This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Unofficial Fan Lounge - UFL 2025 League Championship Review

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

The second season of the United Football League is over and done with. DC 58, Michigan 34 We will be back on and off throughout the offseason, hopefully doing our part to build up the fan bases of this league and its teams.  If there is any news on expansion and/or relocation, we will report that as well.

And welcome once again to the un-official to the unofficial fanland. your unofficial United Football League podcast within the feed of this podcast. I'm going to be your host for this and very much anything else that appears on this feed. And the second season of the United Football League and its current form is in the books. The championship game took place. up in front of 14,559 at the

Dome America Center in St. Louis with the final score D.C. 58, Michigan 34. So, congratulations to the D.C.

Defenders on winning the U.F.L. Title. And congratulations in Michigan for getting this far too so you know what that means for the ratings for our team rankings for this season and number two

in the in the heart of the city in the heart of the city where the battles are won. If you can panthers roaring, let's hunt till the day is done. Claw sharp in the sunlight, ready for the fight. We stand tall together. Paul is the law tonight. Roll out, let them hear us now. Panthers on the prow.

Let's hunt. How is the law? In the shadows we gather, strength in every stride. With every ring we shatter, the doubts cast aside. Together we stand, unbreakable band, roll with me, united and free. Roll out, let them hear us now. Panthers on the prowl. Let's hut, Paul is the law.

Come on sharp in the sunlight, ready for the fight. We stand tall together. Paul is the law tonight. Roll out, let them hear us now. Panthers on the prow let's hunt Paul is the law I believe it not I like that Motown mix for the the panther's a song so yeah number two is the Michigan Panthers Panthers. Again, good job at the Panthers this year. The only team in the league to have increased attendance went from average in about 8,000 in the first year to well over 10,000 this year. So that's good.

They had some issues before the season started about whether or not they'd be playing in Detroit, let alone Ford Field. everything but just a total team effort credit of course to league MVP Bryce Perkins the quarterback for the Panthers and of course they have a coach in Mike Nolan who's been an NFL head coach and knows how it went clearly at this level of football and I expect nothing but to good things for the Panthers in the coming months. We will see because every season is a difference, but lots of positives for this year's Panthers,

despite last night's loss. And now, of course, we get to the team at the top of our power rankings for 2025. In the heart of D.C., where the battles rage, we stand tall together, turn a brand new page. With the crowd behind us, red and white we cheer, shields up were ready, this is our year. Shield up D.C. Defenders, we fight with time and light. Feed the peace they carry on through the day and night. Fields are our fortress, our poets can't compete. We own this city, in victory we made.

Every tackle strong, every pass on point. Defenders rise together and go through this choice Here the crowd Shields up now we're rally Feed the beer snake here The crowd behind us In red and white we cheer Shields up were ready

This is our year Shields of DC defenders We fight with crime light Fing the beast they carry on Through the day and night The crowd behind us In red and wide we cheer Shields up were in

This is our ear Oh whoa Oh whoa Oh wow Oh oh Oh oh Oh oh Oh oh

So, of course, number one is the D.C. Defenders, so congratulations to the Bear Snake for winning it all. credit to Jordan Tallahulamu, the original Battlehawks QB, on winning this title in St. Louis. But for a team, that's not the Battlehawks. And credit to Shannon Harris, who did not start the season as the head coach. That was Reggie Barlow, who stepped down to take the head coaching job at Tennessee State. I think it's expected that Harris will follow Reggie to the college ranks. I hope not, because he is clearly proven that he can coach at a professional level. And, yeah, a lot of the same mistakes I saw in the Battle Hong game in the XFL Championship.

Michigan did not do a good job at blocking those pass rushers, especially 48. you gotta do a bad job than that if you expect to win and win they did not so stats from the game we'll start with Michigan Bryce Perkins 21 of 35 passing for 338 yards four touchdowns one pick rushing Nate McGraths McCrary, six rushes for 62 yards, one touchdown. Toatawa, eight rushes for 34 yards. Perkins himself got four rushes for eight yards. Receiving Malik Turner and 10 catches, 168 yards, three touchdowns.

