives and the Millers didn't do anything when they had the ball. Made it kind of boring Mike checking in game was let down, especially when one team can't even score a TD and thought they could be the Suns kicking field goals. That's kind of my question here, and I have we have some things like Magoo or

p J. Walker, maybe we can get to at the end. But the other the big story to me was this like kind of Ray Horton meltdown with the referees kind of going into the into the halftime and then into the second half. I know there was like the movement on the end zone the TD one that the stallions that Ray was yelling at. I thought they had a TimeClock violation as well. I know there's always weird like what's got to

hit zero? And then the RAF looks. But then Pat Ray Horten like really kind of had this meltdown going in where they had the punt formation there wasn't enough guys, and then even the broadcasters were noting like it seems like he's overwhelmed with this in the second half and not really even paying attention to the game. Pat, what did you make of kind of the downfall here of the Pittsburgh head coach. I mean, I wouldn't call it a downfall.

He is the first time head coach, so like dealing with that, it's a different beast when you're when you're the guy, you know, like when you're at your position coach kind of easier to be like just focus on us. But when you say, have that mantra as the head coach, Um, you know, focusing on us is all twenty two guys and got

guys on the field and whatnot. Um. I mean I understand that because you know I was when I was rewatching the game, I was kind of confused myself and usually keep the games on silent, so I had to like go back and you know and uh kind of speed it all up. I mean, I hope that's a growing pain. Um. I would like to

believe he handled it probably way better than Kirby Wilson would have personally. But in the end, I mean, we could talk talk about formations, and we could talk about questionable calls and stuff like that, but I mean, you still got to put the ball in the end zone and that was like the biggest bug of Andy. What do you make of that? I think that's like, I think a connection issue, sir. Yeah, I think

the offensive game plan was just not good enough for the Mallers. They obviously, I know they haven't had a lot going for them as far as like that go to guy, I think it was interesting talking about one of your one of the people on your show the previous show is talking about Bailey Gaither and how his snap percentage was really low and he wasn't being utilized at all despite him being a viable weapon last year. I just I don't really get

some of the offensive distribution for some of their playmakers. Try Williams is trying his damness. I mean, he's running for his life out there, and he had a couple of really good scrambles. But I just think that the game plan of saying, well, you know, we'll chip away here and there by you know, kicking field goals, that's not gonna work. You just saw this team put up, you know, forty plus points in the South Championship game. You think they're gonna just be able to hold him the

field goals the entire game. You're out of your mind. I just I don't really like that they settled so much and to try and trust your kicker to make all of his field goals. I mean, he missed one in the second half that would have given them put him up to fifteen points, and instead, you know, they're sitting at twelve still. It's just at some point you just gotta put your foot on the gas pedal and just say, look, we're gonna go for it, and we need to start doing

something because this is not going to be sustainable for Ray Horden. I mean, like, I think his job this year was to calm the locker room after last year's just complete debacle with Kirby Wilson, and he did that. You know, he had I think I'm not sure if his personal goal, but I think he accomplished that goal in that he was able to stabilize everything after just the chaos that they went through last year. So in that rigard, he did. But yeah, in terms of his management is clock management.

In terms of his ability to kind of game manage in the second half, he got schooled by Skip Holtz. Holtz has been there, done that, and holds to me. I mean, he's kind of the class of the league at this point. I mean, he's really shown himself to just be able to push all the right buttons. He's dealt with injuries, he's dealt with egos. He's dealt with, you know, extenuating circumstances in different

games. You know, they they haven't been invincible themselves, but they always seem to have the right answer to these these problems that arise in these games. You know, last year's championship game and Jay R. Smith gets hurt bringing Magoo. You're dealing with all these random you know, quarterbacks from the stars. Okay, now you have to keep adjusting to them. And this year, I mean, he's playing against an outstanding defense. And that's honestly,

like I said, Magoo just did his magic again. He played against an outstanding defatil unit. That's the thing that's kind of shouldn't be lost on people like the Muller's defense legit man like that. That was not an easy performance. So for the Malers, you know, it is disappointing, But I think it's just more of their offensive script scripting and then um just not really being able to be aggressive enough. I think they went in with the wrong game plan in my opinion. Yeah, I just don't get like a

lot a couple of things I don't get. Yeah, you're going in against this science. We see this a lot in the NFL as well, you know whoever is playing the Chiefs, and like, we're just gonna kind of get some field goals here. It's like you're never You're never gonna beat when Agoose throwing four touchdowns, You're never gonna you know. And I hate the

trading field goals for touchdowns or whatever, but very true. I wonder a world that exists where Skipholds isn't with Birmingham and the USFL, right, And I don't know if it's Skip is the greatest coach in the world, or they just assembled the best team, or you know, the headquarters and he's got more of a cushy gig there and they're kind of it's their home thing.

And I don't know all of that, but it's really worked out well because I do think is as kind of tiresome as it is to have this like dynasty of a you know what with our young call it here were two seasons and but you need to have some you know factor kind of carry over there. Let's bring Pat back in here. Pat was talking about kind of the offense and Ray Horton and being able to being unable to capitalize and you go for there, we go bad are you there? No? All right?

Andy thoughts on thoughts on Skiven Burman. I don't know Pats have a connection issues. Pat's Pat's getting wooed by the rest stop amenities. Might you know he's like thinking about thinking about all the great things in the in the store. But no, you know, well, I wanted to ask.

