Will UFL Defy Spring Football Curse?

Hey guys, welcome to the marcass read here. It should be a fun show this week. Will the UFL defive the spring football curse? Lots of UFL content coming. Hope you guys enjoy. Please like and subscribe. Trying to get up to four thousand subscribers before the kickoff of the next UFL season, we'll be given away two sets of season tickets to a lucky winner. Remember, we just raffled off a bunch of jerseys at UFL USFL XFL jerseys

as well as two tickets to the UFL championship game. So if you like kind of sporadic prizes like that and then our big four thousand subscriber giveaway, make sure you subscribe. You know, give a thumbs up to the video. Doesn't cost you anything free to subscribe as well. You can also join the channel for ninety nine cents a month. Really, you know doesn't but

it kind of makes me feel better. You have small financial contributions, but makes me feel a lot better alien out all the jerseys, buying tickets to give away all of that stuff. So hope you guys enjoy. If you are looking for CFL content, we did our big pregame show before the CFL

Week one kickoff, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers hosting the Montreal Alolette's. We had the Professor, Andrew Murray on board with that, Evan Willismore, Jason Hussey, we had the boys over at the Alowhitz Flight Deck podcast Tim and Cliffe. So CFL content this week will be on the CFL pregame show already on the channel streamed before that. As I said, lots of UFL content today.

Look for a CFL Week one recap early next week. Still confirming with Jason Hussey when that will work for him, Trying to get if Evan can be involved, whoever wants to be a part of that, and then of course we will do our UFL playoffs recap as well. Andrew Murray, the Professor will be out of town. Look, I will look for a guest for that, but just be subscribed, turn on the bell, all of that stuff so you'll be notified whenever we go live on the show today.

Dan Kaplan, longtime sports business reporter for decades, helped start the Sports Business Journal, has been at the Athletic is now freelancing for Awful announcing front office sports amongst others. Really appreciate Dan. He just wrote the article last week kind of looking at the totality of the UFL season, looking at attendance, looking at TV ratings, all of that. What is the viability kind of going into season two for the UFL. So get Dan's thoughts on all of

that sort of stuff. You have the marketing of the league, should they be focusing on the player fifty four angle, Lots of good stuff with Dan. Always appreciate him spending his time. And then of course Partrafino, longtime guest friend of the program with analyzing educate over on YouTube full UFL playoffs preview as well as lots of news and notes. This week, we have a new fantasy sponsor for the league, a new Kretum, Cradam whatever you want

to say, a sponsor for the league that's above my pay grade. But lots of you UFL stuff coming with that. So hope you guys enjoy. Like I said, please like and subscribe. We'll see you guys at the end and I will have an update for the thirty five hundreds describer giveaway if you know, if you're invested in that, stay tuned here because we will be re raffling our UFL championship game tickets here. I will give you details at the end of the show. We'll see it then. Thanks. Well,

this is exciting. We do a check in with this gentleman at least

once every kind of XFL and USFL, and now we have the UFL. Here we have Dan Kaplan now with Awful Announcing, formerly with the Athletics Sports Business Journal of decades here of kind of covering sports business. Dan, how are you doing, sir? I'm great and I in addition to Awful Announcing, I'm write for Front Office Sports and other publications. Yeah. I got hooked into one of their email subscriptions now and I love that. I get

that every day. I really enjoy that. So if all of that and that crew over there, I feel like a lot smarter person reading about the in and outs of like the WNBA TV deals with Caitlin Clark or whatever. I do think it's interesting stuff. Yeah. No, they do a great job. So Dan, we're here. You had an article up here. We'll pull up in a minute talking, you know, Okay, can the

UFL survive here? Coming to you know, going into season two? Coming out of this first off, I don't think we've talked to you this kind of since this whole merger came around and with Redbird and Fox and everything. What do you make of this new United Spring Football League. Well, I

have to say the TV numbers have been to me is surprisingly good. Uh. I think they ended up the regular season at about eight nine hundred thousand average viewership, which is something like two three hundred thousand more than the average of the other the league's had separately last year. So that's a that's a good number. Now. The caveat, of course, is that most sports are up sports sports viewership. I mean it's the NHL, NBA, NF, the NFL, I mean you name it, w n B A,

UH, women's college basketball. The numbers are are all going going up. But still, I mean, for for essentially a new league, UH with with a product spring football that has had so much trouble over the years, to pull an eight nine hundred thousand that that's that's real viewership. Now. The question that you know, I had people asking and the story is what's

next? How do they how do they proceed? And I had one person talking about the quality of the play he was he threw some shade at it, but uh, the years two and three of these leagues are always the tells year one. There's there's a lot of enthusiasm, people are checking out

the new product. Whether they can sustain that and improve that's uh, that's the big question in terms of and the the interesting point you brought up here because I wanted to talk about TV ratings as well, but you talk all sports being up, and so is this uh testament just there on better networks and so just more people are happening to be tuning because we saw these experiments last year, you know, Okay, h F s one on a Monday, or the XFL was trying to do these, or the USFL was on

Peacock and all these things. Is it just these are on the networks where people are probably looking for sports and they're stumbling upon it. Although that being on Fox and ESPN is a big boon, and the XFL was on ESPN last year as well, so there is there is a lot of exposure. But sports consumption, sports viewership is up across the board, and I'm not saying that to deflect, And there's a significant increase in the UFL's ratings versus

the USFL and the XFL's rats. I mean, we're talking twenty thirty percent jumps that you know, an increase a few percentage point increase in sports viewership doesn't explain that away. So kudos to the UFL. They did a great job where I think the one of the one of the problems they have, as you as you've written about is attendance. Attendance is a big issue outside

of Saint Louis. I mean, I guess Washington has decent numbers, but when you have stadiums that aren't filled or venues that aren't filled, that's not an appealing TV product. And I think not having the players in the mark gets during the week, doing community outreach, doing the sorts of things all sports team sports teams that have home markets do. It's hard and probably the transition from the merger so quickly into the season just a few months gap,

probably hurt marketing efforts. You put those two together, it probably explains a bit the low attendance. That's something they'll have the whole off season, assuming there is a year or two that they'll have the whole off season to work on. But they need to get fannies in the seats. We get a

lot of these comments in here. We talk every week on our money recaps about that and people, and I completely understand that the money got you know, brought in at the gate is a fraction of what they're getting off of you know, the TV ads. But like you said, talking about you know, the appealing TV product on that, how big is it a deal? Because I look at it as just another metric of it. Is there

a local interest in this product? And when we see Michigan averaging or Memphis averaging six thousand people a game and this is the second season, you know USFL or UFL, I mean they've been in that market two years. That tells me like, Okay, maybe there's a national appo for a football product, but there might not necessarily be a local interest in the Memphis area. But we saw during the pandemic year in the NFL when they played in empty

stadiums, and I realized, Memphis is not playing an empty stadium. But TV ratings went down that year and people were I mean it was a pandemic. People were home. People did not like seeing empty stadium games played in empty stadiums. They just wasn't the excitement and if you've got six thousand. I don't know what the venue size is in Memphis, but when you know, when you see stadiums that are barely filled, you're the reaction is this

isn't important. If the locals aren't into it, why should I be into it? And so give the UFL some distance here. Because the merger of Court so close to the start of the season, it probably didn't get their local marketing efforts in place like they would have. And but I do I do think this issue of the teams not being in their home markets during the

week where they're they're they're at the hub in Texas. I think that that that that I know it saves money, but you know, getting players out into the community, doing promotions like that, particularly for a minor league, that that that is that's pivotal of getting people into the seats. I have a question, yeah, talking about costs or money's spending coming up here?

