This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - XFL-USFL Merger Discussion

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

If you have been living under a rock since before September, the two major spring football leagues - the XFL and the USFL - have merged.  Mike (a St. Louis BattleHawks fan) and Jered discuss.

Hi, I'm Mike Chernivsky, and your listen to this podcast is Un Called for. I'm very welcome to the podcast. I got Jared with me tonight. And let's talk about something that happened in current events in the sports world. And that is, of course, the merger of the merger of the XFL and the USFL, which as a Battlehawks fan, I am very excited about. Jared, to where your thoughts before I get into it? I'm excited because, of course, we know it brought us, the old one brought us one of the

greatest players ever, and it's just going to be amazing to see all the new players that it can bring in the quality and the, it's going to be a good challenge for, for every, everybody involved. Now we say one of the oldest, one of the best players involved in football, who may I ask are you referring to? Kurt Warner. Okay.

Well, Warner wasn't actually involved with the USFL or the XFL for that matter. What was he? He was involved in the Arena League is what he was in. The Arena League, yes. I know. I'm surprised they're going to try to bring that back. Yeah, yeah,

they're bringing that back. but no Iowa Barnstormers there and the IFL, the indoor football league. Yeah. But yeah, the Iowa Barnstormers are still with us. But, yeah, let's talk XFL, USFL. So, yeah, that was that they started merger talks in late September around my birthday. And just the last couple of days. So for reference, folks, we're.

recording this on December 1st, 2023. And they announced yesterday that the merger is, in fact, it's going to take place. The only thing concrete that we know is the start of the season, which will be about the time we release this episode, and that would be March 30th, 2024. And they're saying that, Not with 100% certainty, but they're saying the Merge League is going to be called the United Football League, the UFL.

It'll be the first season. It'll be four teams from each of the league. So a total of eight, right? Total of eight, yeah. Yeah. The other eight that didn't quite make the cuts, they're kind of in a suspended animation states. So for our NFL fans, think what's happened with the Cleveland Browns during right after our Modell's little stunt from 96 to 99.

Yeah. Or another good example would be the situation basketball with the Seattle Supersonics who are currently in a state of suspended animation. Yeah And Hockey Well you could Winnipeg Jets

The original went to Phoenix Became the Phoenix Coyotes And then the Atlanta Thrashers moved To Winnipeg And became the Jets

Of today So So those are So those are examples Of what I'm talking about They're in stasis So Yeah

So So where do you think they're going to be getting their players from? Oh, that's a good question. So I think it's going to basically be a developmental league for players that aren't quite good enough for the NFL. They could use a little more reps and everything. So good enough for the NFL, but not quite there yet. And I say that because there are. there are a lot of players currently in the NFL that played in one of the two leagues

and they did pretty good job and managed to get on either practice squads or the regular roster. So yeah, I think that is probably the primary benefits of this combined league. It'll just be kind of like a minor league system for the football. Yeah. What's going to be weird to me is, like, in the NFL, you've got pretty much, like, first string, second string, third string, and sometimes fourth string players. Mm-hmm. And those fourth string players can go, like, three years without playing. Yeah.

And yet... Not all. And yet, there'll be people that are, like, less athletic than them playing games in the XFL and all this stuff. Right. So that could be hard to handle. I mean, I guess they're still getting paid to not play, but Yeah. Yeah, they still get

Yeah, I think they still get paid, yes. I don't know what the pay, what do you think the pay difference will be between XFL and NFL? Not a clue. Not a clue. So, so, oh yeah,

talking about where these teams are going to be located, because that's important to, well, the four XFL teams, that are almost certainly going to be part of this league. The defending champion Arlington Renegades. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And that, of course, is Arlington, Texas. Yep. Right next in the Dallas-Ford Worth area, current home of the Cowboys and the Rangers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. In fact, I think the Rangades actually play in the prison of Arlington, as I like to call it. the Rangers old ballpark

I'm sorry it does look like a prison from the outside yeah yeah so you got so you got Arlington you have the

DC defenders so Washington DC what's really cool about DC is part of their fan culture they do a beer snake at every game know what that is right that's where you take

all your beer cups and stack them one inside of the other and it forms a snake and it's a pretty cool that is it sounds cool yeah pretty cool that tradition uh then we have the uh san antonio brahmus would be the next one and last but not least uh the team i follow in the xFL the st los bowhawks yeah yeah You can't have this league without the Battlehawks. I mean, come on. Attendance-wise, seven of the eight highest-highest-attended games in XFL, history war, Battle Hawk home games.