I would ask ary to young Hud say, well, tell you what you go ask the Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans if you think they're in the middle of a dynostaur CFL fans, if you think the Winnipeg Blue Bombers under the dynasty, because all I heard about before the great pick up last year was oh, the three peak could happen, and this will be that this will be the dynasty, not the repeat the three feet that they were about to embark

on that would be considered the actual start of the dynasty. Back in my estimation, at any time that I've watched football in any way, shape or form or any sport, back to back does not mean dynasty, and so I don't really understand where that terminology is coming from. For just back to back champions if they win three in a row, great awesome, Okay, I get it. But it has to be multiple years of winning championships and not just two in order to consider yourself a dynasty. I mean, that's

back to back to special. They could be wrong. That's amazing. That's a great accomplishment. That's very difficult to do in any sport for any reason whatsoever. But you have to be able to accumulate, like, Okay, look at the Chiefs. I mean, the Chiefs I think are not considered to be in a dynasty right now. They've been to three Sea Bowls and they've won two. Now, they've been to a bunch of AACA championship games, but I haven't heard anyone tossed around the word dynasy yet until they win

three. That's the golden rules. So I just I find I find RJ's terminology to be humorous, considering that I've never heard that for any other sport at any point. Yeah, a couple other notes here about the game, and then I have some more like the actual championship kind of whatever. We talked about that fumble recovery of the long you know, handing the ball off

forward, because again you're like Pittsburgh cannot score, they cannot score. Attention so you're finally you're like, oh my god, okay, okay, let's defense scoring, defense scoring. And then obviously it was called back to like the twenty five or I think it was like the thirty thing. Okay, then they don't score again here, like then we still kick a field goal, that kind of thing. It feels like they kept talking, you know, given Jared a lot of a lot of praise kind of for being aggressive

here on like third and long and really standing a lot of pressure. It felt like McGoo, like I said, kind of at the top, a little bit like playing with kids toys out here, and so I like to see him struggle a little bit. I don't like anyone where It's like it felt like he was kind of a level above a lot of the players just

in terms of seeing the game or kind of existing. Last night, we had to miss oh yeah, then Gaither had the big drop with like seven and a half minutes left, a big miss on that where he wasn't looking. I really felt like it was over at that point, and it would. I mean they knelt down and I mean it was going two and a half and they got the first down and then you're like, I mean this

this went to batter Were you surprised? Like jack at one point was like when now, remember you know in the USFL, we can still go for one, two or three points, and like this is still kind of I'm like, I haven't seen more than three teams go from two points the entire season. Like, but it just it felt like the game wasn't a game after about eight minutes left. I mean, I'm glad that Jackie's breaking up the roles because I think it's easy to forget about because nobody does them.

I mean, nobody goes for those conversion points because they don't have to, you see. Like I think that's what's so, in my opinion, so intriguing about the XFL rules because you can actually be forced into doing it. You've forced the teams to go for a one, two or three point conversion and then you start playing with analytics. If you're giving teams the choice to just get pat they're gonna do it every single time, and they're not really

changing the game at that point. You're just giving people the same tried and true traditions and you're not going to really do anything different. So yeah, I think that's funny that, like with the other malers. Really a team that would go for two or three willingly like, is that really the team even in Birmingham. Birmingham doesn't do it. Then they score all the time and they say no, they're gonna take They're gonna take the point. That's

it. Every team is going to do the same thing. I find it extra hilarious because listen, I like the place kickers this year were much better than last year. Like, the place kicking across the board was just a million times better. There was no controversy with you know, chips in the football or put trotting punders out there trying to kick a field goal. Uh you know, m Jeff Fisher, and there's no any of that going on. It was much better across board. Still, there were a fair number

of pats that were missed from teams. So it's still funny to me that that's the default option, even though they're playing from as far back because they would be in the NFL, which means you're going to have some miss pats and so I, you know, I wish there was more incentive for these teams to go for two and three. They're not going to do it unless

they're absolutely forced to, So I do find that interesting. But yeah, the other point um that you brought up about Bailey Gaither dropping that pass, it's not not eerily reminiscent to Chris Blair dropping that pass for the DC Defenders in the championship game for XFL with the same and it had that same feeling of like, oh, this is over. Like as soon as he dropped it, the error got sucked out of the building and that was that was

it. It's kind of it's remarkable how similar that was. Well, and it was like Gaither wasn't he wasn't even expecting it, like he kind of he barely They was like, wow, he didn't even didn't even see it. I mean he kind of looked like he saw it turned over his shoulder

that at the end. But it was kind of weird. The thing with these with these two and three point conversions, like you said, where if you don't give them, the default of kicking with it is you know, like you look at the Muellers, we can barely score touchdowns, right, so we you know, to go for that. It was like the Elks here this last week when they or plan I think it was the Red Blax

game on Thursday. It doesn't feel like it was that long ago where they finally got a TV and then Chris Jones is like, we're going for two. I'm like, you guys score like three touchdowns the entire season, Like we're really going for the two point confert here, Like I would take the points to move on. But again, you're rewarding. It's not being lazy, but you're rewarding, like, Okay, you're gonna kick it. The idea with the XFL and you have to you're going for it whether it's one,

two or three is you're still going for that play, right. Yeah, it has to be a mentality thing. I mean, I go back to when I was in college and i'd watch Chip Kelly and his offense operate with Oregon. The gimmick with organ was that they'd always score a touchdown and then they'd go for two on the first touchdown, and more often than not,

they would get it on the we call it the swinging gate. So it'd be like kind of like a quarterback RPO or like the putter doing a sort of run sweep option and they would go up eate nothing, and it was kind of sending a message the other team like, you better score touchdowns today and keep up with us, otherwise we're going to run away with this game. And they, more often than I would score forty fifty points and go on to dominate. So it's almost like a mentality thing that they do

it from that standpoint. I mean for a team like Seattle, right, the Seattle Sea Dragons, I mean, June Jones is a mad band and just just says I want to go for three because that's what analytics says, and he probably thinks he can get three every single time. You know, again, it's your mantras, your mentality is an offensive play caller. With

USVL teams, they don't think that way. That's that's not their gig there, for lack of a better term, more conservative when it comes to that approach, and they just want to be able to get any sort of points whatsoever. But there's no that level of aggression is not something that I think permeates in any of the teams. The only thing that it might work with

is maybe the Stars. The Stars are the only team I would think that would try and take the advantage of that with bart Andrews' offense in the air rate, But on that. I don't see that being the case for a lot of these teams. Yeah, and Jane Jones here running into trouble over the weekend, so I don't know. I know the report had come out that he had been on some Hawaiian radio saying that he was angling for the XFL Las Vegas Vipers head coaching job, and then obviously getting suspected DUI arrest

and posting bail Friday night. So we'll see. I don't know what that means for June Jones. I know that, you know, when you're a position, like you know, you're in sports, here's one of the head coaching positions. I don't know how leagues look at that. We'll kind of see how the XFL wants to handle that be at June might be out.