Back to the tv rangs for a second before I forget, because it has been a tremendous increase this year, right and we've seen you, Mike with Fox Sports sweeten out all the time. Oh you know, thirty percent here and all that. You know, to me, this is the best of the best. Right, We've given all all the games, for the most part, the best windows we can. They're mostly on Fox or mostly on

ABC and ESPN. So to me, if we roll this back out next year, you're not going to see those same increases, right to this is kind of the one year. What do you in terms of looking at the next year, because they unless something really catches fire, I don't see another thirty percent a year over year game here. That would be unlikely. I think you saw the thirty to forty percent gain because you've merged the two leagues

and you've got the benefits of that. They were last season you had the game spread out among the two leagues, and they were maybe some fans were confused about what was what. But now you've got the two leagues merged and there seems to be some enthusiasm there. But I it'd be hard for us to see a thirty to forty percent increase next year. I mean, if they had a goal, I would imagine it'd be five, ten, fifteen

percent increase. How they do that, I think they have to generate enthusiasm in the local marketplace and they probably need to make try to make some of these players more of a brand name. They need to market around players a little more, not just right now, it seems like they're marketing the UFL and the UFL people and the people in the NFL always say people don't follow

the shield, the NFL shield, they follow teams and players. It probably needs to be a little more push around that in your and the It's okay if you don't have an answer for this, but just kind of in your general life. To me, even last year when there was some overlap of the XFL and the USFL, I said, I guarantee you you know, three out of five or six people aren't sitting there. Oh well, this

is like they're just a football is on. I'm watching. They're not oh okay, well this is the one that's owned by Fox, or this is the one that's owned by the right. You know, it's just kind of spring football. Now we're it's the UFL. Do you sense that that there's any loyalty or is it just hey, there's football on in the spring, I'm trying to watch content on a Saturday, or like it's a really brand loyalty in that wall. Well to get spring football clearly can pull in five

hundred thousand to a million viewers. That's been proved the last couple of years. Whether that builds enough of an economic case to keep these this league around for the next for the foreseeable future, only Fox and Redbird and Joinne Johnson can can really can really answer that. But you need you need to build brands around the teams and the players, and it's and it's tough. This has been the problem spring football all along is if a player gets good enough,

they move on to the NFL. So how do you build brands around players who, if they get big enough, are leaving. So it's a catch twenty two. You want that top player who's playing great and people want to tune in and see, but then they don't stick around. So this has always been the conundrum for Spring football in terms of marketing it as a

business, as as a product that people want to view and consume. In terms of local franchise ownership, which is always kind of been the eventual goal of these and especially USFL, and trying to hey, we put these teams supposedly in markets where receive future and we've talked with the FedEx guy, you

know in Memphis, he's kind of interested. Withever, like, what would one of these teams have to look like, in your opinion, for someone to actually want to seriously get involved in spending money to have private ownership. Well, let me first say that the sooner they get to private ownership, the better, because the private ownership will do that marketing. I mean, because then it's not the UFL marketing Memphis, the UFL marketing to you know,

the Panthers in Michigan. It's the there's the dedication at the local level. If you have an individual ownership, then presumably the teams are there year round or least during the spring. You move away from the hub system, which, as I've suggested, may make cut expenses, but it doesn't do much for marketing in the local in the local markets I imagine there. The UFL's game plan is a three to five year horizon to sell, to sell

these franchises individually mls. I mean they have the unitary holding structure, which is the team's owned by by the league, and they eventually went to selling franchises and it's been It took a while, but you can we can see now. I mean, the franchises go for hundreds of millions of dollars. I don't know what a UFL team would go for. I would suspect it it would be tens of millions of dollars. But the suit again, that

can't emhersays enough. As sooner they can get to an owner owning a team and having vested interest in marketing that team, that the better because that's where I you know, and like I said, we get a lot of pushback talking about attendance, like, well, no, maybe if you're if the goal is, you know, this league is not going to hold these eight or ten whatever if they want to add you know, expansion whatever, like if they want to add teams or grow these teams, you got to have

local And like I said, if I'm sitting there, if I'm watching the Michigan Panthers pull seven thousand fans, it's like whether am I am I buying the trademarks? Am I buying you know, ten percent of the merch that the UFL is going to sell, Like I just don't even know, like what that ownership would look like where there's already so many hands in the pot with you know, Fox and Red Bird and you know Danny and Dwayne and you know everyone else that's involved in that. It seems like it's a lot

of like cooks in the kitchen. Well, an owner may not necessarily want to keep that franchise in that market. They may want to move it to a different market. Maybe you can answer this why I don't know why the league's not in Seattle. That was a very successful market for the XFL. It doesn't I looking from far, I couldn't understand why they were in Seattle other than that it was a geography issue. It travel costs, you know,

running the women field, right. I mean that that I think the original plan back in twenty twenty, I think Seattle was kind of a hail Mary anyway to get in there. I mean, I get that we've talked forever about wanting the West coast and even just to San Diego if you're not going to do LA or anything. But people talk about taxes and like, you know, all the kind of stuff going into out of California. But to me, it's worth it to have that. Yeah, do you like

kind of just the center cut of America? And that's where you know they post the map like where are you rooting from? And it's like Texas to Alabama, and that's kind of all you can to be the States representation. Well, yeah, this gets back. Now, the XFL two point zero had teams in La New York and those were two I mean they only lasted five six weeks because of the pandemic, but those were two of the least successful in terms of attendance of the of that that league's teams. Uh.

There it was. It was hard to break through the noise, but Seattle was extraordinarily successful. It was a big market. It was right up there with competing with Saint Louis in terms of which was the number one team in that in that two point oh XFL league. So I'm a big believer that you need fans in the seats, you need that enthusiasm and that spreads. I mean there's the through social media, through fan groups and word of mouth.

That's the that's the way you build these things from at the minor league level. So I get that. You know, you've got six thousand fans in the stadium, so if it's twelve thousand, what's the difference. Economically? The issue is is TV ratings, But there's an intangible benefit from having a big vociferous fan base. Well, we were talking too about wanting an

increase year over year. I think, you know, including the New York market or including the LA market would potentially be a way that you would be able to spike a little bit more of that viewership than just like, well we moved a team to Canton, Ohio, or we moved a team to you know, Nashville, or we moved the team to like, you know, to really feel like you're you're moving into one of these larger markets.

