This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Unofficial Fan Lounge - UFL 2026 Season Week 1

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Welcome to Week 1 of the 2026 UFL season! We have new teams (Columbus, Louisville, and Orlando), a new league owner, and new coaches for most of the teams. Week 1 Friday, March 27 - Birmingham at Louisville Saturday, March 28 - DC at St. Louis; Houston at Dallas Sunday, March 29 - Columbus at Orlando

Hey, Ontario. Come down to BetMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive the Price is Right Fortune Pig has to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show, only at BetMGM. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games like Plinko, Clifhanger, and the Big Wheel into fun casino game features. Don't forget to download the BetMGM Casino app for exclusive access and excitement on the Price's Right Fortune Pick. Pull up a seat and experience the Price's Right Fortune Pick, only available at BetMGM, MGM Casino. Bet MGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager.

Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConX Ontario at 1866-531-260 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGEM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. And we're back. Welcome to the second season of the unofficial fan lounge.

The United Football League fan podcast within the feed of this podcast is uncalled for. My name is Mike Chernke. I will be your host and prime member of Battle Hog Nation. Let's talk. 2026 United Football League season. And I am excited, as always. For this, this is year three of the league, which I'm really, really excited. back. So since we last talked about the United Football League, they brought in a new partner into the

ownership group, a guy named Mike Rapoli, who is probably best known for creating vitamin water and body armor energy drinks. And he's bought in. And he's really been active with reforming the league. So first thing in those of notes, no conferences in 2026. It'll be a single table format. How are you going to get your games in a single table format? With that, expanding this season to 14 will win C.

Of course, the schedule should be out by the time this releases. Regular season starts on March 27, and we'll have the championship game on June 13. So fortunately, he did not mess with the schedule. And some other changes happening for year three of this league. three teams unfortunately are gone three more are taking their place and they're now playing in smaller venues

with a few exceptions by smaller mean built for soccer they're moving away from NFL style stadiums and so yeah so let's just get on

with the three teams there unfortunately going away are the Memphis showboats the Michigan Panthers and the San Antonio Brahmas. Memphis sadly that's

explain that's understandable because they were terrible for the two years so far in the UFL and last year 25 they only drew

less than 4,000 a game. I don't think that's acceptable in this kind of leak. So, unfortunately, the showboats gone. Michigan and San Antonio

each had a similar problem in that they're playing in NFL caliber stadiums. In fact, in the Panthers case, it is an NFL stadium, Fortfield. NFL caliber stadiums. They're not the BALhawks. And struggling, of course, with attendance. Granted, both were in the upper tier of attendance,

but we're not talking about a hot type numbers, and we're definitely not talking D.C. type numbers either. But they did average a little more than 10K last year. but playing in an NFL stadium, once again, not the battlehawks, because the battlehawks are the one team that can get away with this. With lack of a soccer stadium in their general areas, like of a suitable stadium, I should point out.

San Antonio does have a small soccer venue, but I don't think it's large, enough for what's they're looking for. And a lot of people in the forums have asked, well, why don't you try high school venue A,

high school venue B, well, there's the problem right there. They're high school venues. You can't serve alcohol at these places. And you may have some broadcasting issues. Remember, this is a league

that is part owned by five. So Fox will naturally be hosting a side of the games. This is partially owned by Disney, so ESPN will be broadcasting a few of these games too. So if you can't broadcast and serve alcohol, then what are you doing? And like I said, the Alamodome is just too large. And of course, if you're a call from last, season, the Brahmas only had four home games last year. Their fifth game wound up in St. Louis.

They had to go to St. Louis twice to play the Battlehawks there. So that's why the Brahmers are going to. Michigan's an interesting case. A, they did have the Mark's increase in attendance, and they did make the championship game, losing, of course, to D.C. However, not a suitable soccer stadium in the area. What they probably should have done was approach Eastern Michigan, which is not too far from Detroit.

I guess they were having a cow about that stadium. And they're waiting to see what happens with Detroit City FC. My understanding is that that their new stadium has passed. They currently play in a high school venue and are building a new stadium of their own Detroit City. So once that's open, maybe we get the Panthers back, but we will see. So three teams, unfortunately, gone. unless they build a suitable arena in San Antonio and I don't see that happening from what I'm hearing

probably not going to see the Brono's back and we definitely won't see the showboats back because people weren't showing up sorry you got clubbers but that is that's the case so we got but we do have eight teams ready to go

and we'll start our little breakdown and I am recording this portion before any drafting has taken place because, oh, by the way, Rapoli decided, you know, let's blow up the rosters. Let's focus more on regional college talent

per metropolitan area. And seven of the eight coaches will be new. In fact, half these coaches are brand new coaches. And as far as the venues, well, five of the three new ones and two more will be playing in completely different venues from last year.