The thing like with that with June going for three was yeah, I'm sure the analytics are telling him go for three, but like your team is not good enough to go, like, you know, this is like an XFL team, no offense, like this isn't you know, we're not running you know, Mahomes and Kelsey out there like we're running d Nuji and you know whatever. A couple of other things and then we have some questions. We have a lot of stiff to get you six sacks by Birmingham. I thought

that was great. Good to see Willie Yarberry with the Stallions kind of get the game ceiling fumble recovery there. I attract Willie all the way back. I was he with the Generals back in the Spring League, and I remember, I think it was the first game. We're sitting there watching this San Antonio and I'm like, he had I had a crazy I can't remember if it was like a block. I think it was like a blocked path. I mean, this was like three years ago. But good to see what

kind of Willie still. I don't know. He's someone I've always tracked on here. The other interesting things to me was crowd. What do we make of the crowd Andy. I'm told that it was a pro Muller's crowd. I suppose based on the audio that was coming through my DV speakers that would indicate that was the case. I don't know if that means that there's going

to be more Muller's fans and supporting the Cannon market. I don't know what that means, but I mean it didn't seem like there were nearly as many Stallions fans or as many fans period as there were last year for the championship games. So for me, I mean the crowd was I think it was just cannon fatigue at that point. I mean, you've gone to what twelve

straight weeks of going to games in that market. That's a lot. I mean last year, the novelty of having it'd be the championship game in the playoffs was nice because it was a field that you didn't see very often except for preseason the Hall of Fame game. And now all of a sudden, here you are and you're trying to play. You're trying to play all throughout

the season to trying to encourage your market. That you have two teams in there and not really getting much support for either, and even though one of them is in the championship game, you still don't really draw that much support from the Pittsburgh market. I mean it just the energy, Like I'm sorry, but like I had to go back and watch the highlights for the XFL championship game, the energy was just different. It was different for both both

games, just a lot more louder, a lot more electric. I know it was the Almo Dome, so it was obviously encapsulated sound, but they just sounded more. You know, fans are sunding more engaged in the x FUL Championship game that it did in the USFL game, and that just stood out to me. As far as the TV product went, if it was in Birmingham, I think it would have been fine, like that would have

been fun. But as far as the can market, I think it was just fatigue from overall just having so many weeks straight of football in that stadium. I think you all right, it was like raining before. You know, it's supposed to be like funder Starman's round kickoff and you have those forecasts. I mean definitely down. I didn't see any any attendance figures being like touted or a lot of you know, some of the normals, you know, kind of posting about that. I thought it was really beautiful. You

had the sunset going. I think it was when the Stallions were driving over the one corner. I thought, man, like this is great. Like they reuse a lot of the obviously the championship game last year highlights, and I mean anytime the Stars since Tallion's played right. We heard a million times like did you know these teams played in the champion two game last year?

But they use that footage a lot. You know, this to me looked beautiful and I would see that, but it certainly wished there would have been more crowd. I think people were invested in it though, like he said, it felt like to me, it felt like the energy was there.

But what was interesting to me was so brock Heward a friend of the show here, right, He's been on and we've been trying to work him coming on this season, and you know, he did the kind of kickoff, and he took a bunch of weeks off and then then we've got Mariners and

Seahawks to hear, you know, training camps and kind of everything. But I was under the presumption that he was going to be at the championship game, because he had told me earlier in the season like, Hey, I'm not going to be doing this for you know, I'm taking some weeks off and then I'll be back. We'll do the playoffs in championship he was traveling the week before. I couldn't do that, and I expect I mean, they had no sideline reporter, right, they had the woman like uh,

it was it was a weird name like Zoa. It wasn't Zoah, but it was. They had a lady. They had a lady doing like sideline reporting that was just a voiceover that was basically just they you know, they'd show her face kind of lower bug. But I thought that that was odd that for the Fox Championship game. I mean it was on right, it was on NBC. I watched on fubo it. Yeah, that's the thing. It was the Mbassy broadcasters. So okay, so then you wouldn't have

Brock on, so I didn't know. I thought it was weird that you wouldn't have you wouldn't have anyone on that. I don't know. It was weird to me then. So that so I'm answering my own question with why Brock wasn't there, But I don't know why there wasn't an actual sideline reporter there. Well, I just think that set up a brawl is just so interesting. The fact that it wasn't on Fox, the you know, the

company that owns the league itself, it's not on the championship game. I find that to be really interesting because I wonder if they're trying to do this kind of like dual network showcase like they do with the Super Bowl, right where they put it on CBS or they put it on Fox, or they put it on NBC in a rotation, right, Are they trying to do that too? I don't know what. I'm not really sure what the get of that was. And look, I like the NBC broadcasters just fine.

You know, Ja's Garrett's fine, Jack Allensworth is fine. But I don't know if that's necessarily what you want for your championship game material no offense. I mean current Menafee and Joel clad I think are the guys that you would you'd want to have in that position, just like last year. Those are your kind of like you're a team in a lot of ways. And so I'm a little I'm just kind of not sure what Fox is trying to get

done here in terms of just putting it on NBC. And as we've seen also sometimes with the ratings, somehow NBC ends up drawing better than Fox a lot of the time, which is really the most ironic part. They get more of the viewership that way, so maybe it's trying to get a ratings

boost that way. I'm not sure the whole relationship with NBC is really interesting going forward because they're gonna have to figure out, ay, you know, obviously if it's going to continue afterwards, or what kind of shares that NBC has in this league, if they have any, because again it's owned by Fox, and what their plan is as far as distributing all these all these games outside of other networks like FS one or USA Network all those kinds of

things. It's I'm just I'm not sure if I really understand what the what NBC has involved in is here besides just besides getting a ratings boost, because I would think that Fox would try to prioritize having those biggest games on their network again well or I don't know why, you know, maybe you try try to do a simulcast there. I'd have to look back and see what Fox was airing their Saturday night. But yeah, it's weird where you get

NBC draws the higher rating has the weaker. I don't love Jack and I know he gets a lot of like I didn't know Chris Collinsworth was calling this game, but it's a weird, like it's someone doing that Chris collins Worth impression like it's a really weird I don't know, and it seems I'm nature like his voice coming out of his body, like it's just an octave too high, like I don't I don't love it. Well, that's the thing,

Like I think Jack doesn't have his voice yet. In my opinion, I don't think he knows exactly what his niche is, or what his stick or what, like his entire mantra is supposed to be on a broadcast. Chris is you know, one of one, and you know who he is. He's he is very much in his own category. You know, his father has done this for decades and knows what to expect of himself and what to do, and during a game, Jack is still figuring this out.

