BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
The United Football League’s playoffs start this weekend.
The defending UFL Champions Birmingham Stallions face the Michigan Panthers in one contest while the DC Defenders tackle the St. Louis Battlehawks in the other game.
Aside from college football, the UFL has been a good feeder system for the NFL.
NBC has been a broadcasting partner in the past while FOX owns the league.
ESPN is carrying the games this league.
It’s been a good opportunity to keep their main broadcasters busy during the offseason while others actually got jobs for the networks in the NFL. Greg Olson got his start in Spring Football.
The Birmingham Stallions are the three-time champions and play their games at UAB and they’re seeking a fourth title under Skip Holtz.
The Detroit Lions found their kicker across the building at Ford Field when Jake Bates was kicking bombs for the Michigan Panthers.
QB A.J. McCarron has enjoyed a nice career with the St. Louis Battlehawks.
QB’s Luis Perez and Jordan Ta’amu have found themselves on NFL rosters in the summer and this year QB Matt Corral along with wide receivers Hakeem Butler (Battlehawks) and Deon Cain (Panthers) could be playing on Sundays.
The city of St. Louis has been the benefactor of Spring Football as The Dome at America’s Center have seen the Battlehawks draw crowds in the 30-40,000 range. This is another reason why St. Louis shouldn’t have lost the Rams but Owner Stan Kroenke opted to move to Los Angeles and has flourished back in the Rams original home.
I’ve enjoyed covering Spring Football dating back to 1984 when I covered the original United States Football League. In fact, I wrote a story in college and it won an award. I enjoyed watching the Tampa Bay Bandits and saw Steve Spurrier’s coaching career get started. His Bandit Ball was fun to watch.
I attended the 1984 USFL Championship Game at Tampa Stadium. In fact, that weekend, myself and other reporters were invited to current President Donald Trump’s suite to talk about the USFL. Trump was the owner of the New Jersey Generals and his star was running back Herschel Walker.
I’m not going to go over the demise of that league because it’s not applicable to what we’re doing. But that USFL had stars like Walker, Houston Gambler’s QB Jim Kelly, LA Express QB Steve Young, Memphis Showboats DT Reggie White and many other competing with the NFL for star-studded talent. The teams were privately owned. They had an 18 game schedule and also produced a lot of great coaches.
This version of Spring Football’s teams are not privately owned. The regular season is 10-games with two playoff games including the Championship which takes place on June 14th in St. Louis.
The league is owned by Dwayne “Rock” Johnson and his ex wife Dany Garcia. They’ve done a good job in slowly developing the financial blueprint to keep the league on a sustainable path for gradual growth.
They’ve done some innovative things that the NFL can use to see if those rules could either be added or modified.
They hired FOX’s Mike Perreira and Dean Blandino to oversee the officiating. These guys analyze replays in the booth and make the changes and all the people can watch the transparency of why the calls were made and changed.
I’ve seen offensive and defensive coordinators make calls in the booth and relay them to the players on the field. Holtz is a hands on coach and you can see his expertise on offense.
There are no extra points as they have the one, two and three point conversions. To think that a team can actually tie a game on a nine-point play is totally surreal. But I’ve seen it happen.
I’ve enjoyed the in-game interviews with the coaches and players as they are excited for the opportunity to be seen on television with the hopes that these opportunities give them another chance to play in the NFL. Since I have covered minor league sports through the years, it’s refreshing to see players and coaches have a chance at upward mobility. Keep in mind, the NFL is looking for new officials.
Before the opening game of the year, DC Defenders Head Coach Reggie Barlow took the head coaching job at Tennessee State and succeeded Eddie George, who landed at Bowling Green University. Barlow brought his defensive coordinator Greg Williams to Tennessee with him.
Meanwhile, Shannon Harris succeeded Barlow and guided his team to a playoff berth.
In addition to Holtz, Mike Nolan has done a good job with the Michigan Panthers, Wade Phillips guided the San Antonio Brahmas to the UFL title game a year ago, while former Oklahoma Sooners legendary coach Bob Stoops has transitioned into Pro Football with the Arlington Renegades. His offensive coordinator is former Detroit Lions signal caller Chuck Long.
But let’s make no bones about it, the league is struggling with attendance issues and plays in front of sparse crowds.
Birmingham has struggled at the gate despite winning championships especially during a time in the spring in a football state which has powerhouses like Alabama and Auburn.
The Houston Roughnecks and Memphis Showboats franchises could be on the move and the league is considering expanding by two next year in addition to relocation. I truly thought Houston made a mistake not going back to its past and using the Gamblers.
In May and April, the following UFL trademarks were updated as live and pending. The Portland Breakers, Orlando Renegades, Jacksonville Bulls, Baltimore Stars, Houston Gamblers, LA Express, Denver Gold, Oakland Invaders, Tampa Bay Bandits, Philadelphia Stars, New Jersey Generals, Arizona Outlaws, (Chicago) The Blitz, New Orleans Breakers and Oklahoma Outlaws.
Who knows what will become of this? But I will say, the league should put a team in San Diego and Oakland and follow the path of the Battlehawks as markets that had NFL teams would appreciate having Pro Football again. Time will tell if that happens.
Here at the South Florida Tribune, we do provide UFL Feeds thanks to Mark Perry who is in charge of that website. I had him on a podcast which is included in this story. You’ll find it very informative, and we hope to have him on again.
We also did a recent podcast on our which is titled “Is The UFL Any Value To The NFL?”
You’ll find the opinions and insights quite interesting.
Finally, at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans, I had an interview with Darryl “Moose” Johnson and he’s the man calling the shots. We all know that he was a legend with the Cowboys and does an outstanding job with FOX, but I truly enjoyed our conversation, and I know you will as well.
This story is designed to give you an in-depth perspective of Spring Football, past and present and let’s not lose sight that it’s also beneficial for the television networks to provide programming during the off-season as well.
In fact, I was pleased with the amount of views that Perry’s appearance provided on our network, then again I shouldn’t have been since we were talking about football.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at southfloridatribune@gmail.com and you can see his broadcasts and subscribe to the South Florida Tribune You Tube Channel at no charge.
You can follow the South Florida Tribune on Instagram as well as on Twitter/X.
Scott wrote a book on called “Lessons From The Microphone” which can be purchased on Amazon/Kindle and Barnes & Noble.
He’s the Publisher of The South Florida Tribune.