And we go from there. So we will return to the draft results as I see fits later in this episode. But for now, let's introduce the teams. And we'll start with the teams that are for sure returning. Their identities are intact and their stadium deals are intact. So we will start with the 2024 champion Birmingham Stallions. So team number one, one of the three legacy teams.

and these legacy teams, obviously, I think, are the teams that have the best fan bases in the entire United Football League. And, of course, is the 2024 champion Birmingham Stallions. They will continue to play at Protective Stadium capacity 47,100. But for UFL games, they'll be shrunk down to 28,000. and Skip Holtz will not be returning for this UFL season. So they got a new coach and as a Balhawks fan, this is awesome because their new coach in Birmingham is

A.J. McCarran, who was the Balhawk quarterback, in 23 in the X-FEL and then 24 in the UFL. So a little bit about AJ. This is his first coaching job. So congratulations for that. Drafted in 2014, fifth round by Cincinnati

out of University of Alabama. You'll see a theme here with these new hires that they will be guys that are from the local communities here and AJ of course played his college

ball at Alabama but he played for Cincinnati he was a practice squad guy for Buffalo, played for the Raiders a couple of years in Houston and here in Atlanta of course the two years starting

for the Battle Hawks his accomplished his accomplishments of course nothing coaching wise because this is first coaching job. But NFL

113 completions on 179 attempts, which is a 63.1 completion percentage. 6 TDs, 3 interceptions. 1,192 passing yards, which is good enough for

866. Now, that does not include BALHawk. statistics, but I can bring those up to so. With the Battlehawks in regular season, 12 and 5

record 66% passing for 3,732 yards, 39 touchdowns, 10 picks with a pass array of 103.6. Also, 187 rushing yards

for two touchdowns. And best that we don't talk about his postseason stats, but, yeah, all right. So that's, that's AJ, one of three coaches now in the United Football League with ties directly to the Battlehawks. and on to the next legacy team the

defending champions from 2025 get that bear snake ready it is the DC Defenders So as I said earlier

These are your 2025 Defending champions The DC Defenders they will continue to play at Audi Field in beautiful Washington, D.C., the soccer stadium, which holds about 20,000, and did serve as the prototype

for what we should look forward to with the league this year. So continue to see those beer snakes, folks. That, by the way, is a cool tradition. in the league and I hope they keep that up. This is also the only coach who is returning to his team this year, namely Shannon Harris, who was the interim coach after Reggie Barlow took the head coaching job at Tennessee State.

He followed Barlow to Tennessee State for the college football season because the the UFL operates outside of the traditional college season he was able to keep his job

here's so a little bit about coach Harris he played his college ball at Tennessee State as a quarterback was undrafted by the NFL but that's okay he went straight into coaching

almost almost exclusively at the HBCU level either Tennessee states or Alabama states Alcorn State Virginia State I don't know if I'm familiar with yeah they're division two so but but outside of the defenders he's been a HBCU coach and

honestly did a good job because they won the UFL title last year. So it'll be really exciting to see them how they do next year. Six and four was the defender's record last year and then two and oh in the playoffs obviously

went in the championship so they finally took the tag off. They was there a chance to bring it back so that's that's a DC good luck to them but not so much against the next team that we'll be talking about here yes that's right our next team is my St. Louis battle hawks the only team that has demonstrated their ability to effectively sell an NFL stadium in their case of course the dome at

America Center which is now yeah it's up there age wise now it goes to 30 years old now of course there's

no reason for me to rehash the whole St. Louis NFL situation we all know what happened by now

that was 10 years ago and we won the settlement demonstrates just how badly the NFL wanted this under wraps. So the dome will be capped. The dome itself seats 67,27, but for UFO games, it will be capped at 39,000 for 26.

And you would think that anything back would be back, but unfortunately that is not the case. Beck still does have a job within the U.F.m. But is no longer in St. Louis. We will get to him in just a little bit. So we do have a new coach. And as said earlier, they are focusing on bringing in guys with ties to the local area.

and our guy for the 26th season is Ricky Proll Ricky of course was part of the greatest show on turf rams In fact it was his catch in the NST championship game against Tampa Bay in the 99 season that's got St. Louis to that Super Bowl against Tennessee. And this is Ricky Prohl's first job as a head coach.