Sealsi Mariner, when I think Mariner, I was think of Lower Decks. Hey, that's an anus. four catches for 84 yards and one touchdown so good job there on DC side

Taamu 21 of 28 passing 30 yards 4 touchdowns no picks rushing Abram Smith 10 rushes for 63 yards

Chris Roland 6 rushes, 53 yards and a touchdown. Dion Jackson, 11 catches, 46 yards, 2 TDs, and Talman himself, 8 rushes, 28 yards, 1 TD. Receiving, Jaden Mickens, 6 catches, 132 yards, 1 TD. Ty Scott, one catch for 703 yards, good for a touchdown. let's see yeah

Cornell Powell two catches 26 yards one touchdown Bradley Moore two catches 13 yards 1 TD and loss in all this is that Michigan fumbled

a kickoff return so you can't turn the ball over and expect to win don't work that way so again congratulations to both teams and especially congratulations to the defenders and if you think I'm going to stop there then you are mistaken because we're going to read a couple of articles about the future of this league I can't tell you confidently there is going to be a 2026 season so I'm really excited about that whether or not it'll feature more than eight teams well we'll see in the next few months i'm going to start uh this section of this

edition reading from uh ufn newshub dot com the time the article is uh ufl ceo ceo declares league survival guaranteed that ship has sailed and details 2026 growth plans and i will pretty much as stay true to the article unless certain words come up. If you listen regularly to the other podcasts that we share this feed

with, then you know I'm not a fan of a certain word that starts with M. If you hear me say metropolitan area, that is my placeholder for that word. This is

sports, not necessarily. business fans are not just customers there's an emotional attachment to this as well so here we go

UFO President and CEO Russ Brandon appeared on the Randy Carcker show on STL Sports Central to discuss the league's progress sustainability plans and upcoming championship game between

Michigan and DC. So Randy Carrier for those outside of St. Louis and never listened to St. Louis media. He's big sports talk guy in St. Louis was one of the key proponents

of keeping the Rams in St. Louis. He gave the speech at their town hall to kick off the public comment section. I highly recommend looking for that video if it's still up and he was quite instrumental in the big lawsuit against the NFL and that results in

790 million dollar settlement so let's continue with the article so brandon offered candid insights into attendance challenges behind-the-scenes operations community engagement strategies 2026 planning and the league's embrace of gambling partnerships that fans rarely hear about from league executives. On league sustainability and growth momentum, Brandon addressed one of the most persistent questions facing the UFL whether the league will survive long term. I don't know, we've survived two seasons of this as a merged league. So, I don't know.

But we continue. His response reveals confidence in the organization's foundation. So this is a quote from Brandon. I think, guys, you hear the one thing, Randy, I don't hear anymore. Are you coming back? Is this league going to survive? That also translates down to agents. Hey, am I going to take a leap of faith?

with this league is this just not going to be here that ship has sailed we're building for the long haul and this league is going to be sustainable and this is a tremendous opportunity all right so stop to think about this before this season even started the league rented out office an office building in harlington not too far from the prison that serves as their hub where all eight teams meets

they do their training at stadiums all over the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex but all the offices and

all the team facilities are right there in Arlington in this building that's not something that I think you would do if you don't play

plan on being around long term. So we continue. This statement marks a turning point for the UFO's credibility. Brandon's assertion that agents no longer question the league's viability suggests the organization has achieved institutional stability that previous spring football ventures lacked. However, that question is still on fans' minds being burned multiple. times in the past spring football has been a yearly event over the last four years at different times

of spring in different forms whether it be the usFL or the xFL or now the ufL we are going into year three as emerged league and we need to see growth not decline like we did in 25 all right on the mergers behind the scenes chaos so Brandon revealed the intense timeline and pressure the league faced during its formation providing insight into the

operational challenges that fans never see quote we went through the XFL Legacy XFL legacy USFL did the merger a year ago we're drinking out of a fire hose

coming out of the that's because that happened in mid-January just to have the opportunity to really start to build in our marketplaces this this is where i would usually put in the word metropolitan area but all this time and obviously st louis is a flagship franchise yeah even in a down year we're still averaging a double DC in fact St. Louis and

DC those are the only two teams that are above the league average attendance wise so I don't know maybe look into those two teams see what they're doing right

when we know what St. Louis is doing right it's a lot of anger towards the NFL Well, and D.C., what they're doing right, is they're playing in a smaller soccer stadium and building their fan traditions like the Bear Snake. And all about, we continue with the article. The drinking out of the fire hose metaphor captures the frantic pace of merging the two leagues. And to be fair, 2025 was really season one of the United Football League. on 26 community engagement strategy Brandon outlined to the league's approach

to maintaining local connections despite the hub-based practice model revealing ongoing challenges with community presence quote we're trying to find different ways to come into metropolitan areas earlier

do more off-season programming and we have a full-time battlehawk staff as well. Our staff is out in the community on a weekly basis, pushing the battlehawks being a part of the community and knows that we are here for the long haul. The league recognizes its current community engagement model needs improvements. Aside from the talk about NFL pipeline and innovative