Wow. Yeah. This is a consequence of screwing St. Louis out of the NFL. Yeah. Yeah. So do you think St. Louis will ever try to join XFL? You mean the NFL, right? Because there are, because I mean, the battlehawks are already an XFL team.

No. So that's St. Louis's team? No, it is St. Louis's team. Yeah. That's cool. That's the league that they're going to be in this merged XFL, USFL, league is saying. Yeah. so that'll be cool to see them

hopefully we make the playoffs in this new league as we kind of got screwed last year how long is the season I'm going to guess about 10 games so about a couple months and

starting it's pretty much right at the end of March so I'm last weekend, March and April, May, probably sometime in June, I would expect the championship game. All right. So, and then the USFL side, they have the two-time defending champion Birmingham Stallions.

Mm-hmm. Right? They have the Michigan Panthers of Detroit. The Memphis. showboats that's an interesting name very interesting and then

then Houston would be one of the Houston's interesting because they had teams in both the XFL and the USFL they had the rough necks in the

XFL and the gamblers in the USFL and everyone everything I've read seems to points towards the gamblers being the Houston team interesting

yeah but what's going to be interested in is they're talking about they're talking about training hubs so the XFL last year they had all the teams

train in the Dallas-Forth area and then they would fly out to the different cities for their games and and then to come back to Dallas, train every week. With the USFL, they did a hub system as well, but in their case, they had multiple

teams playing in the same stadium for home games. So that first year, everyone played in Birmingham. Wow. And last year, they had two teams in Birmingham, two teams in Memphis, two teams in Detroit, and then another two in Canton. at Scan Ohio folks right at the Hall of Fame Stadium So what do they estimate ticket prices will be?

I have no clue I have no clue I could real quick Look up the See what the What they are Because some of these teams have already been Selling tickets

I'll look up the battlehawks and those battlehawk tickets all right so uh all right so xfl.com

this could be subject to change of course uh let's say agree um I'm not saying anything about a single game Tickets. Oh, here we go. Get your season ticket membership today as low as $25 per game for five games.

That's not bad at all. Trust me, compared to the NFL, that is a steel. A big steal. If you've never tried to get to an NFL game, folks, you're talking about minimum $70 nowadays. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. And I could just be lowballing it because it's been a while since I've been to an NFL game. Mm-hmm. Well, that's really, wow. And it's good for, like, the little kids because, I mean, they're not going to know the difference between XFL and NFL. You know, they're just going to see how fun the sport is and exciting. And they end the experience.

Yeah. It's going to be good all around then. Yeah, it's good for the fans in those cities that they'll have one team they can pull for. I think not have to worry about teams sharing the same stadium that only one team would represent the city and the other. Not so much. Just get they're too cheap to get a stadium in their own city. Yeah. And I understand, yeah, there's some fans that are really pissed off about.

this mostly the teams that didn't carry over yeah of which the biggest complainers are the Seattle Sea Dragons so Seattle is pretty far removed from the rest of the league so geographically it just makes sense for them to not be in this first year back exactly just the first year they're thinking about they're going to expand by two for 25 so good

it is a possibility that they could be one of the two teams back in 25 and that said please come up with a better logo that does not resemble trogdor the burninator

otherwise I'm going to keep making trogdor jokes about your team forever. Yep, yep, and they deserve it. Yeah. I'm sorry. Des, more different, s. Use lots of consummate vs. Make it a wiggling dragon, but beefy arm on for good measure.

And I said, consummate vs. Consumet. Well, I think I am going to probably have to log out at this time. Yeah, I will go, I'll go on, add an addendum to the recording that y'all are listening to at home. When I find that information, if things are more concrete and I'll just tack it to our discussion here. Yes, yeah.

And it would be cool next time we'll talk about, like, what kind of networks are going to play their game. Most likely Fox, because Fox owns the USFL. That is awesome. Yeah. It's going to be fun pretty soon happening. Yeah. Come soon. Come soon.