He's had assistant coaching experience before. But a little bit about Ricky as a player and then as a coach. Wide receiver, of course, drafted in 1990 from Wake Forest in the third round by Arizona. actually so he was in the Arizona Cardinal he also played for Seattle Chicago St. Louis of course

Carolina and the Colts and he won Super Bowls of course as a St. Louis Ram part of the Grand Sean Church but he also won a Super Bowl

with the Colts Super Bowl I think it's 41 XL I which would have been cults over Chicago. As coach, he's been assistant coach for the Carolina Panthers. And two years ago, in the XFL,

he was the wide receivers coach for the Battlehawks. And one of the wide receivers on the Battlehawks, that particular year was his son, Austin. Well, that's the kid returns. We shall see. 669 career catches 8,878878 yards, 54 touchdowns for Ricky Proll. We're saying a lot of great show on turf guys in the Hall of Fame. I don't think Ricky's ever going to be one of them.

Kurt Warner certainly is in the hall. He's with the NFL Network now, I guess, coaching. at the high school level in Arizona. Marshall Falk just picked up the head coaching job at Southern University after a year with Coach Prime at Colorado. Isaac Bruce, I don't think he's coached ever coached. I think I'd love to see him coach. And so same with Tori Holtz.

In fact, let's get Tori into Canton this year, please. please let's make that happen and the last no more receiver on that team was Azakeem who was also the receivers coach for the battlehawks in 2020 the year that we only played half the year because

of the whole COVID pandemic thing but it would be exciting to see parole coach the Bellahawks and and no disrespect to no disrespect at all to

Anthony Beckett I think he did a fantastic job with the Battlehawks the last three years 22 and 8 you know easily one of the better records

in the league just going to get done in the playoffs unfortunately so hopefully hopefully we'll be reversing the trend hopefully we'll walk away with our first title

in 26 but we shall see so that is my San Luis Battle Hawth Caca is law. Now, we have two teams that stuck in their respective cities, but have some minor changes to them. We'll get to the first of those. With the spirit renegades in the light. On the first of the two teams are staying puts, but have rebrandings going on. And this is the team formal. known as the Arlington

Renegades. They're back to being the Dallas Renegades, their 2020 XFL name. Number 1. Number 2. They're no longer playing in the Arlington Pemitentiary. They are now playing at

Toyota Stadium in Fresco, Texas. Toyota Stadium was built primarily for FC Dallas in FLS. It's okay in Frisco, which is another suburb of Dallas. In fact, it's one of the northern suburbs of Dallas,

so they moved elsewhere within the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. And like I said, out of the Arlington Pantentiary. Toyo's stadium seats 20,500. this is a situation that the the coach for the rain gates from the start from 2020 was bob stoop's who retired not too long ago after interned this offseason and well-deserved well-deserved a chance shot to take in that retirement and they just announced their new head coach. The new head coach is Rick Newheisel, who was

AF well-regarded college coach. So a little bit about him. He was a player back in the 80s, played for UCLA, and went undrafted in

1984. Actually played in the first USFL for the San Antonio Gunslingers. that name still exists by the way in arena football at the indoor football league i believe and uh played a part of the 87 season with both the chargers and Tampa Bay coaching he coached a lot at UCLA following that as in assistance then was an assistant and lighter head coach at Colorado from uh

to 98. And I followed up with a head coaching stint at University of Washington, 99 to 2002. Then saw some pro coaching with Baltimore, 2005 through 2007. Then began the head coach at UCLA from 2008 to 2011. and 2019 with the ill-fated AAF

Alliance of American Football with the Arizona Hot Shots is the head coach and now he is once again a head coach this time with the renegates

and so I'm going to find his coaching records here so as a college coach 87 wins 59 losses so that's

that's pretty good uh has one ball win it is the rose ball in 2000 with Washington and and uh and with uh

the AAF it was uh five and uh three so fairly decent coach certainly at the

college level so it'll it'll be interested to see how he matches in the pros, albeit in a lower division from the NFL. And quite appropriate that they're following

a college coach in Stoops with yet another college coach. So we'll see how the rank gets to this year. So on to the next team. Stakes are high or die Yes, this is the second team We have a minor change for So for context, of course

When the two leagues merged You know, USFL, XFL, they merged To form the UFL, leagues Had a Houston team, so effectively The two Houston teams merged In the last couple of years

They operated under The XFL name Roughnecks which by the way I know people are going to hate that I'm saying this I liked their helmets with the Texas flag motif going on on one half being the

blue and the team logo on that side and the other half the white and red stripe and the jersey number on that side I thought that is cool unfortunately they decided to adopt the USFL name this year the Gambler So, fortunately, they came up with a newer logo this time around, and greatly appreciate it because I wasn't a fan of the other logo.