Might that might be something that would spark as well. Yeah. I remember when the XFL went to a press conference at MetLife Stadium shortly before the pandemic, before the XFL two point zero launch, and Vince McMahon, I guess we can say his name. He's before before he was completely discredited, he talked about putting the teams in larger markets because he wanted that big market pull. He knew what it was. It was gonna be a lot of money, and he spent a lot of money, uh for for venue for venues

and ads, advertising and all that. But he felt it was very important. And I think most people who were around that XFL felt it was a survivor that it was going to last if not for the pandemic. So the question is if you're not if you're not in big markets and you're not marketing the teams because you don't have the players and the teams and the markets during

the week, how do you do this? This will be a critical off season for the uf L to see what see what they do, and again getting back to ownership, getting getting owner operators or someone who's more than just a team president of each of each team, but someone who has skin in the game. That would be a big help. I have a question here about from Max. One of our producers wrote in here, I want to get to uh real quick. Are you surprised because we're talking local marketing,

not getting the players? You know obviously with the travel and everything, and you know we're maybe at best we fly him in kind of the morning up and kind of hit a couple, you know, things on the way to the game or whatever. But like we were just down in Arlington again just as fans here over Memorial Day weekend, we were in town for vacation.

I took my wife to the game there at Chalktaw You know, until you're in the stadium, you would not know that the exit the UFL exists, the XFL conference, you know, champions are there, that that's the base of the UFL. Like I mean, even just in that market, around that Texas Rangers stadium there you have Texas Slide, you have all this stuff. I mean you just even just at that level like having you know,

signage and banners and things like. It's just very weird to me that we exist in one of the sports meccas of the world in Dallas and Arlington kind of that area, and you would have no idea walking around that stadium. Well that that was the That's the argument against putting teams in big markets is that you get drowned out. You should go to markets that don't have big time professional sports, that don't have the NFL. So it's a debate.

I mean, obviously I mentioned the Vince McMahon argument. He he went the other way although New York and l A was struggling, and uh, my guess was, if the league had survived, those two markets might have might have dissolved and those teams moved elsewhere. So but yeah, I mean it's tough. You're playing where the Cowboys play where the Rangers play, I mean the same area. And uh, it's that's it's a big market. I mean you have to a certain point step back and realize the UFL is a

small business. Uh, when you in professional sports, they only have so much advertising budget, they only can do so much. But that's why, I mean, it's it's so important to build up these local fan bases because that you're not going to go from zero to sixty right away. But I'm if they could send some of these players to the to the markets to do promotional events, community events. I mean, just get that's in the NFL market, the players are out all the time on their off days and such.

You're not getting that with UFL. And the UFL needs that. We talked about off season marketing and I agree, right we need to have a you know, a plan here. And I don't know if that's a you know, June eighteen or seventeen, you know, the day after the championship came on, or if we pick back up in December, like, I don't know what that looks like. I know the XFL last year, you know, they laid off a lot of their marketing people following the season.

Wanted them to be seasonal employees. Max here has a question. You have a firm like Redbird, who has so much experience in sports, why don't they translate like what works for what they do with like to lose their football

club in terms of marketing and comedity engagement, creative marketing. Why do they seem so hesitant to dump that same money and resources into something like the UFL where obviously they know it works, they know they're going to you know, they see returns on it here as it just well, we don't want to

spend as much money in this because it's not as lucrative a property. Well to lose with me, it's a traditional sports league sports team because you know, you have a team in a sports league in a market, and and you can market, you can market around how the players are in the market a year round. I mean this is a seasonal This is a seasonal sports league. Uh, you know, abbreviated schedule, and you don't have expenses are are are high? I mean I think I said in the story I

wrote it's expensive to run a football league. I mean there's insurance costs, there's travel costs, there's equipment costs. I mean, player costs are not that big in UFL, but they're they're there. So I don't know how much they're making from television. I mean, I I think it has been reported they were they were getting a rights fee from ESPN, But how much that is and how much they're getting from advertising, And they're clearly outside of

Saint Louis not getting much from attendance from ticket sales. Uh, the people I talk to figure they're losing that. I mean, it's not surprise, but probably lost tens of millions of dollars this year. So I mean redbird looking at that, I mean they're private equity. Private equity usually has short term investment horizons of you know, three to five to six years. They get out. They don't want to keep throwing good money after bad. I

a couple quick ones here before we get you out of here. I appreciate your time. You had a quote from Eric galco here, a friend of the show formerly you know, the DPP over with XFL twenty twenty and he's with the Shrine Bowl and everything now. But I thought it was interesting. This is this debate of like marketing and you know, how do we get players in and want to move on. But then you have the players in the league that are maybe the sub NFL guys, but wanting to make sure

that it's a place that they can play. We've talked about that. We had a long discussion on the show Monday about you know, you need to get to the place where people can kind of make careers out of being in the UFL, even if then they supplement with other things in the offseason. What do you make of that? It just kind of the general long term vision. We had Darryl Johnson on the show preseason in talking like they don't

want the UFL to be a developmental league. We mix reviews. I if that's even possible to not be. But what do you make of this long term vision for the UFL. Yeah, I mean it's sort of muddy. What you know, what what is it a developmental league? Is? If it is it? What Galco's point about Dwayne Johnson the Rocks is h mantra that it's for the fifty fourth player, that that that is the player the

first player cut from at fifty three NFL roster. Galco's point is that that's that's that message is sending, is this is not a NFL caliber play. This is this is me, this is below NFL caliber play. I mean that seems self evident. But his point was that that's not a message you should be sending. And it's it's it tells, it tells perspective players who might want to be on an NFL roster that this is not the place to

go. I don't know if that's true. I mean, if if you're trying to make an NFL roster and you you excel it in the UF oh, I imagine you know that that footage goes to the NFL scouting departments and helps you out. We'll see how many UFL players get on to get into camps this this off season, NFL off season, how many make teams?

Uh? That that would be pretty pretty, pretty interesting. But it's it is It is hard because is it is it developmental league or is it or is it a league unto itself, divorced from the NFL and in its own, in its own ecosystem. Uh. For so long with these spring leagues, they people have talked about the NFL needs a developmental league, the NFL

needs a developmental league. They point to the NFL. Yurop Kurt Warners the biggest example of of that, and there's probably some truth in that, But as we know, college serves as the the minor leagues for the NFL. And it's not as if the NFL isn't doing well. I just I always remember back when there was the CFL XFL talks and we had on a bunch of CFL reporters right rightfully so kind of defending, you know, the legacy

of the CFL. Why do they need all that? I remember we were already having a debate with one of the reporters and they were just like, you know, is that enough for the XFL at that time to be the show that you're watching the players on the way to actually be on the show? Is that? Is that enough of a driving point? And I don't know, and I think they need to get away from that more, do

you. I mean, is that is that a twenty year league? Hey watch them before they become the big I mean that's the minor leagues, right, I mean that obviously minor league baseball. I mean people go for many reasons. Some people go becuz they want to see the stars before they become stars. Other people go because it's just a fun it's a fun night out or day out, and it's it's family friendly, and it's goofy and such