I still think he was better off as a sideline reporter for NBC, you know, doing his his pregame action and leading up into the games on Sunday Night Football. As far as broadcasting goes, I mean, he's still greed and he needs more experience, and so I don't think that putting him in that role as the Championship game play by play isn't necessarily the best move for Fox in the USFL. I would have preferred to have Menafee and Joel Klatt

because I believe that they are most equipped for that. Overall, they are again as I mentioned, they are the A team. They are the ones that have the most experienced or even Kevin Coogler Kevin Cooler would have been great too. I mean, he's obviously had a lot of experience as well,

done multiple games for Fox. I'm maybe they just weren't available. I don't know what the scheduling was, Like you said, maybe brock Heard wasn't available and they decided to go switch just say, you know what, none of the Fox guys are available, let's just go to NBC instead. We'll never know, but that that's that to me just seemed an odd fitting for that sort of a game that didn't seem to have almost like it just for some reason at the end of the game, when they were all running on and

shaking hands, it didn't feel as important as it should have. Does that make sense. It didn't feel like there was as much gravitas, which why and between what was happening on the field and what was their presentation, Like there wasn't that immediacy or that kind of like this is really important that we finished our second season. It just kind of like, oh, yeah, we got through a second season, austome. Well, anyways, we'll see

you next year. I guess maybe they expect that, but to me as a if you're a casual viewer, you want to be given a reason. Again, why is this important? We have some comments here. I'm trying to think, Um, James says Fox was here in baseball because I was trying to look back, I'm like, what the heck, what's going on? Mike says, yeah, Fox Air the regional MLB. Other networks here runs US and L and NBC was illest rated out of vaud the network Saturday

night. I was gonna say that as well. So pre lambs have come out obviously with the fourth of July and everything, we will probably get final ratings on Wednesday. It was a one point oh four four million, So the top of the kind of whatever the prelimbs are going to be that they generally go up. So I would imagine, you know, one point one, one point two. I think I had kind of predicted one two,

one three xfl A drew one four back with all of that. Uh, the other one was, oh, Gregory here was saying, I like said yeah, because they like they want to alternate, like they at some point they said, like, I guess this was part of the plan to get what what what caused that plan? We don't know, Andy, did you have a comment on that? I mean, okay, if it's buy it,

that's great. I just for me again, it's just in terms of like the ownership of having that that product in your backyard and sort of continuing to promote that product yourself. I get that they're trying to do the rotation of the championship game like again with the Super Bowl, but who knows, I mean, is NBC going to continue to be involved going forward? We

don't know. There's that there's that sort of term limit with them in terms of their buying with the broadcast rights, and I don't know how much longer they're going to keep going on and after that and say, for example, if they just think, you know what, this isn't really worth our time, well then what is Fox going to do after that? Are they going to just try and put all their games on on their network and USA network

and FS one or do they find another broadcast partner? NBC is so interesting in terms of what their involvement is because again, they're more niche, you know, they're more niche in terms of what they products they put on. They don't have baseball, they don't have basketball, they don't have hockey anymore. They only have NFL Football. As far as the big you know, the big ones, they have Premier League, which is getting more popular.

They have on Peacock, but they don't really have you know, the MLS deals through Apple TV. So NBC has always been kind of more in terms of like addressing the niche audience as opposed to addressing the wider audience, even though they get better numbers on their network. So I'm not sure what they're playing in their sporting department really is going forward Again, They're they're handing out contracts left and rights, people in the in the in the football crew,

giving money. Everybody else well ESPN just you know, keeps cutting bait. So that that is really the biggest question on my mind is also the shifting landscape of the sports personalities and where are they all going in these networks, because we're seeing that it's drastically altering just in the past few months alone, where all these people are. You know, some of these people going to Fox because they were cut by ESPN are going to NBC because they were let

go by ESPN and ABC. So it's going to be very interesting to see where all the talent flows to going forward, and what is priorities given to all these leagues and where they want to be present presented going forward. So NBC, I'm not going to say they're a lynchpin in this whole thing, but they are an important component to that's moving forward as far as whose product they're presenting and how they're presenting it. Yeah, dang here, I was

thinking this as well. NBC. There had been a rumor I saw every weekend too, Yeah, NBC wanting to do Sunday night basketball as well.

Kind of it's ready to do that. So maybe trying to dip their because it's weird with these layoffs, like and I know it's not all connected, but seeing it was whatever the basketball player just signed, like the five year or two hundred million dollars deal or whatever like Saturday night and then we're like laying off these guys and you're like, there's clearly enough money in this space.

I mean, I know, it's different forms and how would help flows, but it is hard to have, like you know, Matt Hasselback getting let go from ESPN, but yet like Deshaun Watson's getting you know, and I know it's all different, it's not not all all the money is coming from the same pot, but it is interesting there. I had a couple of comments here, um fooseball fan, they had flyers for twenty four twenty four dollars down payment on next season and next year's season tickets. I guess

they're committed to season three. That's interesting because we had Moose on the was it the the media day when we were kind of doing our stream talking, I'm like, we're doing the hubs but we don't really know yet, and they're selling the Canton tickets but we don't really know yet, Like what are you make it? I think we might have a longer than discutching this week about you know, the USBL's future. But while we're on here today, like it's kind of weird, you know, we're you going to figure this

out now? Well, obviously they are baffled by their ratings drop, which a lot of people would take. Umbradge with you on terms of that wording, but that is something they have to address moving forward. Where are the ratings going to come from? And who's going to indulge in this product? And it's just so weird to have them try to get people to buy into some of these ticket packages when we have no idea where they're going to play

next year. Let's be fair, we have no idea who's going to play where and what and when I know it seems like the Memphis market is there, the Detroit market is there, the Birmingham market is there. The can one is just kind of a mystery. We don't know who's going to play there. They could change the names of the teams in the cities tomorrow. They could just say, you know what, we're done with the New Jersey Generals. We're just going to make them the you know, Nova Scotia Pirates

or something. I don't know. They're going to just change their name in their city completely, in just or a country and just say forget it, We're done with this. I joke, of course, but but they really seem to treat these properties. It's just sort of interchangeable parts. Same thing happened with the bandits right, Tampa Bay just got transformed into Memphis overnight. That was it, end of story. They could do the same thing to

the Generals. I don't think they're going to do it to the Mallers now because they just went on a championship run, so I think they're probably just gonna have to go all in on Pittsburgh. I think the Generals are your next team that are probably eligible to be changed, which again is so weird because that brand was there in the TSL. It's one of the most recognized brands in the USFL and the old regime, so I don't really see a lot of benefit the changing it. But also I don't know if the New