Also, Refneck, that's a reference to the oil industry, which is big in Texas, whereas gambling, is gambling even legal in Texas? I'm just genuinely asking. So, mercifully, C.J. Johnson out as coach. He was fired. And immediately took a job under Marshall Falk at Southern. So they will not be playing at college stadium this year. They played a couple of seasons.

of course at University of Houston. They played the first UFO season at Rice University. But this year they're going to be playing at Shell Energy Stadium, which seats 20,000656, and this is the Houston Dynamo MLS Stadium. I'm ridiculously close to downtown, if not just outside their downtown loop. within walking distance of the convention center, the Toyota Center, where the rockets play.

And I don't know what the current name is, but it's May Park where the Astros playing is within walking distance, too. So their new head coach released today, and that's today when I'm recording this on New Year's Eve. Kevin Sumlin is the new coach. the coach of the gamblers the first USFL season back and there's

another guy who's primarily known as a college coach so played his college ball at Purdue went undrafted as a linebacker and his coaching experience he was an assistant coach at Washington State's Wyoming,

Minnesota, Purdue A&M, Texas A&M in case that's not clear. And Oklahoma, before we've gone, the head coach at the University of Houston, 2008-2011. Following that up with Texas A&M, 2012-2017 as their head coach. And then Arizona, University of Arizona, 2018, as their head coach. 22 was the coach of this very team. And the last couple of years at University of Maryland as an assistant coach and before reclaiming this job.

So welcome back to the you. Welcome back to the gamblers coach Slemland. 95 and 63 is his record as a college coach. That includes a few bowl game wins. and 3 and 7 coaching these gamblers. So it'll be fun to see how this goes. And welcome back to Coach Sumlin. And that is the Houston Gamblers.

And in front of the Uncalled-For podcast, Justin Pemberton, was really excited about this particular name change because as he pointed out the original gamblers of the original USFL was the team of Jim Kelly. So on to some new teams because we got three of them. So it's gone to the first one. Now we get to the first of the first of,

the three new teams in the league so so none of these teams well there's one that has a legacy with both the original USFL and the XFL but stand-tops at their name this is not one of them this is the Columbus Aviators Columbus Ohio they would have playing it is historic crew stadium, which was originally built for

Columbus crew in MLSS holds 19,0968 so definitely

a smaller venue than when we're used to and their head coach

is Ted Ginn Jr. This is his first time as a football head coach

a little bit about Mr. Ginn he was a wide receiver in the NFL drafted in 2007 first rounds out of the Ohio State University so there's another local, there's that local connection because the Ohio State is in Columbus

drafted by the Miami Dolphins also played for San Francisco Carolina, Arizona, Arizona, New Orleans, and Chicago through to 2020. Career stats in the NFL, 412 catches for 5,742 yards. Also has 486 rushing yards for 33 for two touchends. Rushing, he has 33 touchends as a receiver.

and return yardage of 9,523 yards, seven touchdowns. So like I said, this is his first time as a head coach at any level of football. And it'll be interested to see how he operates as a head coach. So congratulations to coach again. And congratulations on your team, Columbus. Best of luck to you guys. And now on to the next new team. New team number two.

This is the Louisville Kings, Louisville, Kentucky. If you haven't seen the logos, it includes a horse head. Littleville unknown for is the Kentucky Derby. It's also known for being a college town, the University of Louisville is based there. Do we really need a second horse-themed team? Here we already have Birmingham, which, like Louisville, does not have any other professional sports teams, at least not in the major four sports.