like that. So if you look at the minor league baseball model, those teams are in the communities, you know, and these teams in the UFL are not in the communities. And I know we've been hitting that hard that that point, but I think the sooner the teams can be in their local markets and claim those markets for real, the better. Last question for me here two point. The theme of the episode this week is can the UFL

defy the spring football curse? I think is what I have basically, kind of going off of your article title here, how do you feel going into season two? And then what would you like to see you know, obviously a lot of different things, but kind of one tangible thing you'd like to see them going into season two if it is the case, well, I mean, in spring football's defense, we've had almost uninterested spring football other than

twenty twenty one, twenty nineteen with the lines of American Football. Twenty twenty we had XFL two point zero twenty twenty two with USFL, and last year with USFL and XFL, and now we have the merged UFL. So there does appear to be be interested in demand for spring football and the people willing

to put money behind a league in it. And to labor the point, but what I'd like to see next year more team marketing, more you know, more getting getting fans in the seats, getting players into communities, getting players out there promoting it. I mean, that's what that's what's going to drive this. I know the teams probably have marketing staff in the markets,

but they nothing sells football more than the players. Yeah, I I I lamented this week going into because there's been lots of talk of Birmingham and kind of their subparer attendance even going into you know, it's your three now with all this, and like they had two media mails this week going into the playoff game, and I'm like, okay, if you're not like you're not

in the market. But then remotely you're only having you know, Skip Holtz again for the eighteenth time this season, Like I don't it just doesn't seem to be any sort of like this is a time to seize on this. We're going to be in the playoffs again. We always say maybe next year, and I always get people to tell me that we'll read you will try. You know, oh the merch wasn't good. They'll get it right. Eventually, they'll get it right. We know these spring leagues there's not always

there's not infinite time to do all this. I think you need to strike, you know, you need to go now or not? Right, that's right. I mean, look, I think the big question with the UFL is you mentioned Redbird is what you know? What is their commitment? How how long will they? What's there? What's their time horizon? They have a lot of other investments in sports, this is not anywhere near the biggest one. What uh you know, what's there? What's their time horizon?

Well, it would be good to know a long long term here with all that. I was just looking at your Twitter handle. Make sure you can play it before you go, Dan, anything else from you today? I appreciate it obviously with the off announcing in Front office sports at Capitlin Sports Biz on Twitter. Any other thoughts before we get out of here. No, I just I mean, I'm rooting for the UFL. I want to do well and I think they. I mean the TV ratings were surprisingly good and

I and I hope that continues for the playoffs. Awesome Dan follow him on Twitter. I appreciate it making time today. Thanks again, all right, take care. Well here we are. I don't think we've had this gentleman

on at all this season. Pat's been working on his channel as analyzed and educating and also just real life work stuff. It's crazy. Like even me, I'm like, okay, minimum sometimes we got real life stuff ahead of us here. But we have Pat Rafina back on here. We were previewing the UFL playoffs talking lots of news today. Actually I have like six I never have like six stabs where the UFLD is coming up. Pat, How

are you doing there? I'm doing well. And like we talked about in there in the pre show, there's there's there is some good news, there is some breaking news, and then there's everything else in between. So obviously the UFL season comes, you know close. We're starting to see some kids get the opportunity to work out with some teams, and in my opinion, that's really the kind of the the best thing about this league is Okay,

So who's gonna go and who's gonna stick? And you know, I know, we have a bunch of things to talk about and the women and the amount of time. But you know, I was going through the NFL rosters the other day and this kind of brings in the overarching timeline that Andy Murray did a bang up job giving a power point about But long story short, tild are only like forty four roster spots available right now? What are we

doing? Like? Where do we you know, I know, last year we were the League of Opportunity. This year we're the League of like, let's just let's just get through year one read Yeah, they don't really we don't really have a marching order this year. And what like what is our drive of the league. I think it's we've merged. We're kind of working through things. Yeah, I mean, in honor of a in honor of Pride month, we're here. We're blank get used to it timely, you

know what I mean? Like I don't care what the end of the spectrum you're on there, but I mean that's kind of what the UFL did this year. We're here, you know, watch us, We're on Fox. Great. So but overall, I mean, like you know, we have we've been waiting for this for three weeks. These these four teams going to the conference championship. I feel like it's been pretty solidified for I think they all clinched going into Week seven, And I mean, I don't think we

have any disagreements as far as these are the four best teams. And I'm pretty excited that we didn't have any excuse me, any hiccups as I hiccup with the tiebreakers or anything like that. And as someone who kind of lives in Saint Louis Reid, I am in one agreement with you on your take about, well, if you really wanted to get into the playoffs, you

should have beat Seattle, like like just last year. Last year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I I'm it was intoxicating and nauseating to just hear people talk about that like scenario and I'm just like, or we could have just won. So are you surprised because we talked so it's really been solidified for a while here. We just preseason and oh, these are all going to be, you know, all star teams, and we're like,

really is such a divide? I mean, there's there's four good teams and then there's I mean, I would say of those four, there's probably two exceptional teams. One at least with the Stallions, and then there's a lot, there's six. Like, I'm just surprised that this was so locked up here weeks ago and now we're finally here. But are you? Are you surprised kind of going into what we expected? I mean, I thought Michigan. I didn't think Michigan was going to be as bad. I thought Michigan

would have been a like five and five team. I know there's some people who are saying they were terrible. My biggest thing with Michigan was I didn't I didn't feel like there was any like true dynamic playmakers on the outside. And Ceoc Mariner and Marcus Sums both proved me wrong, which great, Who am I one to prove me wrong? Cooc Mariner is probably one of my favorite players in this league right now as a football player. I don't know

him as a man whatsoever. But you know, Michigan surprised me. I mean they were kind of like, if you can get over Memphis, you're gonna be in type thing. Memphis surprised me. I didn't think their offensive line would be this terrible. I mean, case Cocis has at this point a fetish when getting met up behind big men. He's kind of like that that casting couch meme at this point. Arlington, I mean he went four and six last year. That was a five and five, six and fourteen

to me. I wasn't as low on DC as I think a lot of as like Mike was. But I was definitely one of those guys who was like, it's not going to be that good this year too, boys, like there's a lot of holes here. I was like, they lost some coaches and you know, he's he's not someone we should care about completely. But I was like, uh, like, we have excuse me, I'm

losing my train of thought. We had like even like they were losing backup offensive Linemanto to uh what you mna call it to retirement, and then Josh Hammond retires and then you have Abram Smith retiring and it just kind of was like non stop retirement, retirement, retirement, injury retirement, and you know, for me, it was just like this is this is not gonna be

okay. And then the icing on the cake was obviously Abram Smith. And then you know, Emery Hunt, I think, is really the only person that's like truly vocalized this is they took Deeric King out of that team. And when you lose Deeric, you're not only saving reps on Jordan's body, but you're also like supplementing the run game. And like that was a loss that I don't think enough people cared about. You know, they're just like, oh, dear King, Lindsay Scott City deer King. Derek King almost

threw forty five passes last year. I think Scott through like nine. So it's been it's been a crazy time in terms of I guess we'll go through some of the news here because you're talking about the Panthers. I have a bunch of tabs opened up here. Speaking of the Panthers, let's talk through here. Mike Nolan go to the year Michigan. I don't know if there's

competition there. I guess back on that, you deal with the I mean, are you co signed that, Nolan dealing with injuries everything else going through I deal with the injuries one into a lot of people had Michigan as like a four to six, five five, with some people have having them way worse than that. Another thing with Nolan is that they were four and sixth last year, two and eight the year before after that you had and like, when I think of Coaching of the Year, like why would we give

it? The skip holds He's lost four games in the last three years. It's expected. Okay, the battle Hawks were expected to go to the playoffs. They were seven and three last year Waite Phillips, he pretty much cannibalized his roster, tried to do what you know Flipp did. They went seven and three and then they were seven and three as the Houston Roughnecks last year. When you like, when you break it down in that standard, like what else do we got here? At Homie like it it makes sense?