Jersey demographics are engaged in it either. That's the thing We've talked about that with Mike Mitchell too. Is that market really involved with this team. I couldn't tell you, but it doesn't seem like there's an overwhelming demand from people I've talked to, So it's just weird. I don't really think that there's a lot of answers, and we're not going to get any answers until last minute again like we did last year, and I don't think we'll know any

not even this calendar year. I think we really literally won't know until we turned into twenty twenty four, and that's just gonna be another weird offseason of mystery, speculation and no notes from the league until then. It's so weird, Like, and We've talked about this a lot on the XFL stuff, and I'm curious what media reception, you know, Danny and DJ and everyone was expecting with the XFL right going into the season and then kind of seeing

what they got, right, like, Okay, who's covering us? Okay, well, you know I saw you know, Danny was very complimentary to the media kind of at the championship game. Okay, I really appreciate you guys kind of being with us all season. You know, it's hard. It was hard for like the New Jersey and the New York Guardians to get media coverage in twenty twenty playing in New York. Like I think the New

Jersey General's playing in Canton, Ohio. The residence of that in the Greater was at the Greater Try State whatever they call like that media market, Like I think it is like close to zero. And so it is weird to think, like you're going to get rid of the most recognizable and Trump and all of that. But I don't know, I don't know. I don't know who's hurt about that. You know, who's who's getting their feelings hurt. It's so weird. And I remember having and we had on ray uh

what the ray from the al dot com? What was his name? Ray? Uh? Oh? God are Birmingham or Roy Roy Roy whatever his name was, and um, you know we're talking like, hey, I think, you know, I think the Birmingham's downs could get like fifteen to seventeen thousand in the game, and I think the other teams could probably get you know, seventy eight that whatever the numbers were, and then you know the non Birmingham teams were playing and it's like, you know, one hundred fans.

I just I don't think anyone anticipated like not calling the team the X team, right like Canton. You could go enjoy these games all the time, but just because one of the teams isn't called the Canton whatever, Like why I don't have any interest now, Like it's just it's so weird to me, but I guess that's human nature. Like I'm I watched watching Commander's football every Sunday, and I don't live in DC and have never made to a Commander's Game live. But I think I am maybe the outlier here where

I think people for whatever reason can't can't get a connection that. I think that maybe usfl overestimated that or underestimated how big of a deal that was. I think so too. And just you know, again, if you have any confidence in what the pageantry or the camaraderie of these leagues or these teams identities are going to be, then you have to think that you're going to get as much mileage out of that as possible. Just on the branding alone,

well, we've seen the limit with that. I've seen the limit with how far that can you really take you as far as your media exposure, as far as your exposure to other markets. Look again, I think it just boils down to people who actually who chooses to willingly engage themselves in this

products because they actually believe in it. And let's be frank, a lot of people don't because they see it as another league that's going to go away, or they see it as lesser football, or they see it as some product that's just very either bush league or is mediocre in a lot of ways.

And I don't necessarily agree with all that, but I do think that you have to be able to convince people that this is going to be something that's worth their time and investment in, because otherwise, as I said, maybe just an hour ago I said it, I think in our group chat, I was like, you know, people are going to sit on their ivory thrones and tell their meet the fools, and they know that they are going to think that they know better and that this is not going to last

or this is not really worth their time. You have to convince people that's not the case, and that's going to be hard work for all of these leagues. It's convincing people that this is a viable product that's worth investing in. And you can't just rust on your laurels and say, well, we're here. So people are going to engage in it, well, some people are. There's a base level line, But again, are you more concerned with the floor as far as how many people are you going to get or

are you more concerned about the ceiling? Can you get more people involved and how many people more people can you get involved in this? Otherwise I mean you're gonna have the same results as you did and maybe even slightly declining numbers like the USFFL did this past season, if you just continue to have the status quo, Well that's the thing is, you know, And we have a couple of comments here about the moose being baffled and kind of all of

us have. Yeah, Greg said it's roy S Johnson. I put that in, but yeah, roy S Johnson. I was like, I've had a lot of guests on the show in the last three years. I appreciate it, right, But if you're I thought when Greg Parks was on we did our post XFL championship game, the recap, the kind of the TV radius and all of that. Greg had all the numbers. That was really interesting. And this is not you know, trying to be a home or

whatever. If you're the XFL next year, I think there's very easy Like these are really easy things that we can do, you know, at pay more than the market, right, better TV slots, better TV windows, more consistent, Like, these are things that we can do if you're the USFL right now, save four, Okay, we're going to add a hub. It's like we were Saturday and Sunday every year we had twenty six network broadcast games. We had more consistent time slots. We really marketed, We

ran a lot of ads. We you know, we're we tried to be more invested in the communities, and we had guys in Birmingham and doing stuff, and Memphis doing stuff in Michigan, like you know. Besides, you know, and that's what they always say. Okay, what they're gonna add, you add a city, adds city whatever like, but you know, just just having better time slots. This year, eight with the XFL on Network TV compared to twenty six with the USFL pretty equal ratings. And that

shouldn't be the case. If you're on a third of the broadcast windows on network TV that the XFL was in the USFLU, you should not have equal ratiings and the x I think the USFL massively underperformed this year. Like you said, we had the comment, you know that the Moose baffling Mike here says, and Moose was mipped by the XFL beating the USFL the raids for the regular season. He's really going to be miffed when he sees USL championship

lost with the XFL championship. I mean, it's I think that it's not surprising to me. And that's where I posted on Friday. Anybody that's listened or read anything that you and Evan and Pat and Mike Mitchell and Sam and Matt Lyons and everyone said like, you should not be surprised at US and LTV ratings are down this year. But what do you make Handy. I mean, again, I think part of it is fatigue, right, people that have just said, you know what, I'm good on football for a