broadcasting it's marketing and lack thereof that has been constant question at the end of season from why I hear from fans

yeah that is that's absolutely the case like you'll see that where a couple of billboards here and there in certain areas but not much talk about the teams

themselves I constantly I tell you, six of the eight teams have mascots, well, and one of those two is D.C. Their mascot is basically the Bear Snake and the other's Houston. Every other team has a mascot. I know Memphis has really heavily used their

mascots to try garner more attention. And all that. So, and Birmingham is two mascots, one and actually. horse and the other guy in a horse costume but yeah they need to do a better job of marketing as for the broadcasting

this is specifically to ABC ESPN I don't care about the gambling aspect so can you knock that off next year please all right going on with the Arkel

so the league is stuck between a rock and the hard place keeping the status quo for the 26th season won't help local marketing teams there needs to be a big move for fans to get excited and without that no level of local marketing will turn things around in 26 change will require the league to spend more money than they want and money is not an issue here because i remind you league ownership all the teams are league owned and part of the league ownership is Fox. All right, they can afford to put feelers and pay for marketing. On long-term

vision through 2027. So when pressed about the league's viability for the next two years, Brandon emphasized the changing football landscape and developmental needs. Quotes, the landscape has changed completely in the game.

I mean, just look what's happening in college right now. Player development needs to improve across the board, and everyone thinks it's quarterback play. It's offensive line, it's corner play. There's definitely a need for developmental spring football in a standalone professional spring league. And Brandon's reference to college football's current state suggests the UFC's opportunity in the transfer portal

era and NIL disruption I will go and agree with that you're seeing

kids just willing new changing schools not so much for

academic reasons but for reasons unknown including but not

limited to making more money and that's not what college should be about

and you know if you want, I do think that athletes should be paid, but the landscape that's evolved recently

I don't know. But on attendance challenges and honest metropolitan area assessments, Brandon did acknowledge the league's most visible weakness and that's stadium

attendance, getting butts in the seat by aligning the organization's approach to building fan bases. That's our number one off-season initiative, Randy, for certain. We have metropolitan areas, like St. Louis, like I said,

is a flagship. D.C. does extremely well. We do very well in San Antonio. If you're just trying to build that, and you're just trying the bill, bring that energy

into the marketplaces. We only have five games. Five home games each city. We're super family affordable. Again, $15.15. And I

also, again, we'll reference that graphic. If I can find it here a second. there we go the

graphic says hey tickets are only 20 bucks ahead so 20 bucks a person and the same graphic says we don't have Taylor Swift who was recently seen at a at a Stanley

Cup final game with Travis that's a that's a different discussion so super family affordable which

we're continuing to bring that's to our fan bases and just need to just grind so

Bren's honesty about attendance issues demonstrates the leadership's transparency that builds credibility Michigan again

was the only team that gained in attendance, the sole UFC to have improved for the 25 season. Again, it helps if the team's good. All right, and Michigan has been good over the last

two years, so that definitely helps. They had a player, Jake Bates, who broke into the NFL, is doing well there. You look at the teams that are having the attendance issues, it's the bad teams, it's has been terrible both years

Houston was terrible year one and that perception of being terrible lingered into this year despite them vastly improving Arlington not much to write home about even though they did finish

they finished close to or below 500 each of the past two years all the other teams so the top six teams have had at least a game with 10K attendance

and we take into account all the Plath games they average over 9K so that's something that you can build on yeah now in fairness it was low to start with however we can go back to XFL

2020 or even XFL 2023 levels. I'm going to have to look those up, but I do remember attendance being pretty good there because Vince Mingman with all his thoughts knows how to promote. All right. On

championship game, uh, coaching drama. So Brandon praised both championship game coaches. Well, revealing and exceptional story of mid-season leadership of people that nearly derailed D.C.'s season.

Uh, quote, Shannon Harris took over one week prior to the regular season when Reggie Barlow went to Tennessee State. Then Greg Williams, yes, that Greg Williams, a Banygate infamy.

Left a week later as defensive coroner. His kid took over. All he's doing is sitting in the championship game. It says a lot about his character and how he has evolved that roster to get to this point and keep the team together. A show around the UFO behind the scenes drama would have been must-see TV on any streaming platform.