Like it just Nolan was, in my opinion, the only obvious selection. And I just feel like if you want to like get edgy about it, like I don't think you're reading the tea leaves personally interesting. So you go with what's expected versus you know, overcoming. I think, yeah, they look at that like in the NFL too, like who over came the adversity or who had what I mean by that logic, Belichick should be you know, a seven time, eight time Coach of the Year. I mean Andy

Reid should win it every year. You know, takes you know, Bryce Perkins, Brian Lurk. I mean, if you watch the film, you d Danny Etling was a half decent player. I mean e J. Perry to me was kind of an unknown because he only played in two games last year, you know, some limited preseason experience, and he was performing admirably when he played. He was a little erratic, but he was starting to calm down. I mean, yet you took a bunch of dudes who really

didn't you know. The offensive line a couple of unknowns there. Corey Coleman retires. The defense was great under Colin bock Bauer. I mean, and how much does Nolan help with that? But in the end, like I mean, new new offensive coordinator, new defensive coordinator, a lot of new faces, and these guys came out, they put together a good season and I think they match up very well against Birmingham and we can get an upset there. Yeah, well we'll get into that. So that's good and we'll

talk the game specific here. I want to make sure we get to the and I know that I think the time permittee and I think we're working on our own marcass UFL team and if that doesn't come to fruition. That's completely understandable as well. But we have the UFL here, the you know the league. I think I think I put in the description you know the league awarded here right the league designated UFL team. We don't. I don't need to go like point by point through here, but any anything stand out,

any Glarian omissions or anyone that you super agree with. I would have put Sal over Chase. I think Sal was like top five in a lot of these categories. A lot of people really were high on Stephen Gonzalez. I think Steve took another step this year as well. Matt Casey, he's a swing tackle for the Stallions. I think he could have been the other tackle over Jared Jones. Smith kind of lacked uh Daniel Wise as an interior. I mean, Wise had some great games, but nothing too crazy. Malik

Fisher, who's working out right now for NFL teams. He could have been my edge, my defensive end guy. Kind of wanted them to expand on this a little bit, but I'm very curious to see if there was anything with like the union that allowed them to because I believe they said they're giving the bonuses to these all UFL guys. I love Jake Bates. I just feel like either Cochland or Andre Schmidt should have got his award something they didn't

have. How so? How so? I mean because he's really been the focal point of the special teams all year, him and obviously markuat king Get in his own private concert after the Rennagades game that I was at, would Baits? I mean, it was a lot of it was a lot of glam, and then it kind of fizzled out, which you know was kind of my argument is when you set the standards so high, you can only

come down. I mean, Cochland was I think the highest rated kicker and then Bates missing a fifty one and what it was, it was a game winning fifty one. He missed at thirty nine, really had issues kicking outdoors, and you know, I think Baits deserves an NFL shot and they'll probably get it. But in the end, like just because you hit the ball really far a couple of times, like there's ten games in a season, you know, I think he really tailed off towards the end, and I

mean, we'll see what happens. You know, I would have liked them to have a special teamer like the USFL did last year. They had Vinie Popoli last year as their specialist and I just thought that's a need award because they gave a Special Teams Player of the Year award to a special teams guy. Well, now that we have that, did you that that just came out as we were recording that with but but at Garrett with Garrett? Name

with Garrett is this Chris Garrett? Yeah? Yeah, But but to expand on that, they didn't have an all UFL specialists a special team Yeah, so like the special Teams Player of the Year could have been a kicker or punter, long snapper, return guy or you know, a gunner or just a special team's ace like Garrett was. And you're gonna give Garrett the award? Why would you not have a special team specialists there? I mean,

they slimmed down on this a little bit. You know. I think it has to be because of the NFL or the ufl PA, because I think that's what they said they were going to do, the bonuses and whatnot. So you think they provided less awards because they didn't want to have to give out as many bonuses. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I mean I mean they you know, we're cutting corners on finances. You have two interior defensive linemen. You know, realand Speaks is not an outside linebacker.

Neither is Chris old Bodem. I mean he was a defensive tackle. When the season started. You only had two interior linebackers. I mean, kind of a little slim pickens over there. You only put one running back. I think you should have had two, you know, three wide receivers, no fullback. You know, just to me, it just kind of it just seems a little bit slimmer. I like that. I like the controversy. I like that. I mean, fight me. You know, I

don't think anyone would disagree with me. You know, they give Adrian Martinez the all UFL, you know, all UFL quarterback. I wouldn't have picked him. I think you could even based off the Manny Wilkins experience, you could even value that AJ McCarron is the most valuable player to his team. But that would mean we'd have to do some thinking about what is an MVP.

It goes back to my argument I talk about a nauseum with Andrew Luck was the most Valuable Player two in the NFL for years and never won an MVP because you know, we don't go off that, we go off stats, So you know, what is value? What does that mean? Marcus Simms kind of stopped existing for three weeks and they couldn't have given it to Justin Hall or John Jay Kirkland. That's who I would have given to. This isn't just your AJ love coming through here, No, I think it

comes down the value. I mean, if Manny Wilkins, you know, reversed his stat line with three touchdowns in one pick, they win both games. I mean, he's playing school yard football and I love it. But at the same time, I mean, if they didn't, they had to change the whole game plan for him, you know, and he looked out of place against the Renegades, which they have a secondary that I'm pretty sure I could suit up and play, and they had Joe Palell. Joe Palell's

older than me. Guy looks like a trolled all out there with his hair. Anything else from this, I want to a couple other news and notes, and I want to talk through the games. Anything else in the all ufl oh No, I mean, I mean there's always going to be controversy, especially with money involved, and you know, I mean there's a couple of guys who went put on there, and there's a couple of guys that

are on there that deserve them. But in the end, hopefully to see a couple of these guys, you know, dressed up on the sidelines on the Sunday in a couple of weeks, well, I guess to point out to right, fourteen USFL Conference players, twelve XFL Conference players. So if you want to add that to your you want to add that to your conspiracy pot, right, Any thoughts on that, I mean, they're not not really. I mean, I mean it's when you're looking at the guys,