All right, Mike. Okay, so we're back. Good job of the folks leaking all that information because it turned out to be spot on with just a couple of caveats and corrections. So, number one, yeah, we got this. the team's right. So they're going to do an XFL conference and a USFL conference. So the XFL conference, Arlington, D.C., San Antonio, Battlehawks. And then the USFL conference would be Birmingham, Memphis, Michigan, and Houston. Here's one where I think is good interesting. It's going to be the gambler's roster from

23 but there is a very real possibility if they could take on the roughnecks name so it would be a merger of the two Houston teams in that case

would be the USFL roster under the XFL name so stay tuned for that we're We should already know when this episode does come out and it will be coming out at the starts at the XFL, USFL or UFO or UFO season. So that's not 100% official yet, but it does look to be going that way, the United Football League.

Now, under that name, United Football League, they could go a number of different ways within terms of teams. What I would love to see, I'm not expecting to see it, is there was a UFO from 2009 to 2012 that really didn't. gain much traction but you could recycle some of those names now like for example one name I would not mind bringing back would be the Omaha Nighthawks or California Redwoods as an interesting one to so you could bring those back back But we'll see what they plan on doing with expansion. And one other thing about expansion, and I'm addressing the Seattle fans here. Guys, your team got cut because Seattle's so far removed from the rest of the league

that makes no logistical sense to bring you back at this time. And if you were to be brought back, you'd need to be paired with. someone. Well, one of the other teams to go away, unfortunately, was the New Orleans Breakers. Now look into the history of the old USFL from the 80s. The Breakers played in three different cities, one of which happened to be Portland, Oregon. So to the United Football League or whatever going to wind up calling yourselves. That's what you should do for 25 or actually I would say 26

I have the breakers in Portland teamed up with a drug door in Seattle Also I I do need to correct Jared he talked about Kurt Warner playing and the XFL well the XFL

was not a thing until 2020 2001 all right by that time Warner had already won his Super Bowl all right and what was

noticeable but the XFL in 2001 versus this version was that the original version which had teams in Birmingham and Memphis by the way was more like a W.A.E. side show

than was actual football I mean it was marketed that way anyways and yet players put

nicknames on the back of their jerseys most notably Rod Smart he hate me and

and the gimmickry just distracted too much from the actual football that it didn't last too long and

that's a and that's unfortunate but kudos to Vince McMahon for bringing it back in 2020 in pretty much the form it exists

today that's getting ready to merge what Jared was thinking about was with the Iowa Barnstormers playing in the Arena League which is about to start its

third iteration here soon with inexplicably teams in small towns in Kansas but and the Iowa Barnstormers will not be one of those teams. The Barnstormers currently play in the

indoor football league which oddly has a connection to this new Merch League. They were a developmental league for the XFL. And the Barnes summer's a part of this as well as other

former arena league teams are like the Arizona Rattlers the Green Bay Blizzard, the Jacksonville Sharks just to name a few and they have

it seems like the Quad Cities steamwhalers that's a cool name the Duke City Gladiators okay that's a San Diego Strike force I question this one Tucson sugar skulls hmm so yeah I hope that's arrangement

continues into this new emergency league again I'm looking for the name United Football League to be the official name so UFL and they are going to do the hub system but it's going to be the training hub the XFL hub system where they'll be a training to the training camps and work out during the week out of the DAS 4 Worth area and then fly to all the different cities for for their games and the DC fans DC defense I'm looking forward to our rematch. I'm looking forward to kicking your butts.

But I'm also looking forward to seeing those bear snakes again. Because that is a fucking cool tradition that you guys have caught on. And it's great. Yeah, I'm ready for spring football. now. Never mind the rest of the NFL season. Give me my spring football. Give me my battlehawks. And continue to stick it up. Stick it to the NFL. Kaka is the law. And of course, hashtag Kronky out. So, in closing, this episode of this podcast is Uncalled for. As always, hosted, produced, and edited by myself, Mike Chernevsky.

And today I was grateful enough to be joined by my co-host, Jared Feldman. Our opening music is Iron Bacon by Kevin McClaub, and thencomptech.com, licensed under Creative Commons by attribution, 4.0 license. And our outro music is Waypa by Kevin McLeod. atcomptech.com licensed under Creative Commons by attribution 4.0 license. If you are in the United States or Canada, you can call us at 816-832-5-160. Leave your message or question for us, and if we like it, we will play it on the podcast. Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive uncalled for merchandise.

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