Fox is part owner of this league, so they could easily do that if they wanted to. Harris, leading DC to championship after losing both his head coach and defensive coordinator weeks before the season drama with the Brahmas and the showboats coaching staffs were made for pretty good TV on gambling integration and league evolution again ESPN putting gambling stuff on their broadcasts Brandon discussed the NFL's approach to sports betting partnerships

revealing how dramatically the landscape has changed from traditional football thinking. I always joke that all the years in the NFL and the owner's meetings if you said the word gambling I think they have an eject button that you popped

out of them. Now we tell you it's just amazing to me but from that standpoint we've embraced it. If you watch the telecast Sometimes I can't believe you see Aaron Dolan on ESPN, what did I just say. Talking about the lines and the shifts and halftime and all those different things. So Brandon's comparison between NFL gambling phobia and the UFO's embrace shows how spring football operates with different constraints. It also shows what money can amazingly change.

people's perceptives perspectives I think perceptions was the word there and of course

a good example of this is the fact that the Raiders now play in Las Vegas which is what's Vegas best known for gambling

so the Raiders are there the Golden Knights who have who first first year's instance

are in the Stanley Cup finals and a few years later, they win the Stanley Cup and they're getting the A's in a few years I think they just broke around this week on the A's ballpark in Las Vegas

and Vegas is being talked about for the NBA too oh and this was a pre-merger XFL city as well the poorest attended of the XFL teams and also a terrible team

Championship Vision and League Foundation Brandon's appearance on the Randy Carcker show provided UFL fans with unfiltered access to league operations during a pivotal moment. To Brandon's credit, he was on

for a while talking about the UFL. His comments reveal an organization that survived merger chaos and acknowledges attendance challenges. So they know what they know something is off with attendance

and they know they need to find ways to address it. The CEO's transparency about 26 planning and behind the scenes drama like coaching changes demonstrates the UFO operates with openness that fans rarely experience from Major League executives. And another example of this is

the fact that all the challenges they televise the behind the scenes that you see into their control room how they come how they look at the video and make the decisions and they're talking

with the refs and everything and that's on that graphic too by the way the we don't have Taylor Swift's graphic fans can access the full interview through STL Sports Central's podcast platforms and archives show content where Brandon's complete discussion provides additional insights into the league's championship weekend preparations and strategic vision for sustained growth.

So that's it for that article. And we go to a second article. This is pfnewsroom.com. James Larson, who's well known in these UFL circles, UFL executives talk season two and future plans. Season two of the UFL is nearly in the books with the championship game wrapping things up, well, last night, as I record this,

between Michigan, D.C. Yesterday, U.F.L. executive is Russ Brandon, who was, again, CEO and president, Darryl Moose Johnston, executive vice president of football operations, and Danny Garcia, part owner of the league, took the stage to discuss the UFL and its future. There's no question about it.

The UFL has faced some adversity over the last couple of years. They've had to build something from the ground up, merging two spring leagues. Both had their pros. and their cons and we start with a Garcia quote to so this is Danny talking let's just start

with we launched the spring football league the ambitions and the tenacity that we have to bring consistently to be a part of this ecosystem take care of our athletes work with our partners and metropolitan areas

and stadiums there's nothing about it about what we do that doesn't require a chip on our shoulder get after it attitude knowing that we are swinging for the fences having the discipline to do it every day that attitude speaks to who we are but one of those struggles has been of course attendance some of the the EFL's eight metropolitan areas saw a decrease in overall attendance for the 2025 season with Michigan being the only city to show

improvement. Russ Brandon addressed the topic going back to the fact that the UFO is still young. They just finished a second season folks and needs time to fully develop their local strategies. So

we're quoting Brandon. From our standpoint our main focus coming out of the merger closing on January 13, 24. going to training camp on February 28 we were drinking out of a fire hose operationally so there's that fire hose metaphor again as we have new buildings and rescale new things our main focus now is local metropolitan area activation get more people in the building

we have an incredible product incredible coaches and players you see it in the ratings which have been phenomenal we have seen some decline and we're looking at every way to re-engage and look in our marketplace in each separate silo

we know this we have a great product we know it's affordable and we want to activate as much as we can in these local metropolitan areas and speak of metropolitan areas of course a big

Topic at hand is Expansion. It's been something that's been rumored and talked about for several months now. We heard rumors that they could announce something during halftime. They did not.

Is it something that could come up between now and the start of the season? Absolutely. The talk has been at least two teams, one team I've consistently heard being talked about

as the return of the CLC Dragons to the XFL conference or drogdor. If don't want me making the dragdor joke come up with a better logo that doesn't look like strong bad

uh, completely with consummate vs. And I've also consistently heard a possibility for a second's team would be somewhere in Ohio, be it Columbus or Canton, Ohio. Canton has history with the USFL, and the only hub that really didn't host their own team, and also the Hall of Fame Stadium there was the sites of the two USFL championships. And it's on the outskirts of Cleveland if we want to talk about metropolitan areas.