like every guy, in my opinion, really does have a case. You know, just it is what it is. I mean, people got caught up in the controversy of like what conference is superior and whatnot, and I

mean I don't care. I mean if I'd have way too much many other things to care about, and just like you know, you know, wax wax wax off to that, and uh, I mean it is what is, you know, Like I mean, I think it's it's good tweets, it's good engagement tweets, and I know the UFL don't got the blue check mark does this, so they ain't making any EU money off that, which you know costs eleven dollars. I'm willing to guarantee you that we cont the

turn back. Let's talk through here. We have a couple of different sponsors shan and we'll get to the game preview. One interesting thing to me, uh so, I don't know anything about this is cbdre them. So the

first time I ever heard about well firs so creative. We have an official partner now with the UFL CVD cret them then the official CBS and creative partner, I mean based in Saint Louis, Missouri, right, I mean, yeah, I guess I guess so like I mean, I mean, I've worked with cannabis industry, doing a lot of assessments for them and they haven't called me. So I guess I'm not as cool as I think I am. I mean, are you surprised though? I mean this to me,

is you know, slightly out of the box partnership. Yeah, I'm surprised. I mean it's I mean, I'm not going to advocate one way or the other based because of work stuff, but I mean, if it keeps the lights on at this point, you know, and it helps these players recover and feel better. I got it, support it, right, I mean, this is the closest thing we got to gladiators outside of UFC, and these guys kill their bodies for us for years, just for our entertainment.

So if they're able to make some money from this, if the players are able to get good treatment, and it's all legal and within the confines of the regulation. Now I am curious though. I don't know about this year, but next year. I don't know how the lot of drug testing works, depending on how they do it. If you do an ad our NFL teams some of these old heads, we don't know the difference between THCHC and CBD and cratoon. Does that put you on the blacklist for an NFL

team? If you're going up there and they're saying, I'm John Smith and after every game I rubbed this, you know, cannabis cream on my body and it helps me recover, does that put you on a blacklist for some players? I don't know. Interesting. Interesting One other thing, and this is a little bit more. I can speak a little bit more about this for that much, but I do have a lot more thoughts about this.

Who are naming Underdog Fantasy the exclusive partnership On the eve of the inaugural UFL Conference Final games, and I had tweeted out I said, this is great to see now I presumably better late than never here we have three games left in the season. I know we have many many dfs and Fantasy and all sorts of people that follow the show and have been on the show and talked about this, Cody Maine and the established the runner, like all the different

things. At least we're doing it now. I don't know why you don't have this at the beginning of the season, but at least maybe this speaks to them having some sort of idea in their head about working towards this next year. Yeah, and I think a lot of these moves are definitely working towards next year type items. I think confirmed season two. I think that's confirmed. I think we'll you know, we'll see a video once you post this, We'll see a video on this from someone. We may cry and

you know, I think. I mean, when it comes down to it, as long as we got things moving forward for season for season two. And by the way, I hate it when people say season two, it's it's the twenty twenty five season. It makes you sound like it's sad. It's sad, it's the twenty twenty five season, you know. And I don't even like it that we call it the inaugural UFL season. I mean the league played for There's United Football League played for four years in the mid

two thousands. I need to update my YouTube description. I think I have Dan Kaplan talking about season two of the UFL. Oh my god, I guess I don't know it depending it just changed the thumbnails too, Why don't you Okay, all right, I'll do the whole redo, the whole thing.

But no, I mean, but this is good because I mean we've talked about this and nausim on here, and I hope this parlays more into sports betting and everything as well, because you know, again we've talked about this, but you know, the announcers on the broadcast know so little compared to the people that are actually spending money and gambling on this. It's really

almost what's the word, uh and pandry. It's almost like not man'splaining the right pa, Like it's like, do you think Cody Main sitting there like, oh, I got to hear what the ESPN booth is saying about the over on this game, Like, no, the people that are really bending money and spending money on this and advising others and partaking and running sites and doing all this, like they do not need the UFL broadcasters talking like, well, the over are still in play on this kickoff, like let's go.

Yeah, and I'll buck back a little bit on that. The fact that like I feel like when Joel Klatts on the on the on the stick and that I mean, I mean he's he's in Metafi's not bad either, but yeah, definitely the side some of them friends, Yeah, I mean Luke's Luke's is good. I mean, I mean some of these guys, man, like I don't even think they're like looking at the damn score sheet before they're like going on there. I mean they're checking. I mean some

of these guys they just say the incorrect names. And you know it's like I get in granted, like I cover this league, you know, supplement my retirement with the income I make off this league, and like to see like these guys who get paid way more like just be so bad at their job. It's like it's annoying, Like it's just like all it takes is

a Google search of one player. Well, I get it, I get it, and it's And then I said to me, you're turning off people because you're turning off the casuals that don't want to hear about it because you're not because you're talking to NonStop about it. And then you're turning off to people that you actually know about it because they're like, you're an idiot whether I need you, Like I don't need this, I don't need this expertise,

you know, expertise on here. Yeah, And it's just such a filler of bs, like like it's on the screen like I know how to do basic math, like like I understand what twenty three plus twenty is and you have a forty six like like I don't know, Like it's it just it's just filler. It's just bs. I mean, it's such a coin flip when you're watching an ESPN game because at least when I watch Clatt,

I'm like, this guy is gonna teach me things. And like Clatt's awesome too, because like he's going into coverage breakdowns and talking about like bracketing and flip flipping up the hips, and then like you got an ESPN guy who's like, that's good. What do we think, Dean, It's like, I don't know, man, it haves and have nots, and I do.

I was against the Fox broadcast, like just with the USNFL being a little stale, but going back and forth this year, you can really tell the difference, especially if you're watching like back to back days or you know, two games on one day or however they haven't lined up. Yeah,

no, it's it's it's it's and have nots. So it's it's it's sad, it's exhausting, and you know you kind of wish for it to be better, but I mean hopefully, you know, it's about improvement, right, It's constantly building for twenty twenty five, and you know, like like we heard all the time, let's just get through this year. Let's just get through this year. We're getting We're getting through here, all right, let me so let's hear them focus on this so the rest of our time

here. I think this is a incredibly compelling playoffs, right. I think last year the Arlington Roughnecks that left a little bit to be desired here on the what was that the South Conference, whatever the heck they called it last year, the XML Stallion's Panthers here, you know them hosting the Protective we'll see the attendance there was about seven thousand last week. And then Saint Louis.