while. I'm not going to engage in this until the actual season starts, the NFL season starts, I should say. So that's part of it. And the other part of it is last year. I mean, the USFL was the only game in town, right, that was it? And same with the XFL in twenty twenty, that was the only game in town. Same with the AF in twenty nineteen. You know, I have to keep

bringing that up with like that's something that was standing alone by itself. A yeah, recipees, right, But I think that that that's part of that's whole, that's the whole part of this thing. Right, This is uncharted

territory, This is uncharted waters. There was no dual leaks. It was it's really been interesting for me kind of doing this like Scott Hanson thing where like NFL Network Red Zone channel thing where I'm watching multiple games at the same time, of multiple leaks, I'm watching a CFL game in the USFL game at the same time, Like that is unfathomable, just not too long ago, and yet it seems this is where we're headed as far as just having

oodles of content for people to dive into. But at some point you're gonna have a threshold of people who are just you know, checked out and saying, I'm I'm good, I don't need any more of this. I'm gonna wait until I need a break, you know. I need to have summer off. I need to have this season off. I can't keep doing this. And so, I mean, that's just that's that's the nature of the

Beasts, and that's going to happen. And again, can you give people reason to indulge in that product and can you give them a viable way to invest in it, because otherwise it's just going to be the same thing over and over again and it's going to be monotonous for a lot of people. So for the ratings, I mean, Fox did all they could. They put on all the network games, they promoted, they had a Super Bowl ad, they did as much as they could to try and promote it,

and it didn't seem to work in terms of the TV ratings. Maybe in terms of having a few more people show up, you know, obviously being in home markets helped that, but even then there's just so much more work to be done and trying to get people to buy in. But it can't just be based on nostalgia, and it can't be just be based on well, this worked last year and just worked in the past, it should work

again. The markets changed and after going through the pandemic like we did, it's clearly changed a lot, and that needs to be taken into account. You know, say what you want about these leagues, and you know the CFL or kind of how they interact with their fan base. You have the XFL here, you know from the beginning, and I remember the first the first interview Danny did with um who was it. It was right when they bought the league and she goes, I want to make this league be accessible

to everybody. I want women to be able to do this. You know a lot of females that watch sports. It's only because you know, my dad watched it or my husband or whatever. Like I want people to be able to buy in. Right, you have the Rock and okay, it's

player fifty four and I know that gets old. And we're kind of doing this thing and you know, this is our league and this is our you know, all the all the promo everything, this is ours and we're kind of in this and whatever usfl all through this season, real football comes back. We're real football. Every week I get the emails, you know, real football for real fans, you know, real pros. Every week. I would get the email preview in the games and coming up, and you

have all this stuff. And I've said before it's it's the b d E. You know, like we're Fox and like we don't need anybody. And then you come out and you're like, well we can't figure out why our ratings are down. It's like I because I think you're pretty standoffish all year and you're like, we don't need anybody, and got you know, dang it, this is this is kind of what we're doing in this Like, well, we can't figure out why why no one wants to watch our sport?

Why no one wants to watch the game. It's like, maybe because you've been really standoffish and you have you know, alienated anybody that that maybe wasn't you know, only an XFL fan. I was like, Oh, I'm gonna check this out. Well real football for real fans. Well I was watching, So what does that make me? Like? Am I an

idiot? Am I had? Dummy? Like it's a weird energy too, And I know it's marketing ploy and I know what's kind of all that stuff, but this is this weird energy to roll that all year and then that moose come out like, oh I just can't figure out I know. So I don't know. I was. I was very entertained by that headline on Friday. Not because I want the USFL to help to fail, but I want there to be some sense of humility there. And I think that the

XFL went through a learning process this year. We're coming in, our expectations are here, and maybe it's a little bit more here that we're going to build up. And I think the USFL right now is like we don't know what are we going to do? I mean, what do we do? What's our next ploy? Do we rebrand? We have to comment here from Mike, you know, saying you know, you rebrand another team. You

know, you get rid of Tampa. Now, okay, we get rid of it, you know, we get rid of the general Like I don't think you know, Moose said on there, we're not expanding until we have eight teams in eight markets. So what does that mean. It means you're gonna you gotta rebrand or bust. I mean, there's no I don't know what their next step is. Well, I mean, how quickly do they expect to do that? And do people have patience for that? Does Fox,

you know, the network have patience for that? I know they Again, they own the league and that's up to them. But at some point you have to be able to make sound financial decisions and you have to say to yourself, is this going to really work in the long run? And are we going to be able to get it out into all these markets? Is this viable? You know, at some point you have to put your your money where your mouth is and you have to be able to do it.

And just again, expecting people to show up because there's football going on

doesn't always work as a product. You know, it's it's not it clearly hasn't been the case in some of these markets where it's just another team that's not from that place, that home market doesn't really draw the same amount of attention, and why would they, you know, Like I would be kind of confused, Like if two NFL, I guess, I mean, I know it's it's a bigger product, but like if two random NFL or MLB teams were playing in one of my stadiums in my town, I'd be like,

that's cool. Why I like, it would be a little strange to me unless there's like championship game or something of that matter, which again didn't even see the matter for the Can market that much for the playoffs. So there again, you have to get buy in. You have to get regional buy in from these markets. Work with that first, and then you can start to work on all, right, let's care about other teams, let's care about other entities in the market, and then you can start moving it

out and pushing it forward. But until then, like you have to be able to buy in, and I Fox just hasn't done that yet or they I don't know what the hang up is as far as getting all these teams out to their markets or I know they're doing a slow build, and I know that's their mantra and all that, but how much longer or how much more time can you afford to that? And also how many more markets are

you going to move until that actually becomes to fruition. And also if you get to a market it doesn't go up to standard, or if you don't like the crowd, are you just gonna move it? Like what if at some point you just say, you know what, actually we don't need the Detroit market, there's not enough people. We're just gonna move you. Then what does that tell your fans? You know, like, at some point

if you're going to keep doing that over and over again. I get that sometimes nit movement is necessary, but there's only so many times before people will actually want to sustain themselves or be able to buy into it. Otherwise they're