Louisville, they'll be playing at Lynn Field Stadium, family stadium, excuse me, which holds 11,700. This is another soccer-specific stadium. If you're a fan of

uncalfour, you know I am not a fan of the United Soccer League USL at all to the point that I refer to as a joke league that should have been killed over a decade ago. This

Stam hosts a USL side. Their head coach is Chris Redman. I believe this is his first head coaching job as well. He was drafted a 2003 round out of University of Louisville by the Baltimore Ravens. And was in fact on the... Super Bowl 35 Ravens team

as a backup to Trent Delfer who himself went on to coaching. The play for Baltimore was a practice squad person for New England and Tennessee a little bit with the Austin Ringlers in the

Arena League and then Rapid M's career with the LAA Falcons so he was a dirty bird. So as a NFL player. 500 pass attempts. It was a quarterback, by the way.

500 past attempts for 286 completions, which is a 57.2 completion rate. 21 touchdowns 14 interceptions for 3,1, 79 passing yards,

and 78.6 passer rating. But but he has had a coaching experience at the high school level in Texas as a QB coach before taking this job. So, yeah, he's not entirely new to coaching, but this is his first head coaching job. And four and eight as a starter in the NFL.

all right uh took 34 sacks by the way and uh has 25 rushing yards to his uh credit too but uh good luck to uh chris radman as a coach and good luck to the lovel kings and now we're on to our last team another new team last team we need to talk about Today episode here, and this is the Orlando Storm. They're the last of the new teams.

Orlando will be playing at Inter & Co Stadium. It's also the home to the team, I think, is the poster child of everything that's wrong with American soccer, Orlando City. That's a discussion for another time. of course but this stadium holds 85,500 and I mentioned earlier that anything backed would not be back as the head coach of the battlehawks that's he's been transferred to this team and and remember that the league owns all the teams so So he comes in at 22 and 8 as a head coach with the Boulhawks, 22 and 10, if he includes post-season.

But, of course, before that, he was a player in the NFL. First round pick in 2000, West Virginia, as a tight end. His career included, he was drafted by the JETS Chet-S Chet Chet. included steps in Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Arizona, and KC. 188 catches for 1,537 yards and 21 touchdowns as a player. But as a coach, obviously a great regular season coach, just going to get it done in the playoffs. And, of course, got screwed out the playoffs to the one year in the XFL.

but definitely a good motivational guy we always saw him do motivational videos trying to get the fans excited about coming out to games everything so I hope he continues that with Orlando and I wish him nothing but success with Orlando obviously not against the Balhawks so that is pretty cool you have Birmingham, Orlando, and St. Louis, all with coaches now with ties to the Balthawks and a couple even to St. Louis back in the NFL days when we weren't screwed. I have a team.

So that's going to do it for the team and coach previews. However, I said I'd just come back for us to talk about how the draft went. And it's a really interesting draft concepts. This Rapoli guy decided to let's blow up the rosters and see what happens. So we will be back in just a little bit to go over the draft results. Until then, yeah, just taking easy for a little bit. We'll be back in just a second.

And we're back. So, yeah, let's get around our first week underway. All the teams are pretty much sets. The entire league was redrafted and all that's. And I don't have time to go over everything. But I do want to give a quick shout to the UFO and its teams for their fan forums. seven going on this off season trying to

gen up fan interest and that's a good thing. That can only be a good thing. So week one predictions. We'll start with Friday, March 27 at 7pm, Birmingham at Louisville.

I will go ahead and pick Birmingham to win this one. Again, we have no idea what the league's going to be looking like just because of the fact that everyone was redrafted and all that, well, almost everyone. But Louisville inherited the Memphis roster, which, you know, that was not a good team. And everything, whereas Birmingham, they were league champions of the first year of the league. And a battle of two brand new coaches, who used to be quarterbacks. But I will go Birmingham in this one.

Then Saturday, March 18, 11 a.m., and these are all central time, I guess. It is the rivalry, the defending champion DC defenders. At the Battlehawks, at the D.D.O.O.S. at the D.D.O.O. and take that Audi West stuff and shove up your ass. And by the way, no bear snakes allowed in the dome, battlehawks all day. But I expect it would be a good one. Also, March 28 at 3 p.m., the rebranding bowl, the gamblers and the renegades. I'm expecting a close game here, but I will go...

I'll go Dallas with this one, so the renegades will win at home. And then the final game of week one, March 29, that's Sunday, Columbus at Orlando. two new teams Columbus got the Panthers roster and Orlando got the San Antonio roster so based on that alone I would

say I would link Columbus but in mind they moves FAA backed to Orlando to be their coach so I will I will give a

slight edge to Orlando based solely on but it's only on the coach and that will do it for the beginning of our 2026 edition of of the unofficial fan lounge and we will be back for week two so

until next time let's go UFL and good luck to all the teams Thanks