You're obviously hosting the first playoff game in the cite Saint Louis and however, you know they posted all that, you know years and years and years since that. What do you make of this? And are you excited for the playoffs? I mean the best part about this is that both teams are two and zero versus versus each other. It's very hard to beat a team three times in one year, and I haven't looked up how many times it's happened, but it's extremely difficult to do it because the odds are you will

get lucky at some point. Michigan has ever been in this new era, has never been in Birmingham, and San Antonio going back to last year, has not be Saint Louis, and obviously San Antonio Day exists in twenty twenty. So for me, there's that like storyline there which I find semi attractive. Obviously, City of Saint Louis. I think it's nineteen years to UH to bring this back. And I'm really expecting forty k people to be there, and I know I expect forty k tickets to be sold. I saw

something that saw a lot of resellers and whatnot. So I wonder how when those resellers don't show up, like how that works for the attendance because they bought the ticket, right, well, they'll call it ticket in. I mean, that's what doing for a week. I'm good with that. I don't care if you're in Memphis or Saint Louis, because if you paid the money, that's revenue the league gets. Let's get the let's let's pad the stats, all that goofy stuff. Now, I do think that Saint Louis

could easily get a forty K. I don't know who's playing. I don't really care. I got some heat for this. I made this appoint is. Linden Wood University is the major university for football there. They're Division one, Double A or FCS school. Last week they had their football Combine, which has like all the Midwestern power fives all the way down from like Power five to Division III. College coaches and all these kids from all around the

state of Missouri who go to battle Hawk games. I know these kids. I talk to these kids. They're in my DMS. You know, they asked me this stuff. And ninety percent of these kids, who do they have they got parents and their parents take them to the game. So like they was and I know we make the joke about the gas station stuff, but like it's like, these are football kids in the area who would go

to this game, and they were all at the camp. They also had First Form, which is one of the biggest like businesses in Saint Louis. They were having a thing called Summer Smash. Steve Aoki there, if Ludacris was there, Nelly was there. I mean, like, this is pretty

like and these are active people who go to these games and whatnot. So like I don't want to go to Toby Keith's route by anything like that, But there was stuff going on in Saint Louis and they still pulled thirty four K. I mean yeah, I mean, I'm not saying that with a push at the forty K, but I'm still saying like stuff was going on. The Saint Louis version of Toby Keith was going on, No, I think Saint Louis has showed up quite a bit. I mean, I think

that they're doing good. I think, I mean, I'm really curious to see and especially in the championship game, if Saint Louis is there, I mean, I think this could be pretty spectacular thing just for the legacy of the league. I mean, are you are you off the boat of saying if Saint Louis goes to the championship that fifty thousand people show up. I

think we'll see. So I've had a lot of conversations and like even like the Dave Naylors of the world texting me like, hey, what do you think, like if the UFL doesn't survive or do you think that they could think Saint Louis could be the tenth team? Right? Because everyone's like, how can we relate to this to the CFL. And I told him, I said, we don't know what the ceiling is. We know what the floor is. You got about thirty thousand people they're gonna come. I don't

know what the ceiling is. We'll see is it fifty thousand plus? I don't know, all right, but I think we'll we'll find out what the demand is and if they can't sell it out or if they can't get to But we don't know that number yet. We only know that their floor is higher than anyone else's ceiling right now. Yeah, by twofold, And I mean if the league folds, I mean that conversation needs to happen, right like at least a phone call to someone. I don't know who that someone

is, but I mean I think it'd be silly for the CFL. I mean, I don't think people in Saint Louis will I don't know how much they would care at this point. They would just want football. They don't know if they would get Yeah, I don't. I mean there's very few Americans who like adamantly hate the CFO like we're beyond like like the casual American is just like, oh this is football, Why where's there? Where's worth

down? Yeah, there's more Canadians that hate American football than their Americans that hate Canadian which Tyler feel very strongly in saying that. And when you have a city like Saint Louis that like is starting for this, like they want this to work, like they need like they because they haven't done anything wrong. They've supported their team and you know, all this stuff, and it's like they've done all this stuff, they've done the right things, and they've

been burned from it. Like this is a city when the move, the team moved. They were in the super Bowl fourteen years prior, like they they were in the playoffs with Mark Bolger, like Sam Bradford was still a budding not a star by any means, but like the Sam Bradford like Lord

was still there where they could be a decent team. They're like, oh, if he just gets one more piece, like people cared about this team, and I mean, like twenty twenty, they get the you know, they get a little what's what's it called twenty twenty, They they get a little like you gotta little say it's a little apposite, yeah, yeah, yeah, And like they they I don't think they broke thirty in twenty twenty, and then they bump up to thirty eight at one point, and then

this year they broke forty and like now it looks like they might do it again. Like man, if I'm the CFL, like I'm I'm making those phone calls, you know, like I'm figuring this out. I love it. I really would love it. But getting back to the game, like we talk about that, but yeah, because yeah, no, and that's

I think it's I'm happy we went down that route too. For the game, people are kind of calling for a Panthers upset here, But in terms of Saint Louis brahmas, I think people have the brahmas or excuse me, the BattleHawks favored a lot more thoughts on the Saint Louis matchup and then we

can talk for him. I think outside the SAT, outside of San Antonio, I think you're getting more fans of the league that if you're remotely tied into this, you think that Saint Louis going to the championship is the best thing for the league. And I think people are cognizant enough about this if like they watch your show, they read articles, they just care about this

league. Yeah, Like if this is the baseline and they're here as far as caring about the league just slightly, they're like, this would probably be the best thing because fifty thousand beer drinkers and ticket buyers and jersey buyers, all that you know that is you're looking at a pretty hefty, hefty work day as far As, like, you know, volume of revenue coming in, and but do you think that the Malahawks have enough to do that? I mean, I guess that's my question. I do I think you got

aj another week. It looked like they were very conservative with him. I think a successful season for Saint Louis is getting to the championship. So I think it's all all the tricks, all this all that. I mean, what they really need to do is just generate a little bit more pressure from that defensive line. I think. I think there's I think there's just a little bit underwhelming. They bring in Peta from last year, and I think

the team either had they were either plus one or minus one. As smart as sacks that they had last year, they only had nineteen last year and this year they were either at eighteen or twenty. Their linebackers looking great. Mike Rose's still a little bit nicked up, it looked like, but he's, you know, he's when he plays, one of the highest graded players in the league. Willie Harvey has put on a masterclass this year. He's

got four sacks and a bunch of TFLs. I mean, I personally think like this defense as long as they get pressure from the defensive line, I think they should be good to go for their offense. In my opinion, they just gotta they gotta just open up all the stops. Man. They played a little conservative. AJ's obviously maybe not one hundred percent whatever they want to say, but like with the ankle, but if you're on the field with him, open it up. I mean, Jacob Sailors can take a

lot of pressure off your team. And then from there, if you're able to push forward and everything like that, you can't hold anything back. You know, it's it's playoff football. You're one and done. Uh. In terms of the USFL side here we tied and then we talked Panthers off the top of the show. But them going into you know, productive stadium here in Birmingham, I mean it's like we talked about, I think you're getting Danny Ettling back, and he looked pretty okay, and they kind of looked

a little conservative and whatnot. Danny Ettling is a pretty athletic guy. I know, Bryce Perkins looks, you know, like Superman out there, but Ettling is a guy who can move around and make plays and you know, he's uber athletic. If you look as preseason highlight film. Who with no disrespect to these players, a lot of these guys are preseason football players. He is carving teams up with his legs and whatnot. They match up well.