just gonna see it as a good pole. Why that Memphis was a great examp, Well that I thought Memphis grew over the season, and I thought they did a really good job there, and I heard that they were doing a lot more work in the area there, and I know, having you know, one of the hubs here and stuff like that, that to me, Memphis was the success story of the year. I know that Michigan didn't have as much success at home, and you know, the Showboats were a

little bit sexier of a team with being kind of the new franchise. But I mean that to me proved we can build here. I don't know if that stadium is the best, but I don't know if they have any other options there. But you know, you you positioned it the right way and you kind of charpet like. I thought that looked good. And I thought Memphis was one of the you know, one of the not few, but one of the goods kind of success stories of the year. I think Detroit

needs to work on that. But I think then you deal with the same stuff spring leagues. Yeah, I mean I read the Bill Shaves of the World and everyone going to the to the Detroit games, like, wow, this isn't the NFL. Like it's like yeah, no, no, kid, and it's not you know, it's not that you know, it's something to cover this time of year. And I don't know, I'm seeing these layoffs across the media, you know. I mean Bill Shay a lot,

you know, got laid off from the athletic this year. I'm like, I would be happy to have kind of any sports to cover at this point if people are you know, and I don't want ill will of anyone. And Bill Shay is in front of the show, but like you get that mentality, you know, people hating on us or you know, us having critical opinions like we are we are boughten at this point, like we are

invested in wanting this. You know, you get these fly by neither is coming in and like the Mike Flourios of the world that don't you know iv Iv emailed and corresponded with like probably half a dozen times, trying to get him to come on the show, right and like he's nice and he writes me back, and we've you know, we've had discord about it, and it's like, you only want to cover this when the ratings are down and

you want to post your article and you want to move on. You don't want to you don't have either there's no investment here besides, oh, I'll get a few thousand clicks here because the XFL ratings were down or the you know, the XFL lost sixty million, or the USFL ratings are down or whatever, like, that's what that's my problem is. You know, we are not the issue here, it's the people that are. They're kind of flying in, poo poo on it and then move on. They had that

was it? The Anthony the Anthony, the guy from he's one of the guys with the sports visitor or whatever as well where he was he was pooh pooing on that as well. And I'm like, I don't like this that you come in and kind of what the heck was his name? I'll figure it out anyway, any any thoughts. I mean, that's the thing.

It's always going to be a fly by night situation with these smaller leagues and entities because they don't cover it day by day, and then when there's something that's controversial, you want clicks and you want exposure and notoriety on your channel. So you're gonna cover it for that day and that's gonna be it, and you're gonna be out of there in a moment, just covering the native

points. It's kind of how news cycles works such a sports That's how it works in news too, where say, oh, well I'll go at this strategy over here, it's like, well, what's going on with this community. We never covered this before, what's the story behind this? And no one really you know, wants to put in the work of the effort to actually do that because that would require work and effort. So for me,

I think it's a really big deal with the football leagues. I mean, it's the same thing with the National Arena League and the whole all of any Empire debacle with Antonio Brown owning the team and that you know, that story

blew up, blew up on so many different channels. Pat mcabebe talks about it all these like different you know, Twitter kids are talking about it, and it was just so funny to me and watching our colleague Sam just got put out fires like he Sam is in this every single day and has been first of all, talking about the story the entire time. So if you've been following him, you would have known the lead up to this entire situation.

There's no surprise if you're following r right, We're like, yeah, we knew this was going to happen, but like everyone else was shocking. And then say, you know, secondly, it was you know, the league itself and where it's going and what they're planning to do and moving forward with all the Arena Football League and all this, and so it was just

kind of funny. But like that's an example, right, that's just one thing to be picked up because it's so shocking and it's got this one figure that everyone knows that it's gonna, you know, get picked up and be passed around. But all those people are going to go away and not actually care about the National Arena League because that's you know, that's not their beat.

So it's it goes across for all leagues that don't have regular viewership or regular fans involved, or at least a number of fans that you need in order to have that you know, constant exposure. We try our best, obviously, us and our group tried to at best to get that information out about all these leagues. But you know, there's just there's people like that. They're just gonna you know, be touch and go. They're gonna be here for a minute and then they're out and tell the next big thing happens.

We'll start riding up here pretty soon. I got nothing to do day, Dorothy's out at the lake. I have a wedding tomorrow. But I'm sure Andy wants to go do other things today on his vacation, but good viewership here. I appreciate. If anyone else has any questions, we'll probably start wrapping this up here and get out. Hope Pat makes it home safe. I guess I know he was having connection issues. I appreciate him and kind of worked out here and Andy being able to have time and otherwise I'd

probably be sitting here talking about myself for an hour. So I appreciate that Andie make it this time. I mean, like I said, no, Pat doing his best year, trying to get back from his crazy, crazy work schedule. I know that Pat's kind of had this whole recently. I will say, if you want football tonight, four o'clock Pacific, seven Eastern, free for anybody, because I wanted to check and see here what win

the game's on. But uh, CFL plus and if you go to CFL dot com slash or CFL dot c A slash plus, I just google CFL on the plus signe. But BC at the Argos tonight, I think it's going to be a really exciting game. BC really hot right now, burning and all of that. So just that's my little plug. If you want football today if you have nothing going on, you know, if you're holiday in or you know, if you're here in the States, and it's kind of weird, like some people are working to day. I think we have

good viewership right now. I think some people just have the day off. But today for Pacific, I think that's gonna be a good one. So it's completely free. They don't even show ads on there because I don't think they have the rights on that to just google CFL Plus. But it's gonna be on today, argos BC Lions at Argo's going to be exciting there.

Anyone else has you questions, any anything else from you, because you know, we could talk all day we figure out something for this week with what we want to do for the show, but I just don't want to belabor anything today. Yeah, just do things actually in two different leagues. So first of all, I agree with you, tonight's matchup for the CFLs gonna be great. I love that. Argos BC just first of all, the color scheme, that orange and blue, the cabridge blue and the bright orange.