So it's basically the Cleveland area. So we've heard that. We've heard other cities talked about. We've heard the league buying up legacy USFL names and such. So let's continue with the article. Also, Russ was asked about the expansion process and where the league is on that end. So, quoting Russ Brandon, I think first and foremost it's amazing that we're here again in St. Louis. Really blessed to have these teams here.

We've talked about it last time we were together about our process when it came to expansion. We're looking into the process and taking a live record. to it we're taking a lot of time and efforts to do it the right way as far as ownership is concerned they're up to date on our process that's the main reason we didn't put a timeline on it and went through it's from a very authentic position with a lot of integrity I think as we stand now we will continue to look at it over the next few months I think it's in a very good place from a process standpoint

So I would put it 50-50 between now and the start season that we might see 10 teams and, uh, can play with constant fees. And, uh, but, uh, we'll see. Uh, continue with the article, uh, Moose Johnston, uh, followed that up with a similar sentiment as the UFO makes it clear. There won't be any expansion announcements any time soon, as at least, As far as these statements go, anyway, it appears there's no decisions that ultimately, there's no decisions that have ultimately been made as they continue to hash out the details for the future.

And quoting Moose, I think one of the things that Russ always talks about is incremental growth and doing it in a way that is sound, providing us an opportunity to be sustainable moving forward. It's great to see how many people are interested in topics when we talk about expansion. But when it's right for the league, that's when we make that decision. What's important to us is that we build this incrementally. We're built on a sand platform moving forward. For Danny Garcia, this league is all about culture. I came into this wanting to explore the fan cultures of each of these teams,

and I still want to do that, by the way, this is something that she's instilled into the hearts of fans from the XFL, now the UFO. This league is about great opportunity and proving people wrong. And it's that camaraderie that Garcia wants to see more of moving forward. And before I read the Dan Garcia quote, that's St. Louis, proving the NFL wrong by consistently leading the league in attendance. And again, it helps if the team is good. And the battlehugs have consistently been good. Just not been able to win the whole thing.

All right. So quoting Danny Garcia. As a visionary, it's a team vision. What I want to see is what we all want to see. The clicking in with the customer is obvious. This league continues to be that opportunity for our athletes. Where their performance here matters. The evolution is what we started. We had so many meetings about how to grow this league. We have a very specific culture. Getting the HQ and having that was so pivotal because now our culture is very dense. It's our time to take the culture to a new level. If we're being completely honest, not a whole lot came out of this press conference with the UFO executives. The biggest adverse per se was Russ Brandon addressing the the league is looking at potentially moving the season up a few weeks so this past season and

last year actually started in mid and late March I would argue yeah let's move it forward a few weeks to either late February or early March ideally I would like to see the XFL start like a week after the Super Bowl but that is not my decision to make so just a thought there but it remains to be seen as to what will happen on that and for now expansion and our relocation remain up in the air and I've said before I'm going to say again I'm not a fan of relocation I think that's probably one of the worst things you could do in this league but it's also a very unique uniquely American thing you look at what happened in England

where real locations never happen and the story of Wimbledon FC being moved from Wimbledon to Milton Keynes, being rebranded M.K. Don's FC and everyone hates them.

Meanwhile in Wimbledon they star a new club, AFC Wimbledon and currently AFC Wimbledon are in a higher league than MK Don's. I probably have a bear fan support too and I should point out our league are a fan owned club so for now expansion and relocation remained up in the air Russ Danny and Darrell kept things

tight to the chest in regards to those conversations so we'll have to see what ultimately happens in the offseason for the UFL and yeah so what was that me for this mini series within the podcast feed

I would love to revisit my initial plan for this podcast to

look at each team's fan cultures individually and I want put out

an invites to my fellow UFL fans don't matter

which team you support As long as you support the league in our web as it seems, I would love to talk to you. And

I'd love to talk about your team. I'd love to talk about your teams of culture, what you're looking forward to. Certainly in 26 and years to come. How do we improve your

fan culture with your teams? Let me know. I will I will find a way to make it happen and, yeah, look to hear from you guys. So, that being the case, we're going to call it a day with this

episode of the unofficial fan lounge. And, you know, that's another thing. I might be, I will consider spending this off into its own feed, but for now we'll stay in the uncalled-for feed. And speaking of uncalled-for, our next a new episode is a week from Friday

so please have been eye for that and while you're to listen to the rest of on call for as well take it easy and we will talk soon Thank you.