That Birmingham defensive line is violent. But you know they Colin Bauer on that defensive side of the ball from Michigan really pulled out the stops and really when he got exotic coming off the edge and whatnot, really gave Adrian Martinez a lot of trouble. Martinez is not Alex Magoo. He does not diagnose coverages the best way. He does not have, in my opinion, the freedom that Magoo or Jamr had over the past couple of years. When Martinez

gets pressure, he looks like a child. He hasn't played that well the last two weeks outside of his five game masterclass. He wasn't really maximizing his potential and whatnot that he has had and has shown in my opinion, if

you're getting pressure on this guy, which Michigan has no problem doing. Between Brielan speaks even Garrett Marino, Walter Palmbo or Daniel Wise, like you know, like the Marino gained like fifty pounds of books like this week, and he's moving better this year, and he's moving better a little chunky boy. And I could say that because he blocked me on on Twitter, so he's not gonna watch this. Maybe he does with a burner, I don't know, but he got he got these guys out there like it's it matches up

well. And I think Birmingham put their left one of their left tackles on injured reserve as well, so it's like, we'll see what happens. And in my opinion, the guy who's running this defense kind of cool from the safety position him Bryce Torrainan, Levonte Taylor and Nate Brooks. These are all solid fringe NFL guys who do if they don't have NFL experience, they're pretty close to having it. And you know, these are not bad football players

on that defensive side of the ball. And so if you have to make your pick here before we get out of here, I think pretty confident to say Saint Louis on here, but you're a little frozen, but we're still got your audio, Saint Louis, And then who do you have for them? We'll say, who do you have for the XL and USL Conference. I got Birmingham because you know, I've bet against Birmingham a couple of times just because it's I usually do it like two or three times a year,

just because it's hard to go ten and zero. But I mean, Birmingham is the champions until they're not. And I mean, you know, Michigan is hungry. But my biggest thing with Birmingham is how long could they do this? And it's hard to threepeat, but if anyone's gonna do it, it's going to be Skip Hoole, who literally has a has a machine of guys that he just keeps churning out, you know. And every year there's two, three, four new players that you're like, oh my god,

this guy's a guy, you know, and we'll see what happens. You know. The biggest thing for me is another guy too to keep tabs on. It's gonna be Jace Sternberger. They had this guy, Bumper Pool man what a name covering Jace Sternberger and he just looked Bumper Pool just looks so lost out there last week and they were like, oh, he's gonna be like, uh, you know, Ginda, And I'm like, yeah,

I mean, no, not at all. So if you can line that matchup with Sternberger in the slot and kind of work, especially if they're going into like a cover two zone, which is one of the safeties. You know you have a nice little gap between the linebackers and safeties. Pool couldnot cover that whatsoever. And Nakua, you know, if he's going to bite on that, he could get beat on the double move, which is what I would do if I was a Skip Holtzen company. So we'll see.

But you know, there is a little bit of drama with the John Chavis leaving and and you know, the Corey Chamberlain. They've given up more points and whatnot. But we'll see. You know, I'm excited to see it. Well, Pat, it'll be good. I appreciate it extended time today, I know. And then obviously Pat doing the zone, the quarterback, rand kids and everything. Oh for overhead analyze and educate anything else you need today, Pat, founder of Creative Arts, Founder of Creative Arts. No,

I mean after the season, we'll do our all UFL team. If you're a player that's watching this, we actually made certificates. They're nothing fancy. You know, they're going to be on nice paper and everything like that. But if you want a certificate and you are a player, I'm not going to make ninety for all the players because I feel like only four of

you will want them. But if you're a player and for whatever reason, you're watching this, and don't act like you don't, because I'm definitely Reid has referred to you to me for certain things when they're like hey Reed Judson. Oh yeah, they probably called you Mark by the way, but they were like, hey Mark, do you know anything about this, and be like, oh talk to Pat. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're watching this and you want to serve, will you all that stuff? You know

how I need that Twitter engagement, so I'll make that. I'll repost the video and whatnot. But yeah, we want people to know that, like we care about you, and you know, like maybe if I'm feeling really motivated, I'll edit the Wikipedia pages and put the here you go, hey mar cast on your thing. So yeah, that's you know, that's something we wanted to do. Just know that people care that you exist and like we appreciate you entertaining us and putting your bodies on the line. Well,

Pat, I appreciate you. Thanks for making time today. We'll catch it with you soon and stay safe out there. Always always huge special thanks to

both guests today coming on Dan Kaplan. Always appreciate him spending his time extended over time with Dan today and then Pat is always making time to come on the program to talk through all the UFL stuff. Really appreciate that. As I said, look for a CFL recap coming early next week as well as a UFL playoffs recap. We'll get both of those scheduled. Just you know, subscribe to the channel, hit the bell, you'll be notified for all

that stuff when we go live. And then as a reminder, we will be live Sunday, June sixteenth in Saint Louis for the UFL Championship game, so we will do the recaps early next week. There will be no Friday episode next week. We will be live on Sunday. You know, padd will be there either remote or in person. Andrew Murray will be there, Anthony Miller, maybe we'll get some more remote guests, but I will post

all of that stuff. So no regular Friday episode next week, will be live, lots of live content next week, so hopefully that is okay with everybody. A couple last notes. All the giveaway items have been claimed save for the Brandon Silvers jersey. This is your last chance go back. If you were invested in the Brandon Silvers giveaway announce the winner last week, you need to go back. If that's you, send me an emails podcast at gmail dot com. Otherwise, I do have a runner up winner for that.

So this is it. I would say, probably by Monday, if you haven't claimed it, we will be releasing that to the backup winner, and then the winner of the UFL Championship Game tickets to sit with the Professor Andrew Murray fifty yard line. I think it's row m that winner will be out of town unable to claim, and I'm able to utilize those tickets. So here's the deal. If you it is right now as I record this, you know June sixth, you'll be listening to this on June seventh.

You please comment on the video say you know I want to win the tickets UFL Championship Game tickets. You need to have tickets be in your comment because I'm going to search through the comments. I'm going to get all of those and then Monday morning, Monday, probably midday Monday, the tenth. I will go through and I'll post a video. I'll do the wheel thing, but I'll just do a pre recorded to give that away because you guys,

we gotta you know, there's no time here. The championship game is the sixteenth, So if you are invested in that going to the UFL Championship Game, comment some sort of I want the tickets entering into the tickets. You need to have tickets be in your comment on this video. I will go through Monday morning, Monday midday and we will post that. So that is how you will win the tickets. You will be sitting in Row M with the professor Andrew Murray. We had another set of tickets today, a wonderful

listener I guess donated to us to gift out. We gave those the way for the UFL recap. I guess it was on Monday or Tuesday whenever. That was Andy and I. So you never know when you could win it. You know you can win a free jersey or free set of tickets, so make sure you subscribe. We'll see you guys next time. Hope you enjoyed the rest of the CFL Week one. Hope you guys enjoyed the UFL playoffs. We'll see you next week. Take care, we'll see you next time. Picks