I love that contrast. Potential great Cup preview depending on what happens. I love the idea of Vernon Adams junior going against Jack Kelly too, really outstanding quarterbacks for two leagues. I think you and Mike need to start getting some like rolling bets going on during the season because you guys are gonna match up multiple times, and I think you need to continue this trend of, like you know, jabbing each other during this during the season. But this

is really wonderful to see this matchup early on and undefeated matchup. BC's defense is awesome. They're playing on the road third time out of four games, so I wonder if at some point does fatigue set in with them being on the road so much, or are they just going to continue rolling like they were in Winnipeg for Arlington. Arlington, there are Goonauts. I think it's weird that they are not favorite at home. I find that really intriguing.

Again, I think getting the plus three at home, it's really interesting because they were not favorite against Hamilton and they actually slack them and so that that trend continues. But I think this is a great matchup, maybe one of the best early season matchups of the season. I look forward to you and Jason talking about it on the channel. Again. You guys have been doing a great job talking about CFL content every week with that, So I'm looking

forward to that game tonight. My last thing before I go is my line, Yeah, it's not dang it, it's not someone just that cold posted because it's not so if you're out of the US. If you're in the US, it's got to be on here. It's on CBS Sports Network. So I completely like because I'm like, oh, it's showing to hear them. Of course, like once I click the link, if you're in the US, get on your YouTube or your foobo, it's gonna be on CBS Sports Network. Man, I totally bust sell. Okay, well that's good

because that it records for me, so that's better. That's that's much better. But yeah, so CFL contents could be great. I mean that's the thing. It's that there's no off season for US. It continues here,

but as far as the USFO goes. My last point is just like just just be more accepting or if you're going to rebrand, just be more you know, real with yourselves and really understand that there are other people that need to be involved, or you don't treat yourselves as some like special entity that is separate from the rest of the ecosystem and doesn't deserve to have other people involved because they don't get it. That's not the right messaging. I didn't

like that messaging from day one about real football, real fans. I think it's it's conceded, and I think it's completely out of out of line with what the ethos of people's attitudes towards spring football and a football is. I think it's ridiculous. They need to get out of that mindset and they need to move away from that brandy because I think it really hurts them this season.

They need to to really look at themselves in the mirror and be realistic about their expectations next year until they start making some tangible changes with their markets, their team branding, and where they're going. It's as far as their talent accumulation, as far as to competing with the XFL and the CFL. For players like you need to be able to account for that. This is a different ball game. There's people involved here. You need to step up

your game or else. Who knows. You know. If we're coming up on year three, it's a really again another big year for them and to see where Fox goes what they're going forward, but I want to see subtantibal changes because quite frankly, it just felt like more of the same this year and they need to really step it up next year. Gregory here has a question football question before we get out of here. You want to see the rate the following Stallions players. J Serberger, Davien Davis, Dean Kane,

Michael Pedway, Young Kane based on the Titler game was insane. I mean that was the one catch he had. There was like three Malers guys draped on him there and he threw that down. Any thoughts on this, Gregor, we wants to talk real FOOTBA before we get out here. Well, Kane was outstanding as far as the specialties player, as far as the wide receiver goes. I think he was an excellent signing before the season. I loved him being added to this team, and quite frankly, he was very

crucial considering the people that they lost along the way. And Michael Peway was great too. I think they're receiving cores. Jase Sternberger, I mean he's I always thought he was going to stick in the NFL and he just never did. He just could not get the consistency that he needed to have, especially when he got drafted by Green Bay. He was He's I think he's kind of still in that Cell Canella role, where like, you're a good target, you're big, you have decent hands, but I'm not sure if

you're gonna be able to elevate yourself up to the next level. He may just be a spring football lifer for the rest of the ref of his career. But he's good. I think he fits well in this Birmingham offense. But as far as all the people on that list goes, I'd say Dion Kane is probably the most important as far as game breaking. You know, he's he's gonna offer you speed, he's gonna offer you versatility, and his routes. I think he's somebody that you want to keep around if you can,

But who knows. He might get another call from a NFL team. But that that receiving corps is pretty good overall. Again, considering all the injuries they had and the people they lost, I think Birmingham has to be pretty pleased what they did, especially collecting this personnel well. And I didn't Dan have three touchdowns in the game like he had that one. It was like the one corner grab and they went back a review. It was funny because he gave the ball off to the fan and the stands like, this

is gonna be pretty embarrassing this game. It's like we went and saw years ago. I don't know if you know the band Sugar Colt. They had you know, Stuck in America and on bounced off the walls again. They were in the Van Wilder movie. They had their song in there, but they were a punk band and they got it hit, they got you know,

they hit. And they were playing at the show Box here in Seattle and they you know, they play their thing whatever they do, their little set, and they threw off all their drumsticks and everything and they walk off the stage and you were all chanting on Core, on coren Core, and they come back out and they go, so we've we've never actually done an encore before, we've never headlined their own show. So we're gonna need you guys to throw back those drumsticks playing am I. So then my buddy Nate

ended up catching it. Then they threw him out again and he caught it the second time. You know, the end of the show. And that would have been like Deon Kane handing the football back and being like, I actually know that that play. I thought that was funny. I go, that's pretty balls and you'd better rather be pretty sure you got that in then that yeah in bounds there to hand that ball off to the standds. Yeah yeah, no, I mean you might want to tagger receipt to that football

next time you hand it out. That was like when Brady handed off or someone handed was at Brady's five hundred and someone handed off and then they had to get it from from the face in the stand and weel, no,

it was they tried to auction off. It was like they also had an auction where it was like, oh, the handoff, well it was the handoff, but also like they had I think his last touchdown and passed or his last in that playoff game against the Rams, and thought it was gonna be his last touchdown pass ever, and someone was trying to auction it off. And then the value obviously after he was sold it was decreased significantly because he ended up renouncing he was coming back. So that was a whole that

was a whole ordeal. Yeah, needed to get in on that sand market when they were auctioning off the sand from the beach where he retired. That would have been the move. Oh my god. Yeah, until until that doesn't work either. Well, here we go. I appreciate it. Like I said, Jason, I will be back tomorrow, same time, nine am. We'll be do in our CFL recap Big Game tonight. We'll figure out this week. It's just weird because of the fourth and the holidays and

all that. I have weddings Saturday Sunday or Friday Saturday, so we will kind of figure out what the show looks like on Friday. But appreciate everyone. I appreciate Andy, how Pat makes it home safe. Thank you guys. Like I said, like and subscribe here and that where as my stuff here. We'll get out of here. Thanks so much. Nine sho